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vA Jens) UR AS PY RN el : ALR OF Fl LOSER LO) al KARR A SRE AANSR BEEP GIO PH ORL 2TH © 2 editorial poge ee Should Withdraw Objections The future of a senior citizens geared-to-income apartment building planned for construction in Port Perry this summer will be held up or even shelved completely because of objections to the re-zoning that could lead to a hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board. The objections to the re-zoning have been formally filed with Scugog Township by a group of property owners living nearby who say they are not opposed to the senior citizens building, but rather to a complex of three regular apartment buildings that is being planned on a parcel of land adjacent to the seniors apartment. } While recognizing the fundamental right of any citizen to register a formal objection to any land re-zoning, the Star at the same time urges that the objections "to 'the senior citizens apartment be withdrawn. AY =< = Wane " WHITE MAN SPEAK WITH FORKED JONGUE Dp | There are several reasons why this.should be done. The first and most important is the undeniable need in Scugog Township at this time for geared-to- income apartments for senior citizens who for any number of reasons are no longer able or willing to remain in their present places of residence. " Scugog Township has been working for two years to secure a suitable site for this senior citizens apart- ment, and the Ontario Housing Corporation, which is putting up the money, seems finally to be in a hurry to get the project completed. OHC also seems to be in so much of a hurry that it might pull out if there is the chance of a long, time-consuming hearing before the Ontario Munici- pal Board. It is usually at least six months before the OMB even gets around to a hearing. The 1.1 acre site just east of the Fairgrounds has been severed and apparently one of the conditions of final sale to Ontario Housing is that there be no hold-ups in the re-zoning process. } ' SC If the citizens living in the north end of Port Perry are indeed only in opposition to the proposed regular apartment buildings, the time to register a formal objection is when the developers make application to the Township for re-zoning. The objections at this time to'the senior citizen apartment give absolutely no guarantee that the re-zoning for the other apartments will not be approved when and if an application to do so is made. That issue should be fought on its merits, completely divorced from the senior citizen re-zoning. The objectors 'could end up achieving the worst of all possible situations: a scuttling of the senior citizen proposal which would disappoint everyone, and eventual approval anyway for the regular apartment buildings. Unfortunately, time is running short. Ontario Housing is waiting for the re-zoning by-law to be ratified by the OMB so that a construction start on the seniors apartment can get underway this summer. At the same time the developer of the other parcel of land is still in the planning stages and has not yet made an application to have it re-zoned to allow high density housing. This is probaby the most contentious issue that has come up on the local municipal scene in the last year or so. Scugog Township council must move quickly in arranging a meeting with the 18 objectors and a representative from Ontario Housing. And the citizens must be persuaded to withdraw their object- ions before the slow-moving Ontario Municipal Board comes into the picture. - Sm GOT A JOB? ANYBODY got a job for my kid? She's 27 years old, has three degrees, is three times as bright as her old man, can charm the birds right out of the trees when she feels like it, and is an outstanding fund-raiser (from me). ) She plays the piano extremely well, the guitar rather rustily. She composes music, raucous rock or contemporary classical. She can cook up a storm when she's at our place, although I've never had anything more substantial than a cup of weak tea and a burnt brownie at hers. She has an erratic but brilliant academic career, liberally sprinkled with As for essays and glowing tributes from profes- sors. That's mainly because she can write rings around me, and comprehend abstract theses in one-quarter the time I do. She is completely versed in all the modern psychological jargon of child-raising, but despite that has two happy, healthy child- ren.despite the fact that she's an ardent ley __.Women"s_Libber, she's. still Jliving with a male chauvinist husband and gets along pretty well with a male chauvinist father, or at least what she thinks is one. She can type at a hell of a clip, self-taught. She has worked as a waitress, a bartender, -an-organist anda helper at a day-care centre. And finally, she's a consumate actress. You should hear her conning her ~~ mother into taking the kids for-a week. Now wouldn't you think that with all these attributes she could hack some kind of living out of our economic jungle? But, no. Her problem is that she is ready, willing and able to ge out and conquer the world, but she's walking right into Canada's worst unemployment situation since the Great Depression. } An added difficulty is that she is specially trained to be one of those pariahs of today's society - a teacher. Being a newly graduated teacher today is like being an undertaker in some Utopia where nobody ever dies. Every occupation has its day in the sun, I guess. Fifteen years ago, it was the turn of the teacher. If your body was warm and you were still breathing, you were likely to be snatched off the streets or out of an office, and propped up in front of a classroom. With the post-war baby boom over and out of the schools, and the reluctance of so many young people to have children, for whatever the reasons, school enrolment has shrunk drastically, and will go on doing so for several years. The huge educational empires created during the boom years are shrinking, and attribution is fairly savage. Thousands of young teachers are unable to get jobs. Hundreds are losing their jobs because they are redundant. It's nobody's fault, particularly, just a matter of execrable management by our leaders. Nothing new in that. They're the people who study all the charts, examine all the facts, and invariably .come up with all the wrong answers. Day in the sun for teachers is over. Morale of those already in the profession is low, for various reasons. Morale of those trying to enter it is depressive. I feckon doctors got the next long. day -in the sun. For years, along with the dentists, they carried thousands of doHars on their books, of people who could not or would not. pay their medical bills; Then came the health insurance, and suddenly young doctors were making a fantastic living, because they were pald for every- thing they did. Now they've had their day too. They work incredible hours, often in rotten little offices where they scarcely ever see the light of day. But their expenses have shot up, they pay a whacking income tax, the government is always creating more pa- perwork, and suddenly it's become a grind. Who's having his day in the sun in the sick 70's? I'd say the service people: garage mechanics, TV repairmen, plumb- ers, electricians. It certainly isn't nurses or construction workers. So be it. But there must be something awfully wrong with a country when thou- sands of highly dedicated, highly educated young people simply cannot find employ- ment in what they were trained for. Maybe my son Hugh had some psychic foresight. He took off for Paraguay, as a Ba-hai pioneer, three years 'ago, and is living happily, hand to mouth, without having to go through the humiliating search for a way to put food in his mouth, Max Braithwaite, whose Why Shoot The Teacher has been made into a popular movie, perhaps should have stuck a "not" into his title. Shoot the poor young devils, and put them out of their misery. Or shoot a bunch of us old codgers with our stale ideas and antiquated teaching methods, and give the jobs to the young ones. Anybody got a job for my kid? 3