{UAH} WHY DOES MUNICIPAL POLITICS BECOME THIS STUPID? Geez !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesse Kline on Vancouver’s doorknob ban: Homeowners should have a choice

Jesse Kline | 20/11/13 | Last Updated: 20/11/13 7:27 PM ET

Peter McCabe/Postmedia NewsWhy should private homes be required to have accessible door handles, even if there are no people with disabilities living there?

“The homesteader began with a tent, then a log shanty with a sod roof, which was fine in the winter but leaked like a sieve once spring arrived,” wrote Aritha Van Her about the early settlers of Western Canada, in her book Mavericks.

Brian Hutchinson: Vancouver doorknob ban is city council’s latest move to eliminate the bad

There are no half measures in Vancouver. This city wants to be a leader in everything considered good and proper by its lefty city council. The bad must be eliminated. First thing former organic farmer Gregor Robertson did when elected mayor in 2008? Launch his plan to end homelessness. Vancouver also aims to be the “greenest city in the world” by 2020. Last week, a world-exclusive cigarette butt recycling program was introduced with fanfare. While these are ambitious, well-intentioned things, results are hard to gauge. They do attract attention.

But two months ago, unknown to most Vancouverites, their city council approved another world-beating measure: Rejection of the common doorknob.

The challenges faced by many newcomers built a character that we still see throughout much of Western Canada today. Although life was hard, at least the government tended to leave people alone, so they could be free to earn a living and raise a family on the fruits of their labour.

Then there’s Vancouver, circa 2013.

“In Vancouver, the doorknob is heading into a setting sun. Its future has been date-marked, legislated out of existence in all future construction,” Vancouver Sun writer Jeff Lee reported the other day.

Vancouver has banned doorknobs? That’s right.

As of March 14, all new buildings and homes will be required to have levers on door handles and faucets, instead of knobs. Vancouver is trying to make buildings accessible to as many people as possible.

City workers already replaced the Art Deco doorknobs at Vancouver’s historic city hall with levers that are easier for people with disabilities to open. This makes sense: Public buildings should be accessible to all members of the public.

But why should private homes be required to have accessible door handles, even if there are no people with disabilities living there?

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And why stop at doorknobs? If the government is going to make it its business to ensure that all homes are accessible — just in case a future owner needs these features and is too lazy to install them himself — why not mandate light-switch panels, walk-in bathtubs and elevators instead of stairs?

These are all things that could be done. But they would significantly increase the cost of housing, and with the average Vancouver house costing $771,653 — the highest in the country — such a move would make the city even more unaffordable than it already is.

Indeed, most people have probably never considered whether they prefer doorknobs or levers. But every regulation adds to the cost of new homes, and eventually ends up pricing people right out of the market. A 2002 report from the Montreal Economic Institute estimated that unnecessary building codes had doubled the cost of new houses in Quebec over the previous 20 years.

Every regulation adds to the cost of new homes, and eventually ends up pricing people right out of the market

I, myself, never imagined I would one day be defending doorknobs. There’s a lever on the door to my apartment and a knob on the bathroom door. I don’t know which one is better, and frankly, I don’t care. But it doesn’t matter what I think. The fact is that there are homeowners and homebuilders who prefer knobs; otherwise there would be no reason to ban them.

For one thing, knobs are often cheaper. Levers are easier for small children and, as anyone who’s watched Jurassic Park knows, velociraptors to open. They also have to match the orientation of the door, and can be hazardous to both children and clothing.

These are considerations that anyone thinking of building or renovating a new home should be able to take into consideration. People with disabilities, or elderly folks with arthritis, are more likely to want levers, while those who like the style of knobs should be free to install them if they choose to.

The early pioneers lived in root cellars and mud huts, but they certainly picked their own type of mud. I’m on their team.

National Post

• Email: jkline@nationalpost.com |

 

 

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