Yo

Been a while.

Sad when there’s a legacy website with no axn since 2017. Mostly the action is out IRL, doing things and making it happen. On the internets, there is rich chatter on the fb group, perpetually ongoing.

Lately we’ve been up to the following:

• I’m doing a Jane’s Walk!!!! Super excited. Title: ‘Empire, war, meatpacking: Ossington’s psychogeography’. For the back story check out my On the Ossington Strip.
• The Clocktower Project is moving forward!!! Old Fire Hall #9 at 16 Ossington, currently the Western Men’s Detox, with its ‘pilgrim hat’ as made famous by the great Julie Lasky, is the Ossington icon in waiting. OCA is partnering with the City, Hullmark, and the Ossington BIA to get that clock back up on there.
• We believe in groups within groups within groups: this is how individuals project agency and connect in local and progressively more global structures. The OCA is a charter member of the West Side Community Council, an umbrella group stretching from University to Roncesvalles with a baker’s dozen members. The WSCC in turn is a member of Ontario Place for All, which is about promoting OnPlace to what its promise has always been. One thing we are contributing on this behalf is some constitutional jurisprudence, in the form of the Public Trust Doctrine, the idea that some times, governmental control over lands and resources is not *ownership* but *trusteeship*, where all of us are beneficiaries. This is a big deal in the US, and we are promoting this as a Canadian concept.
• The BIA is awesome and has an awesome plan to beautify, rock out, and funk up the Ossington Streetscape. We love it and you will too. Now it needs to happen! OCA is putting its back behind this. Let’s make it happen!

See you on the second Thursday of the month!!!! (West Nbhd House, Oss/Dds, 7–8:30, followed by PUB NITE!!!!!!) — no worries about protocol or rules or whatever, we are here to empower you, so show up and get like empowered and stuff. Lates!!!