Monday, August 11, 2008

That's urban planning for you

A little more than twenty-four hours later, and like many in South Central Ontario I'm trying to figure out what on earth a propane plane was doing in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Toronto. One firefighter is dead, and an employee at the plant is missing and we can only pray that somehow he escaped and still hasn't checked in yet for whatever reason.

You'd expect this kind of urban planning to exist only in the minds of idiots, or where there are no zoning laws at all -- such as in Houston, Texas. I'd like to meet the man or woman at the Toronto planning department who thought this was a brilliant idea. Doesn't Toronto have sufficient commercials zones to site such plants?

Here in Hamilton, we remember the plastic recycling company that operated almost without notice then went up in flames and spewed out toxins into the air at 67 times the legal limit. And if you're 25 or older, you remember the tire fire in Hagersville.

Again, two are dead, but one must still be thankful this happened on a Sunday when many were out of town and things slow down a bit. Imagine if this happened just before a weekday rush hour. You think there's chaos when the 401 is closed on the weekend ...

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