Let's Get the Hell Out of Dodge

Most of you who have been to my house know that you have to go through what wouldn't exactly be considered the best part of town to get there. Now, I didn't know how bad it was until this past Saturday morning.

You see, on my way to a workshop on Saturday, walking to the bus stop I take EVERYDAY, I went past a police car and saw tape all over the alley next to the stop. I didn't think much of it until I read the Metro on Monday morning. Turns out a guy was murdered there at around 2am on Saturday. The guy was killed in what the paper identified as a "known crack house". Well, that's news to me.

I was kind of shaken up by that news. I mean, sure it was a drug dispute and as long as they keep killing each other off, who cares right? Wrong! What if I had been coming home that night from the bar or from a late night on set and ran into the killers as they were leaving the place? What then?

While I understand that Ottawa has the second-lowest homicide rate of any major city (right behind Quebec City), it still does not make me feel safe in my own neighbourhood.

I took a picture this morning:



Just to give you an idea of what's around there, to the left of the picture, we have an "Erotic" cinema (I wonder when they will be playing Shortbus), a 24 hour diner, a "Labour Ready" shop where they pay you in cash, and a Karaoke bar. To the right, there's that empty building for sale (I wonder if the price just went down?), the world's worse Burger King, a bank, and a $49 a night Hotel.

Classy, I know. I'm sure going to miss it all when I move.