S(p)in City

What the hell happened to my fair city, the one I was born in, that I loved so much that it made me move back to once I had fled to NYC?

They cleaned up the filth, they say, but I don't see it anywhere - the politicians are more numerous and dirtier than ever, streets have become enormous potholes with some patches of asphalt in between them at times, the people seem so fucking down all the time.

They tore down a three-block patch of the downtown core to shreds, to be replaced with theatres and show bars, or so they say. Meanwhile, in the past year alone, 5 clubs that I regularly went to see shows at have closed down. Something doesn't work somewhere.

Was it just an excuse to ransack mom-and-pop stores, peep show places and get the hookers out of the intersection of our two main streets? 'Cause on paper, two of those things seem right and ethical, until you realize we humans, as a race, are filthy and degenerate.

Where does the guy who prefers to masturbate outside of home go? And when he finds a spot, what of the onlookers, what if they're kids? And if all the whores are off the streets and you have to use the services of street gang-controlled escorts to get it on with another human, what are the consequences of that, huh? More money in the pockets of big-time criminal organizations, so they can buy more drugs to sell to our kids and have more guns to scare the cops off? And who's to say the 19 year-old looking girl isn't a 12 year-old kid from a halfway home with added makeup on? The ethics alone make this a terrible idea.

But if it really is about the Arts, and bringing more shows to town, having more venues to express our creative spirits and spurts, then... why build brand-spanking-new venues rather than the old ones? Just to spend money? How are these venues going to be paid, with increased ticket prices? We just shut down venues that often charged less than $10 for a seat... how many $50 shows do you think people can afford anyway?

Especially once they've paid their fines for jerking off in public and paid for that underage escort they found in the back of a free weekly paper.

It seems like The City's been making the wrong choices since the mid-90s. That's something like 15 years.

Gone are the Jazz Days during prohibition where the best musicians in the world would spend most of their time playing to people who appreciated their work and didn't bug them about their race; long-gone are the days when we were a sports capital, aiming at bigger things rather than having trouble staying small.

We've suffered so much we've made art that has been respected worldwide in recent years more than at any time in the past 30 - Arcade Fire, The Dears, Cirque Du Soleil, Priestess, the Sainte Catherines... we're nearing the point where we're too starved to create, and we're just watching it wither away.

There have been happier days. Brighter days. And to think I wouldn't even be complaining if you gave me back my whores.