Having Rob Ford as you mayor is almost like moving in with your step-family. In my case, very much like moving in with my stepfamily with the huge exception that, for the most part, my steps are congenial, well-read, nice folks. The situation was similar, however, in that I was unundated in a very short time by a lot of people who didn't think the way I did. At all. And, yet, here we are. Related. Living together. Yikes. You can guess that this lasted for only a few months.
Now, I am by no means a perfect person but core values mean a lot to me. I am not one to move out to the burbs so that I can have a bigger life. Bigger house, bigger yard, bigger walk-in closet. Well, any walk-in closet for that matter. However, my steps believe in the good life. The big house, the big back yard, the pool, the three or four cars in the great, big driveway. Double income, four kids. Damn the carbon footprint and off they go. Now, don't me wrong, I like most of my steps. Really do. I just don't want to live with them. I don't want to live the way they do.
Most people in the suburbs are nice - Rob Ford isn't one of those nice people - and I think that they should live whatever life they choose as long as they don't expect me to go along with them. Let the steps live any life they choose. I really don't want half of our libraries, pools, and parks closed. I don't want big box shopping malls everywhere.
I want a smaller carbon footprint. I want bike trails and hiking trails. I want small eateries and shops -- not chains and name brands. I want the problem of the flooding of the Don dealt with. I want libraries and lots of transit and reasonable accountantability. I want open, public consultations. Public input. Professional input. Not just commercial input. I want to work a vision that thinks not about tomorrow but about our children's children. I think quite a few folks who live in downtown Toronto feel the same way.
In short, I think it's time that Toronto moved out on the steps.
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