11-18-2017, 04:15 PM
(11-18-2017, 02:19 PM)creative Wrote: Why are people that don't want LRT to run on their street stupid? Because they disagree with you does that mean that they are stupid? Are they not entitled to voice their opinions? You don't have to agree with them but that does not mean that you should be labeling people as unintelligent.
They aren’t, necessarily. One has to look at the specific argument to decide if it’s stupid.
For example, one the quiet part of Eagle St., I personally think it’s OK to decide that the LRT needs to go through there, and if I lived there I would welcome it. But it’s perfectly reasonable for somebody living there to be concerned and/or opposed (not exactly the same thing). On the other hand, if they say “because it will increase emissions” then they’re being stupid.
Further east on the same road where it is busy, it’s perfectly reasonable for somebody to be concerned or even opposed because they won’t be able to turn left out of their driveway; but if their complaint is “it will ruin the character of the street”, then they’re being stupid. At least I think so.
Similarly, in Uptown, it’s OK for a business to prefer that parking be kept in front of their store, even though I think we made the right decision by removing some parking to allow LRT to go through. But if somebody north of Erb doesn’t like LRT because of the mess it’s made of King St. in front of their store, then they’re being stupid because that construction has nothing to do with LRT.
So there is lots of room for disagreement that I would consider reasonable, even if I think they’re wrong, but there is also a lot of unreasonable disagreement. I think one of the problems we have is that too many people are sufficiently disconnected from reality that it’s hard to get to the interesting questions that actually need discussion because so many people are saying things that are, to anybody with any basic knowledge (I don’t mean ivory-tower expert basic knowledge that may ignore basic facts, I mean the basic facts themselves), clearly nonsensical. How can we discuss transit when people are writing letters to the editor claiming that passengers will have to load from the street? I could give other examples from just about any topic of political interest.