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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

I hope that's a joke. Giving the general public carte blanche to engage in vigilantism has never been a good idea.
 
afransen said:
Why can't we deputize average citizens to enforce this? Take a video and record the plate.
Click to expand...

Interesting you should say that, NYC is currently debating implementing such program.

The original iteration actually gave people who took a photos a cut of the ticket revenue; but the current version has removed that.

Also, in order to reduce the risk of confrontation, the current proposal permits this only for vehicles that are unoccupied.

nyc.streetsblog.org

NYPD Opposes Watered-Down Citizen Enforcement Bill, But DOT is Now 'Open' to It - Streetsblog New York City

"Traffic agents are getting assaulted dozens of times a year, so we are certainly concerned with the potential for violence of everyday citizens using this program," a police official testified on a bill by Lincoln Restler (photo).
nyc.streetsblog.org nyc.streetsblog.org

T3G said:
I hope that's a joke. Giving the general public carte blanche to engage in vigilantism has never been a good idea.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone advocates for giving citizens 'carte blanche'. As noted, a bill before NYC council seeks to approve a similar program as described above. But the program is scoped in such a way that

a) The Citizen is merely documenting and then submitting a photo/video, they are not engaged in any actual enforcement action.

b) Given that everyone has cameras these days and they can easily grab a license plate from 50M away, its not as if someone has to go up to a car and conspicuously record a plate.

c) Notwithstanding the above, the NYC bill instructs that such action (photo-based enforcement, by citizens) will only be accepted for unoccupied vehicles to further reduce the risk of any confrontation.

****

While the above is not my idea of a panacea program, and I don't see we can't hire more PEOs and modify their paperwork for tickets to allow them to cover more ground. Why can't PEOs (parking enforcement officers) simply take a photo, and issue the ticket by mail later?

If you give them a police-issued camera with a direct link to the license plate database, they can actually issue the ticket at the click of a button in real-time (sent by mail).

****

Still, there's plenty of room for more automated enforcement as well, we're doing it with speeding and red lights. We can equip every bus and streetcar with cameras to record those who fail to yield, pass a streetcar with the doors open, block a streetcar or bus via an illegal turn or illegal parking; and we can also use portable camaeras similar to those being used for speed and red-lights to go after problematic, regular, illegal bike lane blocks or illegal parking.

In the end though, I don't really have a problem using a civillian taken photo as evidence of a traffic offense. The same photo would pass muster in a murder trial, I'm not sure why it shouldn't be valid for blocking a bike lane.
 
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Ford government orders audits in clash with cities over development fees​

Audits are in response to municipal governments’ concerns that their development-related fees and charges could be dramatically reduced by Premier Doug Ford’s housing policy changes.​

From link.

Queen’s Park is hiring auditors to examine city finances in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton and other municipalities.

It’s a bid to tackle the municipal governments’ concerns that their development-related fees and charges would be dramatically reduced by Premier Doug Ford’s housing policy changes.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said Thursday that Peel Region, Newmarket and Caledon would also have their finances probed by a third-party auditor.

Private auditing firms will be invited to bid on the work, which is to be conducted later this year.

“We are working with our municipal partners to get a factual understanding of their finances to ensure development charges, and the ability to invest in local services and projects, are supporting rather than hindering housing supply growth,” said Clark.

“This is critical to ensuring all levels of government work together to tackle the housing supply crisis and reach our goal of 1.5 million homes by 2031.”

Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have pledged to build an average of 150,000 homes annually even though the best year in Ontario housing starts since 1987 was 100,000.

Clark said the auditors’ findings would be used to shape future provincial housing “policies and programs supporting long-term municipal financial sustainability and housing-related infrastructure investments.”

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has warned Ford’s housing law, Bill 23, which will eliminate development charges for developers building affordable housing, could cost cities and towns $5 billion in lost revenue.

Municipalities contend they need those funds to pay for infrastructure, such as roads and sewers, that is required with new housing projects.

Toronto Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie’s office said the city’s finances would suffer.

“The professional, non-partisan city staff have confirmed Toronto would lose more than $2 billion over the next decade as a direct result of Bill 23,” said Don Peat, McKelvie’s deputy chief of staff.

“Last month, Deputy Mayor McKelvie met with Minister Clark to discuss the impact of the bill. We are confident that the audit will make it clear that growth needs to continue to pay for growth,” said Peat.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who has also warned the changes would hurt her city, welcomed audits that should reveal “the funding gap.”

“Like many cities across the province, Mississauga is starting to feel the impacts of lost development charge revenues as a result of Bill 23,” said Crombie, adding her city will lose “nearly $1 billion in revenue in the next decade that we use to pay for new parks and infrastructure like roads, trails, community centres, fire stations, libraries, and other housing enabling infrastructure.”

“For the Region of Peel, this equals $2 billion in lost revenue, which will further impact Mississauga residents and taxpayers,” she said.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown also the welcomed the audits.

“I agree with the province we can build faster. We have a housing crisis where young people can’t even dream of owning a home,” said Brown.

“We all need to do more on housing,” he said, predicting the audit would “be good for Brampton because we are actually building and spending our (development charges) on housing-supportive infrastructure.”

The government’s housing affordability task force cited the fees as “a significant part of the reason home prices in Ontario have risen so rapidly in the past decade.”

“As development charges go up, the prices of homes go up,” the task force found.

In Toronto, as of Aug. 15, residential development charges ranged from $25,470 to $93,978 per unit depending on the size of the home.
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Could someone (the federal government?) examine Ontario's books?
 
www.thestar.com

This restaurateur helped create Yonge-Dundas Square. Now he wants it renamed to honour Gordon Lightfoot

Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie said she welcomes the suggestion, which comes as Toronto is looking to rename the square and Dundas Street.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Personally, as a big fan of Mr. Lightfoot's work, I think this is an absolutely awful idea. Naming such a charmless place after the man would surely be considered an insult of the highest degree, not much better than naming a dirty alley with an overflowing dumpster for him.
 
T3G said:
www.thestar.com

This restaurateur helped create Yonge-Dundas Square. Now he wants it renamed to honour Gordon Lightfoot

Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie said she welcomes the suggestion, which comes as Toronto is looking to rename the square and Dundas Street.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Personally, as a big fan of Mr. Lightfoot's work, I think this is an absolutely awful idea. Naming such a charmless place after the man would surely be considered an insult of the highest degree, not much better than naming a dirty alley with an overflowing dumpster for him.
Click to expand...

As someone suggested on Reddit, perhaps naming a location after him in Yorkville or Orillia would be a better idea.
 
toonderly said:
en.m.wikipedia.org

Hart Massey - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Hart Massey of Massey Ferguson. Also grandfather of actor Raymond Massey (and a Governor General Vincent Massey who himself has about a million things named after him).
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Massey Ferguson had factories at King & Strachan, before moving on.

See link.
Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in Toronto, then Brantford, Ontario, Canada, until 1988. The company transferred its headquarters in 1991 to Buffalo, New York, U.S. before it was acquired by AGCO, the new owner of its former competitor Allis-Chalmers. Massey Ferguson is among several brands in a portfolio produced and marketed by American industrial agricultural equipment conglomerate AGCO and a major seller in international markets around the world.
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84667725_3466234426779850_182178678606659584_n.jpg

Massey Ferguson plant, King Street, 1965.
From link.
 
A motion requesting a report on a legal drinking in parks pilot, which would run Aug 5/23 - Oct 9/23 to the July meeting of Eco. Dev. Ctte has passed 19-5.

This would seem to suggest the actual pilot will pass when the time comes; but what an odd thing to start a pilot in the second half of summer.
 
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