I was awoken by the lovely sound of gunshots outside my bedroom window at 4AM. At first I wondered if I were in Detroit or Washington DC. Then remembered that I was in my steadily decaying downtown Toronto neighbourhood.

People, exclusively those who live in green, leafy neighbourhoods farther out from the centre, tell me to be glad I don't live in the States. They point out that Toronto sees as many homicides in a year as New York does in a month (with no proof to back up their stats, mind you). I'm glad they enjoy their green, leafy neighbourhoods. I would too, had I the cash.

The city's answer has to build glass towers in my neighbourhood in the hope that the rich, beautiful people who move in to inhabit them will somehow drive out the riffraff by the very power of their magnificence. It doesn't work. Soon there will be poor people swooning on the streets and rich people looking out over the city in their high towers. Such a wonderful solution.

And in the meantime, two people lost their lives outside my bedroom window this morning.