This is Rob Ford’s view of Toronto. Through the windshield of his SUV. It’s the way he sees the city he was elected to lead. The only way.
His instinctive opposition to next month’s Open Streets initiative is as unsurprising as it is shameful. Two Sundays, 4 hours each, from 8 a.m. to noon, pedestrianized for stretches along Bloor and Yonge Streets. An automatic ‘nope’ from the mayor. An indignant nope and a demand for city staff to explain themselves. Streets are meant for the things the mayor sees while driving around the city.
It’s the gross incuriosity in someone purporting to lead a cosmopolitan city of 2.5 million people that is so fundamentally troubling. Imagine if Mayor Ford had the same proclivity toward experimentation in terms of city building as he does drug and alcohol use. Hey sure. Let’s try that. It might be fun!
Unfortunately for the residents of Toronto, the mayor’s civic leadership skills pale in comparison to his incautious lifestyle. You’d call them pedestrian almost but that would be too confusing. Rob Ford’s Toronto is motorized. All of us, behind the wheel of our cars, just trying to get from point A to point B, as fast as we can with as few road blocks as possible.
— street-wisely submitted by Cityslikr
Not surprised by Ford’s ignorant attitude towards Open Streets, but also disappointed that it will only be for two Sundays (and a shorter route) than the four originally proposed by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. I hope the Toronto experience gets bigger next year and lives up to the successes other cities enjoyed as per this post I wrote from an Open Streets summit that was hosted in November.
http://heal4lifepoli.blogspot.com/2014/01/opening-torontos-streets.html