Miller wasting more money:

[voxpopulicosmicum]

Wow....you have to attack Rob Ford's weight, yet not his penny pinching ways.

Actually, I attacked his weight AND his wife-beating ways, but I ignored the fact that he pretends to be a penny pincher while spending slush-fund money whose origins he refuses to disclose. Plus, you never did say why $140k on climate change is too much. Read more carefully.

I dont know about that. Lets see if mayor Miller can be elected 10 consecutive terms by the Toronto residents.

Whoa...there's no reason that all Torontonians should be saddled with the legacy of having re-elected the World's Longest Serving Deadbeat Dad ten times over. All but two of those victories were courtesy of the citizens of the eminently corrupt Borough/City of North York, no?

Because it won't do anything.

Well, I was hoping this thread might begin a discussion of why the OP believes that to be the case, but instead we are left with Toronto Sun headlines and Goodwin's Law.

Like some of the posters in this thread, who have no hope of getting out of renters paradise. No one in thier right mind that owns property in Toronto supports Miller.

Ahem! I have a "Certified Not Insane" stamp on my right forearm, thankyouverymuch.

AoD:

Broadly speaking, yes I was implying that. However, my point remains, where are the socialist success stories? Not moderately socialist, or "arguably" socialist, but actual socialist countries that are thriving.

I think the point is that the difference between "arugably" socialist and "actually" socialist does not have an objective definition.

 

[Whoaccio]

Well, I was hoping this thread might begin a discussion of why the OP believes that to be the case, but instead we are left with Toronto Sun headlines and Goodwin's Law

Well, given that the C40 doesn't do anything for the climate other than provide an excuse to have delegates fly to various conferences, it would seem to be a safe bet that the 140k dollars will not benefit the environment. It will probably hurt it, given that it is intended to fly someone over to London and not much else.

 

[Darren B]

Well, given that the C40 doesn't do anything for the climate other than provide an excuse to have delegates fly to various conferences, it would seem to be a safe bet that the 140k dollars will not benefit the environment. It will probably hurt it, given that it is intended to fly someone over to London and not much else.

Agreed. Miller should focus on Toronto, and leave our environment in the hands of higher levels of government.

That ------ Perks used 'heat related deaths' as an excuse to continue the moritorium on parking pads, because apparantly some guy's 10x7 front lawn is key to heat the city generates, yet they greenlight a condo literally on Sunneyside beach

 

[voxpopulicosmicum]

Well, given that the C40 doesn't do anything for the climate other than provide an excuse to have delegates fly to various conferences, it would seem to be a safe bet that the 140k dollars will not benefit the environment. It will probably hurt it, given that it is intended to fly someone over to London and not much else.

If that were the extent of membership in C40, then you would have a plausible argument. But somehow I doubt that Miller wants to spend $140k solely because he wants "to fly someone over to London". Perhaps Miller is one of those "best-practices" corporate culture geeks who wants to know how municipalities around the world are taking steps to address climate change and its related problems?

 

[Hydrogen]

If that were the extent of membership in C40, then you would have a plausible argument. But somehow I doubt that Miller wants to spend $140k solely because he wants "to fly someone over to London". Perhaps Miller is one of those "best-practices" corporate culture geeks who wants to know how municipalities around the world are taking steps to address climate change and its related problems?

Then he could definitely do it for less than $140,000.

 

[Glen]

Further to Whoaccio, government intervention in the form of Smoot-Hawley contributed to turning a recession into a depression.

Only because the US was the country with a largest trade surplus. It was then, what China is today. With protectionist measures it is always the countries with positive BoT that bear the brunt.

 

[Seymour]

Not only do I support Miller's initiatives at the C40 group, but to have David Miller as Chair of this important group of mayors is significant for Toronto on a global stage. I support this 100%, unlike whoever started this thread.

 

[Tewder]

I think it is important to be critical of spending at City Hall and one shouldn't be dismissed as a 'whinging right-winger' when doing so. How the 'nickels' are spent often says a lot about how the dollars are, so to speak. That said, I would like to know more about Toronto's 'investment' in this before concluding whether it is wasteful or not. My gut feeling says this isn't the right time for this sort of spending but an argument has been made that it is good optics for Toronto to be involved so who knows?

 

[Hydrogen]

Not only do I support Miller's initiatives at the C40 group, but to have David Miller as Chair of this important group of mayors is significant for Toronto on a global stage. I support this 100%, unlike whoever started this thread.

Any organization that can't properly distinguish the difference between the urban heat island effect and change in the global climate does not deserve $140,000.

 

[kEiThZ]

I am skeptical that we need to participate in a group just because New York or Paris or London is in it. There are plenty of forums for us to exchange ideas with these cities. There is no need to spend 140k to do it. I would rather send Miller or a city staffer first class to London, New York and Paris on a fact-finding trip. It'd be cheaper. As it stands this money will do nothing for climate change. Spending that money on LED lighting for a city parking structure or retrofitting the city's older buildings would pay immensely more dividends wrt reducing carbon emissions.

 

[BobBob]

Any organization that can't properly distinguish the difference between the urban heat island effect and change in the global climate does not deserve $140,000.

Could you provide a sample of where they fail to distinguish properly between those?

 

[Darren B]

I think it is important to be critical of spending at City Hall and one shouldn't be dismissed as a 'whinging right-winger' when doing so. How the 'nickels' are spent often says a lot about how the dollars are, so to speak. That said, I would like to know more about Toronto's 'investment' in this before concluding whether it is wasteful or not. My gut feeling says this isn't the right time for this sort of spending but an argument has been made that it is good optics for Toronto to be involved so who knows?

You may want to check out this fiasco then;
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/03/02/8589171.html
It took the actions of a private insurer/benefit provider and two weeks o reporting by the Sun for Miller to act.

 

[urbanfan89]

This is hardly the endgame for neoliberalism. The entire crisis was caused by, and finally precipitated by, government intervention.

So are you implying that government intervention forced the banks to write complex securities and derivatives to the extent that there are a quadrillion dollars of outstanding derivatives? Did the government force the bankers to assume that housing prices will only go up? Does anyone believe Dick Fuld when he claimed Lehman Brothers did what it did in order to help more people achieve the American Dream?

Next they'll be telling us that the government forced Bernie Madoff to run a $50 billion Ponzi scheme!

 

[Darren B]

So are you implying that government intervention forced the banks to write complex securities and derivatives to the extent that there are a quadrillion dollars of outstanding derivatives? Did the government force the bankers to assume that housing prices will only go up? Does anyone believe Dick Fuld when he claimed Lehman Brothers did what it did in order to help more people achieve the American Dream?

Next they'll be telling us that the government forced Bernie Madoff to run a $50 billion Ponzi scheme!

I thought we were talking about Miller, and how this spending is effecting the current economy of our city.

 

[Hydrogen]

Could you provide a sample of where they fail to distinguish properly between those?

Under the sub-heading of "Cities and Climate Change, there is a suggestion that the urban heat island is created by climate change. If you read the site you can see it for yourself. There are are other silly statements made, but we'll leave those for the time being.

How are cities affected by climate change?

The effects of climate change are often more keenly felt in cities, eg the Urban Heat Island effect. Since many of the world's major cities are very close to the sea, rising sea levels are a major threat.

The urban heat island is created by land-use changes (more pavement and black roof tops) and by the concentration of heat sources typically found in a city. It has nothing to do with what is popularly referred to as "climate change." The urban heat island effect is not created by changes to the global climate, and it has no effect on global climate.

One thing you should know is that an excessive number of meteorological surface stations (where they take air temperatures near the ground) are located in urban and near urban environments, and these locations have affected the temperature record over time because of the urban heat island effect. In other words, the urban heat island (which is localized) has, and is, being misinterpreted for a change in climate.

Before activists hijacked the term "climate change," the phrase simply referred to a well-known fact that climate changes over time - always has and always will. Now, the term is used to make a casual reference to an unproven notion that human activity is supposedly causing the atmosphere to warm at an unprecedented rate. According to satellite data, there has been no global warming since 2000. In fact, there has been a cooling in the global average temperature over the last two years. Arctic sea ice levels are at the same level as they were in 1979.

So I think the $140,000 is a waste of money.