June 29, 2010

Neighbourly and Politeness in Toronto

CANADA - It doesn't really matter where you live in the world, politeness is always something worthwhile. Being rude to people is likely to get you killed in some parts of the world, or at least cause problems.

In Canada the city voted to be the most polite and friendly is Halifax.

In contrast Toronto is considered the rudest. "Hogtown" is known for road raging motorists, upset bicyclists, impatient people on the escalator (Please move to the right if you just want to stand there.), and then there is the neighbourly feuds.

It used to be that being a good neighbour was considered a wise thing to do. You don't piss off your neighbours... they know where you live.

Getting into a feud with your neighbour about parking spaces, the fence, the property line, their dog which keeps barking, your noisy kids, the loud parties, etc... these can also be disastrous to your bottom line and your sense of well-being.

Imagine for example waking up to the smell of your car on fire. Which neighbour did it? If you have an ongoing feud with one particular neighbour it would be an obvious guess, but if you've been pissing off the whole neighbourhood it could be anyone.

Furthermore there's no guarantee the neighbour in question actually did it. It could have easily been a local teenager who overheard you were behaving like an asshole and they decided to teach you a lesson.

The whole point I am making here is that people should be polite and neighbourly as much as they can. Becoming antagonistic is only going to fuel further troubles.

Lets take the example of the apartment building management at 565 Sherbourne Chopping Off Bikes from their bike racks because they don't belong to the building's residents, which is strange because the bike rack isn't in front of their building, its in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart. Worse, a local by-law requires they have 60 bicycle parking spots (there's only about 25-30) beside the Shoppers Drug Mart.

Chopping off people's bikes and effectively stealing them from people in the neighbourhood isn't very nice, or neighbourly. There isn't even a sign warning people that the bike rack belongs to 565 Sherbourne and not the pharmacy. In response to complaints from local cyclists the building manager of the apartment building says she is going to remove the bicycle racks entirely (thus violating the city by-law).

Thus instead of being neighbourly she is provoking a feud with local cyclists (it should be noted that cyclists take people chopping their bicycles off and stealing very seriously). Tit for tat.

"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments containing links will be marked as spam and not approved. We moderate every comment. If you want to advertise on this blog it is $30 per link.

Affordable Website Design & SEO

Looking for a quality professional website designer? Why not go where the smart money is?! Toronto Website Design and Toronto SEO. Get free SEO advice from people who really know the business.

Featured Posts

The Sarcasm Symbol
Ever had some confusion online or with your cellphone when someone fails to catch the sarcasm? Well now with the SarcMark you can ge...
Behold, the Scorpion Hydrogen Supercar
CARS - To the right is the future of supercars... it is a hydrogen supercar called the Scorpion. The Scorpion from Ronn Motors in Texas is t...
Documents show Stephen Harper misusing public funds
CANADA - According to 950+ pages of documents obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act the Privy Coun...
Pink's Rosie the Riveter
ENTERTAINMENT - What I like about this video is how it meshes different social movements like feminism, veganism, anti-capitalism...
California's Dustbowl
ENVIRONMENT - The photo on the right is a farm in California that has been put up for sale. Its just one of thousands of farms that are n...
Is Steampunk the New Goth???
GOTHIC - Watch out what you see on the subway late at night because while in 2001 you might have seen some pretty freakish goths, by 20...
Do you have enough Ice Water in your diet?
HEALTH - A Calorie (large C) is a measurement of the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water (1 kg's worth) ...
North Korean timeline towards Inevitable War
POLITICS - The following is timeline of events that have occurred on the Korean Peninsula. 1945 - Japan surrenders to the United States a...
Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult
RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth a...
Sex in Space Forbidden
SEX/TECHNOLOGY - Sex in outer space is a big no-no according to NASA. Not for professional astronauts at least, but the growing numb...

Popular Posts / Last 30 Days