The tall foreheads are weighing in with the big ideas on how to make Toronto a better place. I have small ideas. Here are some of them:

The city clears the snow from the roads to make them safe for cars. I say the city should also clear the snow from the sidewalks to make them safe for pedestrians.

Yes, individual residents should still look after the walks leading up to front steps and porches. But let the city send those inner-city mini-plows for all the rest. It does so now, in some places; it should do so everywhere. Because you cannot have it both ways:

Why should people who own cars be entitled to privileges that pedestrians do not have? Are pedestrians not taxpayers? Do they not deserve the same consideration on their way to work?

I hear the howls of outrage now.

I say, “Ha, ha.”

Now here is an idea that is both practical and free, and although it may be a small idea, it could be put to good use; alas, it is also only available to those candidates who are running in the next municipal election in order to unseat you-know-who.

The idea? A campaign slogan:

“Sober government.”

Howls again?

Ha, ha, again.

Here is an idea concerning public transit: The lane used by the King streetcar line downtown should be kept free of cars during rush hour. This would improve the daily commute for public thousands, at the expense of the private few.

Ha, fooled you.

Because if you use King St. at all, and you look up as you make your way, you will see that such an admonition to keep the lane clear already exists.

I do not understand why it is not enforced. So that’s my small idea: enforce what is in place.

Howls.

Ha.

Here’s another idea, actually a one-two punch, related to public transit, if only to show that I am an equal-opportunity offender: no food or drinks allowed on the streetcar, the subway or the bus, and no feet on seats; the penalty, ejection.

Boors, howling.

Ha.

This next idea is quite practical. You recall the police officer who died when he was flung from his car while responding to a call. He was not wearing his seatbelt.

Cops say they do not like to buckle up while driving because they wear too much equipment, and they do not want to be vulnerable, and blah, blah, blah.

Well, somebody ought to design a seatbelt which takes all that into account; until then, we should force cops to buckle up.

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A side note: I was coming home from the airport recently, and a pair of cops was killing time by stopping cabs to make sure drivers and passengers were wearing seatbelts; an irony, in light of the above.

Those cops might profitably have spent some time in the airport terminal where the gypsy cab drivers were aggressively poaching fares. The idea?

Stop the fare poachers.

Cabbie howls.

Ha, ha.

Here’s an idea for the board of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation: read the LeSage Report, and stop threatening old people with eviction.

Also, given that a significant percentage of the tenant population is vulnerable in some way, restore social work as part of the TCHC mandate: Let there be casework once again, so that those tenants who are vulnerable can get the help they need.

Howl?

Ha.

Back to the cops for a moment. You recall the most recent police funeral, and the hundreds of officers who came from all over to attend, and you recall the slow and solemn marching and the sombre words.

Here’s the idea: when the cops kill someone like Sammy Yatim — or when a cop in an unmarked car kills a pedestrian like the young Natasha Abogado — let there be a public funeral march of similar solemnity.

I hear howls?

No, weeping.