Rob Ford, huffing rock, and "do it yourself" urbanism.

Obviously, there is no crack cocaine scandal in New Albany, at least in political terms. But setting aside the druggie aspect of this story from Toronto, there is a major nugget of wisdom therein.

Why You May Want a Crack-Smoking Mayor, by Stephen Marche (guest post at the Esquire politics blog)

... The lesson of Rob Ford may not be one that urbanists particularly want to hear: Having an utterly paralyzed and embarrassing government may not be that bad a thing. Nobody expects City Hall to do anything: Since Ford came to power, if you wanted the little park in your neighborhood to look good, you and your friends were going to have to organize it. If you wanted more green space, you were going to have to figure out a way to make that happen. Toronto is the one city I know of where the hipster kids in the parks and the billionaires in penthouses share mostly the same values and goals, at least in regards to the city they want to live in; since Ford, both groups have had to think of themselves as city builders. And they are proceeding to build the city. They know they have to build it themselves because the mayor is, uh, otherwise engaged.