‘I’m in a bargain basement with a sidewalk skyline.’
Children growing up in the core of urban centers may look out the window of a basement apartment and see the sidewalk. I want to invite you to be part of the sunrise on the sidewalk skyline.
Over 85% of Canadians live in urban centers in major population hubs. The gap between the haves and have-nots is a growing chasm. The rich get richer and the poor get by with less.
If Canada were the rich man in Jesus’ parable, then the urban poor are our beggar by the gate. You may not see them, though. We have great security systems, geographic barriers and locked up churches to keep the beggars out at the street.
City planners and business people work hard to create presentation on the major downtown streets.BIAs’ (Business Improvement Areas) are cooperative efforts between city hall and the local business people of a given neighbourhood. Both want to see taxpayer dollars spent to beautify and improve the face of the city. When people go downtown, they need to feel safe, visually intrigued and interested in spending their money. Sculptures, murals, architecture, and green space combine with public transit systems, traffic routes, entertainment and parking garages to give people a pleasant face on the city. To the chagrin of some city fathers the homeless, the mentally ill and the ill-equipped also show up to share the space. Police, social services and missions dot the streetscape to facilitate the neediest and the most unfortunate.
When you get behind the ‘movie set façade’ of downtown, you encounter the real ‘downtown’ where the poor live.
I pastor New Song Church, one of Windsor’s tougher neighbourhoods with its share of social challenges. My building is an old bar on a dingy street. There is more plywood on the buildings of my neighbourhood than there are windows.
When you go on the backstreets and alleys of our cities, you discover the living conditions not visible to the passerby.
In Windsor, the AIDS committee has a needle exchange program that collected 200,000 used syringes last year from drug users exchanging dirty needles for a clean kit. That is 200,000 needles that would have otherwise been dropped in alleys, parks and garbage containers.
A friend of mine who used to work for Compassion was with me when we visited a couple who lived in the neighbourhood. The living conditions were deplorable. The furnace was not working, the bathroom lacked hot water and the clutter and filth was overwhelming. My friend remarked afterward that it was worse than the poverty he had seen in third world countries, where they at least managed to keep things reasonably clean and tidy.
When you get to the real downtown, there are children like Kenny who at 10 years of age has tried crack and steals everything he can. Kenny goes with his mom in the wee hours of the night to make drug deliveries. Kenny drops by the church to drink coffee. Kenny came to camp with us and still needs Jesus.
When you go downtown, make a detour. Behind the façade you will find the real downtown. Pray for the sun to rise on the sidewalk skyline.
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