early adventures in the journalism trade department: destination downtown

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Packing for a move inevitably causes glimpses of your past to resurface, especially when you have packrat tendencies. Sifting through a pile of papers atop my record shelf, I found a golden yellow folder cover in newsprint-smudged fingerprints. Inside were multiple copies of several stories I wrote for the University of Guelph's newspaper, the Ontarion, during my final year in academia. I suspect the articles in the folder were intended to be attached to job applications, which I sent plenty of as I tried to sort out my future and avoid a forced return to the Windsor area.

Among the clips was this piece, my first feature-length foray into urban issues, published during the summer semester after I graduated. My work for the Ontarion had been almost exclusively arts-related or the weekly archival roundup, though I had started to slip in the odd news story (such as covering hearings for a student occupation which occurred while I had been abroad). When this article was published, I still had no idea what the future held. By summer's end, I became the arts and culture editor after the initial hire left. 

Little did I know that two decades later covering urban revitalization would still be on my professional radar. 

Click on the images for larger versions. 
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The Ontarion, May 26-June 8, 1998.

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