The Jarvis redo carried 28-17, but I have a feeling the redo vote was decided long before the tedious debating. Don’t hold your breath – Rob Ford wasn’t going to be swayed by the notion of tree-lined boulevards and the health benefits of cycling Adam Vaughan wasn’t about to say, “Hey, you’re right councillor Doug Holyday, there are no bikes in Toronto”.
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Still, what a delight it’s been watching the ongoing Jarvis Street streetscape improvement debates at city hall today.
It seems the anti-livable city folks on council have gotten desperate. Not only did councillor Walker (and his buddies) lose 16-27 in a sad early referral attempt on the Jarvis redo, plenty of hilarious things have come to light.
Here are a few highlights:
Etobicoke’s Holyday has a myopic view of the city that doesn’t leave Burnhamthorpe and West Mall. He doesn’t see bikes in Etobicoke = people don’t ride bikes.
When you’re desperate and about to lose a vote against a bike lane, find a scapegoat. Enter NOW. So the city placed ads about the Jarvis plan in this paper and the right jumped up and down claiming only cyclists saw them. But there were plenty of people wearing yellow Don’t Jam Jarvis t-shirts protesting bike lanes. Council’s right-wing pretends they don’t read NOW, but Minnan-Wong, you’re always so quick with those letters to the editor.
Other NOW jabs: Octogenarian Mike Feldman (ward 10) doesn’t read NOW news = nobody reads NOW, apparently.
John Parker and Mike Del Grande* took unexpected expected swings too – suggesting that the ads in NOW would create a better turn out of cyclists at meetings simply because so many of our readers are unemployed. Single tear, friends.
Speaking of tears, Karen Stintz went for Oscar gold with a speech about the true cost of two minutes extra waiting on Jarvis. What will be the true cost? Will we all miss Billy’s big game? Families will go unfed, the streets will be filled with the dead – to whom two minutes meant making it to doctor’s appointments. Bravo, Ms Stintz, how many times a week do you practice being Meryl Streep? How about pretending to be mayor?
*Ed note: this comment was incorrectly attributed to councillor Perruzza, who actually loves bikes.
