Waterloo Region's Vital Signs Report

This morning the Vital Signs annual report for the region came out. There was a breakfast thing for it, but it was at 8am and I am incapable of waking up before 8:24am now that it is not sunny in the morning. So yes, then i get ready for work in 6 minutes... and drive like a madwoman to work, disturbing mothers with small children waiting for the bus and terrorizing cyclists. deal with it.

The Record interpreted the data and ran with THIS article, which chose to highlight the fact that area residents don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. WTF?

I'm not going to attempt to list all the stats... and i mean, most research like this is bullshit anyway... and there is WAY too much data and fine print for me to really include it all in an effective way - so if you want more info, go here. In the meantime, you can read what i find interesting:

1. The richest 10% of Waterloo Region are making just over six times more than the lowest 10% of our population.

2. In 2007 the per capita gross arts and culture spending (including grants by local and regional gov'ts) was $15.59... this is 13.7% less than Ottawa and 37.2% less than Toronto.

3. Our unemployment rate is 9.9%. HOLY SHIT PEOPLE. THIS IS FUCKING TERRIBLE! WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THIS??

There's lots of good news in the report too - like people are using more public transportation, more people are completing post secondary education and our violent crime and hate crimes are very low. Wicked. Good Work People.

So, we have 3 BIG issues... what should we do about them?

Post a comment.

H.