E-scooter bust, Florida surprise, and leaving Substack
My personal big news this week is my departure from Substack, for reasons I explained here. I had first heard about the moderation issues in early December and didn’t really want them to be true because damn, migrating from one platform to another is not the most fun in the world especially while technically on semi-vacation. I took the time to read more and to think about my options very carefully and frankly there was only one choice — I had to bite the bullet and move. I chose Ghost as my new platform, and I hope you folks like it. I have checked and rechecked and it looks like everybody’s account got moved over smoothly so there should be no changes for my subscribers except in the look and feel of the emails and website. If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please get in touch.
In the Ottawa Citizen I wrote about the e-scooter pilot program that’s bleeding users exponentially faster than Substack is bleeding writers. I am more than a little upset by this. We need more low-emission micro-mobility options, not fewer. But unless and until we’re prepared to take some space away from cars and give it to active transportation users, nothing good will happen. At the moment 80 percent of our public space in this city is reserved for private vehicles. If we want to encourage people to drive less, we have to give them space to walk, cycle or roll safely. It’s that simple.
The LRT in Ottawa continues its general farce of pretending to be a transit system that limps with news that the tunnel at St. Laurent is crumbling. No word of whether the bus terminal that's directly on top of that tunnel is still considered safe. But fear not, OC Transpo is on the job! The latest? Jacking up fares while reducing routes. Or as I like to put it, the floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves marketing campaign.
Holy hell, Florida!
Some fantastic news:
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida abortion rights advocates, who have seen access to the procedure erode in the state and nationally in recent years, reached a major milestone that could shape abortion access throughout the south. Groups seeking a constitutional amendment protecting abortion on Friday secured enough state-certified signatures by the Feb. 1 deadline to put a referendum on the 2024 ballot. If successful, voters in the country’s third-most populous state could undo Florida’s abortion bans, keeping access open to thousands of patients throughout the South who travel to Florida from neighboring states — and from as far away as Texas — to avoid more restrictive prohibitions.
If it works, Florida will replicate what Ohio recently did and frustrate Republicans' plans to control what people who own a uterus do with it. Yee-fucking-haw.
