Ontario family selling house over new Christmas lights bylaw

[email protected]

Yea but Canada refuses to build a functional country. Hell we can’t even keep bike lanes installed without drivers feeling attacked.

aard

I read about that, and my first thought was that bike lanes adjacent to streets indeed aren’t a great thing - but then again, you probably don’t have all the bike/pedestrian only paths offering way shorter connections we have here. In the area I live in I can reach pretty much any house by foot within 5-10 minutes - while most of them are only reachable by car with a lengthy detour, if at all.

[email protected]

The lanes weren’t the best but they are way better than nothing. Everything must be car accessible here, no exceptions. Cars must always get prioirty. It really is so vastly different you really have to experience it to understand. Standing next to one stroad makes you really ask “how the hell is this the best way to build the majority of places in this country?”

Most of our transit is hourly bus service that is late from the poor roadway network. Most of our stops don’t even have shelters. Trams don’t have prioirty at lights. It’s all so backwards.

[email protected]

It’s not. It’s a 17-minute show timed to music.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJIuS2NHH_k

[email protected]

500 hours, 600 hours worth of set up time

I wish I had one tenth the freetime this person has in their life.

[email protected]

The message isn’t the issue, the medium is. Through the operation of the lights and music, these homeowners are infringing on the rights of others.

The article brings up “enjoyment of property”, this is a legal phrase in Canada.

[email protected]

Until your neighbour does it. Houses are for living in. Having a little Christmas display is great. Having an automated light show that last 17 minutes a cycle and took 500 hours to set up is something that should be done at a venue with the proper infrastructure.

[email protected]

Contracts require an exchange of “considerations.” Payment is a consideration.

[email protected]

How about freedom to live in a quiet neighbourhood and sleep without a ton of noise and excessive light glaring through your windows?

I love Christmas lights but there is a line of respect for your neighbours and no one has the right to just do whatever they want without regard for others. A truly free society means balancing your freedoms with respect.

[email protected]

Once a hobby turns into a full time job it looses its meaning. Plus being hired means you are no longer your own boss.

Also, we seem to forget cities always cut budgets for things. It used to be the city may have decorated its streets with lights or setup decorations in public plazas. A city may have also had it’s own light show that diminised in quality year after year, now a distant memory due to skyrocketing costs.

There may have been public fireworks show or a puplic skate rink. All those things usually are the first to go in a effort to save cash when city funded.

This man was doing a economic service to his town in terms of tourism on his own dime. The city shot it self in the foot here, then they tried to have their cake and eat it too asking him to pay for pirmits

[email protected]

Perhaps a designated area nearby where cars are expected to park and people and their family could walk to see the show could have been a solution.

If there’s any space nearby that could reasonably hold, say, 50 parked cars. If there’s a mall, or an office building that’s empty at night, within a few blocks you could maybe make it work, but not in the middle of a large area of houses.

My guess is that there would still be problems, though, because it’s cold outside in December and nobody seems to know how to dress for the weather anymore. They’re using the cars as portable heat sources.

[email protected]

And this is why north american suburban neighbours in how they are designed suck IMO. You need a car to get around, even just to go get milk.

Suburban neighboorhoods should really be designed like communities with mixed density housing, small shops that you can walk to, pedestrians and cyclists trails that connect two points quicker in a shorter distance then by car. Mixed zonning for offices and businesses and nothing over 6 stories.

Designing suburbs like this would allow the density required for a tram line and mixed transportation modes. It would also potentially solve suburban sprawl that then compounds the “car is king” problem.

Everything mentioned above is possible, but requires people to accept a level of change.

Think how Amsterdam as a whole transformed its self starting in the 1970-1980 from a gridlocked “car is king” mentality to pedestrian and livability first approach.

fastcompany.com/…/these-historical-photos-show-ho…

[email protected]

500 to 600 hours divided by 365 would only come out to a 1hr or 2hr a day.

1.5hrs a day x 365days = 547.5hrs

Though a good chunk of that time would be in the physical setup of the lights over a weekend or week.

Most of us commute 2hr or more a day in total. (1hr in and 1hr out of work). Just let that one sink in for a while.

[email protected]

I think them using cars as portable heat sources highlights the car centric part of our culture. We would rather drive what is basically a private living room and view the attraction in that thing.

[email protected]

Don’t know why people are down voting you. It’s a valid point.

[email protected]

Yes, I’m familiar with the term. I didn’t get the impression that the owners were at odds with their neighbors so much as local council. I am not advocating for it to go such, but I’m curious how a court would view it.

tiredofsametab

I mean, there were specific shows at a couple houses when I was a kid, but no one stopped there to block everyone for the whole thing because that's a dick move. If people are, then they definitely needed to enforce local traffic only and a permit to set all that up and organize it makes sense to me.

[email protected]

It’s in the middle of suburbia. There are no nearby lots, and their street has no sidewalks.

[email protected]

The address is pretty easy to find. It’s a terrible spot for crowds, with no lots or sidewalks.

[email protected]

Downtown Kingsville to the edge of the suburbs is about 2km in the furthest directions.

So the issue is that the city has decided to not build sidewalks for super walkable distances, there are more than enough lots around.