Svarte Fanden danse på tå hev!

[theCryptofishist]

Heavy duty Norweigian for when the f*ck thread wont do...

[TomServo]

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

[catinthefunnyhat]

OK, I'm starting it.

Svarte Fanden danse på this guy's hev! (Or maybe he's the Svarte Fanden danse-ing på his own svarte tå hev).

Seriously. I was going to say "Fuck this guy," but most people like to get fucked. This guy deserves no such thing.

Dude, you might want to raise your own kids in the suburbs, or on a farm, or in a diving bell under the sea. I don't give a shit. But you're the deputy mayor of the whole fucking city, and that includes downtown. And tonnes of people are raising kids downtown and doing just fucking fine. My neighbourhood is full of kids: Kids whose parents take turns being the "minder" for their neighbours. Kids who are not over-coddled, over-programmed, and over-protected, but who get around on bicycles and learn to look after themselves (and each other). Kids who walk and bike to school. Kids who come from different countries and cultures, whose parents speak different languages, who share the space freely with one another and show adults how it's done. Kids who I see daily -- laughing, tearing around in the park, chasing pigeons, playing together, and THRIVING. Kids whose presence in this neighbourhood makes it a happier, more energetic, and safer place to live. So fuck you and your isolationist, upper-middle-class, suburban superiority complex and your 1950s-era beliefs about how and where people should live.

FUCK. This story just made me angry, and it's fucking hard to make me angry.

[theCryptofishist]

Ah. Baby helicopters, I presume. I think we need extra circles above the vowels to express how ridiculous that is.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Not just a baby helicopter, but a deputy mayor who thinks all parents who are not suburban baby helicopters are making poor choices that should not be supported.

Actually, he's a deputy mayor who doesn't believe in city planning, so he wants to scrap the requirement that 10% of the suites in new condo or apartment buildings be family-sized. Fine, whatever; he's bigger fan of free-market, laissez-faire capitalism than I am, and we disagree, and he's going to pursue policies that annoy me. But in the process of arguing for this policy, he repeatedly mocked people who raise kids downtown and said it was a poor idea. Sounds like he's not against city planning so much as he's against city planning that would encourage any model other than the 1950's automobile-centric suburban utopia.

And I'm curious where all the working-class people are supposed to raise their kids, anyways. Detached houses in "quiet" neighbourhoods, i.e. suburbia, are insanely expensive, and require the added cost of owning an automobile to get around (not to mention hours and hours of childcare while you commute). I guess it's bad parenting for people to have kids unless they can afford that kind of white-bread suburban lifestyle.

This city administration is so fucked up. They got elected on a bunch of populist promises they couldn't keep (lower taxes without any cuts to services... and we'll balance the budget! All we have to do is clean up the "gravy"). They've been fairly thoroughly discredited and have squandered all their political capital. The few that remain loyal to the mayor and deputy mayor remain in perpetual campaign mode, angry, blaming everyone else for their failures, and refusing to engage in any kind of adult dialogue with anyone who disagrees with them.

The last paragraph of the article is very telling:

The city has been without a chief planner since Gary Wright retired in March. City officials have been searching since last fall without success; at least two candidates have turned down the job in part because of concerns about working for the Ford administration.

OK, I've calmed down now. I'm over the initial blood-boiling rage and back to general cranky annoyance. But Jesus Fuck I wish that guy would STFU.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Oh, and it's not like the stipulation that 10% of the units be 3-bedroom ones is a standard practice here. It's about approving zoning for one particular building, and requiring the builder to include family-sized, affordable units as a condition for building above the usual height. That tradeoff was agreed-to by both the developer and the board as a settlement after the developer's original request for variance was denied. The deputy mayor was proposing a motion to overrule the board and allow the building to go ahead on the builder's original terms.

OK, I'll shut up about this now (now that I've hijacked Fishy's thread -- sorry, Fishy). I was just SO MAD.

[Elliot]

Svarte Fanden danse på tå hev!

Interesting phrase. Where does it come from, besides Norway, and what does it mean?

[theCryptofishist]

Svarte Fanden danse på tå hev!

Interesting phrase. Where does it come from, besides Norway, and what does it mean?

I'll tell you what, grasshopper, you can research that and tell the class next week...