The Coast HRM council twitter is reporting that city hall just voted for paving, but against bike lane extensions. Aparently 13 councillors all feel bike lanes are un-needed.
Anyone who follows me on Facebook or Twitter knows I just spent two weeks in Tuscany with my family, and being the nerd I am, I kept taking pictures of infrastructure. A photo essay will come later, with bus tickets, closed streets, etc, but tonight I want to show how the world class capital of the Tuscany region, Florence, a city of 400,000 people, a UNESCO world heritage site, does bike lanes:
Two Way Bike Lane in Florence, Tuscany, IT
Note that it was more important to this world class city to have two way dedicated, isolated bike lanes than to have two way traffic for cars.
Oh, it took a biggun to get past my couple of weeks of writers block following being unable to type (first diagnosed as Cubital Tunnel, later confirmed as simple tendonitis.) Oh and what biggun it is!
About 11:20 am this Friday twitter delivers this announcement from the @Chronicleherald – “BREAKING: HRSB super Carole Olsen’s husband leaked the Fells video to Frank, she admitted today. MORE LATER“
My immediate response was “SHE MUST RESIGN”. Moments later someone else on the web messaged me to say she offered to resign, and the HRSB Board did not accept her offered resignation. Read more…
Almost caught up on missed work from last week, and when I am I will post more, but until then, here is a recent post from Locals.
Look, this is such a circular argument.
People like Folkie think Paul McCartney is better, for no quantifiable reason. Mainstream music consumers (a shrinking commodity, but still a huge force) think that “of course this music is better” meaning mainstream old school pop and rock.
So the government and bureaucrats can justify the expense based on “common knowledge” and “what everyone knows”.
Now, the event does have some kind of social, tourism and economic impact, and that is measurable, so the same politicians and bureaucrats say “this proves what everyone knows”.
BUT, all the other festivals and events have economic impacts, some significant, but often for non-mainstream or specialty music or art, and these too have social, tourism and economic impact, and it too is measurable and quantifiable.
Sometimes the economic impact is less (HPX, IDOW) or as much (AFF, Jazzfest) or more (Tattoo, Neptune, Symphony).
The fact that the music or art is not mainstream, well “everyone knows” that these events are “not as important or impactful”.
So the issue remains one of fairness.
There is no quantifiable reason to give a major commons concert disproportionately more money as a grant or a loan than, on a percentage or per capita basis, any other event EXCEPT the idea that “this music mattes more” which is intellectually bankrupt, and from a quantifiable provable basis SIMPLY FALSE in terms of social, tourism, and economic impacts.
I would love to write a couple of long analysis pieces about the WTCC2 debate but my doctor told me not to use my right hand as I have mild cubital tunnel syndrome, a nerve pinch repetitive stress injury thing. Monday I can type two handed again. Sorry for the delay!
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