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link — Comments Off on Doug Ford: Mayor is ‘Walking Pollster’
12
Jun 11

Doug Ford: Mayor is ‘Walking Pollster’

Patrick White has a very nice feature story on Councillor Doug Ford in the weekend Globe & Mail. Very much worth reading:

“He’s like a walking pollster,” says Doug of his younger brother. “Just imagine calling 80 to 100 people from all across Toronto hearing what they have to say. He gets this city. It really bothers me when people say this or that about him.…That guy is brilliant in his own way. Is he a brilliant speaker? Not all the time. Is he eloquent? Not all the time. But man, Rob’s my hero. Rob’s a political genius.”

via Doug Ford: Riding shotgun in the Fordmobile – The Globe and Mail.

Making political decisions based on amateur phone polling — of less than 100 people, apparently — doesn’t really seem like something to brag about, but I guess it’s worked out pretty well for him so far.

White also gets Doug talking about the plans for Sheppard Subway financing:

He’s heard a number of serious proposals already for financing the $4-billion line privately, including at least one from a Chinese firm. He insists the city should start digging with partial funding: accepting a few hundred million from the federal government, borrowing against future tax revenues (known as tax-increment financing) along Eglinton and Sheppard and diverting cash leftover from the $8.1-billion the province has promised for the Eglinton subway. “I know for a fact Eglinton won’t cost that much,” he said. “Let’s just get the shovels in the ground,” he added. “Even if we go a kilometre a year, just don’t take those boring machines out of the ground once they start going.”

So: Taking future tax revenues from development around Eglinton and applying them to Sheppard. Getting construction started before all the necessary funding is in place. Hoping that the Eglinton line comes in under budget. This, apparently, is what fiscally responsible government looks like.

link — Comments Off on Candidate Rob Ford versus Mayor Rob Ford, on city’s revenue problem
10
Jun 11

Candidate Rob Ford versus Mayor Rob Ford, on city’s revenue problem

From then-councillor Rob Ford’s address to supporters at the Toronto Congress Centre on March 26, 2010. This is the speech where he officially kicked off his mayoral campaign:

I’ve said it a million times. Toronto doesn’t have a funding problem.

Toronto has a spending problem.

City Hall is addicted to wasteful spending.

via RobFordForMayor.ca (PDF).

Yesterday, in an article by the Globe & Mail’s Elizabeth Church regarding the potential sale of more than 900 city-owned TCHC houses, as recommended by outgoing board chair Case Ootes.:

“I agree. Let’s sell these homes. Let’s take that revenue,” [Rob Ford] said. “Obviously, we need the money to fund next year’s budget.”

via Ford plans to sell social housing stock to close budget deficit – The Globe and Mail.

In defence of Case Ootes, he was suggesting the sale of the homes to fund necessarily capital repairs at other TCHC properties. Ford’s desire to immediately plow revenue from asset sales into this year’s operating budget is disturbing.

link — Comments Off on ‘Construction chaos’ is chance for new administration to prove effectiveness
10
Jun 11

‘Construction chaos’ is chance for new administration to prove effectiveness

Councillor Ana Bailão made the rounds this week for the latest “Oh no! Road Construction!” story, this time focused on Dundas West. I’m not always sympathetic to those who immediately complain about so-called construction chaos. It happens sometimes, and we must persevere. Still, though, it seems undeniable at this point that the city has a real problem when it comes to the coordination of utility work, to the point where construction delays are far more common than they should be.

Soon after the media jumped on Bailão’s story, Public Works Chair Denzil Minnan-Wong joined the party.

The Toronto Star’s Robyn Doolittle:

Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works committee, said this is yet another example of shoddy planning that leads to over-budget spending, lengthy delays and city roads being ripped up, rebuilt and ripped up again across the city.

“We are told time and time again, over and over again, that things are coordinated and then we find out after the fact, when things go wrong, that they weren’t,” he said.

via Fed up with sidewalks being ripped up everywhere? So is the city – thestar.com.

This an area where the new administration has a real chance to prove their effectiveness. It’s an identifiable problem, and has been for years. It might even be a case where a more stereotypically conservative approach — involving yelling and threats — is kind of appropriate.

It’s not a simple problem, however, and there’s a great danger in oversimplifying. This isn’t about lazy unions or inept city staff. It’s about a bunch of agencies — some private and some public — trying to coordinate communication and requirements to one another across a very large and very busy city.

link — Comments Off on TTC shortfall to be approximately $80m
10
Jun 11

TTC shortfall to be approximately $80m

The National Post’s Natalie Alcoba:

Transit officials are bracing for the city to cut its annual subsidy by 10% next year, widening its budget gap to more than $80-million. And that’s without factoring in a new labour contract with workers that will add millions more, given that every 1% wage increase adds $10-million to the TTC’s bottom line.

via TTC looking at service cuts, fare hike in budget crisis | Posted Toronto | National Post.

That new labour contract is likely to provide a higher-than-normal wage increase due to City Council’s recent decision to designate the TTC an Essential Service.

The only way to significantly reduce the overall cost of the TTC is to lower service standards to the point where riders opt out of using the system. Thanks to aggressive strategies by the previous administration to expand service, TTC ridership has been rising every year. As such, costs go up every year.

Needless to say, a 2012 budget that saw reduced service and a fare increase could set off a chain reaction ridership decline. As more routes lose riders, they can justifiably be cut in future budgets under the guise of efficiency. The net effect would be budgetary savings for the city, but the overall economic impact of transit riders moving to other modes of transportation (driving, most likely) would be very bad for the city.

Related: An OpenFile, John Michael McGrath makes the case for road tolls in a very good piece.

link — Comments Off on City looking at 10% budget reduction
10
Jun 11

City looking at 10% budget reduction

The Toronto Star’s Paul Moloney:

City departments that struggled to meet directives to slash 5 per cent of their annual budgets are now being ordered to double that, for a total cut equivalent to Toronto’s entire parks and recreation budget.

Cutting 10 per cent would save $375.9 million and go halfway toward filling the $774 million gap in the 2012 operating budget.

via City ponders the 10% solution – thestar.com.

This is going to be a bloodbath. Asking departments who just cut their budgets by 5% this year to look at a further cut of 10% is more than a little insane. We’re not a city with a declining population or a stagnant economy. We’re a city that enjoys low property tax rates compared to 905 municipalities and has been getting screwed by a bad financial relationship with the provincial government for more than a decade now.

We’re also a city that should be continuously looking to find ways to save money and create efficiencies, of course. The problem with this administration is that the Rob Ford campaign estimated that there were $230 million in potential savings immediately available in the city’s operating budget. Since taking office, they’ve only been able to identify a small fraction of that figure.

Bright side: Mike Del Grande seems committed to maintaining the land transfer tax. Without it, the city’s budget gap for 2012 would be more than a billion dollars. The Toronto Real Estate Board is mad about this. Duh.

link — Comments Off on The cell phone mayor: “You have the wrong number”
10
Jun 11

The cell phone mayor: “You have the wrong number”

Rob Ford, as a candidate and now as mayor, has always implored the people of Toronto to call his ubiquitous cell phone to express their concerns about city issues. At the New Year’s Day levee that came only weeks into his office term, the Toronto Star’s Amy Dempsey reported that the mayor had a repeated refrain for anyone who visited him with a problem or question: “Call me. Just call me.”

Representing Xtra!, reporter Andrea Houston had a problem of her own. Despite being only a few short weeks away from the kick-off to the Pride festivities, the Mayor has not issued the traditional proclamation.

So Houston called the mayor:

When Xtra called Ford’s cellphone June 7 to ask if he will read the proclamation and raise the rainbow flag, he said, “You have the wrong number” and promptly hung up.

via Pride Week not on list of city proclamations.

To be fair, the idea that the mayor of a city of more than two million people could manage issues personally via cell phone was never realistic. Still, though, if Ford isn’t responding to every phone call he gets, he likely should stop making blanket references to the people who call him whenever he speaks about an issue he supports.

By the way, Ford has still not committed to marching in the Pride parade. Since June Rowlands, who never marched, every subsequent Toronto mayor has made an appearance in the parade.

link — Comments Off on Lame budget analogies
09
Jun 11

Lame budget analogies

Budget Chief Mike Del Grande is, to his credit, making a point of attending the consultation sessions regarding the city’s core service review. This is a good thing. Less good are the analogies he’s giving reporters.

Here’s what he told The National Post’s Natalie Alcoba:

“We’ve done all kinds of crazy things down here,” budget chief Mike Del Grande told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve sold our furniture to pay the rent. We are no different than any family in Toronto who spends more than we earn. We need to get a second job. We would love to send our kids to camp, but it may not be the most nice camp. Or maybe the kids don’t go to camp at all.”

via City turns to citizens to solve looming deficit | Posted Toronto | National Post.

See, the thing about that example is that you have to follow it through. The city is a struggling family, sure. Let’s go with that. But last year the city did have a part-time job. It paid more than $60 million per year. The city quit that job.

The city also ended the past year with a bit of money in the bank. But instead of investing that cash or keeping it around for future years, it decided to use that money to pay for groceries. Worse, it decided to forego taking a salary bump at the job that pays most of the bills. So the saved money disappeared really quickly.

And, of course, the city said nothing to the kids about the possibility of not going to camp at the last big family meeting. In fact, the city promised the kids they would be able to go to the same camp like always.

All this to say: pretending that the operating and capital budgets of a $12 billion metropolis is equivalent to the budget of a suburban family with a dog and 2.3 children is ridiculous.

link — Comments Off on Minnan-Wong’s work on bike lanes: pragmatic & inclusionary
08
Jun 11

Minnan-Wong’s work on bike lanes: pragmatic & inclusionary

The Toronto Star’s Catherine Porter went on an apparently quite scary bike ride with Chair of Public Works Denzil Minnan-Wong the other day. While riding — and falling, then falling again — the councillor talked about his plan for installing protected bike lanes on Richmond, Sherbourne, St. George/Beverley, Simcoe and Wellesley/Harbord:

“I see it as a pragmatic solution,” said Minnan-Wong, the public works chair, who will introduce his plan to the committee later this month. From there, it will go in July to council, where he figures he has the votes.

“The mayor has three principles when it comes to bike lanes: safety, community support and where they make sense. This downtown network, where we don’t have parks and ravines, meets those criteria,” he said.

via Porter: City’s new bike champion is on the right path – thestar.com.

Denzil Minnan-Wong is following the political track that Rob Ford, as mayor, really should be on as well. Now that he and council’s right-wing are in power, he’s throwing his support behind an initiative that even his most steadfast detractors will find appealing. Whereas Ford continues to stand up in council and rant about the socialists, Minnan-Wong would seem to be, at the very least, attempting to heal some of the divisiveness that badly marked the last election.

How genuine Minnan-Wong is with his overtures toward the cycling community is a matter of opinion — that he’s advocating for these lanes while not too long ago he was yelling about Jarvis gives me a ton of pause — , but politically I have to give him credit. That this kind of thing could nicely set him up for a mayoral run is, for him, a fringe benefit.

Minnan-Wong’s been careful to position his bicycle network plan as the mayor’s plan, but so far there’s been little in the way of comment from the mayor’s office on this issue. (“Not a priority,” they said, when Minnan-Wong first started floating the idea.)

I doubt very much the mayor or his loyal band of councillors would take issue with improving existing bike lanes, but I am very interested to see how council responds to the idea of a protected lane on Richmond. The removal of a lane of traffic on what some would dub a major arterial (for cars) seems contrary to the mayor’s beliefs.

link — Comments Off on Something to be managed, not something to be built
08
Jun 11

Something to be managed, not something to be built

Jake Tobin Garrett has done some terrific writing for Torontoist over the last while. His latest looks at the demise of the Fort York Bridge, and what it means in an era where “city building” is seemingly a dirty word:

The greatest mistake of this administration, and the one that will leave the most lasting legacy of harm, is the simplistic view of the city as something to be managed and not something to be built, or fed, or nurtured. The view that aspirational projects are elitist and thus not worthy of consideration. The view that public spaces suck money and offer nothing back. The view that if we just squeeze our public services tight enough a few pennies will pop out.

via This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things – Torontoist.

A city that is not being built up — that isn’t growing — is inevitably one that is declining. It’s not possible to just hit pause for a few years while you ‘fix’ the city’s finances. We’ll be left behind.

Related: Ken Greenberg’s Requiem for a bridge at The Globe & Mail.

link — Comments Off on Doug Ford is whining about street closures
08
Jun 11

Doug Ford is whining about street closures

The Toronto Star’s Paul Moloney:

Councillor Doug Ford says there has to be a “better way” of running charity events and marathons that infuriate motorists by shutting down Toronto’s major expressways.

Mayor Rob Ford’s top advisor made the comments a day after the annual Becel Heart and Stroke Ride for Heart cycling fundraiser sparked complaints by closing parts of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway.

via Doug Ford looks for solution to road-clogging charity events – thestar.com.

This is, of course, ridiculous. First, because it’s another example of Ford governing based on a small but elusive band of city residents who apparently call the Etobicoke councillor about all kinds of issues, even ones that take place nowhere near his ward.

And, second, come on. The suggestion that there’s a bunch of small-scale events that currently close city streets but could easily be moved to parks is just generally not true. Large events like marathons or bike races need the road space. Smaller events like protests or marches demand to be visible — they’re going to be out on the street whether you like it or not.

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