Whoever Said Capitalism And Sanity Go Hand In Hand?

The Beaches area of Toronto, ''known as,''The Beach'', once indirectly played a prominent part in the history of the SPC. It was there in the sixties that a thriving and enthusiastic local was founded. 

The Beach is again in the news but not in such a positive way. It is now being called a retail ghost town. Along its main street, Queen Street West, there are 30 vacant stores. Nor is the Beach a low-income neighbourhood, but it is a high rent one, so much in fact, that retailers are moving out. 

These are regular working people who just wanted to get ahead and, in some cases, worked longer hours than many members of the working class. One, a Parlour Salon, who also owns one in Toronto's west end said, ''The Beach is beautiful, I love it here, but the rent is three times higher than I pay for my other store.''

 The rents are high and thanks to a City of Toronto tax rebate policy there is an incentive to landlords to keep them high, and if it comes to that, keep the businesses vacant. If one is vacant for more than 90 days the owner is entitled to a rebate. This causes problems for the local residents who now have to travel out of the Beach to get what they want.

 Whoever said capitalism and sanity go hand in hand?

 For socialism, 
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.