Next Mayor of Toronto?

[Glen]

A recent article (I forget what the source was) showed that service levels and expenditures on key city services were roughly equal throughout the city. When you couple that with the huge shift of residential tax burden towards the downtown created by CVA and surging property values in the old City of Toronto you get the scenerio where the old city of Toronto is starting to heavily subsidize the suburbs.

CVA tax shifts? Are you talking the time when Rosedale and Forest Hill mansions were pay a couple of hundred dollars a year in property tax when modest homes in North York and Scarborough were paying more than three thousand? Is that the shift you are talking about?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Glen:

]There is nothing typical about it. There are many neighbourhoods in Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan, etc, that have near identical land use characteristics and age of infrastructure, yet they have experienced a far different fate than those in Toronto. Keith is bang on.

And how many them have say a significant presence of apartments, for example? Near identical land use characteristics? Demographics? In what shape, way or form? Besides, you must also have forgotten that there are also quite a number of neighbourhoods in the city that hasn't suffered decline as well. Clearly, it isn't the "downtowners" that made the difference. Take Scarborough (Agincourt, etc) or North Etobicoke - it was getting less desriable if not considered downright undesirable even before the downtowners [sic Miller] touched it.

CVA tax shifts? Are you talking the time when Rosedale and Forest Hill mansions were pay a couple of hundred dollars a year in property tax when modest homes in North York and Scarborough were paying more than three thousand? Is that the shift you are talking about?

Not saying it is fair, but how much commercial property taxes is collected in the old City of Toronto, vis-a-vis Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough? So in other words, the suburbs got a property tax deduction and added services on the basis of revenue transfer from the core.

AoD

 

[cdr108]

Ford's an unprecedented type in Toronto politics. The Lastman equivalent in this race would be Rossi.

An Old School Tory with a populist streak is something Toronto can handle. It's not my preference, but I'm cool with it. Ford is a blustery neoconservative type - the kind they see in the US. We've never had anything like this before.

god, Ford's not getting my vote.

i don't want to 'waste' my vote and split it between the centre-left/centre-right so who's behind Ford?

i think i read Smitherman but his experience with eHealth doesn't impress me.

 

[GraphicMatt]

god, Ford's not getting my vote.

i don't want to 'waste' my vote and split it between the centre-left/centre-right so who's behind Ford?

i think i read Smitherman but his experience with eHealth doesn't impress me.

Smitherman's still in 2nd place but his support has been declining fast. I'd wait for another poll or two, but I think us anybody-but-Ford types are going to have to start lining up behind Pantalone.

 

[Glen]

Clearly, it isn't the "downtowners" that made the difference. Take Scarborough (Agincourt, etc) or North Etobicoke - it was getting less desriable if not considered downright undesirable even before the downtowners [sic Miller] touched it.

I did not say, nor do I believe, that it was caused by Mayor Miller. I just disagree that it is a planning issue. I do think that Miller could have done much more to turn it around though.

Not saying it is fair, but how much commercial property taxes is collected in the old City of Toronto, vis-a-vis Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough? So in other words, the suburbs got a property tax deduction and added services on the basis of revenue transfer from the core.

AoD

You absolutely correct. Before CVA the residents of the old Toronto were the primary beneficiaries of the overtaxation of commercial properties located in the city (Metro did get some). This allowed the residential rate to be much lower. Amalgamation and CVA allowed the grossly underpaying residents in old Toronto to have their artificially low taxes averaged into the entire residential class in the new city.

 

[Gavin]

Rossi's new ad campaign:

Is his next policy announcement going to be that he'll make the (subway) trains run on time?

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Rossi's new ad campaign:

Is his next policy announcement going to be that he'll make the (subway) trains run on time?

are you kidding me? are these his official campaign ads?

 

[nfitz]

I don't get it ... Rossi is advertising himself to be linked to the mafia? That's what wise guy or goodfella often means.

Between this, the bridge to the airport, and the Spadina expressway extension, it all seems more like some kind of comedy routine than an election platform. Who is running his campaign?

 

[Gavin]

are you kidding me? are these his official campaign ads?

Yes. I'm not making these up. I'm not that funny.

 

[Gavin]

http://roccorossi.com/ads/

 

[Admiral Beez]

I must say this is one of the most exciting municipal elections we've had in years. The downtown left-leaning tax and spend elite don't know what to make of the rise of Ford, and continue to think of Ford's supporters as ignorant idiots who don't see the big picture. Even the candidates don't seem to understand the threat Ford represents to their established ways and means. If they did, they'd all be dropping out except for Smitherman as the Ford killer. Of course it doesn't help that Smitherman has squandered his initial lead.

What's interesting is that incumbency seems to be a liability in this race, except of course for Ford.

Ford's supports may not be left leaning folks with "big city plans" but they'll be voting enmasse while the others take the split left.

 

[js97]

Smitherman's still in 2nd place but his support has been declining fast. I'd wait for another poll or two, but I think us anybody-but-Ford types are going to have to start lining up behind Pantalone.

If it's Ford or Pantalone, Ford will take it by a landslide lol...

 

[GraphicMatt]

Yeah, you keep thinking that.

 

[duper]

The downtown left-leaning tax and spend elite don't know what to make of the rise of Ford, and continue to think of Ford's supporters as ignorant idiots who don't see the big picture.

Someone has to introduce to me to the tax and spend "elite" of the city. I can't say I've ever met them.
There aren't exactly a glut of "tax and spend" candidates. Pantalone stands to the left, and Smitherman is centre to slightly left of centre, but with a strong backing from even Tories because of his record in eliminate $700-million in annual waste from the health budget.

The other candidates, Rossi and Thomson, occupy the centre as well.



I still don't feel that enough Torontonians have been sufficiently engaged in the process yet

We have 5 weeks. That's the length of an entire provincial election. Things can change.

 

[MetroMan]

Well, Rocco just made a major ad buy so I doubt he's even considering dropping out now. Maybe if the next few polls show no growth, or even continued loss of support, will he withdraw but I don't see it happening. Sarah Thomson seems to be running short on campaign money and although she's wealthy, I don't know if she's willing to put her own money into what appears to be a hopeless campaign. She's the only candidate I can see dropping out soon enough to make a difference.