An Open Letter to Councilors Hebert and Boshcoff:
Dear Sirs,
I probably don’t have to tell you of my disappointment in your musings of removing the bike lanes in our city.
I am often in support of your positions, but I’m afraid I cannot agree with you here. Rather than talking about bike lanes, I want to offer up some commentary on everything ranging from bike lanes, to waterfront development, to bus terminal locations, multiplexes, and any other of the current debates we face in the municipal sphere.
The common thread I see in all of these is whether or not we have an urban or a suburban vision for the city.
As you may know, I didn’t grow up here. I was born in the suburbs north of Toronto, and moved into downtown Toronto in my formative years before landing in Thunder Bay. Although not an urban planner, I am an enthusiast of the discipline and I’d like to think that I can see some of the “urban fabric” of which planners speak -- the delicate balance of elements that allow for people to live and coexist in a dense environment.
With the backing of a supportive administration, I applaud how council has come to grips with Thunder Bay as an urban environment in the policies and directions laid out in the past few years (There are notable exceptions to this support, of course, but I will consider outcomes as a whole).
When I hear of things coming from our civic leadership like, and I paraphrase, “I support bike lanes but I don’t want them on the street,” or “bike lanes are confusing and I don’t know how to drive on roads that include them,” I can’t help but shake my head and wonder if this is a case of political opportunism.
I don’t believe there is any meaningful distinction to be made between such statements and, “I don’t want the bus terminal front and centre, sketchy people use the bus. Put it out of the way where it can’t be seen.”
Or, “I don’t want a Multiplex downtown because I want a big expanse of parking available to me.”
The common thread in all of these, to my mind, is an underpinning belief that the suburban mentality reigns supreme.
Let me remind you that the application of suburban principles to urban environments is not only thinking that is more than 40 years out of date, but it has caused the erosion of urban fabrics in countless centers.
Our municipal leadership has effectively laid out an urban vision for Thunder Bay in its policies and directions, and I believe it is working. Big dividends will be paid in the future, in terms of attraction and retention of the right people to move our city forward. Bike lanes may be a small part of this vision, but I fear death by a thousand paper cuts.
Cut through the rhetoric, examine the value of active transportation from an empirical and not an anecdotal perspective. And for Heaven’s sake, don’t lose the urban vision for our city that you have so carefully laid out.
Justin Frape
Thunder Bay, Ontario
