Glenn Kubish

Here are three of my favourite quotations from three of my favourite mayors on the status of flesh-and-blood human beings in the current iteration of the urban landscape. Thank you Rob Ford, Don Iveson, Enrique Peñalosa. What I compare bike lanes to is swimming with the sharks. Sooner or later you're going to get bitten. And every year we have dozens of people that get hit by cars or trucks. Well, no wonder: roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks, not for people on bikes. My heart bleeds for them when I hear someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. The [city's bicycle transportation] plan recognizes that Edmonton's transportation infrastructure is built and maintained primarily for automobiles, and describes the creation of a bicycle network using roads and shared-use paths that makes it easier, safer, and more comfortable for cyclists and motorists to co-exist. The essence of the conflict today, really, is cars versus people. We can ...

Today, I gave Toronto Mayor Rob Ford a lift. There he was, I was almost certain, walking along Jasper Avenue across 101 St, and there I was, I was pretty certain, watching him walk in front of my car as I waited to turn and head back to work at ATB Financial. "Mayor Ford," I said, throwing my arm out the window with a handshake offer, "welcome to Edmonton!" He took the offer, and there we were, I was still fairly certain, shaking hands, he on foot, me in the driver's seat, at Edmonton's major intersection. He asked me which way to city hall, and I started to explain the route, but then offered to give him a lift. At first, he politely declined, but I asked again and he obliged, and slipped into the backseat. In the five-block drive we talked about the Leafs' playoff chances, Corey Boyd's ouster from the Argonauts, the Edmonton Eskimos and their defensive prowess, the construction cranes in the city, his recent appearance on TSN's Off The...

Among the most intriguing aspects to an outsider of the public battle between Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Toronto Star city hall reporter Daniel Dale is the battle of storytelling methods. Quick background (in words): Canada's biggest city has been consumed by the debate over what precisely happened the evening of May 2, when Dale was caught by Ford outside his home. Ford suggests Dale was peering over his fence, spying, in effect, and admits to barely withstanding the temptation to hit the journalist, who dropped his cellphone and ran away. Dale says he was getting a look for himself at a piece of parkland adjoining the mayor's property that Ford is reportedly trying to purchase to enhance his family's security by building a fence on it. The situation has now spiralled up and out to the point where the mayor has said he will speak to no reporters if the Toronto Star is present. The Star has countered with a suggestion the mayor used Dale's cellphone after the ...