The city once called “The Flower Town of Canada”, a title based on a vast acreage mostly covered by large number of greenhouses (which began with Edward Dale in 1863) and reaching a production of over 20 million blooms. Brampton, unfortunately, has, throughout the years, lost the designation… today; still commonly known as “Flower City” or “Flower Town”.
Throughout the years, the city flourished into an attractive place to live and where beautiful residential subdivisions where built, one after the other. The “Communities in Bloom” designation also enriched all attributes Brampton benefited from. However, it seems that the “attractive” and the “beautiful” are adjectives that are fast eroding unless radical measures are taken by the elected officials… the so called downtown “core” – except for the Municipal offices and the Rose – has been abandoned for the longest time and, without getting into a long dissertation, succinctly, I will get to the point. Since July/August of this year, the city’s landscape has completely changed: the homeless, the break-ins, the drug dealing, the condoms, the needles and the smell of urine; the garbage and debris surrounding them – and left behind – is something the city officials are ignoring… elected officials are always seen before the elections but after, and when their presence should be noticeable, hibernate!
Meantime, property owners are given “Orders to Comply” (or else $$$) from the city’s property standards, as if property owners were the culprit, the one’s leaving the garbage on their properties on purpose; business owners are to fend for themselves from the intruders; business owners are losing business and facing daily struggle due to the present situation; and when someone walks in this particular area, the looking over one’s shoulder is a constant.
City Council’s attitude of “lessez faire, lessez passer” and the lack of vision for the downtown core for many years are the cause of the ongoing situation… and the flowers’ falling petals may not come to an end soon unless immediate action is taken…
S’taméryca