Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[PinkLucy]

I think Tory's problem is that he assumes people will play by the rules. He should know Doug well enough by now to know that isn't going to happen. And yes, he definitely tried to play both sides. Grow a spine, John, and stand up for something you believe in.

 

[jje1000]

No, I think Tory knows that Ford would be unconventional. He is one of the old money elite of the city, and those types prefer to throw their weight and shake hands behind the curtains. The problem is that a mayoral position is a public one, and he has failed to make a convincing defense of Toronto (moreso, Ford has outed him as being duplicitous).

At the end of the day, I think that Ford and Tory are ideologically on the same page, it's just the press releases that are different.

 

[PinkLucy]

I do think they are different. Tory can be manipulated and will back down. Doug just plows on through -- might is right and all that. But yes, definitely back roomers, both of them.

 

[jje1000]

Good article by Shawn Micallef- literally what does Tory want his legacy to be, since there has been so little meaningful civic action done during his mayoralty? Is the mayoralty of Toronto a sort of consolation prize to ensure that the political office checkbox is ticked?

It took John Tory decades of effort to become mayor, so why is he squandering the opportunity?

In so many ways, his trajectory tacks in the right (no pun intended) direction to be a great and memorable mayor, saying things big city mayors say and supporting bold ideas as he did during his time with CivicAction. Once in office though, there was little follow through.

On a number of issues, it has taken large groups of prominent Torontonians to get the mayor to act decisively and make the right decision, like on police carding and the shelter crisis last winter. Instead of leading the city away from multibillion dollar generational transit mistakes, he’s rebuilding the east Gardiner and keeping Rob Ford’s Scarborough subway alive. Closing pools after promising to keep them open, undermining measures to make Toronto’s deadly streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and shelving stormwater and flood mitigation efforts are all leadership failures.

When Doug Ford announced his attack on local democracy, the response Tory mounted was one of equivocation instead of the fierce defence so many Torontonians wanted and needed.

Instead, Tory exhibits a radical fidelity to the status quo in a city with big problems and lots of potential. He’s a true conservative perhaps, but even conservative big city mayors often demonstrate action and boldness because big cities, by their nature, demand it. The status quo is stagnation.

Keeping taxes low certainly wins votes, but with transit and housing files in crisis and worsening inequality, the city feels as if it’s sliding into decline, a slow chipping away, something that is easily ignored if you’re not touched by any of it.

Why does John Tory want to be mayor? This is what’s most confounding about him: a lifetime of effort to attain such a position and, once in, squandering a meaningful legacy despite having incredible political capital. He certainly still wants to be mayor as he refused to part ways with his effective, but controversial adviser Nick Kouvalis, who has undermined the very values Tory says he stands for, another sign of that calculated ruthlessness behind the friendliness.

I can’t know what kind of pressure the scion of a wealthy family is under to make their own mark in the world. The urge towards public service is one honourable way to do it, but if the legacy is the status quo, what was all that effort for?

John Tory would make an excellent Governor General of Toronto, if such a position existed: a glad-handing, friendly figurehead who doesn’t have to deal with messiness of politics, where standing for things and boldly leading the way isn’t required.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...so-why-is-he-squandering-the-opportunity.html



Also, a checkup on on Toronto’s Fiscal Health from the Munk School, and Matt Elliot puts it into perspective:

New @imfgtoronto report on the city’s fiscal health sheds a lot of good light on this. If this is your accepted fiscal reality, where are you supposed to get new money for stuff?
https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg/research/a-check-up-on-torontos-fiscal-health-2018/

https://twitter.com/GraphicMatt/status/1050396033455251457

 

[DSC]

It will be very interesting to see the City Clerk & City Manager's Report on how the hell they will actually re-organise the City.

NOTICE OF DECEMBER 2018 MEETINGS

CITY COUNCIL & SELECTED COMMITTEES


In accordance with Section 27-24 and Section 27-26 of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 27, Council Procedures, the City Clerk is issuing notice of the following:


First Meeting of City Council – December 4, 5 and 13:


Tuesday, December 4, 2018

First Meeting of City Council

2:00 pm, Council Chamber


- to conduct ceremonial business and elect a Speaker and Deputy Speaker

- seating in the public gallery will be reserved for invited guests only

- additional unreserved seating will be available in Committee Room 1

- this session, and all meetings of City Council will be streamed live at youtube.com/TorontoCityCouncilLive.


Wednesday, December 5, 2018

First Meeting continues

9:30 am, Council Chamber


- to consider a report from the City Manager and City Clerk on impacts of the reduction of the size of Council on governance structures and processes including the committee structure, community council boundaries, members appointments and amendments to the Council Procedures; and

- to introduce and enact bills


Thursday, December 13, First Meeting continues

9:30 am, Council Chamber


- to consider the report of the Striking Committee on Member appointments and the 2019 meeting schedule

- to consider urgent business from City Officials

- to consider Member motions

- to introduce and enact bills



The following additional meetings have also been scheduled:


Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Community Councils

9:30 am, Toronto City Hall (meeting rooms to be announced)


- the community councils, yet to be formally established by City Council at its December 5 session, will meet to elect their chairs and vice chairs.

- no other business will be considered.


Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Striking Committee

9:30 am, Committee Room 1


- to consider Member preferences for appointments to committees, local boards and other bodies; and

- to consider the 2019 schedule of meetings.



Agenda closings and distribution:


The agenda closing and distribution dates for the first meeting are as follows:


December 5 session:

- agenda materials, including bills, due by Monday, November 26, 2018 at 4:30 pm

- agenda to be distributed on Wednesday, November 28, 2018


December 13 session:

- agenda materials, including officials' reports, member motions and bills, due by Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 4:30 pm

- agenda materials to be distributed on Monday, December 10, 2018



Cancellations


The following meetings, originally scheduled by City Council, are cancelled:


December 5, 2018 - Striking Committee

December 6, 2018 - Community Councils

December 7, 2018 - Executive Committee



To view the most up to date schedule of meetings, which incorporates the above, please visit www.toronto.ca/council



CITY CLERK

 

[W. K. Lis]

Let's hope the new councillors will actually attend the introductory seminars on how city council actually works and procedures used. (Rob Ford did not attend because "he already knew how government works".)

 

[W. K. Lis]

We're number 131, we're number 131...

...Toronto is number 131 most dangerous place in Canada.

See link.


Canada’s fastest-growing crime problem is in Wetaskiwin, Alta.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I actually find the premise of Shawn Micallef's article immature. Why do political leaders need a legacy? Why is inaction or "conservativism" in the sense of maintaining the status quo a lesser objective versus "bold" leadership. The subtext of the point is basically that Tory is not fulfilling a bold urbanist agenda the author cares about.

Basically, Tory is fulfilling his mandate to bring order and stability back to the city while allowing and which allows people to pursue incrementally the interests they care about in all parts of the City and throughout the political spectrum. The question is how long can that last and how long should that last? In many ways the world is changing too rapidly to maintain the status quo. Demographic, social, and economic factors act on the City and create mounting problems that need an outlet and may call for more bold or unpopular or divisive action at some point.

In the graphic jje1000 posted about the per household property tax decline from about $3500 to $3000 who is the hero? The guy who raises taxes by $500 and hands out goodies like Santa Claus? Or is it the guy that created the fiscal capacity in the first place? Answer: neither, neither guy is the hero.

P.S. I bet that tax decline is entirely accounted for by the reduction of numbers of persons per household

 

[ADRM]

I actually find the premise of Shawn Micallef's article immature. Why do political leaders need a legacy? Why is inaction or "conservativism" in the sense of maintaining the status quo a lesser objective versus "bold" leadership. The subtext of the point is basically that Tory is not fulfilling a bold urbanist agenda the author cares about.

Basically, Tory is fulfilling his mandate to bring order and stability back to the city while allowing and which allows people to pursue incrementally the interests they care about in all parts of the City and throughout the political spectrum. The question is how long can that last and how long should that last? In many ways the world is changing too rapidly to maintain the status quo. Demographic, social, and economic factors act on the City and create mounting problems that need an outlet and may call for more bold or unpopular or divisive action at some point.

In the graphic jje1000 posted about the per household property tax decline from about $3500 to $3000 who is the hero? The guy who raises taxes by $500 and hands out goodies like Santa Claus? Or is it the guy that created the fiscal capacity in the first place? Answer: neither, neither guy is the hero.

P.S. I bet that tax decline is entirely accounted for by the reduction of numbers of persons per household

I don't mean to be curt but, man, this post was clearly written from a position of privilege. Why is Tory's inaction and maintenance of the status quo bad? Because people are literally dying for it.

People died during last year's shelter crisis because of Tory's inaction. People have died because of Tory's inaction on road safety -- on a single day last week, seventeen people were struck by vehicles. People have died at the hands of rising gun violence that is almost assuredly at least partially attributable to Tory's slashing of youth programs and his mucking about with police hiring targets.

TCHC units are closing as demand is increasing. The city's affordable housing waitlist is larger than the population of many Ontario cities. Toronto became the most expensive city in the country, we now have the worst average commute on the continent, and TTC service has flatlined, all under John Tory's watch.

Even if you're the sort who doesn't really care about any of that and is really only into supporting politicians based on how you'll personally benefit which, in my experience, is the space occupied by many self-proclaimed "fiscal conservatives", Tory has been an abject failure. The City's finances are a mess. It has more than $30 billion in unfunded capital projects. There are brand new streetcars sitting in a depot in New York because they were damaged in flooding after Tory shelved the Stormwater Management Strategy. SmartTrack and the Gardiner East represent literally billions of dollars of reckless vote-buying fiscal mismanagement that we won't get back and carry both substantial opportunity costs and lifecycle costs.

And I could go on.

Plainly, to suggest that the only grounds on which to criticize Tory's obvious failings emanate from the policy and social justice inclinations of lefty urbanists is, to use your choice of words, really rather immature, itself. Actually, it's downright obtuse.

 

[syn]

TCHC units are closing as demand is increasing. The city's affordable housing waitlist is larger than the population of many Ontario cities. Toronto became the most expensive city in the country, we now have the worst average commute on the continent, and TTC service has flatlined, all under John Tory's watch.

To be fair, this was happening long before Tory was elected.

But it's also fair to point out he's done very little to address all of these problems in any significant way.

 

[pman]

The people are dying argument is rather hyperbolic. People are dying because of policy decisions made by all levels of government. They’re dying in large numbers because we haven’t done a better job of infection control in hospitals, by making every room private and spending a lot more on cleaning. They’re dying on high-traffic single lane roads that we haven’t spent the money to improve. Some of our military veterans are dying by their own hands because we don’t provide them with adequate mental health services. However, I don’t read a lot of hysterical accusations against Wynne and Trudeau of the type ADRM has made against Tory. Ford and Harper might be another matter of course. Anyway, my point is that resources are limited, all governments make choices subject to constraints and trade-offs, and no government anywhere on the planet would pass ADRM’s people are dying test. Tory has campaigned pretty aggressively on the idea that municipal taxpayers don’t have unlimited money for tax increases, and that seems to have resonated with a large majority of voters.

 

[TrickyRicky]

ADRM, all those issues you identify exist regardless of who is in power or how they are tackled. Is laying them all at Tory's feet a reasonable conclusion? Voters overwhelmingly chose to vote for the space his leadership creates, and even more overwhelmingly chose to vote for it again. That doesn't mean that kind of leadership will be accepted forever or that it is an appropriate direction for the city forever. It's not that Tory doesn't have a lot to answer for but he certainly doesn't have the people dying on the streets as blood on his hands. If he promises x number of shelter beds and can't deliver, that is on his hands. If he promises x number of affordable housing units and doesn't deliver that is on his hands. The debauchery that is his smartTrack proposal for instance is an embarrassing failure that he can and should answer for.

 

[ADRM]

ADRM, all those issues you identify exist regardless of who is in power or how they are tackled. Is laying them all at Tory's feet a reasonable conclusion? Voters overwhelmingly chose to vote for the space his leadership creates, and even more overwhelmingly chose to vote for it again. That doesn't mean that kind of leadership will be accepted forever or that it is an appropriate direction for the city forever. It's not that Tory doesn't have a lot to answer for but he certainly doesn't have the people dying on the streets as blood on his hands. If he promises x number of shelter beds and can't deliver, that is on his hands. If he promises x number of affordable housing units and doesn't deliver that is on his hands. The debauchery that is his smartTrack proposal for instance is an embarrassing failure that he can and should answer for.

It wasn't my intimation that 100% of the blame for each problem lies solely at his feet (though it is inescapably true for some of them), but tell me what he's done to address even his share of the problems? Also, some of them plainly entirely within his ability to solve, and he's refused to do so.

Even setting that aside, you've presented a strong degree more moderation and level-headedness in this last post than in the previous, where you baselessly criticized the well respected author of an article as "immature" and posited that the only real arguments against Tory come from those with a lefty urbanist agenda, while at the same time also intimating that arguments should be dismissed from those sorts of people. At least that was my read of it; it was that hyperbole that I took special exception to.

 

[Filip]

I don't mean to be curt but, man, this post was clearly written from a position of privilege. Why is Tory's inaction and maintenance of the status quo bad? Because people are literally dying for it.

People died during last year's shelter crisis because of Tory's inaction. People have died because of Tory's inaction on road safety -- on a single day last week, seventeen people were struck by vehicles. People have died at the hands of rising gun violence that is almost assuredly at least partially attributable to Tory's slashing of youth programs and his mucking about with police hiring targets.

TCHC units are closing as demand is increasing. The city's affordable housing waitlist is larger than the population of many Ontario cities. Toronto became the most expensive city in the country, we now have the worst average commute on the continent, and TTC service has flatlined, all under John Tory's watch.

Even if you're the sort who doesn't really care about any of that and is really only into supporting politicians based on how you'll personally benefit which, in my experience, is the space occupied by many self-proclaimed "fiscal conservatives", Tory has been an abject failure. The City's finances are a mess. It has more than $30 billion in unfunded capital projects. There are brand new streetcars sitting in a depot in New York because they were damaged in flooding after Tory shelved the Stormwater Management Strategy. SmartTrack and the Gardiner East represent literally billions of dollars of reckless vote-buying fiscal mismanagement that we won't get back and carry both substantial opportunity costs and lifecycle costs.

And I could go on.

Plainly, to suggest that the only grounds on which to criticize Tory's obvious failings emanate from the policy and social justice inclinations of lefty urbanists is, to use your choice of words, really rather immature, itself. Actually, it's downright obtuse.

At the end of the day this is a democracy and the people are clearly uninterested in these things...

Keesmaat's electoral spanking was probably a good indication that the vast majority of Toronto values keeping their taxes low and commensurate, but measured investments where required.

I know it's callous, I know it's unfair - but that's that.

 

[steveintoronto]

P.S. I bet that tax decline is entirely accounted for by the reduction of numbers of persons per household

All political leaning aside, I find this arithmetically contraindicated. Unless you are renting out space within the household, and thus paying a tax on that, since the tax assessment is fixed by other factors, how do the number of persons within that household affect the assessment rate? Since it's the building and property assessed, if the number of persons within is reduced, their share of taxes goes up, not down, assuming the occupants are owners.