Wow, 13 pages of debate.
Toronto is shabby. Anyone who has lived here more than a few years and travelled can see that.
Just a few remarks about some of the posts I have read:
1. Montreal's night life has nothing to do with a longer drinking hour than it does about taxes and insurance. What does it cost to open a bar around here, versus Montreal? Those shabby warehouses on Richmond/Adelaide that someone mentioned earlier were full of fun and vibrant speak-easies and artist's warrens in the early '80s. Now, we get $20 cover charges, and suits from Vaughan pissing in the alleys next to $500k condos. That is progress!
2. Our sidewalks are a disaster. Part of the blame is our interminable winters. The other is the city's reliance on unionized contractors to fix them. Contract it out, and more sidewalks could be replaced faster, cheaper. (But file that under notgonnahappen.com, right?)
3) Light standards, planter boxes, rows upon rows of newspaper boxes and let's not get into the gigantic trash containers - these are all a blight upon the eye.
4) Although we do have wide sidewalks in many places, the frost heaves, cracks and sticky gum mar the entire look.
5) You are not going to get a vibrant outdoor cafe culture with our crappy weather, high taxes and high insurance costs. Period. End of story.
6) Panhandlers. Tent city. Let's remove all the park benches from parks because the 'homeless' have more rights than we do. In fact, let's dig up all the public fountains, too.
There is not going to be a change in this city until the NDPers are swept out of here. And this is coming from a former NDPer.
