UPDATED: If good fences make good neighbours, then what do bad neighbours make?

Got pointed to this article today (although I can't remember by who), and was struck by it probably because I'm sensitive to community issues right now, having just gone through a zoning fight of my own.

But for Sandra Cassidy of Toronto suburb Ajax to give an interview and pose for a photo in the nation's largest metropolitan daily like this one is remarkable.

Let me summarize the story for those of you who don't want to click through and read it:

Sandra Cassidy lives in a new subdivision, and a bus goes past her house about every 30 minutes. She feels that this is an impingement on the enjoyment of her house. After all, she "paid a lot of money to have the only custom-built home in a very special subdivision," she told the Star.

Furthermore, Ms. Cassidy says, her husband Wayne is an architectural technologist who designed the subdivision and has clout with local politicians who know him through business and charity events. "Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything but we have more (influence) than the average person,"she says.

She notes that "I'm sure there are a few elderly people who want it" but everyone in the area has at least two cars, says the mother of four grown children who have left home." She feels the bus is always empty going past her house, on a "dangerous corner," and says "We can't open our windows because of the smell and noise." The regional transit authority tells the reporter, however, that bus route 222 is a "good performer." And the reporter found a young family that use the bus to reduce their carbon footprint, and a woman with a bad hip who wouldn't dare walk half a kilometer in the winter to catch the bus.

Having worked around journalists long enough, I suspect that the Star reporter was so turned off by this woman that she decided to bury her with her own words. Listen to this lede: "Every weekday morning Sandra Cassidy wakes up to the sound of the bus carrying her neighbours to work and school."

There's a message in there: Sandra Cassidy doesn't work. And by the end of the story, when you've heard about her custom home and her influential husband and how the bus ruins the view of Lake Ontario she paid an extra 100,000 bucks for, the message is set that she is a stunningly elitist snob with a world-view that extends no further than her manicured lawn.

I suspect Ms. Cassidy has not done media training, and I doubt she realized what was happening during the interview. But she's likely learning that lesson now, from the dozens of comments. Or she's passing them all off as little people whining.

It's an interesting case study in community relations on an individual level. Being a long way away from Ms. Cassidy's neighbourhood, I have no idea if her perception of empty buses negotiating dangerous corners is accurate. But if, as I suspect, her efforts to change the route fail, I would suggest that this story and her attitude will have been the cause.

If you ever need a lesson in how not to do community advocacy, you can use this one.

UPDATED: According to this Toronto Star story, the Cassidys lost their fight with Durham Regional Transit. You can check out the amount correspondence that this generated in this agenda and minutes from Durham's regional government.

Ciao,
Bob.