Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Deforest City Blues: The bad news was bound to get out

Cheerleaders for Deforest City, e.g., the Mayor, Tourism London, operators of ubiquitous big box stores, etc., want everyone in the free world to know the following:

Deforest City (aka London, Ont.) is a great place to do business

It’s a cool place to live

It’s a wonderful place to visit

It’s an amazing one-stop-spot (okay, maybe 6 or 7) for shopping


They must have cringed when the following headline appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of The Free Press:

We’re Worst In Ontario

And what are we worst at?

'More toxic chemicals are pumped into the skies over the London region than anywhere else in Ontario...'

Our air quality is even worse than... wait for it... 'Canada's largest metropolis, the Toronto area, which ranks second in Ontario.'


["A chemical valley is just a tombstone's throw away from London"]

Sure, our cheerleaders want to hang onto our young people so they’ll settle down, buy a single-family home in the ‘burbs on the edge of town and shop ‘til they drop inside city limits, but once more people hear about the news that ‘more than 6% of the pollutants released are suspected of causing cancer, while more than 9% are linked to reproductive and developmental defects,’ Deforest City doesn’t sound like such a good deal. (Click here to read full article).

What to do?

Since most of the pollutants likely relate to the production and burning of oil and gas (read Sarnia’s Chemical Valley and car-dependence), our cheerleaders need to do whatever possible to get people into smaller homes closer to all amenities and mass transit.


["How much is an electric trolley ride?": Richmond St., London]

Hard to do after selling people the wrong dream for the last 40 - 60 years, enticing folks to live miles from the (subsequently dead) core and accommodating cars and light trucks (built for 3 - 6 passengers but normally carrying one) at every turn.

Three cheers!

***

Though most pollution goes into the air, it ends up in our water.

Just imagine what the next environmental report will be about.

.

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