Rob Ford's Toronto

NOTE THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED. GO TO THE DOUG FORD THREAD TO CONTINUE DISCUSSIONS ON THE FORD FAMILY AND TORONTO POLITICS




As it's becoming increasingly inevitable that Rob Ford's opponents will fight amongst themselves and propel Ford into the Mayor's chair, what do you think Toronto will look like in 4 years at the end of his term?

Will development stall? Will the province give up on Transit City? What services do you think will be cut? Will festivals like LuminaTO and NuitBlanche collapse from lack of support from City Hall?

Let's make some realistic predictions. Please discuss.

Metroman,
First of all, a note on the premise of this thread:
I respect you and all, but I don't think now is the time to call the mayoral election a done deal. No votes have been cast. We have 5 weeks. As I said, that's the length of a provincial election.

The sense of inevitability is something we should actively discourage if we are to have increased voter participation. It's too early for cynicism.


That said, Ford would be a disaster. Completely.

First off, the city's finances would be worsened. Rob Ford will cut the the vehicle registration fee and land transfer tax, resulting in almost a $1 billion shortfall. The city will also be liable for cancellation fees for his planned cancellation of LRT projects. Then there's the billions he wants to renegotiate with the province for building the Scarborough expressway, ironically standing his neighbourhood of Toronto without any form or rail transit altogether.

As Ford said, cars are for people. His green "plan" calls for reducing the number of speed bumps and stop signs, thereby reducing the idle time for commuters.


Oh, I guess those aren't really predictions. That's just the first things he will do.

The Smitherman campaign allows you to send postcards from "Rob Ford's Toronto" from the website http://www.fordonford.com.

Duper, the purpose of the thread is not to discuss whether he will win -- there's the election thread for that -- but to paint a picture of what his Toronto would look like. So I won't get in to why he may win. I supposed we could have similar threads for Smitherman and Pantalone who appear to be the only challengers with a chance.

That said, I think that culture in Toronto will have the most to lose. LuminaTO, Nuite Blanche, TIFF, Gay Pride and Caribanna will likely not receive any financial support from the city. Some of those will probably be able to survive on corporate support alone, and TIFF has a huge wave of momentum leaving 2010 that it won't have any trouble finding private funding for a decade.

I anticipate WATERFRONToronto being severely limited to the point where the scope of their work will be to finish up on already funded plans. The bridges along the water have no funding and will probably be cancelled. I have serious concern for the Queens Quay redevelopment. It proposes to give back to pedestrians what now belongs to cars. I think Ford will make it his priority to scrap that plan.

Those are two areas I want to touch, but the implications of Ford as Mayor of Toronto are far wider. I'll get to more further into the discussion.

MetroMan said:

Duper, the purpose of the thread is not to discuss whether he will win -- there's the election thread for that -- but to paint a picture of what his Toronto would look like. So I won't get in to why he may win. I supposed we could have similar threads for Smitherman and Pantalone who appear to be the only challengers with a chance.

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That's fair. What set me off, however, was the premise. We have a problem with political involvment, a lot of which is caused by a cynical believe that certain things are inevitable.

The subject is fine.
Your predictions for what would happen are also spot on. In terms of vision, Ford would be a mayor who could not see past his own nose. He clearly does not see a role for government on any of those issues. He pretty much admits the fact that he has little respect for the arts community, and doesn't believe in funding cultural events, even if they contribute millions of dollars to the economy. Silly and shortsighted "leadership".

We are going to get new highways and artery roads. We will see lower taxes and worse service as a result.

I see Toronto spinning its wheels (no pun intended) for the next 4 years. I don't see much change taking place for better or worse with Rob Ford as mayor.

Garbage Transit and maybe the police will be contracted out.

Arts/culture funding will be cut whenever and wherever he can. Which will be a travesty as it shows he has no concept of what has been happening in Toronto this last decade, nor an understanding in how creative cities tends to help float all boats in the city.

"Spinning on its wheels" is the most reasonable likelihood in all other areas, unless he can really corral a slightly more right-wing council (but I have my doubts).

Still, the damage could be enormous just based on "spinnning on our wheels" and having important people in the world have to listen to him. Toronto simply would not be taken very seriously.

All the streetcars will be gone. This is very sad, we will become another Phoenix, Atlanta and Dallas.

The last thing on my mind is how other people see Toronto.

-How did you think we where perceived when we turned parks into Garbage dumps?
-how competent does it come across when we continuously double the amount of money we spend on infrastructure projects?



how's this headliner? - Toronto: Unions have death grip on dysfunctional city

Of course, I will not have to pay the land transfer and car vehicle registration tax. I won't have to get upset about the city blowing 12 Million dollars on 40 beds that takes as long as the Ritz Carlton to erect.

A subway to Scarborough! how Novel! People might actually get out of their cars and take public transportatoin?!

Arts and culture? well... I don't think I should be funding someone elses 'hobby'. If the're really passionate and talented, they'll be fine selling their material to willing enthusiasts. The pretend artists can go ahead and get a real job.

js97 said:

People will receive responses from their councillors....

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He's going to fall down so hard on this one. He can't even fathom how many emails and phone calls go through city hall these days. It's such a ridiculous part of his campaign.

Has anyone complaining about responsiveness actually used 311 since it launched? It's very effective.

Someone like RF and his reactionary politics is exactly what is needed to spark a renewed downtown neighbourhood activism - the benefits of which has been taken for granted for far too long.

I for one can't wait to see him try and put the streetcars issue where his mouth is. My prediction - it'd be the first issue for him to cave. The late 60s/early 70s all over again?

AoD

theterribleone said:

All the streetcars will be gone. This is very sad, we will become another Phoenix, Atlanta and Dallas.

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Streetcars aren't going anywhere. It's just rhetoric to gather support from anti-transit Torontonians. Once faced with the reality of adding more buses and bus drivers (which means more salary expense) it will clash with his penny pinching mandate.

Indeed. I have a strong feeling the province will strongarm Ford on transit and transportation issues completely in fact.

AoD