On Brinksmanship

It only works if those on the brink a) believe they're at the edge of the cliff and b) care if they fall over the side.

In the case of the crisis now enveloping us here in poor, stupid old Hogtown, I'm unconvinced that either the a) or b) above applies. But I know for sure the answer to that naive question, "Is Toronto a world-class city?" How many other "world-class" cities are closing subway lines?

Fate is very cruel to Torontonians - dazzling us with mirages (10 new LRT lines!) before sticking the knife in (oops! wrong! we're going to close one of the subway lines you already have instead!) Or at least to those Torontonians who care. But the no-taxes at any cost lobby won the day. Not enough people told their councillors they understood that you only get what you pay for. Maybe not enough be people do understand. Maybe now they will.

The right-wing of City Council is acting in what they can only believe is a statesmanlike fashion, and it never hurts to turn bald hypocrite and accuse someone of petulance: paradoxically, it's the best way of discrediting an opponent in our juvenile political culture. But if you examine what's being said, you'll get the distinct impression that the right is upset not with cutting things, but with cutting things in a way that means everyone will notice. They'd prefer the city be disembowelled quietly - destroyed by stealth, so that by the time the people realise what's happened, they'll take it as a fact of life.

This Toronto apocalypse is, as Rick Salutin notes ($), a texbook case. Of how not speaking the truth, on all sides, can lead to disaster. Of the great difficulty (perhaps impossibility) of passing progressive policies in a country so beholden to monied interest, and to the media that supports them. And of how, more and more and more, we disenfranchise ourselves by our own volition, render ourselves impotent in the face of threats to our city and to our future.

Write your city councillor - yes, you have one. Write the Mayor. Vote on October 10, for someone who cares the city. 'Cause, as Jane Jacobs wrote, "you can run anything into the ground." I'm glad she's not here to see this - she would have taken no pleasure in being proven, yet again, to be right.

Power Off

Well, buh-bye, subway. I guess when push comes to shove, you're really not so important after all.

But I bet Denzil Minnan-Wong is real happy he holds the Don Valley East ward on the south side of the 401 - and not the one through which runs poor ol' Sheppard Avenue.

Seyonara, Transit City. We hardly knew you.

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Well, that was a lengthy absence. Sorry, all. To coin a great BBC phrase, I was overtaken by events. Stay tuned!