Scritchy Raccone and the Pylon Wars
April 19, 2026
I live in a weird place. Happily, it’s often a good type of weird. Sadly, it’s also a place where, in general, motorists aren’t very concerned with things like “obeying laws” or “not hitting people”.
Recently, there’s been a lot of consternation around bike lanes. I won’t go deep into the lore here, but we’ve elected some people who seem to value unsustainable suburban sprawl over having a nice downtown.
But there have been some wins. One of them is the Allan-Oak Local Street Bikeway. Part of this is a traffic-calming diverter that doubles as a cyclist/pedestrian crossing. It was approved in 2018, but only implemented recently after a legal battle with some residents.
A quirk in the plan for the diverter was that it needed to accommodate snow removal in the winter months, and emergency vehicles at all times. For most of the year, flexible bollards would be installed. Ambulances, fire trucks, etc. can plow through those, but most drivers won’t want to mess with them. During the first winter season, though, those bollards were removed and some unsecured plastic pylons were put in their place. As you might imagine, this was not an amazing solution.
Soon the pylons started going missing, and the Pylon Wars began.
Most folks in the area were happy with the diverter. One of the streets was often being used as a shortcut, and this wasn’t ideal for a residential area with lots of kids running around. So, after those pylons were removed, many more cones and pylons appeared.
Deploy the raccoon! A new front in #PylonWars has opened up & it is darn cute. A good likeness to our bike mayor too @seebo429.bsky.social #BikeHFX
— Sara F.L. Kirk (@sflkirk.bsky.social) April 1, 2026 at 8:15 AM
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A short while into this, a really cute critter showed up named Scritchy the Raccone. It’s unclear who built Scritchy, but there was a certain resemblance to our local “bike mayor”.
Scritchy was attacked, then rebuilt. Went missing, had “teknicul difacultys”, then was back with kits. Finally, sadly, Scritchy was demolished one last time. This happened just after the flexible bollards were replaced, which made Scritchy’s destruction feel all the worse.
Yesterday, there was a memorial service for Scritchy. A bunch of folks from the community showed up to pay their respects.
There are always going to be jerks who just want to break things, but I love living somewhere populated by weird, fun, and creative people. As someone who walks or takes public transit for almost all of my travel, I’m also happy that the community is fighting for more accessible ways of getting around. It would be great to get the word out that helping people use their cars less can ease road congestion. If a place is easier to get around by foot or on a bike, more people will choose those options. If more people make a trip without a car, that frees up space on the roads. Maybe a story about Scritchy will help spread this idea a bit further.
catching up on today's journal page #pylonwars
— a (@ashbrino.bsky.social) April 18, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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