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.
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3 comments:
what? are they actually closing a subway line, or is that an example?
yes, closing a subway line. because they're not making money on it.
Having lived in a city for three months that has more than twelve different transit lines, I'm well aware of people's ability to NOT run things into the ground. The London Underground is fairly reliable and closes at reasonable times for repairs. True, they have been doing this a hell of a lot longer than Toronto, but it's proof that if you actually care, you can make it work. So there's always hope - you just may have to move to another city to find it.
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