After three years of effort, a $300 million wind farm that would have brought green power to Ontario has been cancelled. This is the latest casualty of a provincial planning process that just isn't up to the task of ensuring that ...
Take the case of Sandra and Wayne Cassidy, an Ajax couple who have spent months trying to alter the route of a bus that goes past their lakefront home.
The bus, they argued, is noisy, smelly and dangerous.
Come to think of it, it's a threat to their mental, emotional and physical health. Oh, and let's not forget, it's also a neighbourhood destroyer, a subdivision killer and bad for property values.
It also goes past the Cassidys' house every 30 minutes during rush hour.
Whose idea was it to unleash such destruction on this quiet, peaceful community? Who says these people need public transit? Or want it? Isn't that why they moved to the suburbs in the first place?
According to Cassidys – and they should know – nobody takes the bus anyway.
Well, okay, so there are a few neighbours down the road and around the corner who actually do use public transit – every working day in fact. But maybe it's time they smartened up and started driving to work like everyone else.
Forget all that bunk about global warming, saving the planet, cutting down on vehicular traffic, and the rest of it; no one must be inconvenienced. The bus must be stopped.
Even in a part of the world where the NIMBYs know no bounds, this case stands apart.
This couple has gone well beyond the call of normal self-interest to keep the world from intruding into their backyard.
Forget all those homeowners who show up at public meetings to protest the opening down the street of a home for single mothers, or those fighting valiantly to halt a homeless shelter, halfway house or, worst of all, a condo more than three storeys tall. Nice try but strictly routine, knee-jerk NIMBYism. The Cassidys, those nattering nabobs of NIMBYism, have taken things to a whole new level.
NOT IN THEIR BACKYARD.
Now that Durham Region Transit has dismissed their complaint, life must be awful. They had to hire noise measurement experts – at their own expense, thank you very much – to document the extent of the racket. It's only a matter of time before someone – probably a kid – is deafened, run over or killed.
Let's be honest; both kids and buses should be banned. The roads belong to cars, not people and certainly not bus passengers.
By the way, one wonders if the Cassidys have ever seen – or heard – a Toronto streetcar? Each one is a veritable hell on wheels. Talk about traffic blockers; they're always in the way. Good thing there aren't any in Ajax.
Good thing, too, the Cassidys don't live in Mississauga, where Mayor Hazel McCallion has spoken openly about her frustration with residents who want to keep public transit from their neighbourhood. Their excuse, McCallion explained, was that the arrival of buses would mean a drop in property values.
The fact is that, urban or suburban, the NIMBY impulse comes from deep within. It's not pretty, but it's entirely human, and most of us realize that. The difference is that most of us manage to keep it in check. Given that we belong to a larger community, we quickly figure out it's best to find a balance between selfishness and selflessness.
As appalling as NIMBYism may be, we have empowered it. The bus continues, but only after the expenditure of considerable time and public money. Meetings were held, flyers sent out and consultants hired, all to reconfirm the obvious and keep the buses running.
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