"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 28 May 2012

Au Contraire Mon Ami

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Don't Aski...Don't TEll":

Anonymous 5/26 7:13pm said: "Why is there no one from the town explaining this? Why is no one from the organization explaining the procedures and how everything has been covered satisfactorily? Public Relations person? Anyone?"

Is this a serious question? No one from the Town is explaining it because except for about 25 people that hang out on this blog, no one cares! Stop anyone on the street and ask them... they don't care. Hell I spoke to my supposed "smart, well-read" neighbour and she has not heard of this issue.

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The above  is the kind of argument regularly dismissed by consultants and other experts as "anecdotal" and therefore without substance.
More than twenty-five people "hang out" on this blog on a daily basis. It is not "anecdotal"
It is recorded for quality purposes.Sniff! Sniff!
It is probably true that a casual check with  the "man on the street" or the "smart, well read woman" would  disclose  complete indifference to the issues discussed on this blog.
We do not claim to be the world.
 This is a local blog.
 It's not the Globe and Mail. 
One could argue we are insular.
Is that a fault in our small part of the world?
Read the title; "Our Town and It's Business" This morning's collection of comments are the best yet. Hardly a mean swipe amongst them.
All kinds of things are discussed. There's a t comment from an  author who objects to the Wump World being on U tube.
I had never heard of the book. So I listened to it on Utube. NOw I know about it. 
Someone from the Region  logged in to give us a full history of the Bathurst Street fencing issue. 
I've been  back in office  for nine of the past ten years  so I know it's accurate. It doesn't take away from the point I made about parts of the fence being down in hollows and  houses, it's supposed to protect, well above  the fence. 
Also, fifty years ago, Bathurst was a gravel road.in our neck of the woods.
In the seventies, contours were reduced, it was paved and straightened  and throughout that time it was always a regional road and before that a county road.  It was never a cow path. It was never a local road. It was opened originally  to carry traffic from Lake Ontario to Bradford.
It was re-constructed within the first five years after the Region was created because the Province was paying half the cost to make up for the years the Toronto and York Roads Commission refused to fulfill it's function.
Funds spent on the  acoustic fence and wasted resources on trees that died are a burr under my saddle because of   deliberate obstruction to the town's objective of providing trail links and underpasses on major traffic arteries, regional roads, to provide safety for pedestrians, on the basis of cost.
On the one hand we have examples of faulty financial management by the region and on the other, refusal to co-operate with the town on  what should be a  priority for both levels of government.
Safety for the greater numbers of people.
  

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The agenda for tomorrow night seems restricted the budget matters. Could that possibly mean an early evening or will there be the usual pontificating ? Just asking as the meetings are not nearly as long as they used to be, but still drag on. Tend to get stuck on a minor issue while the big items slip slide away.

Anonymous said...

This week's Auroran has a front page story about councillors on the ACC being in a potential conflict of interest thereby breaking the COI Act.

Yet there appear to be three councillors on the library Board.

Can you explain this?

Frankly I am getting fed up with Ballard's BS. He and the Bobbsy twins should take a long walk for the next 28 months.

Anonymous said...

To 7:49:

It's not down to any councillors. The possible conflict of interest has been identified by the town solicitor.

Anonymous said...

11:12 P.M. The word there is ' possible '. The Solicitor spelled out how to avoid the pit-fall. But I agree with the earlier comment. Ballard is trying to have it both ways on the Center issue. His comment in the Auroran about not being able to serve 2 masters was priceless.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn, Now that you have encountered The Wump World, you might consider Dr.Seuss' The Lorax ? It's a bit of a downer, takes about 15 minutes. That stuff is all still so good and in every school.