Coping with COVID in St. James Town part 1

St. James Town Storeys

In this first episode of our podcast, we look at the challenges of physical distancing in a high-rise apartment building in St. James Town, Toronto, as well as residents’ experience with food shopping, employment, and income loss. We also look at early stages of residents’ collaboration to deal with the pandemic.

Our guest talks about the shortages of open public space for people to get fresh air and healthy exercise as a dilemma for people in this neighbourhood. This is the focus of these two news commentaries.

• CBC Radio. 2020. “The Idiocy of Our Current Urban Systems: Inequality, not High Density Cities, to Blame for COVID-19’s spread”.

• Bozikovic, Alex. 2020. “In the pandemic, Toronto’s St. James Town Needs Room to Breathe.” Globe and Mail 22 April.

The interview also touched on difficulties that people are experiencing in applying for Employment Insurance during the pandemic.

• Roman, Katrina. 2020. “EI Claimants are Going Weeks Without Income as Federal System Slows to a Crawl.” CBC News 1 May.

Ward 13 where St. James Town is located has a very energetic Ward Councillor who advocates tirelessly for her constituents including by issuing these nearly daily updates. Kristyn Wong-Tam, Councillor for Ward 13

And Councillor Wong-Tam also provides a link to a variety of special supports and programs to support people during the pandemic.Kristyn Wong-Tam’s updates on COVID-19

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