Winter Walking and Cycling

[ijmorlan]

 
Yeah so not sure how to respond except to say I wrote the below paragraph literally just before the cherry-picked quote above that questions my compassion.  Sigh... c'mon man.

"I am not ignorant of the challenges of those who have trouble getting around our city. I fully agree that we must work toward better support services for those otherwise unable to clear their sidewalk, like many seniors and people with disabilities, but for the rest of us, cleaning sidewalks is a duty of home ownership."


Proof:
https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/...-bad-idea/

Paying taxes is also a duty of home (actually property) ownership. Why are you so fixated on having sidewalk snow clearing as part of the duty of home ownership? I, and many, would rather pay a little more tax and not have to worry about the sidewalk any more.

Here’s a dose of reality: having the City clear the sidewalks is a tax decrease, not increase. Right now, I must pay my taxes, and clear the sidewalks. The value of my labour to clear the sidewalk, or the amount of money I must pay somebody to do so, is higher (actually, much higher) than the amount of tax increase required to cover City service. OK, strictly speaking it’s a property ownership obligation decrease, but that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the same way.

So the real question is: why you are opposed to reducing taxes?

Another way of looking at this is to apply all your arguments to road clearing. Why is it not an obligation of home ownership to clear the bit of road in front of my house? Before you answer, you might want to think very carefully about whether whatever you say also applies to the sidewalk.

Oh, and by the way, I don’t like the implied throwback to the 1950s, when everybody was neighbours and everybody helped each other and everything was peachy keen. Some things are better handled by more organized cooperation, which is all democratic government is.