Sault Blog

Mr. Peter Santenello, a YouTube vlogger with an online following of 3.98M, uploaded the YouTube video “The City Split Between Two Countries,” which garnered 1.3M views and 5.6K comments. Mr. Santenello has a massive YouTube following, presence, “liked”, and is well-regarded by the online community that believes what he says. An online influencer who can make or break a city’s reputation. In his recent video comparison of Soo, MI, and Sault, ON, we didn’t fare very well; in fact, we performed poorly.

The purpose of the video is a vlog documentary of the “split” between the people and place of the twin Saults. Mr. Santenello sets out to vlog residents’ attitudes and opinions and then does a walking/driving tour while observing and critiquing the general condition, culture, and vibrancy of each community.

I will not comment on the individuals whom Mr. Santenello interviewed, as I believe people on both sides of the border are entitled to their opinions, no matter how ill-informed they may be.

Mr. Santenello documents Soo, MI’s Downtown and gives it a glowing review, having the classic American Downtown “feel” with stately government edifices, well-kept buildings and streets, and nice downtown housing.

Conspicuously absent were the homeless in Soo, MI, and when Mr. Santenello asked a local bartender and city commissioner why, his answer was “Yeah, no homeless. No tolerance. I mean, we help them, we get them where they need to be – we have programs that they go through.”

When I asked a friend who works in the American Correction System what Soo, MI does with people experiencing homelessness and drug addiction?

“No catch and release,” was his reply. “Michigan has an incarceration industrial complex.”

Fortunately, Mr. Santenello did not dive deep into Sault, ON’s problems of homelessness, drug addiction, and crime as he did in the YouTube Video of his hometown, Burlington, Vermont. Every resident of Sault, ON needs to watch “They Ruined My Home City – Don’t Let This Happen to Yours (Burlington, VT).

Mr. Santenello proceeds to drive through our Downtown neighbourhoods of the now infamous Albert and Wellington Street corridors to view our housing. Boarded-up and blighted houses after houses are painfully visible on the video. Again, Mr. Santenello, very familiar with urban blighted neighbourhoods throughout the United States, was very lenient in his commentary of our blighted Downtown housing compared to other videos on his YouTube Channel.

In the past fifteen years, Michigan cities utilized the United States Federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding to expropriate and demolish blighted buildings, homes, and in some cases, entire city blocks.

Recently, the City of Sault Ste. Marie received $9M from the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). Our federal government initiative provides direct funding to municipalities to increase housing in urban neighbourhoods, utilizing existing infrastructure on public transportation routes. Urban blight removal for new, increased housing is core to the HAF mandate. Yet, our City Planning Department did not set aside a single dollar for urban blight expropriation and removal.

It didn’t take long for the very observant and astute Mr. Santenello to hit the nail on the head with Sault, ON housing: “There seems to be a big divide between neighbourhoods in Sault, ON, compared to Soo, MI.”

We have polarized housing and polarized municipal taxation in our City, and it didn’t take Mr. Santenello long to figure it out.

The Sault Ste. Marie, ON Building and Planning Departments failure to update the Official Plan with an aggressive blight removal program and strategy for the City has been a leadership vacuum that allowed delinquent homeowners, landlords, and disastrous Southern Ontario Housing Corporations to perpetuate a culture of blight that now is not only appearant visually in the Sault but also virtually online to millions of YouTube viewers.

Mr. Santenello was very kind and considerate in his critique of Sault Ste. Marie, ON; but with 3.98M followers, we didn’t get a glowing endorsement or recommendation for Americans to cross the border, either; something the very well remunerated City of Sault Ste. Marie, Tourism Department should take heed.

Mark Menean, http://www.saultblog.com

Thanks you Mr. Peter Santenello, YouTube vlogger.