Toronto Life – December 2018

26 toronto life December 2018

purpose of your magazine as

‘...the destination for people who

care about Toronto.’ Claiming that

low-ranking neighbourhoods (an

inevitability in any ranking system)

may be the ‘worst places to live’ is

completely inconsistent with caring

about Toronto. It is divisive and

hurtful. All neighbourhoods have

positive things to offer. For example,

Cliffside (#125 of 140) has one of

Toronto’s most beautiful streets

(Fallingbrook Drive), Cliffcrest

(#122) has one of our best beaches

(Bluffer’s Park) and the Rouge (#132)

has one of our foremost national

parks. Ranking these neighbour-

hoods among the ‘worst’ is not only

inaccur ate, it undermines the

widely acknowledged positive fea-

tures that define our city.”

—Sitharsana Srithas and

John Stapleton, SCRO

“As an elementary school teacher,

I found your vague references

to ‘great schools,’ ‘strong schools’

and ‘highly ranked schools’ disap-

pointing. You write that the num-

ber of schools and daycares in each

neighbourhood were part of the

criteria that allowed for a higher

ranking, but what exactly makes

a school great, strong or highly

ranked? EQAO scores? Yuck.

Typically, schools that are socio-

economically and culturally

diverse don’t do well on EQAO.

Does this mean we’re holding

up the opposite as the ideal?

I’ve worked at several wonderful

schools in my career, most of

which have ranked poorly on the

EQAO. Those scores—and the

Fraser Institute rankings that result

from them—are not even close to

a good measure of what makes

a school great and strong.”

—Dinah Murdoch

The happy householders were a much

more succinct bunch.

“Love Bloor West!!!”

—Raul Novo, Facebook

“We’re number one...we’re

number one!”

—Marcella Jokay, Facebook

The ConversaTion

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