Because this is Canada, and, more to the point, because this is Toronto, raging civic debates are about things like bike lanes and plastic bags instead of religion or race.
But, while the topics may be mild the rage is very real.
Take, for example, the current kerfuffle about the Jarvis Street and Sherbourne Street bike lanes. During the watch of our previous not-all-that-insane mayor David Miller, a five-lane in-city highway -- Jarvis Street -- connecting the tony north-of-Bloor neighbourhoods with the bank tower canyons downtown was renovated to lose one car lane and add north- and southbound bike lanes. The tony people who live in those north-of-Bloor neighbourhoods and who work in the bank towers were outraged at the loss of the car lane because it added, oh, a minute or so to their commute.
Rob Ford, our current, not-all-that-sane mayor promised in his election campaign that he would destroy the Jarvis bike lanes, a promise he has still not quite kept, but the plans are afoot.
One foot of that plan is to renovate about ten blocks of Sherbourne Street into bike heaven, with the niftiest kind of biking environment imaginable, as you can see here.
Sherbourne and Jarvis run parallel to one another, are only one block apart and both connect the nice north-of-Bloor regions with the concrete core, so from a perspective of providing a reasonable alternative to the Jarvis lanes -- if you are inclined to mollify the well-heeled -- you could do worse than Sherbourne Street.
Unless, of course, you are a Toronto bike rider. Then the switch to Sherbourne and its nice raised biking spaces (the lanes on Jarvis are just paint on the road) is a travesty unparalleled in history. In the meantime, motorists of all stripes are complaining about the construction congestion on both Jarvis and Sherbourne Streets.
As a pedestrian, and a resident of Sherbourne Street, I find myself short of compassion for either side. My neighbours and I have thrown our own little fits over the loss of street parking on our stretch of Sherbourne and over the stunning new restrictions on access to our own properties. But I'm also sure the bike lanes will calm traffic on Sherbourne, diverting a lot of the heavy trucks and buses to Jarvis. Most of all, the bike lane construction plan includes the complete resurfacing of our street, a civic project overdue these past ten years or so. The cracks and potholes on Sherbourne are the stuff of city legend and it will be good to put that behind us.
But, just when you think you understand a situation something unexpected comes along:
No one mentioned Sherbourne would be shredded right to my doorstep, so this came as a bit of a surprise.
Work crews are quickly filling these excavations with concrete. Next week's picture: Bike Heaven.
Have a great week!
Karen
It's mid-to-late October, which must mean that the United Way workplace campaign is underway.
In the years since I joined the Ministry of the Environment in 2006, I have, for the United Way, climbed the stairs of the CN tower twice (raising more than $3,500), co-chaired the campaign for 2009 (that raised $154,000), organized a fund-raising event where three lucky winners got to put a cream pie in the face of a high-profile apparatchik from the Deputy Minister's Office ($900) and last year, I promised to feed a colleague one lunch for every $10 people contributed to the United Way. The colleague in question was famous for standing in the middle of the kitchen, forking sardines into his mouth straight from the can. That raised $240. My colleague ate pretty well for five weeks and the rest of us were spared for that time the spectacle of fork-borne sardines disappearing into a deep, dark hole.
This year, the workplace has been a bit unsettled for a campaign. First there was some labour unrest. My staff were first supporting, and then, after the negotiators offered it up to them to read, largely opposing a proposed new labour contract with the provincial government (which, this past week, was ratified anyway).
And, second, suddenly and without warning, the Premier resigned.
It is one of the great notions of our democracy that a head of state can quit his job and ... nothing happens. Business proceeds as usual and (if) the trains (were anything but VIA, they would) continue to run on time.
But the United Way campaign has suffered. People respond to uncertainty by holding more fast to what they have.
One thing that seems to loosen that grip a bit is, of course, food. We raised $250 on Friday by inviting people to cough up seven bucks and then sample from ten different homemade soups. I contributed Italian Wedding Soup.
The other thing that will inspire people to donate is impressive but pointless acts of physical endurance, such as the aforementioned climbing of the CN Tower. Even as I write (which is about 24 hours before you'll receive notice of this post), Ministry teams are lined up and waiting for their turn to sprint/step/hurl themselves up the stairs.
The web site to collect donations is now closed. The MOE Empower Rangers, thanks to the enthusiastic support of many sponsors, and especially the Clark sisters, met their fundraising goal.
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One more note about the dog. As silly as it sounds - and I have heard myself say this to several people over the past while - I think Bruce and I are coming out of our mourning period for Molly.
The signs that this is so are that we have started seeing people again and, as related two weeks ago, we finally found the strength to give the dog's stuff away.
I have also begun posting on the blog I created in 2008 (and left empty for four years) called Molly-the-Dog. There's only one post there so far, and one picture:
You can see it again here.
And have a great week!
Karen
A couple of news outlets, including the CBC, picked up on a little story that broke toward the end of the day on Thursday, October 11. It went like this:
Lake Louise – October 11, 2012 – Federal, provincial and territorial Environment Ministers are taking further action to protect the health of Canadians and the environment with measures to improve air quality in Canada, through a comprehensive new Air Quality Management System (AQMS). A flexible approach to implementation will assist jurisdictions to ensure good air quality outcomes while maintaining competitiveness in all regions of Canada.
“There is nothing more fundamental to Canadians than clean air,” said Diana McQueen, Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. “The AQMS builds on measures that jurisdictions already have in place, and helps to align the actions of federal, provincial and territorial governments to deal with air quality issues.”
“The System is the result of unprecedented collaboration by governments and stakeholders over the past five years,” said McQueen, who hosted her colleagues at the annual CCME meeting. “We’re grateful for the contributions made by the hundreds of stakeholders who participated in this ground-breaking work.”
The AQMS includes:
- Standards to set the bar for outdoor air quality management across the country;
- Industrial emission requirements that set a base level of performance for major industries in Canada;
- A framework for air zone management within provinces and territories that enables action tailored to specific sources of air emissions in a given area
- Regional airsheds that facilitate coordinated action when air pollution crosses a border; and
- An intergovernmental working group to improve collaboration and develop a plan to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
Governments have agreed on new standards under the AQMS for fine particulate matter and ozone, the two main components of smog. Work has also begun on new standards for sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which are significant components of air pollution.
There's more to the announcement than this, but you get the idea.
Or, maybe not. In the five years that I've worked on the AQMS I have learned that "air quality" is a concept people do get in that they breathe air and would prefer that it be of the highest quality. And it's a concept they don't get when some pointy-headed official like me starts gassing on about micrograms per cubic metre and the difference between emission standards and ambient standards.
For my work, in cases where comprehension is important, I write Qs & As to help everyone understand each other. I think I can do this in one:
Q: What the heck is AQMS and why does it matter?
A: AQMS in its essence is the common-sensical agreement by governments that they will stop passing the ball (of controlling air pollution) back and forth between them and will start to work together instead. It matters because we need air to live.
There you go.
Here's a link to a blog with many lovely pictures of Lake Louise where the momentous achievement in common sense took place.
Have a great week!
Karen
I'm going to start with another video, one a career counsellor pointed me to. It's about 11 minutes long, which exceeds most people's patience for these things, I know, but it features clever animation and a telling observation of how the Federal Reserve is a hotbed of leftist ideology. You can find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
In an earlier version of this post, I somehow managed to create a Venn diagram of the video's three main motivators: mastery, autonomy and purpose. However, that pretty graphic has disappeared into the failed-to-blogosphere.
So imagine if you will a Venn diagram and read on.
I think more highly of these clever theories if I can find a practical link to my own experience.
I can think of lots of things that I'm pretty good at that have no purpose: playing Angry Birds for instance.
Purposeful things I'm good at but where I have little autonomy: that would be my day job.
Where there's a purpose, but little autonomy or mastery: yoga maybe.
And where the circles all intersect, what do I get to do that is all of purposeful, autonomous and masterful? I can think of three: sleeping, eating and cooking.
All you Canadians have a happy Thanksgiving!
And have a great week!
