London, Ontario city council has just passed a law banning under-18s from purchasing markers or spray paint without a parent or guardian present. Yes, that’s right — you need adult accompaniment to buy a marker in London. The aim is to reduce graffiti.
Meanwhile, Toronto’s Planning and Transportation committee has sent forward a law for city council’s consideration that would ban anyone from having more than two garage sales a year.
While I’m not necessarily sympathetic to crude taggers, or people who turn their lawns into weekly sales lots (is there really some wave of garage-sale entrepreneurs sweeping the city?), these law seem ridiculously petty.
Do councillors spend their time micro-managing their city because they don’t have the powers to make real decisions? Or does the provincial government avoid giving more powers to municipalities because initiatives like these show city councillors are too small-minded to exercise them? It’s a bit of a catch-22.
One comment
I don’t know — I think the garage sale one won’t be enforced unless people complain — so it gives the city some muscle when people are running illegal businesses on their lawns. I wouldn’t want to live near one, unless I choose to live on Kensington Ave or some-such street.