(Warning: partial rant about Toronto's obnoxiousness
+ great Bike invention tidbit, may seem ranty)
When it comes to thinking 21st century, it seems to be a real challenge for Toronto government/public planners. Architecturally, this particularly with its row of massive ugly condos blocking the waterfront and subsequently any possibility of a sunny day penetrating the core of our city. It's just plain ugly, haphazard and completely lacking in artistic detail or imagination. Sure you have your cute and quaint neighbourhoods but they'll be gentrified soon no doubt. No planning is ever involved, just quickly put stuff up randomly here and there and hope a city eventually comes together.
This city has not really inspired a sense of community, more like cut-off local neighbourhoods. Really obnoxious weeklies NOW and EYE magazine attempt to sell local 'nabes' (that word is the most pretentious dribble, seriously) and sell Toronto on community = $500 shirts and other obnoxiously overpriced accessories (cause you bought it locally in the Distillery 'nabe' or the new-new Queen West artsy-smartsy I paid $500k for my loft neighbourhood). ARGH!
When will Toronto as a city ever create anything truly beautiful or useful for the general public? A friend of mine mailed me this great link for something called the Bike Tree. Imagine if you could actually park your bike in a secure place anywhere in the city and not have to stress out about it being stolen?
Imagine how many more people would bike in this city and not clog it up with SUVs built for 1? Imagine that this city actually became biker friendly and encouraged *SHOCK* people to get their asses out of those gas-guzzling polluters and engage in a little casual exercise to get from point A to point B? What a different city we would live in.
Anyways check this site out and let me know what you think:
http://www.biketree.com/
4 comments:
Y'know ... this post kinda reminds me of how torn I am when it comes down to finding a place to live ...
'Cause at the rate things are going, a condo is pretty much the only thing I'll be able to afford. But I always worry, because I think I'll be indirectly contributing to what you're talking about in your post. So it's a struggle ...
Hey Rasslin' Cowgirl, congrats on the pre race training. Please put me down for $20 towards your fund raising. Gotta support a sista!
Yeah d.c. I know what you mean. The odds of finding a job or a stimulating community outside Toronto is challenging (and I know cause I've travelled to 8 provinces). Condos are a brutal cost waste. They suck you dry. Plus the market's getting so saturated that when everyone wants to sell for a house in the next 5 years, the value will go way down.
Oh Toronto sucks you dry. Work your arse off all day for such little pay and sink it all into rent :-(
Wow Sumayyah thanks :-)
Will you be fundraising for your marathon? Let me know. When I ran a 10K last year, the goal was to eventually run the half and full marathons. I have a lot of work to do on my quads before then though. I hope biking 600kms will do that for me (plus all the pre-training).
I've added the 'sponsor me' link on my next post.
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