{"id":63871,"date":"2017-07-26T11:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=63871"},"modified":"2017-07-25T21:33:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T02:33:54","slug":"but-wheres-the-opportunity-for-graft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=63871","title":{"rendered":"But Where’s The Opportunity For Graft?"},"content":{"rendered":"

City comes up with an estimate of $65,000-$110,000 to build a stairway linking two levels of a city park, and replacing a rutted path with a steep incline that was causing injuries.<\/p>\n

Citizen builds the stairway for $550<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbours fell down the steep path to a community garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. Astl says his neighbours chipped in on the project, which only ended up costing $550 \u2013 a far cry from the $65,000-$150,000 price tag the city had estimated for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were talking about an escalator,\u201d Astl told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Astl says he hired a homeless person to help him and built the eight steps in a matter of hours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Problem solved, right?<\/p>\n

Well, no.<\/p>\n

Because boy, is the government mad:<\/p>\n

City bylaw officers have taped off the stairs while officials make a decision on what to do with it. However, Astl has not been charged with any sort of violation.<\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory acknowledged that the city estimate sounds \u201ccompletely out of whack with reality\u201d on Wednesday. [Noooooo! – Ed]\u00a0<\/em>However, he says that still doesn\u2019t justify allowing private citizens to bypass city bylaws to build public structures themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone will understand that it will be more than $550,\u201d he said on Wednesday. \u201cWe just can\u2019t have people decide to go out to Home Depot and build a staircase in a park because that\u2019s what they would like to have.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course not.<\/p>\n

There are consultants – members of the political class – to be paid to study the issue. \u00a0There are contractors – favored by the political class, frequently due to polices promulgated and administered by other members of the political class – to whom money must be funneled, usually via other members of the political class.<\/p>\n

If people just\u00a0made stuff work<\/em>, the system would\u00a0completely break down<\/em>!<\/p>\n

“But what about the handicapped?”<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the park already has an accessible path for those who worry about falling down the incline, which is essentially a shortcut from the parking lot to the garden area.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s all about showing the peasants who’s boss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City comes up with an estimate of $65,000-$110,000 to build a stairway linking two levels of a city park, and replacing a rutted path with a steep incline that was causing injuries. Citizen builds the stairway for $550. Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63913,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63871\/revisions\/63913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}