Yuck.

I just heard a speaker refer to lack of urban development as a cancer eating away at our cities. I think that type of statement is cruel and meaningless. People who have cancer do not need to be reminded that it is ugly and destructive and try their best to cure the disease or learn to live with it as long as possible. To exploit a dire illness to make a political point is at best thoughtless and at worst demeaning and demoralizing. And the metaphor of a city as a cancer patient is artificial and cheap.