Dr. Florida and me

Dr. Florida and me

Have a look at Richard Florida’s take on my Monday post. He provides some context that was sorely missing from Saturday’s Globe article. Note also the discord between his quote of my bio and the real version. If it’s not a typo but a shot from the hip, it’s a clever one. Zing.

Dr. Florida has mistakenly assessed my blog entry to be evidence of my “cynical and disturbing” negativity about my hometown, when it’s really nothing more than a lampooning of the Globe article. I admire the U of T campus a great deal, but that’s neither here nor there. My intent was to poke fun at him, admittedly with a sharpened prodder. When people like Dr. Florida and I choose to settle, purchase real estate, raise a family and pursue a career here in Toronto—complete with better “livingroom”—our choices are the best evidence of our underlying affections for the city. Which is why his enthusiasm struck me, and so many of those who’ve commented on both his blog and mine, as cloying.

But I suppose, on the whole, that it’s a good thing he’s here to generate happy headlines and feel-good weekend reading. The rest of the coverage is about the war zones that have become of Toronto streets and schools. It’s as if we need the former, because they make us feel okay about the latter. In other words, they feed complacency. Being a negative kind of guy, I’d rather focus on problems and prod people towards solutions.