City politicians focus on utopian visions while citizens just want simple things, like passable roads

Missed this in December, but worth a read. Quoting in part:
The problem in Toronto, as in other Canadian cities, is the ideological fixation on cities as centres of political power that can impose utopian visions on voters who mostly want the simple things they have wanted for centuries from their cities — roads that are passable, snow that’s removed, garbage that’s collected, transit that’s functional and water that’s drinkable.