Miller turns to TTC public address system to get riders on board with funding push

[Mapleson]

Sure, that maybe a few people's viewpoints, including the SOSers', but not everyone's, and certainly not mine. You can focus on the finances all you want, but at least Miller has something I've never seen in a Toronto mayor before in my lifetime, and that's balls. And I'm 31.

So you believe that by saturating people with 30 second ads is going to change our deficit or make the Liberal's restore funding? Maybe I'm wrong and way to cynical, but I don't expect any 'new' transit funding until at least 2012-2013. Where are the 30 second ads to write MPPs to cover TTC operational shortfalls? Miller has something I've seen in every Toronto mayor before in my lifetime, and that's self-interest. TransitCity is his "legacy", but if it is significantly delayed (no one is speaking of cancelling TC) as time goes on it will be less associated with the Miller name.

I never cheer transit funding reductions, but why throw good money after bad? Might as well lobby the Federal Conservatives to pay for abortions. If it hasn't happened naturally, it's not going to happen because Mayor Miller told us to do it.

 

[The Mad Navigator]

With the exception of Pantalone (who doesn't particularily inspire me) all the candidates are running on a platform of stopping things getting done, except Smitherman ... who seems to think the best thing to do is study everything. Yeah, that's what this city needs ... another @*(% study. Build it already! Whatever it is, just $@*( build it!

Mr. Pantalone is not nearly as vocal or inspirational (to which I agree with you) enough in his campaign. And he's the only candidate (somewhat known) who is commanding the left side!

I fear Toronto city hall will be swept with a cold conservative wind this coming December.

 

[nfitz]

LMAO. That must've been Scarborough's initial reaction when they introduced ICTS.

If they had built that system as originally envisioned, with service into Malvern, and branches through North York, Etobicoke, and into Kiipling/Islington then we'd have a far better transit system.

Your laughing your ass off because we failed to build such a system? What a NIMBY! We could have started this 40 years ago!

 

[Fresh Start]

Then why didn't they? Why are they so earnest to renovate the entire existing ROW, replacing it with LRT? Let's face it, SCC then should've been in the same position as VMC is in now.

 

[nfitz]

Then why didn't they? Why are they so earnest to renovate the entire existing ROW, replacing it with LRT? Let's face it, SCC then should've been in the same position as VMC is in now.

Enough with the acronyms ... speak English ... or just admit your a member of the RNC!

(joke aside ... I don't even know what you are talking about!)

 

[The Mad Navigator]

So you believe that by saturating people with 30 second ads is going to change our deficit or make the Liberal's restore funding?

Better than sitting around and picking your ass, and hoping for the best. What's wrong with being proactive? Are we hurting anybody? No.

Maybe I'm wrong and way to cynical, but I don't expect any 'new' transit funding until at least 2012-2013. Where are the 30 second ads to write MPPs to cover TTC operational shortfalls?

I'm glad I don't share your cynicism. Just because transit funding has been delayed, doesn't mean that it can't be reversed. Provincial elections are next year and hopefully if this issue gathers enough steam, maybe things could change. Isn't that something worth fighting for?

As for the operational shortfall, I thought the city was planning to talk about a 50% upload by the province?

Miller has something I've seen in every Toronto mayor before in my lifetime, and that's self-interest. TransitCity is his "legacy", but if it is significantly delayed (no one is speaking of cancelling TC) as time goes on it will be less associated with the Miller name.

No mayor is perfect, so give it a rest already. The next mayor will be charged with his/her self-interest claims by citizens as well.

Just out of curiosity, do you think that if Miller's legacy changed to removing the SELRT, and ECLRT and replacing those with subways as well as building a phase of the DRL, would that do any good to help the negative image of his legacy just to quell his naysayers?

I never cheer transit funding reductions, but why throw good money after bad? Might as well lobby the Federal Conservatives to pay for abortions. If it hasn't happened naturally, it's not going to happen because Mayor Miller told us to do it.

Fine, then please, step aside, and make room for people who care enough to want progress with building a form of better transit in one mode or another!

 

[Fresh Start]

Enough with the acronyms ... speak English ... or just admit your a member of the RNC!

(joke aside ... I don't even know what you are talking about!)

What is it that you don't get:

LRT = light rail transit
ROW = right of way
SCC = Scarborough City Centre
VMC = Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

My point is that the B-D line should have been extended to SCC in advance of ridership demand for it a la TYSSE to the hydrofields around Jane/Hwy 7. You know of that acronym right? Oh, and as far as my political leanings go, may I ask about yours? I wise person once told me what tell-tale signs to watch out for when determining whether you're dealing with conservative or liberal mindsets:

• Liberals want to impose solutions to everyone's problems with everyone else's money.
• Conservatives want to maximize your opportunity to make your own money and solve your own problems.
• Liberals think the government is the ultimate answer to all problems, and that there is no problem they can't solve by higher taxes and more spending.
• Conservatives think that government should be limited and small and interfere only as absolutely necessary in people's affairs.

 

[nfitz]

What is it that you don't get:

SCC = Scarborough City Centre
VMC = Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

It's those two ... The Scarborough station has always been called Scarborough Centre. The shopping mall it's in is often called Scarborough Town Centre, and we do frequently see STC here. I don't see the need to start using further acronyms.

Vaurhan Metropolitan Centre ... give me a break! Can't you keep it simple?

My point is that the B-D line should have been extended to SCC in advance of ridership demand for it

Why focus on what could have been. Either we build something, or we spend another 40 years gazing at our navel fuzz questioning what we should do. There's a plan, let's build it, or else we'll end up with nothing ... which is what Toronto usually ends up with.

• Liberals want to impose solutions to everyone's problems with everyone else's money.
• Conservatives want to maximize your opportunity to make your own money and solve your own problems.
• Liberals think the government is the ultimate answer to all problems, and that there is no problem they can't solve by higher taxes and more spending.
• Conservatives think that government should be limited and small and interfere only as absolutely necessary in people's affairs.

What does this have to do with anything. It seems to be some Tory propaganda out of the 1930s. How does this have any relevance with the current debate? And how has it even any currency given the Tory belief in big government ... Harper has increased federal spending much faster than Liberal leaders have. And what you wrote implies that Liberals raise taxes ... yet the recent tax increases have been Conservative ... and I see that the federal conservatives are again today pondering another federal tax increase ... I digress ... what has this got to do with subways? The only Ontario Conservative that this stuff might have fitted was Harris ... and no one raped Toronto the way he did.

 

[Fresh Start]

OMFG. It's common knowledge around the forum to abbreviate Scarborough Ctr as SCC. It's been done by multiple forumers in multiple threads. If you had been taking the time to actually read others posts and comprehend fully the gist of their arguments, you wouldn't find fault with something this trivial. And the City of Vaughan as officially renamed their new urban growth centre Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. It's on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaughan_Metropolitan_Centre. Welcome to the 21st century where people type in shorthand.

"Why focus on what could have been." Um, you were doing just that when you posted links extolling the greatness of ICTS right across the suburbs. At least that would've been fully grade-separated though, instead of bona fide streetcars-through-suburbia. I bet you would've been in favor od the DRL built as ICTS as well as it was proposed during the 80s as well. My point was simple, but per as usual in your efforts to discredit me, the meaning flew right over your head. Toronto experimenting with a surface medium capacity technology 25 years ago still has negative reprocussions today when the city could just as well when it was extending B-D from Warden to Kennedy gone a few kms further northeastwards to SCC. You may say that we're ending up with nothing, but besides Harris' blunder in 1995, subway expansion has been pretty consistent albeit incremental this whole time. And the TTC doesn't necessarily need windfalls of cash in order to improve service quality either, just the motivation to change its modus operandi.

Oh, and those are small-c, small-l generalizations about an individual's political orientatiion or core ideology; nothing to do with what actual gov'ts have or have not accomplished.

 

[nfitz]

Oh my fucking God

Look, if you want to fuck your god, do so, but get a room and please don't tell us about it.

As for your small c and large c claims ... you used a large C and a large L in your text ... I think your god isn't the only person you are fucking with!

 

[kEiThZ]

Given that we are in an election year and there are candidates from across the political spectrum who have widely differing opinions on Transit City, I am wondering if it's ethical for the mayor to make use of the TTC's Public Address system to put forward what largely amounts to a political message that certainly favours some candidates. I'd love to see the city's ethics commissioner take a stab at this one. Even Lastman never made announcements on the PA begging voters to challenge the provincial government on the subway cutbacks.

 

[Fresh Start]

Look, if you want to fuck your god, do so, but get a room and please don't tell us about it.

As for your small c and large c claims ... you used a large C and a large L in your text ... I think your god isn't the only person you are fucking with!

Excuse me, who's fucking with who here? Wow, are you losing it? Don't take out on me your frustrations about TC being on life support. I'm actually an atheist and have said as much in this thread: http://urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?11051-Creationism-vs-Evolution/page21. OMFG is an expression of frustration, must you subvert the meaning of everything? And it's basic grammar to begin sentences with capital letters, the paragraph prior to the bulletpoint list has them as liberal and conservative. What did I tell you about not getting the gist of people's arguments?

So let's see now, while I have gone above and beyond to maintain my civility towards virtually every regular forumer here since I've joined; in just the past 24 hours I've now been accused of being:
- a Republican
- a conspiracy theorist
- a religious nutter
- a Rob Ford supporter
- a pervert obsessed with Adam Giambrone's sex life
- a NIMBY
- anti-transit
- a forum jester
- naive, out-of-touch, laughable, etc.

These accusations say far, far more about my enemies' mentality; than they do about mine. If the only way that you can win an argument is to tear down and belittle those whose views may differ from yours, then I feel so sorry for you. You and others have taken my posts completely out of context on several occasions now which I do not appreciate. Worse you want to try label me as something I am not so that the rest of the forum can ignore me. I wonder though, if my posts are really so meaningless and devoid of fact or truth, then why on earth does it bother you so what I have to say? Word of advice, you want me to tone down my rhetoric against the TTC's way of doing things, you start to show me the same courtesy. I will not engage you nor the usual suspects in this sort of thread derailment/character asassination again.

 

[GenerationW]

There really was no point to this grandstanding. Miller and Giambrone, the two people most most associated with TC, are both effectively gone with the wind. By not having the cajones to defend the plan and face the electorate, Miller's credibility in trying to make a case to Queen's Park is essentially nil.

I like Miller, but this childish act only made him look like horribly desperate. He should know better.

 

[Justin10000]

It's not grandstanding. Miller has every right to record an announcement about Transit to be heard by transit riders on the TTC. Would Rob Ford, or George Smitherman care this much about transit? I doubt it. I am sure Miller would do the same if the Spadina funding got yanked for some reason. The announcement is just part of a growing movement to make sure transit gets funded.

 

[Ansem]

It's not grandstanding. Miller has every right to record an announcement about Transit to be heard by transit riders on the TTC. Would Rob Ford, or George Smitherman care this much about transit? I doubt it. I am sure Miller would do the same if the Spadina funding got yanked for some reason. The announcement is just part of a growing movement to make sure transit gets funded.

Miller cares more about his legacy... Wasn't he against the spadina extension?