"New York Run By The Swiss"

It's been a long time since that was our city's reputation. Many of our public spaces have fallen into disrepair lately. Park bins overflow with litter. Entire neighbourhoods reek of dog urine. Aggressive people are roaming the subways, attacking people at random. I've seen one throw a brick at a man's head and steal his bike in broad daylight at Garrison Crossing.

In June a woman was set on fire at Kipling Station and still the police refused to get serious about this issue. It took the City over a year to remove the squatters from Trinity Bellwoods Park; in the meantime the squatters accumulated so much garbage that, at great expense, it took dozens of workers in hazmat suits, 2 bulldozers, and 5 industrial dumpsters to remove it all. Why did they allow the problem to grow so big in the first place? Why were the lifestyle preferences of a small number of destructive people to leave used needles in a public park given priority over the small children running around who'd step on those needles?

And why have we allowed the self-righteous screeching of a privileged few to dictate the conversation on how the public spaces we all pay to maintain get used? Are there no adults left?

Enough is enough. Broken Windows Policing has merit: when small acts of needless destruction are ignored, destructive people feel emboldened to escalate their behaviour.  We pay far too much to live here and have to put up with this.