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Rob Ford's Toronto

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I can't believe 65% said marathons should be held in parks; they have obviously never participated in a running event.
 
I can't believe 65% said marathons should be held in parks; they have obviously never participated in a running event.
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And for that reason they are not entitled to an opinion?
 
spider said:
And for that reason they are not entitled to an opinion?
Click to expand...

I think the point might be whether an ignorant, ill-formed opinion is equivalent to one made with a greater understanding of reality.

While many smaller, low-key races (usually 10km and under) are held in various parks, there is no way logistically to hold any race of any decent size (let alone big ones like Sporting Life 10km or either of the two marathons) solely in parks.

People think High Park for example, is pretty big. Harry's Spring Run-off 8km is held there in April, but they have to cap participation at a shade over 2000. Even then there is simply not enough park road space for any longer distance (there is overlap with the leaders finishing their last km while slower runners head the opposite direction towards the 3km mark).

The Waterfront Marathon last September had almost 3000 starters while it's accompanying half-marathon had almost 8000 (they share the same start time and first 17km of the course).

Even the 5km, held on a different course had over 4000 participants and there was still a steady stream of people crossing the start line when the leaders were in their final km.

Simply put, there is no possible way any of these events could be possible without exclusive use of two to four lane roads their entire distance. That just does not exist in the park system.

There's a reason they also don't hold the Santa Claus parade in the Don Valley or why the Maple Leafs don't play out of St Michael's Arena and that's because there are simply too many people to hold it anywhere other than where they currently do.
 
Good points. Having participated in Harry Rosen's event at High Park and in a number of other events, I agree -- there is a world of difference. The number of runners is one difference, (a significant one) and the experience of the event itself is another as is the caliber of athletes that are attracted. The Scotia Waterfront Marathon, for example, is a world-class event that simply could not be run in a park environment and still meet the criteria needed for it to qualify as a world-class event. And without that qualification, it would not attract the numbers of people it attracts, nor the tourist, fundraising and sponsorship dollars it attracts, all of which benefit the people of Toronto and the city of Toronto. These events are about much more than the run or the bike ride or the festival.
 
Asterix said:
I think the point might be whether an ignorant, ill-formed opinion is equivalent to one made with a greater understanding of reality.
Click to expand...

To be fair, the actual question asked about not only marathons, but public festivals, walkathons and marches, some of which certainly can be hosted in parks. The poll was pretty badly worded.

It is neither ignorant nor ill-formed to believe there are too many marathons in Toronto, and that the City needs to show more discretion when deciding to close a street. If such was your opinion, how would you express it in this flawed poll?

It is sort of like asking people whether transit would be improved by building underground subways or above-ground "light-rail streetcars," which was a question from February's Forum Research poll. Ask a stupid question ...
 
Armbruster said:
To be fair, the actual question asked about not only marathons, but public festivals, walkathons and marches, some of which certainly can be hosted in parks. The poll was pretty badly worded.
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True enough. However like the marathons (of which there are only two), most walkathons, public festivals and marches are not suitable for parks for reasons of both scale and attractiveness.

Parades (Santa, St Patrick's, Pride, etc) would not fit in any park, nor would anywhere near the same number of spectators come out.

Word On The Street, Taste Of <locale> and many others by definition are for the streets (plus the logistics thing).

Marches (I presume as different from parades) are usually of a political nature and hence geared towards a political destination (city hall, US consulate, Queen's Park) - again, not park appropriate.

Of those, only the marathons and a handful of other large scale road races (Sporting Life) limit themselves to Sunday mornings, about the lowest road demand of the week (excluding middle of the night). And only the Good Life marathon and Sporting Life 10km block off any roads north of Bloor. Anyone needing to go east-west just has to deviate a couple km to the north or south.

But yeah, it was a badly worded question.
 
“Toronto has a spending problem, not a revenue problem”- Rob Ford, 2010
and now...
"Let’s get that revenue. Obviously we need the money to fund next year’s budget" link
 
SlickFranky said:
“Toronto has a spending problem, not a revenue problem”- Rob Ford, 2010
and now...
"Let’s get that revenue. Obviously we need the money to fund next year’s budget" link
Click to expand...

I would think that this move has just as much to do with putting the TCHC on a short leash as raising revenue.
 
One thing that would fit into Ford's populist mayoral style, and that I would truly love to see happen, would be for Ford to throw his mayoral power behind the frickin' committee that's supposed to coordinate street work in this burg. Like Miller cracking the whip at WT by actually sitting on the board, Ford could bring Hydro, Enbridge, and the city road workers to heel by being in the same room and screaming at them. It would definitely be a big step up from the current 'uhhh... yeah, we forgot to tell the other guys...' system they have in place now.
 
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