Irishmonk
Senior Member
Despite the plethora of attractive new developments being completed in the city over the past 12 months, and many others on the horizon, the election of Rob Ford may render 2010 as one of the darkest years in this city's recent history.
Decades from now, when we look back at the last few months of this year, and specifically the election on October 25, it may be come to be seen as the critical moment that Toronto willfully, and perhaps irrevocably, lost its bearings and began to slowly self-destruct. From "stop the gravy train," to "transit city is dead" to "left wing kooks" to Ford's spineless minions on council stoking his ego by voting en masse to support his short-sighted measures that may cripple us down the road, this may be the time we threw it all away--and by "all" I mean the unique qualities that made this city a model of tolerance, sophistication and forward thinking in North America.
My biggest fear is that we may now be infected with the same selfish, mean-spirited mind set that has plagued America for the past 30 years. Are we now a "mean city", or is the Ford phenomena merely a blip in the arc of Toronto's history?
Decades from now, when we look back at the last few months of this year, and specifically the election on October 25, it may be come to be seen as the critical moment that Toronto willfully, and perhaps irrevocably, lost its bearings and began to slowly self-destruct. From "stop the gravy train," to "transit city is dead" to "left wing kooks" to Ford's spineless minions on council stoking his ego by voting en masse to support his short-sighted measures that may cripple us down the road, this may be the time we threw it all away--and by "all" I mean the unique qualities that made this city a model of tolerance, sophistication and forward thinking in North America.
My biggest fear is that we may now be infected with the same selfish, mean-spirited mind set that has plagued America for the past 30 years. Are we now a "mean city", or is the Ford phenomena merely a blip in the arc of Toronto's history?