{"id":16078,"date":"2016-12-14T12:41:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T17:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16078"},"modified":"2016-12-14T12:41:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T17:41:45","slug":"inside-aurora-the-christmas-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-christmas-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The Christmas Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Twas two weeks before Christmas, up north saw a gale<br \/>\nWhile a well known elf inside was reading his mail.<br \/>\nHard copy letters once were the way it had been<br \/>\nSanta now sat back before the glow of a screen<\/p>\n<p>From Aurora, he saw the next letter was from,<br \/>\nSo he reached for his milk, and added some rum<br \/>\n\u2018Cause this Town always asked, for things big and small,<br \/>\nRegional reps to hotels, he had heard it all<\/p>\n<p>He rarely gave them these things for fear they\u2019d abuse \u2018em<br \/>\nOr like the rebuilt Petch House, might hardly use them<br \/>\nSipping his drink he scanned the list with a frown<br \/>\nTo see what tests awaited him this time around<\/p>\n<p>All it took was a quick glance, it soon became clear<br \/>\nWhat impossible task the Town wanted this year<br \/>\nHe looked up from his reading and said \u201cRudolph, my stars<br \/>\nThey want me to solve issues \u2018round parking and cars!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You might not believe me but I tell you they\u2019re true<br \/>\nListen to these examples, I\u2019ll read you a few<br \/>\n\u201cTo smooth traffic congestion, and make it all fair<br \/>\nPlease arrange for one way streets, \u2018round Library Square\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Traffic flow changes crossed municipal lines<br \/>\nBut maybe Santa could help, and bring them some signs<br \/>\nFolks in this area could then drive only one way<br \/>\nAnd like Council go \u2018round in circles all day<\/p>\n<p>Please ensure snow doesn\u2019t fall, after it gets dark<br \/>\nSo people on the Town\u2019s streets can legally park<br \/>\nThis request of St Nick was an impossible ask<br \/>\n\u201cThey should get Mother Nature to handle this task.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based on St John traffic near the four oh four<br \/>\nWider streets weren\u2019t enough, they wanted much more<br \/>\nAn interchange linking this road and the highway<br \/>\nCould St Nick possibly fit that into the sleigh?<br \/>\nOf course more traffic calming was on the Town\u2019s list<br \/>\nSpelled out in bold letters, so not to be missed<br \/>\nBut Santa was not a fan, recalling with dread<br \/>\nThe year speed humps on Golf Links, had damaged his sled<\/p>\n<p>Santa frowned at the things on Aurorans\u2019 minds<br \/>\nAnd read still more requests of vehicular kinds<br \/>\nFrom congestion, construction, and other dislikes<br \/>\nTo pleas for underpasses, for people and bikes<\/p>\n<p>Yonge Street left turn restrictions were also on there<br \/>\nAs was the widening of select thoroughfares<br \/>\nThe lack of GO parking spots was one more Town fear<br \/>\nBut St Nick had seen this ask each previous year<\/p>\n<p>Santa sat back in his chair, and sighed once more<br \/>\nPondering all that Aurora\u2019d asked for<br \/>\nTo his friend he then asked, \u201cRudolph, all this talk<br \/>\nOf driving and of parking &#8230; why don\u2019t they just walk?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Scott Johnston Twas two weeks before Christmas, up north saw a gale While a well known elf inside was reading his mail. Hard copy letters once were the way it had been Santa now sat back before the glow of a screen From Aurora, he saw the next letter was from, So he reached [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}