Today's society is an ever changing and evolving one to say the least. Technology has improved to the level where a lazy person can have an affair without leaving the comfort of their recliner. Simply click, chat, and tell lies..about how good you look and how tall you are, and how single (although your wife doesn't know that) you are--just looking for love with the help of the kind folks that allow you to pay for your cable, house phone, and Internet on the same bill. Oh... the uses for technology.
Here we live in a time where putting a man on the moon has been replaced by now we can can buy a seat on the shuttle. And to think that just forty years ago a Black woman was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Can I get a...whoa technology! Human beings have come so far that if your co-worker whom occupy the cubicle next to you is talking too loud and disturbing your "office time net surfing," all you have to do is...send them an e-mail. Think about it...your grandparents couldn't do that. Not unless you're related to the Jetsons.
Man oh man. Who needs to worry about staying home by the phone waiting for your beloved to call? You have a phone in your purse, on your hip and even in your ear. If that's not enough and you don't want to hear his voice--send him a text message. And who said folks don't read anymore?
How about this one? People are now afforded the great opportunity to call a company and have a lifeless voice prompt them to push multiple numbers until another soul less voice says, "I'm sorry your call can not be completed at this time..." Oh... the wonders of technology. It's so good that cloning isn't a thing of science fiction, it's real, very real. Anyone looking to find themselves? Give it a few years, you might just run into yourself as you race for the space shuttle that will drop you off on Mars so you can watch the NBA's newest franchise. You haven't lived until you've seen a three foot green dude dunk a ball.
But, with all the changes in the world and the many new gadgets coming out almost daily, there's one thing that won't ever change. People still want, need and strongly desire to be loved and appreciated. So put down the remote, the interactive video game, the cell phone that does everything but your hair and go to your wife, husband, mother, father or whomever you may care for and remind them that no matter the changes in this world and the distance that they create...tell them how much you love and appreciate them.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Transit, Ages, the City and the Future - A Happy Ending
Sometimes, the song lyrics are proven wrong in a happy way: you not only get what you want, but it's also exactly what you need.
Case in point? This morning at Ottawa City Hall.
The age limit on qualifying for student-rate bus passes is dead. To the last man and woman on city council, they repealed that ill-considered age limit of 27 in the name of economics and equity.
Last week, the Ottawa Transit Committee took the recommendation of the Pedestrian and Transit Committee to drop that age limit into the dumpster and ran with it. Unanimously. Given how the eight members of that committee tend to get on as a rule, you can guess how deeply the responses from the public at that committee hearing got to them.
At the full-council hearing, the Transit Committee's recommendation was put forth by committee chair Alex Cullen. There was some brief debate and comments by several councillors about assorted aspects of the topic before "ayes and nays" were called for.
In the end, council was as unanimous as the transit committee. Cullen had warned the people in the gallery last week that they had eight on the council in hand, and needed ten more to get the rule overturned. I suspect the students and their allies took that advice to heart.
Happy ending.
Case in point? This morning at Ottawa City Hall.
The age limit on qualifying for student-rate bus passes is dead. To the last man and woman on city council, they repealed that ill-considered age limit of 27 in the name of economics and equity.
Last week, the Ottawa Transit Committee took the recommendation of the Pedestrian and Transit Committee to drop that age limit into the dumpster and ran with it. Unanimously. Given how the eight members of that committee tend to get on as a rule, you can guess how deeply the responses from the public at that committee hearing got to them.
At the full-council hearing, the Transit Committee's recommendation was put forth by committee chair Alex Cullen. There was some brief debate and comments by several councillors about assorted aspects of the topic before "ayes and nays" were called for.
In the end, council was as unanimous as the transit committee. Cullen had warned the people in the gallery last week that they had eight on the council in hand, and needed ten more to get the rule overturned. I suspect the students and their allies took that advice to heart.
Happy ending.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Transit, Ages, the City and the Future
Seems a generic title, and it is. I grant you that right now. But there’s a point to the mundanity which we’ll get to right now: I spent this particular morning at Ottawa City Hall, watching the presentations to and deliberations of the city’s Transit Planning Committee.
At issue this particular morning was the matter of a new policy begun this budgetary year at OC Transpo with the result being that if you want a student-priced bus pass, you’d better be age 27 or under or you might as well forget it.
Yes, I know: students don’t always start post-secondary education at 18, and they don’t always finish with a degree or diploma or certificate in hand before they hit 27.
Well, there were fifteen presentations from assorted interest groups and individual citizens at this meeting on that particular subject. To the last man and woman, with their own specific concerns in play, they all had variants of the same reply to this policy: you forget it. We can’t afford this. The city can’t afford this. The country and the planet cannot afford this.
For assorted reasons - budgetary for the individual students and their families, legal and budgetary(for different reasons) for the city, environmental(and possibly other aspects as well) for the nation and planet - they were all of them absolutely right to say this to City Hall in my eyes.
To their credit, with some caveats to varying degrees, the city transit committee agreed with that logic and they’ll be passing along that recommendation to the full city council. Which is where the crunch comes in. The transit committee is made up presently of eight of some thirty-plus councillors from across the city. The student pass recommendation needs at least another ten councillors onside, preferably from the core, suburban and rural wards.
Yes, there are at least these three factions in play within the full council. It’s a legacy of the shotgun marriage of a merger of cities, towns and a couple of villages that the Ontario legislature pushed through back in the days of Mike Harris and his “Common Sense Revolution”. As a result of that, we have what we now call the City of Ottawa. More on that era of the province’s history has been said by smarter people than myself, so I’m not going into that digression right this moment.
Back on point: the idea that an age-based rule on who qualifies as a student, rather than the definition being rooted in whether or not you’re taking classes full-time, strikes me as nonsensical on its face. I’ve been to community college twice so far, and may yet do so for a third, “hat trick” diploma. In both instances, I attended classes alongside fellow students who would be characterized as “mature” to varying degrees. Certainly, several in each of those two batches of fellow students were over 27.
How many would the disqualification for student pricing on bus passes have made the difference between affording their studies or ploughing onward in some other, possibly more desperate direction for their lives? I heard a figure of somewhere between $200 to $500 over an entire year being bandied about at a couple of points. One month’s groceries or car insurance premiums, it was said.
Another aspect of grabbing one form of cost savings at the expense of some nastier bills being payable down the road: it was mentioned in one of the presentations that the mayor of Saskatoon recently said that making bus passes more affordable for their local student population made a considerable dent in their annual road and highway maintenance expenses.
And as for pollution issues...well, let’s leave that to your imaginations. They’re certainly at least as well informed as my own on the subject by now. Asthma incidence, global climate derangement and so on?
Right.
It was suggested that other cities across Canada are doing this kind of age-based definition of “student” for public transit purposes. If we’re the National Capital here - last we checked, Ottawa still holds that title - then it falls to us as a city to set a better example than everyone else on the map. If we fail in that, then we’d better call the PMO and ask for that referendum on transferring the title and its responsibilities, privileges and landmarks.
Over to you.
 |
| From Photos |
At issue this particular morning was the matter of a new policy begun this budgetary year at OC Transpo with the result being that if you want a student-priced bus pass, you’d better be age 27 or under or you might as well forget it.
 |
| From Photos |
Yes, I know: students don’t always start post-secondary education at 18, and they don’t always finish with a degree or diploma or certificate in hand before they hit 27.
Well, there were fifteen presentations from assorted interest groups and individual citizens at this meeting on that particular subject. To the last man and woman, with their own specific concerns in play, they all had variants of the same reply to this policy: you forget it. We can’t afford this. The city can’t afford this. The country and the planet cannot afford this.
For assorted reasons - budgetary for the individual students and their families, legal and budgetary(for different reasons) for the city, environmental(and possibly other aspects as well) for the nation and planet - they were all of them absolutely right to say this to City Hall in my eyes.
To their credit, with some caveats to varying degrees, the city transit committee agreed with that logic and they’ll be passing along that recommendation to the full city council. Which is where the crunch comes in. The transit committee is made up presently of eight of some thirty-plus councillors from across the city. The student pass recommendation needs at least another ten councillors onside, preferably from the core, suburban and rural wards.
 |
| From Photos |
Yes, there are at least these three factions in play within the full council. It’s a legacy of the shotgun marriage of a merger of cities, towns and a couple of villages that the Ontario legislature pushed through back in the days of Mike Harris and his “Common Sense Revolution”. As a result of that, we have what we now call the City of Ottawa. More on that era of the province’s history has been said by smarter people than myself, so I’m not going into that digression right this moment.
Back on point: the idea that an age-based rule on who qualifies as a student, rather than the definition being rooted in whether or not you’re taking classes full-time, strikes me as nonsensical on its face. I’ve been to community college twice so far, and may yet do so for a third, “hat trick” diploma. In both instances, I attended classes alongside fellow students who would be characterized as “mature” to varying degrees. Certainly, several in each of those two batches of fellow students were over 27.
How many would the disqualification for student pricing on bus passes have made the difference between affording their studies or ploughing onward in some other, possibly more desperate direction for their lives? I heard a figure of somewhere between $200 to $500 over an entire year being bandied about at a couple of points. One month’s groceries or car insurance premiums, it was said.
Another aspect of grabbing one form of cost savings at the expense of some nastier bills being payable down the road: it was mentioned in one of the presentations that the mayor of Saskatoon recently said that making bus passes more affordable for their local student population made a considerable dent in their annual road and highway maintenance expenses.
And as for pollution issues...well, let’s leave that to your imaginations. They’re certainly at least as well informed as my own on the subject by now. Asthma incidence, global climate derangement and so on?
Right.
It was suggested that other cities across Canada are doing this kind of age-based definition of “student” for public transit purposes. If we’re the National Capital here - last we checked, Ottawa still holds that title - then it falls to us as a city to set a better example than everyone else on the map. If we fail in that, then we’d better call the PMO and ask for that referendum on transferring the title and its responsibilities, privileges and landmarks.
Over to you.
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