Next Mayor of Toronto?

[nfitz]

Interesting. Pantalone will be in his 60s soon ... I can't help feel that he is yesterday's man ... it's 30 years since he was first elected to council - over half his lifetime.

Giambrone on the other hand is only 32 ... barely older than when Pantalone first entered council in 1980. I can't help feeling he is tomorrow's man.

But who is todays man?

If one of the two of them drops out, can they then withdraw their candidacy, and run for their local seat? What's the deadline for declaring?

Edit ... if I read http://www.toronto.ca/elections/candidates/key-dates.htm correctly either of them can withdraw their nomination until September 10, and also file to run as councillor. Hmm, not much stopping David Miller changing his mind before then as well.

Wow, already 23 candidates for Mayor. What attracts these fringe candidates? What do they get out of it?

 

[js97]

My friends and I where just discussing...


how did Adam Biambrone secure a chairman position with no business background or experience managing a billion dollar operation.
Anyone else think it's a little irresponsible by the mayor? That's a billion dollar portfolio...

i guess that's the reason the TTC is a runaway financial debt train.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Yeah, totally, remember all those years when the TTC was turning a crazy huge profit and efficiency was the name of the game. And then Giambrone had to come in and ruin things.

The TTC has a whole boatload of problems as it relates to labour, customer service and entrenched management, but given its long-standing baseline, haven't things actually improved under Giambrone? Since he took office, service has expanded greatly, there actually IS a customer service guy who regularly engages with riders in Brad Ross, the TTC website became less of an embarrassing mess, new tech like next-subway-train countdown clocks and vehicle GPS are being rolled out, and billions of dollars worth of expansion plans have moved forward.

Seriously: If someone can explain how the TTC is worse now than it was in 2006, I'd love to hear it.

 

[Darwinkgo]

The problems were solved by using the money the city didn't have, effectively drawing on one time reserves. The TTC needed to address either the revenue or the cost side of the equation and it has done neither - despite fare increases the TTC still faces operating outside of the budget allocated to it by city council.

 

[nfitz]

My friends and I where just discussing...


how did Adam Biambrone secure a chairman position with no business background or experience managing a billion dollar operation.
Anyone else think it's a little irresponsible by the mayor? That's a billion dollar portfolio...

i guess that's the reason the TTC is a runaway financial debt train.

What only is that complaint agist, it's sexist! Who uses "chairman" in this day and age? Why the prejudice? And surely he's done a lot more than his recent predecessors!

 

[eddiek]

Care to name some cities where the transit system doesn't lose money?

Japan..


Thus the Monorail Society assures us that "... monorail can turn a profit once built. The Tokyo Monorail ... is operated by a private business and turns a profit each year. This is unheard of with conventional rail or bus systems."
[Source: Monorail Society website, http://www.monorails.org, March 2003]

Such assertions of the exclusive "profitability" of Japanese monorails are refuted by real-world facts. it should be noted that, particularly in Japan – where traffic volumes are high, transport by automobile is less encouraged than in North America, and public transport is encouraged through government policies – a number of rail passenger modes, including LRT (light rail), report operating profits.


The main point I'm making in my statement is that the business model is bad and you can just open the books on day and see you just lost several millions of dollars. Imagine Adam in charge of a larger budget, how many more millions are going to vanish. It was bad enough when Miller was in the office.

 

[kEiThZ]

The TTC needs an apolitical, public servant with lots of experience to be CEO. And the Commissions should just act as a Board of Directors. Having politicians in their 20s run the TTC is/was a ridiculous idea. Giambrone had the odd successful initiative here and there. That does nothing to cure many of the problems the TTC has. And not all of them have to do with funding from higher levels of government.

Nobody thought it was a good idea for the federal government to mismanage the national air carrier. Why would anybody think its a good idea for the TTC to be so tightly controlled by politicians? They could use a bit more independence. It'll force them to grow up.

 

[SimonP]

Japan..


Thus the Monorail Society assures us that "... monorail can turn a profit once built. The Tokyo Monorail ... is operated by a private business and turns a profit each year. This is unheard of with conventional rail or bus systems."
[Source: Monorail Society website, http://www.monorails.org, March 2003]

Comparing to Japan is ridiculous, as their cities operate entirely differently from ours. The TTC should be compared to its peers, and when you look at it that way it comes out very well. The TTC has higher fare recovery than any other transit system in North America. In Toronto currently the govenment subsidy covers about 25% of each fare. By contrast the New York MTA, the transit system we all envy, covers 64% of each fare. Vancouver and Montreal taxpayers both cover about 55% of each ticket. The TTC fare recovery ratio even beats most cities in Europe.

 

[eddiek]

Comparing to Japan is ridiculous, as their cities operate entirely differently from ours. The TTC should be compared to its peers, and when you look at it that way it comes out very well. The TTC has higher fare recovery than any other transit system in North America. In Toronto currently the govenment subsidy covers about 25% of each fare. By contrast the New York MTA, the transit system we all envy, covers 64% of each fare. Vancouver and Montreal taxpayers both cover about 55% of each ticket. The TTC fare recovery ratio even beats most cities in Europe.

I was just answering the question however you bring up a good point, if we recover so much money and our system is go good a recouping cost, then why is it managed so badly? Too many issues where left unresolved such as poor public service (which he apologized for) high unions costs, and excessive consultant costs. The fact of the matter is ridership went up and they are wore off this year than last. You try and operate in the budget you are given, regardless of how much funding you think you think you should get from other branches of government. His buisness model was bad. I'm just saying Adam is not experienced enough to run as mayor based on his performance and that is why I plan not to give him my vote.

 

[SimonP]

I was just answering the question however you bring up a good point, if we recover so much money and our system is go good a recouping cost, then why is it managed so badly? Too many issues where left unresolved such as poor public service (which he apologized for) high unions costs, and excessive consultant costs. The fact of the matter is ridership went up and they are wore off this year than last. You try and operate in the budget you are given, regardless of how much funding you think you think you should get from other branches of government. His buisness model was bad. I'm just saying Adam is not experienced enough to run as mayor based on his performance and that is why I plan not to give him my vote.

The point is, that in comparisson to other systems, the Toronto system isn't "managed so badly." MTA workers, for instance, are paid considerably more than TTC workers. Compared to other systems I've ridden on, customer service and the state of the system are about equal. This is not to say the TTC couldn't be better managed, it could, but I see no evidence that the TTC is a worse managed than any other system in North America. I also agree with Matt that over the last six years the TTC has improved considerably. The numbers provide support for this, as ridership has grown at a faster rate than anytime in the last 30 years.

 

[Eug]

Joe however, is reportedly upset that Adam is running because he considers himself "the rightful successor to Miller" and feels Giambrone is "jumping ahead in the line".

WTF? This is precisely the type of guy we don't want as mayor. As much as I think of Giambrone as a joke candidate now, I don't understand how Pantolone could consider the position of mayor a position achieved through seniority, in any way shape or form. Perhaps he thinks they should unionize city council too.

 

[Blovertis]

I also agree with Matt that over the last six years the TTC has improved considerably. The numbers provide support for this, as ridership has grown at a faster rate than anytime in the last 30 years.

If the TTC is improving, why is the public perception precisely opposite? Ridership may be growing but you fail to mention that only recently did it finally top its late-Eighties peak.

And you can't mention pay levels without also talking about staffing. Here's a telling statistic: it took 12,411 staff to transport 471 million passengers in 2008, whereas in 1988, it took just 9,963 staff to move 464 million riders.

 

[GraphicMatt]

If the TTC is improving, why is the public perception precisely opposite? Ridership may be growing but you fail to mention that only recently did it finally top it's late-Eighties peak.

If the TTC is getting worse, why is ridership growing?

Negative public perception is growing because ridership is growing. More and more people have started relying on the TTC as their sole means of transportation, and so complaints about poor customer serivce or major delays are more prominent. Customer service has been forced into becoming a major priority because record numbers of transit users are noticing how poor it is, and demanding improvement.

And you can't mention pay levels without also talking about staffing. Here's a telling statistic: it took 12,411 staff to transport 471 million passengers in 2008, whereas in 1988, it took just 9,963 staff to move 464 million riders.

I think some of this is due to changes in labour standards. Limiting the amount of overtime, for example.

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

Just saw Adam Giambrone file his nomination papers for mayor at City Hall.

 

[SimonP]

And you can't mention pay levels without also talking about staffing. Here's a telling statistic: it took 12,411 staff to transport 471 million passengers in 2008, whereas in 1988, it took just 9,963 staff to move 464 million riders.

Again lets look at how those numbers compare to other cities:

From lowest to highest:
*Miami - 348,000 riders - 4,000 staff - 87 riders per employee
*Atlanta - 488,000 riders - 4,729 staff - 103 riders per employee
*Philly - 1,073,000 riders - 9,000 staff - 119 riders per employee
*Chicago - 1,671,000 riders - 11,000 staff - 152 riders per employee
*Los Angeles - 1,490,000 riders - 9,200 staff- 162 riders per employee
*NYC - 11,575,000 riders - 70,000 staff - 165 riders per employee
*Boston - 1,235,500 riders - 6,346 staff - 195 riders per employee
*Toronto - 2,493,000 riders - 11,300 staff - 221 riders per employee

The ridership numbers are all from the the APTA daily rider stats and should be an accurate comparison of systems. The employee numbers are from the agencies' Wikipedia pages.