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More tickets, dean garages would solve parking problem I have article ant There are several issues related to park- ing in these new neighbourhoods: People that live here are not using their garages, which is causing the root of the problem. Weliveinasinglehouseandparkone car in the driveway and one in the garage (as do a small portion of our neighbours that are courteous to others). If more people would take the lead and clean out their garage and actually park a car in it, this would solve the bulk of the problem. Each and every one of these houses has at least a single-car garage. Few people use them. The builder has provided each house with at least two parking spots (one in the garage and one in the driveway). People can’t use them because they are full of stuff, which should be stored in their basement or another location. If the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville would actually enforce the bylaws and hit pe0ple where it counts (in their pocket y 13-year-old son, almost 14, now has his own cellphone, which is wonderful, I guess. At least for him He's getting older and it will be important for him to keep in touch with his personal chauffeur at all Now that he is in his teens, walk- ing home on his own from a friend’s house or baseball practice will never be necessary, so long as he keeps that gadget charged up and helps his mother with the monthly bill. That’s what it’s like for most of his friends. Their parents always know where they are, and better yet, the kids can always get hold of the parents, who have the keys to this magical device called an auto- mobile and a licence to operate it. All they have to do is call and mom or dad will be right over. How can we say no, when they’ve been good enough to call? Which kind of makes me think young people today will be missâ€" ing out on some of the teen rites of passage previous generations used to experience. Life can be boring when we’ re in touch 24/7 When I was young, it was walk- ing home on your own on dimly- [ETIERS POlICY The Sun-Nbune welcomes your Intel's. All submissions must be less than 400 wotds and must include a daytime telephone number. name and address. The Sun‘THbunc mserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space. Luna to the Edit“. ms'n-M 0290mm Carsparkovemightandexceedthetime have been monitoring the parking le and the letters to the editor in The r'Iribune and felt it was time I write my lM I67 |muon0ym¢.com LETTERS ION lmcnva MIA Marketing In Advertising dandnuMcom Dauma Andraus T0 lit streets from a music lesson or friend’s house or baseball practice. It was before cellphones and sometimes you just didn't have a wayofcallingâ€"oryoucalledand no one answered. Or someone got delayed somewhere and your ride never arrived. And there was no way of getting the message to you. So you were forced to use good old fashioned shoe leather to get you home. You were only walking home, but still, it was an adrenaline rush, conquering your fear of the dark or of being alone on streets that looked diflerent at night. On nights like that my mind would always be racing and I'd wonder how I'd react if I were ever confronted by some wild-eyed maniac who'd leap from between two buildings with a jagged piece of glass in his hands screaming some religious or political slo- gan designed to throw me off, and then lunge at me, swinging his arms and making his eyes bug out and laughing maniacally, as in, “BoooooaaaaaAAAAH,” etc. Would I just freeze? Call me apprehensive (“chick- eni is the word weusedas crazy person when in fact was me. My father one-in-a-bill ever confron a pitch-fork overalls and quote. “Run if he catche: murder!" He got a c Of coursc times and he fled ab?!“ .‘ THE book), you would start to see a lot of people start to obey the bylaws and actually clean out their garages and the_m. You can always tell when bylaw oflicers have done a n Mysteriously there is a big red! gally parked cars. The town does not have an effective parking bylaw. The parking bylaw does not have a specification to only allow parking on one side of the street. lnToronto, where many neighbourhoods have narrow streets, parking is only allowed on one side of the street, to not disturb traf- fic. There is no such bylaw in Stoufiville. There are many times when cars are parked directly across from each other on opposite sides of the street. This really makes it difficult to get down these streets in a normal car and even worse in winter when the street is narrower. I could only imagine what it is like in an ambulance or fire truck responding to an emergency situation. b What do you think of this issue at others? E-mail letters to jmason@yrchom HAVE YOUR SAY Bonnie Rondeau bmndoaubyrmg. mm EDITOR Dianne Mahoney dmhoneyOyrmg.com Special Events Manager Pam Burng pburgrssfiyrmg.mm SUWW-Tribune 6290M8. W.0N.L4A 167 WWW“ PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot e done a recent sweep is a big reduction in file theparking kids), but that's the kind of thing I'd be thinking about as my heart raced and I wondered if there was some crazy person behind every hedge, when in fact the only crazy person was me. I. SMITH STOUFFVILLE My father's advice to us on the one-in-a-billion chance we were ever confronted on a dark street by a pitch-fork wielding nutbar in bib overalls and a goalie mask was to. quote. “Run like the bejesus!" Or. if he catches you. “Scream bloody murder!" He got a chuckle out of it. Of course those were different times and he was never really worâ€" ried about us. I imagine he even Pnonucnon Tum [cadet 9mm Bernie O’Neill OTTAWA POST‘OBAMA VIEW“, Romanians! thought it comical that we were afraid ofthe dark or had been scared by the ad for some hogorgnqvie. He never suggested self-defence techniques to use against oncom- ing maniacs such as a well placed karate chop to dislodge the Hunâ€" garian salami from his hand (it's a lunatic attacking you after all). and besides. none of us knew the first thing about karate. Or I could swing my baseball glove or my sheet music at him. What if he has a gun? Then perhaps I should turn and run in a zigzag pattern and hold my breath and “think thin" and hope he's not only crazy but a bad shot, too. is the sort of thing he'd tell us. In other words, razzle-dazzle him with your fancy footwork. Or pull your Three Stooges routine: grab him by the nose, poke him in the eye, slap him in the forehead from various angles â€" and then run like the bejesus Better to be an anonymous flash of arms and legs fleeing through the night toward home where we could live to tell him all about it. With these demons dancing in your head. your heart would be rac- ADVERTISING 905-640-2612 (W: moansâ€"3353 an; WSWâ€"8778 9056404612 Fu: 905-640-8778 DISTRIBUTION WSWZM 2 EDITORIAL A York Region Media Group community newspaper the WWW. pubushed (Newmucsday and Saturday. isadMsionofmeMemlandMedtaGmuthd..awhouy-wned Wmmcm.mm iscomprised of 100 comm mutations was Outsmmevork Region Newspapethoup mm Liberal. serving Richmond Hill and W.Wcm«.ma-BmmewmanM/Aum). WEmnlstSm.Goorvaocate,MRegion 8mm Noah «the City. Wm": andMReoon mung. ing, but it always felt great as you bounded through the back yard. Home sweet home. Solamadadnowandlguessa lot has changed. driven by fears of predators out there, and by technol- ogy. Where we used to walk to school, many kids get a ride every day. You don't see a lot of teens out walking on their own in the evening because. well, they get a ride. And we'd never dare stop to offer a ride to someone we knew, as it would almost certain- ly prompt a call to the police from a concerned passerby reporting a kidnapping was in progress. Google is even offering a service where you can track people (most likely your kids or spouse) based on where their cellphone is. It just never ends. The other day I noticed my son's cellphone wasn't charged. and sat on an end table for days. He went to a friends after school but used their home phone and left me a message, saying he'd walk home after. Maybe he's noticing some of the thrill is taken out of life when your dad knows where you are. 24/ 7. Saw-Tribune You Rumba annm.‘ BobDaan