Blogging About Blogging

As we come to the end of our assignment I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the experience of blogging and what I have learned.   

When I first heard about the blogging assignment I was a bit worried. Formal essays and research-based papers are my comfort zone rather than the casual writing style required for blog posts. And who would ever want to read about my reflections and ideas anyways?

I think that over the course of this assignment my perceptions have changed. I remember feeling unenthusiastic when I was writing my first two posts and looking back I see that I hadn’t quite grasped the blogging concept. At the time I felt uneasy about the idea of having my opinions and ideas out there for my peers and strangers to read. In these first weeks I took the easy way out and built my post around other people’s ideas. By summarizing Picard’s article and reflecting on the comments of fellow Canadian’s on the CMA’s Health Care Transformation website, I didn’t really have to put myself out there. As the weeks went on I felt a bit better about my ideas and my writing. Around the time the 3^rd post was due, Jennifer and Yousra from Access Alliance came to our class to talk about community nutrition. For my third post I felt inspired to talk about my time as a volunteer at Access Alliance. This was a big step for me- it was my first post that focused on me and my experience without any other content to lean on. I was feeling pretty confident when I wrote my fourth post on Dennis Raphael’s article about poverty causing CVD. It was a huge surprise when he commented on my post not one but six times. Interestingly, his comments did not address my issue with his paper- that he didn’t back up his claim with solid and timely evidence. He has just repeatedly posted research to prove his point. My thought was that if there is so much evidence out there then why he didn’t include timely sources in the original paper? I felt like my fifth post on community was a great close to this assignment because it showed how far I have come as a blogger. In this post I decided to share my thoughts on the assets and needs of my community- the St Lawrence neighbourhood.  This was a really personal piece for me and I am pleased that I felt comfortable enough to share it. I now feel more at ease writing about my thoughts and opinions on my blog and I think this experience has helped me become better at casual style writing.  

I think that this blogging assignment was a positive and valuable experience. It made me reflect on the past week’s lecture, assigned readings and seminar discussion in order to come up with a topic and direction for each post. I enjoyed reading my peer’s blogs as well and I regret not commenting or ‘following’ any other blogs. I think that students could really benefit from reading and commenting on each other’s blogs and I wonder if there is a way to make this a requirement by incorporating it into the marking scheme. I’m not sure how it would work practically but I think that seeing multiple perspectives on a topic can really enhance one’s learning.

My Community: The St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood

In our last seminar we discussed the Community Health Improvement Partnership and reflected on the assets and needs of our own communities.

I liked this exercise because it allowed us to put the theory into practice and it was subjective and personal.

I have lived in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood for the last two and a half years. I really like my neighbourhood because it has a feeling of a small community while being in the heart of Toronto. I am close to Ryerson, entertainment and a ten minute walk to union station where I can catch a bus or train almost anywhere in Southern Ontario. My neighbourhood has restaurants, theatres, grocery stores, churches, a community centre, elementary schools, George Brown College, as well as parks, playgrounds and green space. It also has high street connectivity and mixed land use (Smart Growth BC). But my community also has its share of needs. As with many downtown neighbourhoods, my community struggles with homeless, poverty and crime. 

Today in seminar my group discussed how in Toronto, high and low income areas often boarder each other. The transition between “good” and “bad” neighbourhoods can be very abrupt. In only a few blocks it’s almost like you’re stepping into another world. I can definitely see this in my neighbourhood. East of George Street, the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood takes a turn for the worst. There is a transition from condos and apartments to cooperatives and subsidized housing. All the subsided housing is concentrated into a few square blocks. This area looks very different than other parts of the neighbourhood. There is more litter, less green space and the buildings are in poor repair. It seems like the people living in subsidized housing aren’t proud of where they live. Lawns and gardens are often unkempt and people keep garbage bins on their porches rather than patio furniture. If was to assess this community, I would say that one need would be making this area of subsidized housing more aesthetically pleasing. I realized that this seems superficial but I think that investing money into planting trees and flowers could help reduce some of the stigma that surrounds the area. I’m reminded of the video we watched today in seminar about healthy cities activist Jane Jacobs. Jane said “people don’t want to live in an undignified place”. Could the addition of gardens and green space improve people’s perceptions of this area of subsidized housing? Could they be a source of pride for the people who live there? Perhaps this is something the community as a whole could consider and discuss.