So Mammoliti thinks downtowners are a bunch of moochers. Let’s count all the ways he’s wrong.
1. He’s wrong because of economics. According to the city’s TOCore planning report, downtown — defined as the area bounded by Bathurst Street to the Don Valley Parkway, and the waterfront up to Dupont Street — accounts for 33 per cent of jobs and 51 per cent of Toronto’s GDP.
2. He’s wrong because of city tax revenue. A Metro analysis of Toronto’s property tax system in 2015 found that the three wards in the downtown core – representing just three per cent of Toronto’s land area – contribute about 25 per cent of total tax revenue in the city. Downtown’s Ward 20 contributes in excess of four times more revenue from residential property taxes than Mammoliti’s Ward 7.
3. He’s wrong because of growth. The core accounts for 37 per cent of the city’s residential development pipeline and 45 per cent of non-residential. The downtown population is projected to double between now and 2041.
4. He’s wrong because of major infrastructure spending. All of the major transit projects that currently have fully committed funding are in fact suburban projects. The list includes the Eglinton Crosstown, the Scarborough subway, the Spadina subway extension and the Finch West LRT – a billion dollar project that just so happens to run right through Mammoliti’s ward.
5. He’s wrong because of parks. There are 0.4 hectares of parkland per 1,000 residents in the downtown core, way below the city-wide average of 2.8 hectares. The reason downtown has seen a flurry of new park openings this summer isn’t because downtowners are getting spoiled – it’s because the downtown has been neglected for years.
6. And beyond all the numbers, Mammoliti is wrong because he’s perpetuating divisive nonsense that needlessly pits downtown against the suburbs.