One thing that sucks about Twitter is that some elected officials will block anyone just for being critical or having differing opinions. Jaye Robinson is the latest example, proving once again why she is unfit to be chair of the public works & infrastructure committee. The following tweets are by Alex Mather, posted yesterday afternoon.
@AlexDRMather: 1/ And here it is: The councillor responsible for ensuring our safety on roads got tired of hearing about it #bikeTO
2/ I tweeted a relatively small portion of @TPSOperations cyclist & pedestrian injury notifications at her regularly.
3/ I never once used profanity and was never vulgar. I never focused any commentary on anything other than public health and safety.
4/ I simply pointed out, to the person most responsible, a small portion of the myriad instances where our officials are failing us.
5/ Toronto has a massive problem with pedestrian and cyclist safety. That is neither debatable not particularly unique among large cities.
6/ Jaye Robinson and John Tory demonstrated they have no grasp of this reality when they first debuted their ridiculous "safety" strategy.
7/ Only after intense public scrutiny did they cave, but they only did so in verbiage. The stated safety goal changed, but not the funding.
8/ That is the essence of trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes: describe how you've changed something when you actually haven't.
9/ Because the reality is that most people don't pay much attention to municipal politics. And, for some reason, they trust their officials.
10/ Tory and Robinson have exploited that reality. And I feel comfortable saying that b/c nothing has changed. Not even sentiment, really.
11/ And, now, @jayerobinson has blocked me for retweeting police updates that serve as evidence of the reality she, in part, has perpetuated
12/ I'm aware that some ppl will see this as just a regular citizen griping at politicians. It's an obvious, and anticipated, conclusion.
13/ But we must remember this is an example of a city, and its officials, badly failing essentially their most basic charge: health & safety
14/ Every update that @JayeRobinson didn't like me tweeting at her represents an injury to a pedestrian, cyclist, or both.
15/ Every one of those updates represents a life altered. Some only for a time, but some forever. And some also represent deaths.
16/ Possible remedies are known. They won't solve everything, but there are infrastructure, design, and legal solutions that we *know* help.
17/ But the inherent timidity of the #VisionZero (but, really, #ZeroVision) plan put forth by Tory and Robinson is wholly inadequate.
18/ And that, to me, represents an egregious dereliction of duties. How could it be anything else?
19/ So I'm both unsurprised and disgusted that @JayeRobinson blocked me. But it won't stop me from advocating for a safer, healthier Toronto
20/ I will continue to be a thorn in the side of anyone who refuses to take this issue seriously. And I hope others will, as well.