Holiday drive thru light shows in the GTA pretty much sums up the car centric nature of Ontario.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.todocanada.ca/…/amp/

They should just end the drive thrus at a Timmie’s, nothing is more Canadian.

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.

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…

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

I enjoy a drink or two each month, but I am not going shed a tear about a corporation not seeing exponential growth/profits year after year.

The whole business model of “sustained growth” is flawed IMO. We need better metrics

Colten Williams began putting together his Christmas light show a decade ago at the behest of his grandmother, who was inspired by light shows she had seen on TV.

But trouble started brewing in Kingsville after several neighbours lodged complaints about their street being crowded with cars for six weeks every year.

This month, the city enacted a new bylaw that would force the Williams family to apply for a permit for their display while also placing restrictions on the number of hours they would be allowed to leave the lights on.

“They basically limited the amount of hours I could have my show from about 28 hours a week down to 10 hours a week,” Williams said. “So you have 500 hours, 600 hours worth of set up time just to have 40 hours the lights on all month long. That’s an insane amount of work.”

Rogers said the council is sad to see them turn off the lights but said the show had outgrown its location as well.

“We were saddened to learn that the Williams family will not move forward with their light display this year,” he said.

“Our discussions with the family last year at a council meeting we both agreed that they had outgrown the neighbourhood.”

Rogers went on to say that the city had tried to work with the family to find an alternative location but was unable to meet their demands.

I leave you with this video.

Stroads

Once again a step backwards for Ontario.

Turing traffic calmed, safe and inviting Streets that directly serve local residents, business, pedestrians and cyclists, into high volume, high speed Roads that will only add to serve suburban commuters.

This is a battle between local Toronto residents and suburban morning/evening commuters.

Yonge Street and Bloor Street are called Streets, not Yonge Road or Bloor Road.

Streets are “destinations”, Roads get you from point A to point B without regard for whats along the way.

Streets make a local community. Roads connect communities over long distances, and in this case will divide a established community in half.

Its called Street Parking, not Road Parking. Have you ever seen someone park on a high speed road (or strode) to run into a shop or backery?

If the plan would be turn Toronto Streets into Roads then I suppose Street parking would be completely removed with the addition of the second lane?

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/22337621

An amendment, tabled and passed on Thursday, gives the government and contractors it taps to tear bike lanes out on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue protection from lawsuits, including if someone is injured on those roads.

The last-minute amendment gives the government the ability to remove bike lanes from the entirety of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, not just the most controversial parts the government has talked about.

Sarkaria said it was possible the routes could be removed in their entirety — but a final decision had not yet been made.

“We’ll examine the entire stretch to see which parts — ultimately all of it could be removed,” he said on Thursday.