MOVE ON

Boy, that Christina Blizzard has really opened my eyes. I've lived in
Ottawa's "rotting core" for more than a quarter of a century. I've
probably even eaten at least one meal in that same Byward Market
restaurant and I can only thank blind luck that I have never been
interrupted by "addicts begging for money."

I'm in the Byward Market or Centretown every day and most evenings,
but I have never felt unsafe. But can I be wrong? Now, thanks to her,
I wonder if my streets are among the most dangerous in the world.
According to the book Treasury of Jewish Humor, Nathan Ausubel writes
that "a worm in a jar of horse radish thinks its life is the sweetest
in all the world." Maybe I couldn't see what was going on around me
until she told me and other Ottawans.

Thanks to Ms. Blizzard, I know those people on Rideau Street were
really selling and buying illicit substances and not exchanging
business cards.

That must prove her point. I will move to Toronto, where I just have
to worry about getting caught in the crossfire of a gang war.

Allan Meltzer, Ottawa