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Toronto Ridiculous NIMBYism thread

Interesting follow-up to the Oshawa "basketball net on the street" story. Jay Triano, head coach of Team Canada's basketball team, has offered to pay the $250 city fine and bring the family to one of their practices.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...g-oshawa-familys-250-basketball-net-fine.html

Not sure what to make of it, as I'm inclined to believe that they did infringe on a by-law about the basketball net left on the street. That said, it appears from online comments and speaking to others that Mr. Triano's "nice" gesture is receiving some eye rolls, implying that the family is being rewarded for their infraction.

Anyway, what are everyone else's thoughts on this?
 
New Markham temple rises above NIMBY negativism: Hume

See link.

wong-dai-sin002.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg


See the
Wong Dai Sin Temple
thread, at this link.

 
mjl08 said:
Wow, I think we have a winner for Toronto's 2015 NIMBYs.
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Well, if they wanted some rural ambiance, I'd suggest their neighbours should go and raise themselves some livestock. We should also dig up the asphalt roadway and put in some dirt, and forget about shovelling that dinky rural sidestreet.

AoD
 
Forget the livestock, I'd think they'd want to start on the path to rural ambiance by blowing up that apartment block 2 doors down from them.

Am I going to be that senile at their age? Universe help me not make it there.
 
Suburbia is by definition urban combined with rural characteristics (e.g. lack of sidewalks, low density), hence sub-urban, lesser urban. And these people are in Scarborough. This isn't inner city Toronto. I don't see the problem with what they said.

Do you guys really believe that Scarborough is fully urban? If so then you are even bigger idiots then they are.
 
doady said:
Suburbia is by definition urban combined with rural characteristics (e.g. lack of sidewalks, low density), hence sub-urban, lesser urban. And these people are in Scarborough. This isn't inner city Toronto. I don't see the problem with what they said.

Do you guys really believe that Scarborough is fully urban? If so then you are even bigger idiots then they are.
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Urban, Suburban and Rural are not discrete categories. They are on a continuum. In all growing cities healthy neighbourhoods tend to move up the continuum towards more urban. Just because this neighbourhood was originally designed to fit into the rural/suburban part of the continuum does not mean it will remain that the spot on the continuum forever.

However that is not really the issue here. The need for sidewalks is determined by the number of people who will be walking through the neighbourhood in the future, and not by the number of people who walk through the neighbourhood now. Since the neighbourhood is not pedestrian-friendly now it's likely not a lot of people walk now. Adding sidewalks will encourage more people to walk, which has profound social and health implications. Sidewalks are added to suburban streets so that people have the opportunity to walk if the choose to. Not having sidewalks suggest that people must drive - no other choice.

By the way, I grew up in a Southern Ontario village of 1000 people or so (can't get much more rural than that without living on a farm), and we got sidewalks on every street when they installed sanitary and water pipes in the 1980's.
 
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doady said:
Suburbia is by definition urban combined with rural characteristics (e.g. lack of sidewalks, low density), hence sub-urban, lesser urban. And these people are in Scarborough. This isn't inner city Toronto. I don't see the problem with what they said.

Do you guys really believe that Scarborough is fully urban? If so then you are even bigger idiots then they are.
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Like you've said - suburban is not rural by definition (and suburban in the area in question isn't even close to being rural). This is the stretch in question:

upload_2015-9-23_8-48-48.png


Does it look particularly "rural" to you? And here is an article with the broader context:

http://www.metronews.ca/news/toront...alks-debate-rankles-pedestrian-advocates.html

The sidewalk will be built on the right of way, which wasn't theirs to start off with in the first place.

AoD
 

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MTown said:
Forget the livestock, I'd think they'd want to start on the path to rural ambiance by blowing up that apartment block 2 doors down from them.

Am I going to be that senile at their age? Universe help me not make it there.
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I would think people their age would appreciate some nice level sidewalks to walk on in the winter (shovelled and salted by some kindly young'uns, of course) but maybe they're the kind of independent seniors who enjoy clambering over windrows and piles of frozen slush, or taking their chances walking in the road.
 
the lemur said:
I would think people their age would appreciate some nice level sidewalks to walk on in the winter (shovelled and salted by some kindly young'uns, of course) but maybe they're the kind of independent seniors who enjoy clambering over windrows and piles of frozen slush, or taking their chances walking in the road.
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You're missing the obvious - they might have to actually shovel them.

Second, they live in Scarborough, walking's for other people, they drive everywhere, always have, always will. Although, to give them a little benefit of the doubt, it is a pretty steep hill for them to get back up to Kingston Road, if they actually walked.
 
doady said:
Suburbia is by definition urban combined with rural characteristics (e.g. lack of sidewalks, low density), hence sub-urban, lesser urban. And these people are in Scarborough. This isn't inner city Toronto. I don't see the problem with what they said.

Do you guys really believe that Scarborough is fully urban? If so then you are even bigger idiots then they are.
Click to expand...

The no-sidewalks thing certainly isn't true of inner suburbs or of most suburbs I've lived in. And aside from low density and maybe more greenspace, the suburbs really don't have much in common with rural areas: street lighting, landscaping, paved driveways, parks?
 
tiffer24 said:
This isn't just an issue for Scarborough. I live three blocks from the Finch subway in North York. This is the sixth busiest station in the city and yet there are a number of roads close by that have no sidewalks. Homeowners here cite the same "rural" issues...
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Guess they must have been living in the Village of the Damned. Let's pull back and think about this fetish that is the idealized bucolic rural village life - just how many residential developments here have "towns" and "villages"in their names while bearing absolutely no resemblance to the real thing? And that's on top of the various "mills" that we have.

All happening during a time when rural municipalities are having major depopulation issues.

AoD
 
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I never knew sidewalks could be perceived as being such an alienating, threatening, divisive thing in an urban environment. Truly bizarro.
 
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