Mihevic, Miller, TTC Disagree...
- Lawrence Solomon: Return sidewalks to private control
Governments have systematically stripped away the character of neighbourhoods
By Lawrence Solomon
S idewalks in commercial districts should be privatized to retire city debt, to perk up street life and city neighbourhoods and to free city businesses from the tangle of red tape that dampens their bottom line. At one time, our governments did not intrude much on our use of sidewalks, which have traditionally been privately managed public space. Apart from a minimum of rules, most of them involving public decency, almost anything went. In those tolerant times, entrepreneurial activity flourished. Pedestrians in popular shopping districts might wend their way past foods carts offering exotic fare, past organ grinders with monkeys, past hawkers selling trinkets. Looking up, they would see awnings and store signs swinging overhead. To their side they’d see a profusion of storefronts, their merchandise often spilling out onto the sidewalk.
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