Letter from the editor

Ici Mirror

For most of us at the Mirror, changes have always felt more like major revolutions than transitions. The last time we completely redesigned our paper was in June, 1995--the same week we decided to alter the paper's size and bring our production team out of the stone age of paste-up and into the new digital reality of transmitting the paper to the printer via high-speed modem.

Needless to say, I have recollections of that week being somewhat chaotic and sleepless. This time, thanks to our graphic masters Mario Mercier, Annie Lachapelle, Hoover Chung and Pierre Marc Pelletier, redesigning the Mirror--the same week we're moving into an exciting new era by launching our French sister publication, Ici--wasn't so madcap after all. So far, putting out two new papers in one week has not actually driven our entire staff to a state of utter insanity. Let's just say there will be a lot of English and French alternative journalists spreading good cheer around town tonight and Friday.

I am now quite proud to announce the following new developments in the Mirror:

>> You'll no longer need to rifle through the paper a couple of times to find your favourite columnist or address for a club or bar. By integrating our listings with our arts section we hope this problem will be solved. >> Sasha, formerly known as Sex Reporter, is now offering free weekly sex and love counselling on page 37. >> Angloman, which was desperate to get out its crammed space on page 3, can now be read in a far less restrictive strip on page 35. >> A soapbox space, called ThinkTank, will appear every week next to Josh Bezonsky's column. >> A local film column, called Reeling, will finally give Matthew Hays a place to unload his film gossip. >> A new music column, Upside/Downside, provides a quick look at the highs and lows of the music scene.

Besides these changes, you can consider the Mirror the same old rag you've come to know as your alternative newsweekly bible.

--Annarosa Sabbadini

Bike paths useless

In an article about a protest staged by cycling activists in the McGill ghetto ("Faux Bike Path," Sept. 18), the Mirror reported that activists painted an impromptu bike path from Park to University, describing it as "a symbol of the lack of cycling access to the McGill campus." Now, upon reading this I thought to myself, this is patently absurd. I've never had any problems getting to McGill by bike.

Milton Street is part of the city's network of streets, avenues and boulevards, almost all of which are accessible to bikes. How this activist group thinks that segregating vehicular traffic is supposed to make this or any other street even more accessible to bicycles is beyond my comprehension.

Riding a bicycle in normal traffic, as an operator of a vehicle with the same rights, obligations and privileges as motorists, is exceedingly easy to learn and makes cycling not only very safe, but very enjoyable as well. And to those of us who have mastered those simple skills, it is apparent that it is the humble vélo that has all the advantages in normal urban traffic: manoeuvrability, safety, even speed when traffic gets moderately heavy. We neither need nor want our movements restricted or our safety compromised by a system of bike lanes on our streets.

The McGill activist group, as well as the "critical massers," may have some valid political points to make about cycling as a serious alternative to motorized transport, but, in their calls for bike lanes and other forms of segregation, they do not represent the interests of competent cyclists. Nor do they represent the most current thinking on the subject of cycling safety. I have only to refer you to a couple of Internet discussion groups, "commute-logistics" and "chainguard," both of which can be accessed and subscribed to through http://cycling.org.

--Wade Eide > Architect

If Toronto is sick, Montreal is sicker

If Toronto is such a big, bad, boring city, then why are there so many Montrealers moving here? I am writing in response to Matthew Hays' column on Toronto's International Film Festival ["Toronto is sick," Sept. 11]. When I lived in Montreal I regularly attended Montreal's World Film Festival. It seemed that I was paying a large sum of money for films that could not possibly be screened anywhere else. There were a few good quality films, but a majority of them were no more than a collection of rejected first year college films.

Toronto can never boast that its Jazz Festival is better than Montreal's, nor can it celebrate so vigorously its other festivals as Montrealers do so regularly all summer long. As a former Montrealer, I miss much of the city and province that I left behind, but I do not miss Montrealers' small and narrow views of the world around them. If Toronto's International Film Festival is so evil, why does it attract so many exceptional international films, directors and actors every year? Grow up Montreal: Toronto has.

--Michael Prokaziuk