Wednesday, January 17, 2007

If you can't say something nice... Regina hates Maclean's article

Last week, Maclean's magazine published an article saying that Regina was home to "Canada's worst neighbourhood", a crime and problem-ridden slum. Predictably, there is a backlash, said an article in the Regina Leader Post. The article asked"How did the province where medicare was born end up with a city this frightening?"

"We're not scum, we're very proud people," said an e-mail to Maclean's from a resident of the North Central area resident.

"Shame on Maclean's magazine," said Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco who called it "irresponsible reporting to simply paint this negative picture of Regina when we are working so hard at making life better."

Colin Campbell, an assistant editor of Maclean's, had to field a lot of local anger when meeting with aggrieved residents. He was told there were far worse places in Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg. Campbell is writing a follow-up article to the original by writer Jonathan Gatehouse.

Not everyone agrees Maclean's got it wrong, said the Leader Post. Some residents welcomed the attention to some of the things that Maclean's highlighted, including the most urban crime in Canada in nine of the past 10 years (second only to Saskatoon in 2005), second highest per capita murder rate in 2006, behind Edmonton and more IV drug users than the downtown eastside in Vancouver.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I guess Maclean's should stick to reporting about Paris Hilton and Walmart.

10:56 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

why is everyone so upset about this article?perhaps it's because truth hurts and by reading it on paper we are force to take our heads out of our asses and stop acting as if Regina doesn't have a huge problem in all the areas Mcleans mentioned.I, as someone who has experienced some of what the article talked about personally,felt they actually downplayed the severity because worse gos on then what was mentioned.Way to go mcleans

5:30 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I seriously agree that everyone has got their heads up their asses. We live in North Central with our three children. We work hard and have bought our own home, and even in a bad area we can still call it ours. That is pride! But to stick up for an area that is so wrought up in gangs, fights, murders, prostitution, poverty, and even now guns is literally scary. So scary in fact that our children are scared to walk to school or play outside. I mean for crying out loud, we had these neighbors who actually tried to pick up my 2 year old daughter right in front of me saying they wouldn't mind having her in their room for a couple of hours. I wish mayor fiaco would get with reality and truly open his eyes! It is just getting worse down here as the years go by...and if we could afford to get out of this neighborhood, we would but we can't. Everybody needs to seriously take a look at what the article is saying, cause compare it with other areas in the world such as New York or New Orleans, and see that things are starting to get just as bad.

2:21 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A friend of mine and I were just driving down in north central to see what all the hubub was about, and a gang came walking up to our car down the middle of the street. Needless to say, north central Regina is scary, whether it's the worst or not.

1:26 am  

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