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link — Comments Off on Oh no! Road Construction!
03
Jan 11

Oh no! Road Construction!

Daniel Bitonti for The National Post:

Behind the counter at Aris Place, a diner near the corner of Roncesvalles and Fermanagh avenues where a group of men in their 70s sit in the back at tables that look nearly as old, John Athanselos uses a spatula to check eggs, bacon and potatoes sizzling on a griddle.

Every so often, he waves the spatula in frustration at the streetcar stop directly outside his front window where, after a year-and-a-half of construction that clogged Roncesvalles and squeezed the small businesses that line it, streetcars finally began running again on Dec. 19.

via Roncesvalles’ still-unfinished rebuilding strains neighbourhood | Posted Toronto | National Post.

This is kind of a ridiculous lede to what otherwise is your standard horrors-of-road-construction article. “He waves the spatula in frustration” indeed.

link — Comments Off on More on bags
03
Jan 11

More on bags

Maybe Rob Ford decided the bag fee was a major priority because he’s been hanging with Councillor Minnan-Wong a lot these days.

via Twitter / @Denzil Minnan-Wong: Shopping in the US for gro ….

link — Comments Off on Plastic bags
03
Jan 11

Plastic bags

The Star writes an editorial:

Eliminating the bag fee would be a mistake. It costs the city nothing, but it produces tangible benefits. Pre-fee, it was estimated that Torontonians used about 460 million retail plastic bags a year.

According to merchants, with the fee in place there has since been a marked reduction — 71 per cent by one count — in the circulation of these bags.

via Plastic bags: Keep the nickel fee – thestar.com.

Ford’s sudden decision to attack the five-cent bag fee is ridiculous both because it’s clearly a successful program and because it’s so unimportant. What kind of person gets so fired up over paying a nickel for a bag that they call the mayor about it?

link — Comments Off on Fit to be labelled
03
Jan 11

Fit to be labelled

Carola Vyhnak points to this:

The Toronto bus driver who was forced to give up his seat on Oshawa council because of a TTC policy is asking Mayor Rob Ford to intervene.

I don’t know – how do you think Rob Ford feels about politicians working two jobs?

Source: Ford asked to fix ‘silly’ TTC election rule – thestar.com.

link — Comments Off on Was going to attend but heard it was dry
03
Jan 11

Was going to attend but heard it was dry

The Star’s Amy Dempsey on the Mayor’s New Year’s Day levee:

“Thank you,” Ford said to those who came simply to wish him well. “Thank you very much. I appreciate it.”

To others, who had more to discuss than a minute or two would allow, the mayor repeated his now familiar mantra. “Call me. Just call me.”

I don’t know what bothers me more: Ford’s insistence that everything he ever needed to know about mayoring he learned via his cell phone or his weird twentieth-century love for communicating via telephones. I think it’s the latter.

Source: Rob Ford hears from hundreds at levee – thestar.com.

link — Comments Off on Most effective mayor ever
03
Jan 11

Most effective mayor ever

Rob Ford, quoted in article by The Sun’s Don Peat:

Ford bristled at the suggestion the proposed hikes for garbage and water rates in 2011, is in effect, a tax hike on Toronto residents.

“It’s not fair because I haven’t even been able to deal with garbage,” Ford said. “In 25 days I’ve done more than any mayor has in seven, eight years.

“The garbage fee will be taken care of when I contract out garbage. This year I just haven’t had time to do it. I can’t abolish something that I haven’t had time to work with,” he said.

Two things: Any mayor ever? and Ford’s fiscal planning is like watching a car crash slowly. In a couple of years, the city’s only major revenue source will be property taxes and user fees. By then there won’t be lingering surpluses or reserves to raid to patch up budget shortfalls. The rest sort of writes itself.

But, who cares? I am really excited about getting a giant garbage bin for cheap!

Source: Ford’s got the pedal to the metal | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun.

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