Andrew Coyne wants to install chips in your head and track you so the government can tax you for moving. Well, Almost. What he really wants is to track your cars by GPS and then tax you based on how far you drive. That's how you reduce congestion when you live in an ivory tower, I guess.
Well, way to miss the point, Andrew! Ask yourself, why do people drive? To get where
they are going, of course! People would drive less if they lived closer to where
they were going. The answer isn't new roads or more obstructionist
"traffic calming", nor more transit. The answer is density. The
problem is the cities where people need to get to in order to work don't
want the kind of density necessary to house all the people who want to
live there.
Vancouver has very little density and an urban plan that basically bans it. They talk about laneway housing, secondary suites, and basement suites. Where are the plans for 40 story apartment
buildings? Instead of building real density Vancouver calls for "Eco-density" which basically means a non-plan status quo in a city where a 3 bedroom condo can't be had for less than $350,000. There is just no room for families.
The fact is people drive because they cannot afford a 3 or 4
bedroom house or apartment close to where they work. Families are
forced to move to the suburbs and endure longer and longer commutes
because big cities, mostly run by left-leaning councils, will not let land
owners profit from development inside "the
ring". The city of Vancouver is stalling an Aquilini development proposal because it does nothing for drug addicts, errr, I mean "poor people". The city wants the developer to subsidize low cost rentals for unemployed addicts but will not allow high densities which would bring down prices enough for middle class families. It's all about priorities and the current Vision/COPE council's priorities are social housing, not the breeders in the 'burbs.
When it comes to traffic it's simply NIMBYism. All the city core dwellers want is for the poor schmucks to stop driving, they
don't care how that is done, just so long as the breeders stay out of
their hip, trendy neighbourhoods.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Shocking!
Here I was almost believing what my betters in the Liberal party and NDP have been telling me, that the Israelis are racist Jews who hate Arabs and oppress them. I am shocked to find that Arab Israelis (Arab Israelis?? There are Arab Israelis!) will soon lose their exemption from being drafted into the army. So the racist Jews are going to force poor Arab Israelis into the army now? Dear god, that's terrible! Making citizens of Israel help in the common defence! And Orthodox Jews, too!
Ok, so that's just a bit of sarcasm but I do wonder how our left-of-centre friends square that circle. There are Arab members of the Knesset, Arabs in the Israeli military, Arabs with all the rights of Jews. What's up with that, lefties?
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