News   Mar 28, 2024
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News   Mar 28, 2024
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News   Mar 28, 2024
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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

Perhaps the best symbol of Toronto would be an under-maintained, deteriorating Toronto sign in NPS, with the lighting out in a couple of the letters.

So? If you value the sign more than you value Viljo Revell's original concept for NPS, maybe you're part of the problem.
 
So? If you value the sign more than you value Viljo Revell's original concept for NPS, maybe you're part of the problem.
Who says pman values the sign more than the square and new city hall buildings? The comment was clearly mocking Toronto's penchant for having a public realm that is in constant disarray.
 
Perhaps the best symbol of Toronto would be an under-maintained, deteriorating Toronto sign in NPS, with the lighting out in a couple of the letters.

Not to mention, it's location in NPS couldn't have been more appropriate. A place whose revitalization went way over budget, is years late, got watered down and is still incomplete. And all that is happening right at the front door of the brain trust at city hall.
 
I've tried very hard to appreciate Mr. Tory's leadership, but at this point I can't defend him anymore. Tory's transit plans for our city are so much more wasteful than anything we've seen since amalgamation, and yes, that includes the Ford years.

Starting with SmartTrack, Mr Tory is supporting a $700 Million to $1 Billion plan that'll move only 14,000 riders per day. That's lower ridership than 40 TTC bus routes, and about 1/4 the ridership of the Sheppard Subway. In terms of dollar per rider, this SmartTrack proposal is by far the most wasteful serious proposal we've seen in this city, including the Sheppard Subway. And we don't even know what kind of operational subsidies this thing will require.

And then there's the Scarborough Subway. The original proposal was questionable enough, but Tory's insistence on supporting it, even as anticipated ridership has halved to 7,000 per peak hour and cost increased by 50% to $3.1 Billion is indefensible. This is far worse value for money than the original proposal Ford supported (and I'm no fan of that plan or Ford)

Both SmartTrack and the 1-stop Scarborough Subway are far more wasteful than any serious transit proposals we've seen in our city. Tory is far too eager to burn our money.

Furthermore, Tory has done nothing to address Toronto's budgetary issues; he's just repeated Ford's platitudes about finding efficiencies. These platitudes may make for a nice sound bite, but they're no way to budget.

I no longer have any faith in Tory to be a good fiscal steward for our city. He needs to be defeated in 2018.
 
I suppose it would never happen in Toronto, but it would be nice to have a mayor of Bloomberg's stature who proposed and actually implemented something like Applied Sciences NYC. True, there are a lot of reasons why something like that could absolutely positively never happen in Canada; however, we're good at electing mayors who promise completely delusional projects that require cooperation from the Feds and Queen's Park. It would be refreshing change if our mayor actually got behind something to improve our long-term competitive advantage.
 
Rare to see Royson as worked up as he is in this column.

It's good to see him this worked op. I know there are a lot of issues discussed in that article, but the one that really sticks out for me is the Scarborough subway. It boggles the mind that anyone would even consider spending $3billion on a single subway stop. I'd almost rather have a Ford at the helm because stuff like this would be voted down immediately.
 

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