Here is a link to today's Sun Times report:
Seven stabbed, cut in melee
kltpzyxm

Yes there was a scuffle to use the term loosely.
Here is my request to those who would jump into this discussion.
I have a place I rent out for the summer. If I rent the place out to a group of people and one of them decides to do something stupid, am I responcible and should I be affected and judged by thier actions. I hope the answer would be NO as I think that is the right answer.
The people who just purchased "the lodge" I met when thier son had a BDay patry and my little ones's presence was requested.
I met a young couple who have started a venture here in Sauble and have contributed and committed to the community.
Thier kids go to school here, when asked to assist in any sort of community based venture such as fundraising or assisting they ar eager to respond positivley.
"The lodge" has a stigma and we are all aware of that.
Since anything here which is written can end up being "googled" I would hate to see the this young couples quest for a new feel and look of the Lodge be hampered by a incident which was way beyond thier control or anticipation. Although since the incident happened and a potential customer who does a search comes up with "multiple stabbing victims" for hits, You couldimagine the biz could suffer and it any secondary hits come up negative then a potential customer is gone.... I don't think it is necasary to dwell on the past of the lodge, but assist in its future.
So if you could loose the Lodge stigma and rep when dealing and questioning this event. The young couple who now own the lodge deserve it, in my opinion.
Enough blabbering for 1 night

Hew, I think that is a great idea, but it may be too late, too far past the Point of No Return for the downtown of Sauble. Keep in mind that these kids were not at the bar, some of them weren't old enough according to the police reports, so there was no way to know the trouble was brewing until it broke. Rest assured the new owners are assisting the police in any way they can, but lets also face some sad facts:

• this is the sort of beach we portray in the popular press. we are 'party town' and when you Google sauble.beach you end up with a lot of praying to the porcelin god as the popular pastime. Who's fault is that?
• this is the sort of beach the chamber of commerce has been wooing for years. heh talk about riling the fans, but hey, look around, what do we see? What are the demographic targets for the image we portray? Rude T-Shirts, beer-sponsor flags, sea-doos ... doesn't quite jibe with 'blue-flag ecotourism for the whole family' does it? I don't want to denegrate those parlours, they do serve a clientele honestly and fill a niche and that's great, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that this niche is not the sort conducive to the current topic of conversation.

  Talk about the responsibilities of the landlords to the health of the community ... the wound of blame cuts pretty deep, if you ask me, and I ain't done yet ;)

• this is the sort of beach The Town Corporation has been grooming for years, through a policy of removing any family utility and atmosphere, by making the downtown core exclusive to those who pay premium, not just for coffee, but for everything else. There's no park space, no picnic space, no 'free' space at all, only gimme your money highwaymen -- I mean that in a nice way ;) -- again, this sort of funky strip is great and colourful, it adds character to Amsterdam and Philadelphia's inner districts, but you want it contained, zoned in a chain-linked Coney Island, not part of an actual living community.

  Sometimes it seems we've become SBP's Coney Island, only without the rickety wooden rollercoaster.

• this is the sort of beach the residents have been culturing for years ... by their absense, by their tacit acceptance, by their greed in charging such rates to rent that only a high-profit biz can dare dream of serving a public here, and mostly just by their abandoning the field to this rowdy element, as if it was the thing to do, as if it was 'right'

Buckminster Fuller famously said that if you were shipwrecked off the Titanic and the lid of the piano floated by, you'd grab on and use it for floatation. It wasn't designed that way, but that's how you were going to use it now. The trouble is, said Bucky,

"we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings."

"always been that way" does not make something either right or inevitable.

Some many years ago there was a street corner in Toronto they called "Crack Corner" because of the constant, constant trouble. Bad trouble. Trouble way more bad than any little knife-fight tumble. CITY-TV decided they would do something about it: they set up shop, on that corner, a remote broadcast, with lights, with popcorn vendors, with live music, with artists, jewelry tables ... they filled that public space with people and they stayed there. Thing is, the evil element does not like The Light, they like The Dark, the place where they can be anonymous. Drag them into light, they shrivel up.

It disturbs me that I live here next to this astounding natural wonder of Lake Huron and yet I cannot interest the family in going down there to see it every day. 'Cause there's no place to go, 'cause it's too expensive, 'cause it's not safe, 'cause there's still broken glass in the sand and cars whizzing by flying on more than expensive petrol, 'cause it just isn't our place, it doesn't seem like our home, it doesn't even seem like our planet.

It just seems like a piano-lid with far too many people dancing on it to stay itself afloat.

ah... but the "local" may be those who came up to open a business to make a buck from the tourists. They don't necessarily think like us --- wanting a safe, natural, family-friendly environment:(

"Sometimes it seems we've become SBP's Coney Island, only without the rickety wooden rollercoaster."

.....now you went and did it Gary....gave them a new idea!
:)

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"How does one "Throw a camel toe?Either you did or you didn't! "
-ZenLisa

gary, right on. the problem is that there is no 'vision statement' for sauble beach. pipelines, waste water treatment, more water, paid parking, blue flag, one of ten best beaches, etc, etc these are all aimed at further intensification and commercialization of the beach. personally i don't want all these tourists. i don't even bother going to the beach anymore. i want sauble to be the way it was when i moved here 36 years ago. i know that aint gonna happen but that is the vision i would have for the beach. no more cottages than the land can sustain. higher taxes ... gladly. all this filth and violence is imported from the cities. we call them cityots (city idiots). we cater to them for crissake. unfortunatley there are also people here who want to 'take the money and run'. i oppose further development as much as i can. write to council and ask for their vision for the beach? ask the county planner his vision? is it what you want? how can you have a plan when you have no vision of where you are going? its a crap shoot like buying a random plane ticket to who knows where. argh..
kltpzyxm