How Can Toronto improve? How can Toronto become a better city overall?

[jn_12]

That's the one thing I liked about Rocco Rossi's platform - his voter recall proposal. You don't see many politicians promising that.

Recalls are horrible for both democracy and government. There will always be people who disagree with a politician and as no one can be satisfied 100%, there will always be reasons for people to add their names to the list. With such a system, you're just asking for recall attempts during every term and not only will very little get done but the cost to go through this process will be enormous. Let people work for 4 years (Rome wasn't built in a day) and let us judge their efforts at the polls.

 

[Marcanadian]

True, perhaps I'm just sour over our current mayor.

 

[jn_12]

oh trust me, many of us are. But, he won and you deal with it and in a few years maybe he gets ousted.

 

[Jonny5]

Recalls are horrible for both democracy and government. There will always be people who disagree with a politician and as no one can be satisfied 100%, there will always be reasons for people to add their names to the list. With such a system, you're just asking for recall attempts during every term and not only will very little get done but the cost to go through this process will be enormous. Let people work for 4 years (Rome wasn't built in a day) and let us judge their efforts at the polls.

Yes. Especially in our plurality wins system. A majority of people don't support their elected representatives pretty much all the time.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Then tax more. We can afford it.

Then the government will just increase spending until the increased revenue is cancelled out by increased expenditures.

Government revenue and expenditures in Canada at all levels of government have dramatically increased since the post-war period. From what my older friends and relatives tell me, Canada and Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s wasn't that bad. Yet today, with massive increases in both revenue and spending we have a poorer country and city as a result. I'm not convinced that more money is the answer, unless we have reductions in wasteful spending.

 

[Torontovibe]

Then the government will just increase spending until the increased revenue is cancelled out by increased expenditures.

Government revenue and expenditures in Canada at all levels of government have dramatically increased since the post-war period. From what my older friends and relatives tell me, Canada and Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s wasn't that bad. Yet today, with massive increases in both revenue and spending we have a poorer country and city as a result. I'm not convinced that more money is the answer, unless we have reductions in wasteful spending.

Are you talking about that mythical gravy train here? OY!

 

[jn_12]

Then the government will just increase spending until the increased revenue is cancelled out by increased expenditures.

Government revenue and expenditures in Canada at all levels of government have dramatically increased since the post-war period. From what my older friends and relatives tell me, Canada and Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s wasn't that bad. Yet today, with massive increases in both revenue and spending we have a poorer country and city as a result. I'm not convinced that more money is the answer, unless we have reductions in wasteful spending.

Oh right, all that "wasteful spending" that we've been hearing so much about but yet haven't found much of so far. The fact is all that "wasteful spending" that you expect to trim from our current budget would put barely a nick in what we actually need, nevermind a dent or anything of significance that would be able to pay for things like improved transit, programs to reduce poverty, infrastructure upgrades and maintenance, upgrades and improvements to current services, and so on. If Toronto is to become a better place we absolutely need all of these things, and eliminating "wasteful spending" will do little to achieve all of this.

 

[Yoshimura]

Realistically, I think a Toronto sales tax or some variation thereof - that is to say, broadened taxation powers - is the thing Toronto needs most...we need to reduce dependence on ontario (and federal) govt to get things done

This way, we can have a real discussion about how we want to improve Toronto for the future

Why not just make sure the Provincial and Federal governments have less jurisdiction over Toronto? Or even seceding.
More taxation will undermine growth. My company took a big hit from the HST; I had to lay a couple of people off and cut my own salary. Another tax would shut down my business and leave more people unemployed, all while the taxed "revenues" are allocated unproductively.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Oh right, all that "wasteful spending" that we've been hearing so much about but yet haven't found much of so far..

I not talking about the doughnuts and coffee, or free MetroPasses at City Hall.

I'm talking about returning Toronto back to level of services before spending exploded in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1960s Torontonians were far more responsible for their own upkeep and well being - for starters if there was government provided housing it wasn't provided by the city.

 

[jn_12]

But that's not wasteful spending. That's just new responsibilities given to us by the province. If your argument is to upload everything that was downloaded to the city during the Harris days then I would agree with you wholeheartedly, but unfortunately that's not what you said before. And if your argument is that people should be more responsible for themselves, I think you only need to look at the problems American cities face to see that the social programs that Toronto has implemented are worth paying for. I'd argue even that while those programs are good, there is a lot of room for improvement. Besides, the fact is Toronto of the 50s and 60s is absolutely nothing like modern day Toronto in so many respects it's not even worth comparing the two really.

 

[RC8]

I bet the city spends more money in maintenance now than it did back then.

The real problem of Toronto is that it has to maintain the likes of North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough on its back.

The real reason why those places are not greatly serviced by subways is because people there choose to live in low density levels that are just not enough to support it.

Suburban communities can't alone pay for their own streets, healthcare, and education. Sacrificing the funding for our cities to allow people to live in such an unsustainable way is nonsense.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Simple:

1) Stop asking how Toronto can improve
2) Start asking what am I going to do to improve Toronto
3) Do it.

 

[TonyV]

How about being a little more like this.
[video]http://youtu.be/EpAoCWKw8WI[/video]

liked Torontovibe's response the best. I agree with Torontovibe. (But, Toronto is learning, I have to say).

 

[RC8]

Replying to the thread's question.

De-amalgamate. That will solve all of downtown Toronto's issues, the city will be beautiful soon after, as well as safe and walkable.

The suburbs will be shown up as unsustainable, and the province will have to take serious measures to curb sprawl.

Etobicoke will be joyous with the likes of Ford, and Toronto will be happy with the likes of Miller.

Let's not forget people in the GTA never supported amalgamation.

 

[spider]

De-amalgamate. That will solve all of downtown Toronto's issues, the city will be beautiful soon after,

I doubt that de-amalgamation will solve any problems any more than secession from Ontario or Canada would, this thread is titled "How can Toronto improve" not how can downtown Toronto improve.

Let's not forget people in the GTA never supported amalgamation.

Most of those people in the GTA did not live in downtown Toronto because they chose not to for reasons important to them then and still valid now. You may be surprised to learn that most suburban Toronto residents consider you "downtowners" a curious breed but we graciously tolerate your holier-than-thou attitude.