Rob Ford's Toronto

[neubilder]

If Ford disrespects council's decision and tries to obstruct progress then he is in contempt of his office and must be forced to resign.

 

[jeffreym]

*somehow posted in the wrong thread*

 

[CanadianNational]

Thanks neubilder, but I think I'll just let it stay here for whoever lays eyes upon it.

I'm just horrified by the way Ford doesn't just not understand downtown - he's actively antagonistic to it. The fact that an urban mayor is so completely anti-urban is just bizarre. And harmful.
Miller did multiple things to try and bring the newly amalgamated city together - from big to small. Anyone remember the unified shrinking of the City Of Toronto Act from huge stacks and stacks of contradictory by-laws to something more like the size of a telephone book? Priority neighbourhoods? City Beautiful? Tower regeneration? Transit city? etc. But he understood cities, he helped the suburbs - and he enjoyed and cultivated intense downtown urbanity.

Ford hates downtown. That's a strong word to use, but I believe it's true. I also believe it's something he learned at his parent's knee.
I think he has a pre-existing bias towards urbanity and all it's polygot, cultural, emotive human complexities (unlike the mechanical complexities of a sticker factory, or an uncluttered freeway). I think history eludes him. I don't believe he appreciates for a second the cacophonous artificial symphony that is a downtown.
I think he basically absorbed his parent's bias: that downtown was trouble, that it's a concrete thicket left behind by clean suburban progress, that the people who live there are weird, dirty, foreign. The tone of Ford's bias towards downtown sounds like a child of the 1950's, not the 1970's.
Even despite that, he's distinctly uncurious about downtown, and has never cared or been able to learn about it. He's spent a lot of time in the core, and yet it's never sunk in.
Some people just hate cities.
My small town parents do. They were afraid of Toronto. They viewed it as a baffling, powerful foreign entity even though they lived only an hour and a half away. They anticipated a ride into it with about as much joy as they would a gastrointestinal operation. Myself, I loved coming here - everything about it, and couldn't wait until I could come back! But I think Ford feels the same way about the core as my parents did - something made up of resentment, fear and anger.

I guess my big question is why is he in power here? Why did he look for it here? He's so ill-suited for it. He would do well, perhaps, with a small town or municipality. I'm thinking that it was a mindless power grab, egged on by that family of his and it's political associations. Even then, it doesn't make a lot of good sense.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

If Ford disrespects council's decision and tries to obstruct progress then he is in contempt of his office and must be forced to resign.

He will already already forced to resign because he broke conflict of interest laws. But I doubt that if Mr. Ford continues this behaviour he will resign gracefully. At the end of the day Council will probably attempt to temporarily change the City of Toronto Act so that Ford's powers ar diluted to the point where he just doesn't matter anymore.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I'm hoping that the left and centrist councillors will be collaborating to ensure that Mr. Ford is not reelected in 2014. Toronto can't handle 4 more years of a mad tyrant who hates half the city.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

He will already already forced to resign because he broke conflict of interest laws. But I doubt that if Mr. Ford continues this behaviour he will resign gracefully. At the end of the day Council will probably attempt to temporarily change the City of Toronto Act so that Ford's powers ar diluted to the point where he just doesn't matter anymore.

Wow - hold on there now cowboy! This has to be proven in a court of law, then, presumably, there are appeals if he is found guilty.

Great posts CN, you articulated exactly what I've been feeling, thinking and what I also believe to be true. Many others I suspect too.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Hello neighbour. I disagree. It is wasted time.

We've witnessed a series of stupid standoffs, and in the end, democracy has won (as I predicted it would) all the while we've had to slap down a mayor who fancied that he could concoct his own "strong mayor" system which is not the system used in Ontario.

And at the end of the day, we have Transit City back.

I didn't need such a lesson in our way of democracy. Maybe those inclined to cast a stupid vote learned something, but I seriously doubt that .

Re. Stintz - you may indeed be the only one who thinks she's cute, and more power to you! I see her as very valuable and far more than a package.

In New York City, the mayor can veto. But it can be overruled by a 2/3 majority of city council. In Toronto, the mayor is just one vote at city council.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Wow - hold on there now cowboy! This has to be proven in a court of law, then, presumably, there are appeals if he is found guilty.

I'm assuming that you know the details of the case.

Anyways the consensus is that Rob Ford will be found guilty and nobody denies that what he has done was a conflict of interest. Ford's only defence is that he may not have known about the law he broke. However the judge will likely not accept this defence. The mayor has about 15 years of political experience so it is almost a guarantee that he was well aware of the law. Additionally one of the many people who work for or are close to the mayor likely would have noticed the conflict of interest and told Mr. Ford about it.

The only way I can see Rob Ford being found getting out of this situation is if the judge determines the penalty to be Cruel and Unusual. For it to be considered Cruel and Unusual Punishment:

-The penalty would have to be "so excessive as to outrage standards of decency"
or
"grossly disproportionate to what would have been appropriate."

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I'm assuming that you know the details of the case.

Anyways the consensus is that Rob Ford will be found guilty and nobody denies that what he has done was a conflict of interest. Ford's only defence is that he may not have known about the law he broke. However the judge will likely not accept this defence. The mayor has about 15 years of political experience so it is almost a guarantee that he was well aware of the law. Additionally one of the many people who work for or are close to the mayor likely would have noticed the conflict of interest and told Mr. Ford about it.

The only way I can see Rob Ford being found getting out of this situation is if the judge determines the penalty to be Cruel and Unusual. For it to be considered Cruel and Unusual Punishment:

-The penalty would have to be "so excessive as to outrage standards of decency"
or
"grossly disproportionate to what would have been appropriate."

Yes, I've read the stories and have somewhat loosely followed it but I can't say that I know all the details of what happened but even if I did he's innocent until proven guilty. Consensus does not mean truth, the media twists, misreports or excludes facts all the time.

 

[BurlOak]

Put it this way, the sanity that has prevailed over Ford over the last few months would never have happened in a party system without some sort of revolt within the party. Toronto would be in a much worse position and we should be thankful that our politicians have the ability to be flexible, to think for themselves (for the most part) and to listen to their constituents.

Most people seem to agree that if Ford would have gone to Council in April/May of last year, the underground Eglinton would have been built and Sheppard and Finch Cancelled. If Ford would have accepted the "Stinz compromise" in January, we would have had BRT on Finch and a Sheppard subway extension to VP. With the system we have now, no-one really know what decisions will be made - this one could have easily gone the other way.

At least in the party system, the party would vet the candidates before they allowed them to run under their banner and would also vet the policies since a rouge municipal politician could tarnish the brand both Provincially and Federally. Also, people would take elections more seriously since they knew what their vote would mean.

 

[gristle]

Ford and his brother are swiftly becoming poisonous to Toronto. They've been crude troublemakers from the start, but are now threatening to actually destroy the work of council. After all this.

They are hostile to proper procedure, planning, logic and and the rule of law. They are hostile to urbanity, beauty, culture and intellectualism. They are tarted-up loudmouths, myopic, vain and self-satisfied thugs who sow discord. Pig-headed hoser elite who can neither think nor speak.

All this time and money wasted and people are exhausted - for what? Not for a real progressive triumph, not for some truly stunning accomplishment - but simply to get things back to normal and keep civic procedure in place. All of this tense, draining and divisive effort just to keep things from breaking apart and sinking into a morass of deep confusion.

So much effort in Toronto now is going into trying to keep the city from just politically and socially falling apart. This is directly due to the Ford's antagonistic, provocative stupidity.

We have an entire city to run here with a myriad of delicate issues to attend to, but you'd hardly know it, the way Ford keeps bellowing the word 'subway' like a monomaniac.

This is not only not leadership, this is gross incompetence - even, perhaps, mental illness.

Time and progress are not standing still. The entire world is spinning forward, inventing, implementing and progressing technically. We are not keeping up. Toronto needs beauty and innovation with ease of implementation. Also, socially, we may be slipping. Tolerance, goodwill, culture, intelligence - these just don't maintain themselves, and the current administration wants nothing to do with them. Financially, I worry that despite the raw propulsion of the construction industry here, Toronto is looking less and less like a safe, sane and steady bet in which to invest. The division between upper and lower classes continues to grow across the city. In all these things, we have heard nothing from Ford(s) about any practical, advanced, nor comprehensive plans to engender the complex solutions needed by the multiple issues that face us.

So much poison has already been spilt over this subway issue, I worry about political discourse in this city - and it's allaround situation - for the next decade. However, if Ford gets the boot - or if council takes clear steps to shut him out, perhaps some of the trouble might be alleviated.

Unless Ford has some kind of entirely unexpected awakening, changes course, and apologizes to the city for his actions, I can't see things getting better for some time. And this is directly the fault of Ford, his supporters and the media outlets that that grossly support him as well.

You are 100% accurate in my opinion. I could not have said it better myself - so it's worth repeating in full!

 

[adma]

Personally, I feel the Fords' "fright of downtown" is probably beneath even their parents.

And personally, too, I feel that a real turning point for everything was Rob Ford's macabre yelling on behalf of subways, against St Clair, etc--yelling, as in all caps. And as we know: here on the Interweb, all cap abuse can get you banned.

It was with that that even so-called Ford partisans on council started to speak of him, openly, as liability--even those who voted "with him" on the Sheppard issue.

We have to remember re the "Ford caucus" is that it isn't so cut-and-dried a Ford Caucus; rather, it's a caucus committed to a right-of-centre regime that only incidentally is led by Ford. Sure, it may nominally bow to Ford because he's Our Mayor; but for the most part, it might as well be serving a John Tory or Jane Pitfield mayoralty--and that's how it's sustained itself thus far in being "functional". Even the Sheppard LRT's 24-to-19 vote (rather close, considering the mayor's all-caps embarrassment a few hours before) was almost in spite of Ford; rather, it was endorsing an hypothetical Tory/Pitfield-compatible idea, something which the amendments by Del Grande etc were meant to ease toward.

Look--there's no way the Fords will always be isolated at the losing end of council votes. Generic right-of-centre issues will always be there for them to default toward. But the St Clair subways-subways-people-don't-like-streetcars outburst was of a sort that probably even led the likes of Doug Holyday to cringe in discomfort. I can't think of anyone short of Doug Ford who wouldn't have cringed in discomfort....

 

[freshcutgrass]

Originally Posted by CanadianNational
Ford and his brother are swiftly becoming poisonous to Toronto. They've been crude troublemakers from the start, but are now threatening to actually destroy the work of council. After all this.

They are hostile to proper procedure, planning, logic and and the rule of law. They are hostile to urbanity, beauty, culture and intellectualism. They are tarted-up loudmouths, myopic, vain and self-satisfied thugs who sow discord. Pig-headed hoser elite who can neither think nor speak.

All this time and money wasted and people are exhausted - for what? Not for a real progressive triumph, not for some truly stunning accomplishment - but simply to get things back to normal and keep civic procedure in place. All of this tense, draining and divisive effort just to keep things from breaking apart and sinking into a morass of deep confusion.

So much effort in Toronto now is going into trying to keep the city from just politically and socially falling apart. This is directly due to the Ford's antagonistic, provocative stupidity.

We have an entire city to run here with a myriad of delicate issues to attend to, but you'd hardly know it, the way Ford keeps bellowing the word 'subway' like a monomaniac.

This is not only not leadership, this is gross incompetence - even, perhaps, mental illness.

Time and progress are not standing still. The entire world is spinning forward, inventing, implementing and progressing technically. We are not keeping up. Toronto needs beauty and innovation with ease of implementation. Also, socially, we may be slipping. Tolerance, goodwill, culture, intelligence - these just don't maintain themselves, and the current administration wants nothing to do with them. Financially, I worry that despite the raw propulsion of the construction industry here, Toronto is looking less and less like a safe, sane and steady bet in which to invest. The division between upper and lower classes continues to grow across the city. In all these things, we have heard nothing from Ford(s) about any practical, advanced, nor comprehensive plans to engender the complex solutions needed by the multiple issues that face us.

So much poison has already been spilt over this subway issue, I worry about political discourse in this city - and it's allaround situation - for the next decade. However, if Ford gets the boot - or if council takes clear steps to shut him out, perhaps some of the trouble might be alleviated.

Unless Ford has some kind of entirely unexpected awakening, changes course, and apologizes to the city for his actions, I can't see things getting better for some time. And this is directly the fault of Ford, his supporters and the media outlets that that grossly support him as well.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of wasting time pointing out the obvious.

I think Hume put it best in his latest rant....

At this point, their arguments have become so transparently silly there’s no need to debunk them.

And our mayor has decided he will spend the rest of his mayoralty campaigning for the next election, since it's obvious he's the most useless mayor in the history of municipal politics.

 

[Torontovibe]

This is probably the most anti-Ford article I've read and from The Globe And Mail, of all places.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...to-those-who-elected-rob-ford/article2380049/

 

[freshcutgrass]

This is probably the most anti-Ford article I've read and from The Globe And Mail, of all places.

Well, it's a sentiment that needs saying, so I really don't see it as the Globe stooping to the level of the Sun, if that's what you are implying.

The truth of the matter is, it would baffle anyone how Toronto could do something so blatantly stupid as voting in Ford for mayor, when the blatant stupidity was so obvious from the get go. This really isn't an anti-Ford piece at all.

It's a unique game-changing event that has had me completely re-think my opinion of what Toronto as a city is.