NOTICE

The bright sun spoke of spring, but the nip in the wind said that winter was still hanging on. But that didn’t stop everyone who was able from finding any excuse to be outside. An elderly man walked his beagle, who looked as if he was getting on in years as well. A young couple watched their little girl on the swing in the park, and two teenagers shot baskets on their driveway.
The houses in the neighbourhood had been built after the war, and commercial construction had continued steadily thereafter. Condo towers now cast shadows over the aged bungalows with their tidy porches and lace-curtained bay windows. The winding tree-lined streets are now only steps away from mass public transit, a multi-movieplex and the bustling river of the 401 super highway.
Where the end of a street retreats to the grassy slopes of a park, there is a six foot by six foot white sign with bold black lettering. NOTICE it proclaims. “An application to amend the Official Plan and zoning by-law has been made by….” The little brick houses with the white trim and wooden mailboxes are to be demolished, and in their place will be two nine storey residential developments. Stucco will replace brick, aluminium will replace wood, and two hundred people will replace twenty.
The sign is not alone in this neighbourhood; its comrades are posted one street over and two streets down. They reside on corners in front of boarded up windows, and next to ‘For Sale’ signs on front lawns.
A little boy runs past the sign, arms outstretched to either side, humming like an airplane. His mother follows more slowly, shouting out a warning to stay away from the street. A thirty-something man jogs by in a Nike tracksuit, ipod strapped to his wrist. The sun is shining, but the air is still cold.