@ukuku @ajsadauskas@aus.social @ajsadauskas@lemmy.ml The Geelong council in Victoria tried to do the same thing but the state government intervened and stopped the vandalism.

The lowest class of politicians will politicise anything they can if it helps them dog-whistle and set segments of the public against each other. They love to create zero-sum culture war divisiveness in the community, rather than consensus. Distracts attention from their lack of vision and competence. If you can't do anything good, then just encourage the already-entitled demographics to attack less-entitled demographics.

Democracy allows this to happen sometimes. If we don't spend all our time preventing bad actors from taking over the system.

@ajsadauskas@aus.social @ajsadauskas@lemmy.ml @SydneyCyclewaysFan @cyclingnews @walk_sydney @sydneyurbanismnews @betterstreetsnsw

Design authority for cycling infrastructure needs to be taken away from councils.

No need for it to be politicised by grand-standing local demagogues running on a dog-whistle platform of "we hate cyclists getting in our way when we're driving our SUVS on roads we pay for and they don't"

I'm actually starting to think it WOULD be a good idea to get rid of local councils altogether. Nothing important would be lost.

Local councils are where we store mediocre politicians who are really trying to get a safe state or federal seat.