Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
Why do you think they grew so large, and in the case of the South Shore fire, so difficult to contain? That anyone can look at the fire patterns emerging across the world, particularly North America, and not see how unusual it is, is really a testament to denial. I was in British Columbia this summer and saw firsthand the impacts of climate change: warmer temperatures have dried out soils and vegetation, creating ideal conditions for invasive insects. The combination has killed millions of trees; there are mountainside of dead red cedar. One redneck lighting junk on a windy day in that environment and everting goes up in a conflagration.
We’re not here to talk about climate but it’s hard to let the usual denial pass without comment.
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The thing that nobody making decisions within the massive HRM bureaucracy seems to get is that cycling will never be a useful tool to help with climate change or anything else. This is not Amsterdam nor Peking circa 1970. Very few people are going to cycle to their job or to the mall unless it is a mild, clear weekend day. It is an activity reserved only for the True Believers, not the general public at large.
This week I saw a cycling yahoo trying to ride down my street on the morning after the second big snowfall last weekend. The street had received a keep-it-open plow pass down the middle sometime overnight but even there it had about 3" of snow with tire ruts in it, while the remainder was unplowed. This smart fella was trying to transport a snow shovel slung alongside of his Lance Armstrong signature model racing bike with 1" wide tires in that mess. Needless to say he was not doing very well. We should not be building multi-million $$ infrastructure to cater to those zealots.
Of course the bigger thing that is about to occur is the Feds dangling a $79 million sack full of trinkets in front of the ever-thirsty-for-cash HRM Council so that they will throw out the Centre Plan in favor of ill-advised knee-jerk changes to planning rules to allow 7-storey buildings to loom over people's backyards in residential neighborhoods. There is a smoke-and-mirrors show currently occurring that is supposed to be consultation with the public but you know the decision has already been made. It will be the biggest heist since the Manhattan Purchase. The even bigger tragedy is that they will likely piss away most of that $79 mil on bike infrastructure. This bunch of clowns needs to go, along with about half of the current planning staff who sell these harebrained ideas to Council.
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