Saw couple of em around city

Read a news article from the deputy mayor

CBC NEWS Article

I just find it funny .. He Says its not a tax grab and then in the next breath admits it is a tax grab

The state of the city is sad, it looks more run down then ever. I imagine it’s only going to get worse before it gets better but maybe it’s just me.

This is from 2009 and the city looks like it’s thriving !

The amount of completely asinine and incorrect and frankly very misguided discourse on the whole homeless/addictions issue is growing as we get closer to the election.

People advocating for ushering them all out of the city, jailing them regardless of any healthcare repercussions, or costs for that matter, saying they should all get jobs and stop doing drugs, as if it’s that easy to just go and get a job these days. Lots of people saying this ISNT a provincial issue it’s a city problem…

It’s absolutely insane the lack of not just empathy but crude comments and suggestions going around from not just voters but some candidates too.

I realize empathy won’t solve the issue alone, I dislike stepping over people trying to look at a store window, I too don’t enjoy driving and having someone nearly walk out in front of me dazed.

But it’s severely taking over the election discussion and it’s all uneducated and misleading.

Not an expert at all but without the correct information or the correct suggestions by experts or people in the field, on how these issues can be solved in a better manner… it’s just frustrating to see people’s comments like “I don’t give a ****, throw them in a cell and if they die they die, it’s illegal to smoke drugs. I have a job and so can they!” Is super ignorant and just completely disheartening.

Even this morning I saw a comment saying we need to round them up in a “camp” and put them to work, as if we’re going to create a slave labour camp as a city? JFC people….

And I know people are going to vote on this, as a major issue and rally around some candidates with the more callous and costly approaches.

And to the bunch of people who have already downvoted this post, step up and say why you disagree with an information campaign? Lol

I was scrolling through local FB pages looking to see what’s open today (Canada Day) and I just wanted to say that I’m thoroughly disappointed in all of the businesses that choose to use AI for advertising. It really puts me off of supporting a local business when I see they use AI. Some of the ads I’ve seen don’t even have the restaurant’s name spelled right? Also AI pictures of food that clearly aren’t their food. Canva is free and easy, and I would much rather support somewhere with a half baked Canva ad or just text and photos than somewhere advertising with AI.

I know I’m not the only one who feels like this. If you’re a London business owner or responsible for creating ads for one, please consider not using AI - you may be losing customers from it.

I’m sharing these here in hopes that people will show others because people seem to not see these signs. They’re literally everywhere there is a construction merge right now. The only one I’m missing is the one that says to “drive up to the end”.
Having 10-12 people decide at 10-12 different points in the line to move over is the least efficient possible way to do this.

What is your biggest hot take about London? Some hill you'll proudly die on regarding something in the city?

Edit: added my take since a few were skeptical this was a bot engagement post. My hot take is that we need to get rid of at least half the parking lots downtown and replace them with high rises that have restaurants and stores on the base level. This sub demands parking for everything, but I genuinely think we need to focus on building a stable population base downtown instead, the skyline feels awkward with so many giant lots spacing buildings out, especially when theyre empty 90% of the time

I was grabbing pizza and while walking back home a gentlemen was on the ground in front of my building with blood on his head and not breathing. I called 911 and started cpr while a neighbour went in search of narcan. I did the cpr the best I could and he started to breathe again. The police came really fast and actually were amazing. I tried to stick around, I did the report but I didn’t want to know he passed. I hope he’s okay. Sorry I just needed this written. Whoever you are sir you are loved and I hope there are better days ahead of you. This happened in downtown London, this is the first time I had to use CPR but I’ve had to get so many people help. It’s emotionally draining, why are our leaders just letting our community anguish like this?

i dont even know why i feel the need to post this. i know a lot of us have had awful experiences with the homeless population here, but use your better judgement going forward.

theres a man ive seen around the highbury and huron/downtown area, usually outside the nofrills. hes always so polite and gentle and at least from the few times ive seen him, sober. my boyfriend and i have stopped to give him change once or twice.

today he was on the bus on my way home from work, and he asked me incredibly politely if i maybe had a spare loonie/toonie. i apologized and said i dont carry cash on me, but i offered him a bag of candy and he took it incredibly gratefully. i watched him suck on the gummies, probably hoping to make them stretch. i said hey, i feel really bad that i cant get you a full meal right now, but id love to give you my leftovers from lunch. rice chicken and veggies. i just feel awful that its something ive already taken bites of, but id feel better knowing i gave you what i had instead of letting you sit there with a half eaten bag of sweets. he took it and was ecstatic, saying he hasn't eaten for the past two days. i asked him his name ( juan, pronounced joo-awn ), where he was from, and i told him that i recognized him from the few times my boyfriend and i had stopped to give him some change. i swear i saw him start to cry just from being recognized and spoken to like a normal person, like we were just strangers making small talk on the bus about one another and how awful the weather is. i got off that bus crying too, sad for him and sad i couldnt do more to help.

im a 17 yr old girl who just moved here from toronto, i carry pepper spray with me at all times and im incredibly vigilant, ive had too many experiences with the homeless to be too trustworthy of them — but i help when and who i can.

please. make someones day and be nicer to these people. use your better judgement. yes, a lot of them are aggressive and tripping balls but there are ones who need help and mean no harm. these people are human like us, and have made mistakes or suffered from mistakes caused by others, their parents, the government, to lead them to their current situations. if youre able, help them out, even if its giving them some candy and your leftovers. you both will walk away with a little more light in you than you had before. it costs nothing to be kind.

I try not to let it bother me but lately it feels as if I cant go five minutes without seeing someone smoking from a glass pipe or shooting up. Today at my local Tims there was a gentleman blowing smoke from a glass pipe at cars with their windows down at the pickup window which was the straw that broke the camels back. I dont know how to fix the issue nor am I going to pretend to have an answer but I do think its getting ridiculous that they can do these things in full view of the public eye with what feels like little to no repercussions.

House blew up on Wharncliffe.

Anyone have tea?

Life in this city just seems to get worse every day.
This morning at 7:50 we were getting ready to leave for school/work when the city workers showed up and blocked off both ends of our street (the only exits) with big trucks and “road closed signs”. We were given zero notice that this was going to happen. I left at 8 and asked them to move so I could get out and go to work and they said “no, you should have left earlier”. I told them I would have been happy to but I didn’t know they were coming until they showed up and by that point we were putting on shoes and getting our bags to leave. They shrugged and said it wasn’t their problem. I told them I needed to leave for work and they again told me it wasn’t their problem. I pointed out that there was no other way out so they would need to let me through and they said “I guess you’re not going to work today”. At 8:05 my husband came out with my daughter to walk her to school and they said he couldn’t pass through (we don’t have sidewalks in our neighbourhood so we have to walk on the road). He said “my wife needs to go to work and my daughter needs to get to school so please let us through”. They again said “you should have left earlier, this isn’t our problem”. My husband pointed out that they cannot barricade us on our street for no reason and they need to move. They still wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t until my husband walked over and started pulling apart the “road closed” sign and threatened to call the police that they finally moved. I ended up being 15 min late for work because of the entire thing.

EDIT:

I decided to retract the rant about the trees because as others have pointed out, and I completely agree: if the trees needed to come down, they needed to come down. I’m still super disappointed, but it is what it is.

That’s not where my frustration was coming from this morning anyway. The frustration stems from the complete lack of consideration for the people of this city this year during construction. It seems there was zero thought put into what would actually happen to everyone’s commute when they made the decisions for construction this year. I was leaving 10 minutes early this morning because the traffic at wonderland and springbank gets worse every day. I left early to compensate for that…and then our city sent their workers, at the time of day where most people leave for work/school to barricade an entire residential street…to cut down some trees. There couldn’t have been the slightest bit of consideration there? Maybe allow people to get out the door for work and school before you barricade the street. Consideration that the majority of Londoners already have to sit in extra traffic because of construction.

I’m sure many are in the same boat, my morning commute has gone from 15 minutes to 40 minutes, and then on top of that I had to deal with snide remarks from the city workers while they stood around refusing to let us through.

Our city council is an absolute joke.

Literally seen a few places in London in the last month and even some in KW and the GTA use these shitty AI generated menu / billboard templates that make all their chicken sandwiches / pizza / shawarma etc look fake as hell. Did some AI restaurant assistant software drop in the last month or so?

PSA for restaurant owners: if you're too lazy to show us what your actual food looks like and put in some work hiring a graphic designer, chances are you're too lazy to put effort into the food you make as well, and it rubs off the wrong way with customers

Now adelaide is completely closed? Forcing traffic into western? Which is also one lane? Who designed this? They deserve public shaming

Just got downvoted to hell for recommending Scaddabush on another post! I am shocked! They handled our large party seamlessly, food came fast and warm, vibe was cozy and family friendly, and everyone enjoyed their meals and drinks... What am I missing??

Can we PLEASE stop scaremongering and being dehumanizing about addicts please and thank you? If this incident was targeted with intent to harm, which I feel like is a logical conclusion, that kind of scaremongering is what LEADS to people who think it’s okay to threaten the lives of people they see as lesser. Please spend some time learning about addiction, advocating for harm reduction, stock up on naloxone, and for goodness sake, please treat unhoused folks who use drugs like humans, you treat functional alcoholics and people who use party drugs as human as long as they are housed and have money. It doesn’t make them any better than people using, or any worse! It’s a systemic issue, it’s only in your face with unhoused substance users because the city refuses to do enough to house people and ensure there is comprehensive and accessible harm reduction and medical care.

Wiped out hard at Wonderland N today. Face and hands on the pavement, blood, the whole thing — right in front of 5–7 people waiting for the bus.

Not one person asked if I was okay. They just stood there. I picked myself up alone.

The physical pain fades. That hollow feeling of being invisible in a crowd? That one's sticking around a bit longer.

What happened to just... checking on people?

The last year or so it’s gotten so much worse. Blatant ruthless racism towards Indians all over this city. Today I went to the Argyle Walmart and saw a customer get in the face of an employee and yell at them to go back to their country while screaming filthy slurs while the poor man had to stand there and watch it happen.

I don’t understand. Setting your political beliefs aside is it really so hard to treat other human beings with kindness and respect? I’ve lived my whole life in this town and never have I witnessed it this bad. We’ve lost our way man. Get a grip people.

I know I know this might be way too controversial for this sub, but I actually like living here. There is so much to do, great restaurants around town, good bars, lots of entertainment options. I would argue we have the 2nd best food and 2nd best music scene in Ontario. I truly believe we punch above our weight in the mid sized city category. Anyone who says "there's nothing to do here" is frankly full of crap

And an even spicier take - I don't think the homeless situation downtown is actually worse in comparison to our peers. It's certainly no worse than Hamilton or Kitchener. It's bad everywhere, it's not an issue unique to London's downtown. I genuinely think it shouldnt stop people from coming downtown. Theyre missing out on some good restaurants and bars.

Anyway, hot take, but I like it here

Hey! I’m considering moving to London, Ontario, and would love some honest opinions from people who live there.
I’m currently in Northern Ontario and am realizing that I want somewhere that feels more urban, has more things to do, and offers better opportunities to meet people and build a social life.
I’m into gaming, anime, LEGO, crafts, wrestling, thrifting, and alternative/witchy communities, so I’d love to live somewhere where there’s a decent variety of shops, events, hobbies, and like-minded people.
I’m also looking for stable work in areas like administration, reception, scheduling, or dispatch. Affordability is a big factor, too, especially rent and whether it’s realistic to live comfortably on a regular income.
A few other things I’d love insight on:
Is public transit practical if you don’t drive?
How difficult is it to find a job and affordable housing?
How safe do you feel living there, and which neighbourhoods would you recommend?
Is access to healthcare and mental health services decent?
How are the winters compared with Northern Ontario?
Is it easy to meet people and find communities based on your interests?
I know every city has its problems, and I’m not expecting perfection. I’m just trying to find somewhere that offers a good balance of affordability, safety, employment, healthcare, and an enjoyable urban lifestyle.
For anyone who’s lived in London, especially those who’ve moved there from another Ontario city: would you recommend it? What do you love or hate and what do you wish you would have known before moving here?
Thanks for any advice!

Is anyone noticing social media in London is being flooded with homeless / drug posts very recently? im beginning to think there is a political play happening here to get people worked upwith the upcoming election.