A tiny victory in a bleak world

The cat would not take no for an answer, so I got up to feed her in the very early morning hours. It was pitch black outside but, through the one living room window that didn’t have the blind all the way down, I could see some commotion on the street. It seemed noisy, too. Hmmm…what was going on?

I peered out and saw a City truck, with lights flashing, and two men. They appeared to be bashing away at the curb…oh! At the curb! Right by where the street drain cover is still buried under snow and ice. I had tried in vain to chip away at it on the weekend, because we’re expecting a ‘weather event’ this week that includes both snow and rain. With nowhere for any of that expected precipitation to go, it would pool on the street and cause serious trouble for all.

By chance, earlier last week, I had come across an online report that I could submit to the City masters alerting them to a frozen street drain. If I provided location details, they would send out their ‘super steam unit’ (my name for it, not theirs) to open up the drain. I submitted the report but without much hope that any action would result — or wouldn’t result in time to save us from possible flooding in the impending weather event.

But now, here those two men were, in the early hours of the morning, doing exactly what I had requested in the report. Amazing action from the City. And, when I went out to check the drain in the daylight, it had, indeed, been opened up sufficiently for melting snow water to be heard running into the drain. Now, any rain that comes our way will also find a way into the storm sewer system. Hooray!

It’s the second time in my life as a homeowner that I’ve had success requesting concrete public action from the City. The first time was decades ago, when I asked that my then-property be exempted from mosquito spraying. I was cynical and had no hope my request would actually be honoured. However, I learned that it had been, when my somewhat irate neighbour knocked on my door to ask if I was the one who had put in the buffer zone request; I admitted it had been me. The neighbour was annoyed because the buffer zone extended to the small park across the street, where his kids liked to play but could no longer given the mosquitos. Oh dear. Saved from chemical spray poison, but in the neighbour’s bad books. What’s that saying? No good deed goes unpunished.

These two incidents remind me of the importance of a sound municipal infrastructure governed by competent elected leaders, at the ready to respond to citizens’ needs. If we’re lucky, those needs are limited to the mundane — clean water in our taps; roads we can drive on; libraries, swimming pools and parks to enjoy…If we are less lucky, like so many Ukrainians are currently, then we look to those elected leaders to help us survive in a state of chaos caused, in part, by infrastructure bombed to smithereens. So, as I watch the images on the nightly news and I think ahead to this fall’s municipal elections here, I shall think about whether those running for office have what it takes to be a leader in the stalwart and heroic way that so many local mayors in Ukrainian cities and towns are demonstrating today. 

In Canada, we often pooh-pooh municipal politics as being unimportant relative to provincial or federal politics, but I beg to differ. May I never need my city’s mayor to negotiate safe passage for me out of town under skies alive with enemy fire, but may I cast my vote for one who would be able to meet that challenge should that unthinkable need ever arise.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash