EDITORIAL - A creeping anarchy is eating up the city

It is good that the final deliberation for the proposed ordinance seeking the setting up of shared road lanes for bikes and pedestrians has been deferred. It would even be better if the deferment is made permanent. For the proposal is a folly that sprung not from a real necessity but from a fad passionately espoused by a few who want to impose their will on the many.

If there are people in this city with all the time to exercise and walk their dogs, there are places that can be provided for them without having to slice up our already congested streets just so a few people can have their kicks. The trouble with some of our lawmakers is that they cannot recognize prudence if it hits them in the face.

Prudence is required in enacting laws and ordinances. Such laws and ordinances are not games to be trifled with. Once enacted, they affect the lives of all people within their enforceable jurisdictions. How stupid that roads that took a lot of time, money and effort to build should have half of them given away so that youngsters on skateboards who do not even pay taxes can play around.

We have nothing against people who want to exercise or walk their dogs or just skate around. But they cannot do that in areas such as roads that have uses very specific to their construction. We cannot allow anarchy just because some people think it is hip that way. If we let in one foot through the door now, God knows what other people may demand later.

If our city councilors truly want to live up to their billing as members of the second most important legislature in the land, they should come up with measures that will come down to the benefit of the greatest number and not because a noisy and insistent few happen to make an idea sound more interesting than it actually is.

Besides, why should the city come looking for more trouble when it has already more than it can handle. There are many existing and far more important city ordinances that have not been fully implemented even from the very beginning of their existence. For one, there is supposed to be an ordinance providing for a no PUJ lane. But what has the city done about it? Nothing! And now it wants a lane for hikers, skateboarders, bikers and pet-walkers?

There is supposed to be an ordinance against sidewalk vendors. The city has done nothing about it. This one has no ordinance against it -- but some business establishments are roping off sidewalks for their own security, thus depriving people of the right to use the sidewalks. There is a creeping anarchy eating up this city and our city officials are happily oblivious about it. What a crying shame. And they want to be addressed as honorable?