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Senior Member
Will Miller’s fire tax mean death for some city residents?
Why is the city in the transit business? Doesn't make any sense. Also, a good way to smash the union's corruptness if you privatize transit.
These are real dollars and they are driving out-of-control increases in property taxes that are forcing Toronto residents, and especially its small businesses, to begin planning an exodus to the outer suburbs.
What are you referring to ... is this something Rob Ford is planning?Will Miller's fire tax mean death for some city residents?
Service offered but not used is not service it is waste.
One thing I do find worrying is the building narrative among Ford supporters that there is some sort of gay cabal out to get him. Ford just hints that "someone’s out to get him," but based on the comments from Sun readers, they know exactly who is after him. Delving into Toronto Sun comments is kind of scary, but here are a few selections just from near the top:
Good grief. Between Smitherman saying middling things, Pantalone being non-comittal, Sarah Thomson is looking better and better.
Be careful, you might start to sound like that nutball who was running around chasing 122 buses counting the people on board, and getting in trouble with the police! So ... can I can conclude then that Rob Ford is in favour of cutting bus services? No surprise given he objected to the service increases.ever get elected?The TTC operates bus service in my little subdivision as much as 18-20 hours per day, 7 days a week. Outside of weekday peak periods these vehicles are almost always empty.
How possibly can a single example be waste? That bus only runs 8 times an hour at 1:30 pm. If there are 3 together, that only indicates there was a service problem.I crossed York Mills Road today at 1:30 PM, there were 3 Westbound 95's nose to tail waiting at a traffic light. These 2 examples are a waste that we would no longer have to pay if a private operator took over.
If she somehow manages to usurp Smitherman from the frontrunner position, I may be forced to switch my allegiances. You heard it here today this 17th day of June.
The truth spoke for itself - in the form of a tape. Certainly for someone interested in the former, you aren't arguing a taped conversation reveals less than press releases, and god forbid, the "truth" in the form of comments on a newspaper website?
And yes, Rob Ford should be talking about ethical standards. Right.
AoD
Holy hell, nice find - to bring the salient point over here:
Rob Ford's Director of Policy believes we should eliminate the TTC.
Over to you, Fresh Start.
Is that it, then? Abandon TTC riders to private sector wolves?
Yes, and no. Yes, if the TTC can’t see beyond the obvious. If that’s the case, perhaps the city’s role in transit should be limited to licensing and regulating private sector operators. The city could earn a tidy sum in recurring revenue from doing so.
No, however, if the TTC can learn from this planning exercise, and get back to root causes. Why do I want transit? Not because I want drivers to have gold-plated pensions, or jobs for life. Not because I want to send fat-cat politicians on junkets to transit conferences in Singapore. Not because I want shiny mobile billboards for singles’ websites patrolling major traffic routes in my neighbourhood. No.
I want a fast, convenient and affordable way of getting from the door of my home to the doorway of my workplace, shopping centre, school, theatre, friends’ houses, etc. That’s what the TTC should be providing: door to door solutions. The subway has value only when it’s delivering this. Ditto buses. Ditto streetcars.
The TTC should take this opportunity to deconstruct its assumptions and rebuild its mission from scratch. Maybe city residents would be better served by licensed neighbourhood minibuses picking them up from their front doors and dropping them at the nearest subway stop. Maybe the city should subsidize taxi rates rather than buying new buses. Maybe there are other off-the-wall ideas that would help transform the TTC from a loadstone around the neck of taxpayers into a vibrant, essential service.
Maybe.
Knowing the calibre of Toronto’s political leadership thus far, however, I’m very afraid… maybe not.
New York system's as expansive as it is today because 3 competing railway companies privately built lines all over the city and into the inner-subrubs like Queens and the Bronx.