Dear ford nation, suggestion, keep quiet and don't reveal your ignorance.
This is my first post on this thread and want to declare my "ignorance".
I ride my bike every day to work (from King/Bathurst to Don Mills/Eglington) for the past two year...I've never owned a car my entire life (I'm in my 30's) and consider myself 'green' by living standards. I AGREE with Ford not supporting bike lanes...because: painting a line on the road will not protect cyclists and it certainly will not encourage people to switch....and if does, what are we going to do with hundreds of more bikes on the road? There are just as many poor cyclists as there are poor drivers - I see it all the time (ask any daily commuter on a bike); the roads are not wide enough so road congestion will do more harm than good. Plain and simple, the solution of bike 'lanes' will not prevent accidents any more than cyclists & drivers being patient, cautious, and aware when on the road.
Now, the TTC essential service or privatizing garbage collection issue. IMO, I'm for it even though I KNOW it will cost me tax dollars. I want this as a tax payer. What I don't want is gawd damn strikes every year (why do you think I ride my bike and try to avoid waste when possible?). It's because services like this get paid regardless of the quality of service they provide, and then decide to strike and halt the city at will. I'm sorry, but I'd rather know I'm paying a premium (eventually or not) for guaranteed service. (Nay sayers hold your breath....I choose to accept this regardless if you don't)
"Subways, subways, subways"...ya he's says that, and probably made other counselors miserable who didn't say it with him, but I voted the guy to put in subways and would never vote for anyone who didn't say it. It costs money? What doesn't, but at least it will benefit a growing city in the long run. Nay sayers guess what, they're already taking about bringing relief to the core with a subway, so once again hold your breath.
I also remember something about closing community libraries, homeless something or other, after hour youth programs....again, he said he would run the city like a business. I don't expect to see the fiscal report, but I'd think there's a purpose here. I haven't gone to a library since I plugged into the internet back in 1995. If the library didn't have customers, then the people have spoken. I don't know what the deal is with the homeless, so I'll skip on this one. But funding for youth programs, I donate every year to community programs (like Brandon Street Community) so it bothers me to read about funding cuts. But I can't put faith in what I read because people typically hate Ford and the whole story isn't stated. So again, I have to trust the decision was made with a heavy heart.
And finally...the media blow ups about him on his cell phone (while driving), flipping someone off, eating KFC while on a diet, kicking people off a ttc bus to escort his football team...Honestly, the dude is human. Ok, the TTC bus thing was weird and it's something I wouldn't have done if in his shoes, but it doesn't have any validity to me choosing to vote on issues that are important to me.
I guess I'm writing this because I will vote for Ford again, unless another qualified candidate (nay sayers hold your breath, Ford was a qualified counselor prior to running for mayor) can capture my issues. Yes, Ford did not fulfill most of my issues or hold true to his campaign speech (really wished the land transfer tax was abolished), but because counselors/protestors gave him an uphill battle pretty much the whole way.
....and now the shit storm I've caused begins!