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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Good point. The media and particularily certain media, are intentionally playing on people's fears and ramping up anxiety to create a backlash. Happens all the time.
 
But the axe (or hatchet) has already fallen. It's only a question now of how many times it's going to be swung again.

The first swings: First with councillor's lunches (yes, that mean little swipe!) - then, right down to Transit City and it's already signed contracts. Chop.
Then, two provincially funded public health nurses. Chop.
Then the TCHC brouhaha. Bang.
Then an underhanded swing: The Jarvis, Birchmount and Pharmacy Bike Lanes. Chop.
Free volunteer citizens committees at City Hall. Chop.
The Fort York Bridge. Chop.
CBC interviews, the Toronto Star: sorry, too busy cutting the gravy.

Next up:
City Garbage workers, in a certain section west of Yonge. Chop!
The vehicle registration tax. Chop!
Painting over artwork commissioned by the city. Splotch!
Closing the Metro Urban Affairs branch. Chop!
Hiring KPMG, hatchet sharpeners extraordinaire.

Next up:
Firefighters.
Police.
Snow Removal.
TTC Head Expertise.
TTC sold to corporations including naming rights to stations.
TTC service cuts, including the Blue Night network.
Infant meal subsidies for low-income children.
AIDS prevention programs and Community drug prevention.
Priority Neighbourhood care.
Horticulture activities.
Grass cutting in parks.
Tree replacement.
Beach Maintenance.
Child Care.
Our entire library system.
The Metro Zoo.
Exhibition Place.
Affordable Housing.
Parking Lots.
Housing Improvement Loans.
City-owned theatres.
City Grants for the Arts.
Public Realm Improvements.
Supplements for the aged and infirm to get medical supplies.
BIA's. (Business Improvement Association) help.
Heritage Grants and the Heritage Tax rebates.
Illegal signage investigations.
Public availability of building information.
The welfare, public housing, medical and language training costs of refugees.
Oh - and Riverdale Farm.
The entire streetcar network, possibly.

Attempted: The Entire Toronto Waterfront Revitalization, The 5 cent bag fee thing, and that thing called Toronto Pride Week.

The councillor's lunches bitchslap deliberately showed that nothing was too small be spared as an insult. The Transit City debacle deliberately showed that nothing, no matter how important, was off-limits to fuck up.
In between those two ends of the scale, everything is fair game to this guy (these two?).

Because of the sheer amount of cuts that have been suggested, even a random sampling of them, if actually enacted, could quite damaging to the city.
 
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‘Smooth clean roads’ a priority for Toronto, says Ford


Mayor Rob Ford says Torontonians’ top three priorities are security, “smooth clean roads†and having a clean city with garbage picked up and graffiti erased.


Ford made the comments Friday while appearing on CP24’s noon show with Stephen LeDrew.


Ford listed the priorities, based on what people tell him, after LeDrew asked about a host of cuts suggested by consultant KPMG. He didn’t respond to LeDrew’s specific question about whether Riverdale Farm should be closed.


Ford said people are telling him he’s “doing a great job.â€


The mayor made it clear that grants to arts groups and others are one of his prime targets for “efficiencies.â€

“I can’t sit here and justify handing out $50 million in grants when we’re looking for $750 million,†Ford said, adding “every special interest group out there†comes to the city with its hand out.

“Some of it might be legitimate,†but, with a huge deficit looming, the city has to look to the private sector to get involved and help shoulder the burden, he said.


Ford also took aim at the Atmospheric Fund, which funds initiatives to fight air pollution, climate change and other environmental hazards, and questioned if the city should own the Toronto Zoo, three performing arts theatres and the Toronto

Parking Authority, which operates the Green P lots.


Asked if he’ll follow through on a suggestion to reduce the police force, Ford said councillors have to “look under every rock†but he considers that a last resort.

“My personal opinion, no I want to protect our police . . . that’s at the bottom of the list.â€


Asked if he’s ready to get tough with city unions, who are fighting his agenda of deep cuts to the city budget and workforce, Ford told LeDrew: “I’m prepared to go toe to toe with anyone.â€


The mayor repeated he’ll do everything possible to avoid a property tax increase in 2012, but said it depends on how much he can cut from the budget. Last week, he said he wouldn’t support a budget hike over 3 per cent.


“I’m only one vote at council and there’s 44 other councillors who are going to have to answer to their constituents,†he said, adding “I hope they’re listening . . .


“I encourage the taxpayers to start calling their councillors and say ‘Let’s cut the gravy, let’s cut the waste. I don’t want a tax increase,’†Ford said.


Ford encouraged all residents to go to City Hall on Thursday and tell him and the rest of executive committee what they think of the hundreds of millions of dollars in potential savings identified by city-hired consultants KPMG.


“I want to hear from the people and I encourage them to come,†Ford said, noting each deputant will get five minutes to speak their mind. He added that the meeting, which normally lasts one day or less, might go for three.


Hundreds of deputants have already spoken their minds to several standing committees reviewing the KPMG suggestions.


A large majority of the members of the public have criticized the consultant’s suggestions to close libraries, attractions such as Riverdale Farm, cut grants for student nutrition and AIDS prevention, scale back snow plowing and street sweeping, and more.

Talking about the uproar over proposed cuts, Ford reassured Torontonians, saying he’s a “man of integrity†and “it’ll all come out in the wash.â€


Asked about his decision to skip the 10-day gay Pride event, Ford repeated that he only wanted a couple of days of “family time†at his cottage in Huntsville.

“I don’t apologize for not going to Pride,†Ford said.


The mayor also told LeDrew that he still returns every phone call, goes to residents’ homes if they have trouble — even picking up their trash if it wasn’t collected — and that he again plans to coach high school football.

Asked if he’s enjoying the job, despite the criticism he receives, Ford said: “I love being mayor.â€

http://www.thestar.com/news/article...n-roads-a-priority-for-toronto-says-ford?bn=1
 
The problem with posting quotes is that many times, they're taken out of context from the original article they were taken from.

Ford has never made it a secret that he thought the city paid too much for services and for things it shouldn't be paying at all. I'm not surprised that there's this chopping block list being proposed. Do I like it? Not in it's entirely. We all know for example that the police budget is grossly inflated and Toronto doesn't need this amount of officers. So cuts need to made here.

But a big part of this fiscal fiasco we've found ourselves in lies at Miller's feet. His administration racked up spending like there was no tomorrow and someone like Ford had to come in and clean it up. So we can criticize Ford on the dept of his proposed cuts and mindset for thinking everything should be privatized, which Ford never hid from the public and I personally don't care for.

Voters brought Ford in to clean up the mess. And that's exactly what he intends to do. He's going to do what Harris did back in the 90's.
 
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tkip said:
We all know for example that the police budget is grossly inflated and Toronto doesn't need this amount of officers. So cuts need to made here.
Click to expand...

Yet, if you look at what has been highlighted in bold type in the comment immediately before your's, Mayor Ford says that he wants to protect the cops, that making cuts to their department is the last resort.
 
typezed said:
Yet, if you look at what has been highlighted in bold type in the comment immediately before your's, Mayor Ford says that he wants to protect the cops, that making cuts to their department is the last resort.
Click to expand...

of course he won't touch them.
RF will need the cops protection when the population gets so frustrated and after the city's gone to complete hell.
 
CanadianNational said:
But the axe (or hatchet) has already fallen. It's only a question now of how many times it's going to be swung again.

The first swings: First with councillor's lunches (yes, that mean little swipe!) - then, right down to Transit City and it's already signed contracts. Chop.
Then, two provincially funded public health nurses. Chop.
Then the TCHC brouhaha. Bang.
Then an underhanded swing: The Jarvis, Birchmount and Pharmacy Bike Lanes. Chop.
Free volunteer citizens committees at City Hall. Chop.
The Fort York Bridge. Chop.
CBC interviews, the Toronto Star: sorry, too busy cutting the gravy.

Next up:
City Garbage workers, in a certain section west of Yonge. Chop!
The vehicle registration tax. Chop!
Painting over artwork commissioned by the city. Splotch!
Closing the Metro Urban Affairs branch. Chop!
Hiring KPMG, hatchet sharpeners extraordinaire.

Next up:
Firefighters.
Police.
Snow Removal.
TTC Head Expertise.
TTC sold to corporations including naming rights to stations.
TTC service cuts, including the Blue Night network.
Infant meal subsidies for low-income children.
AIDS prevention programs and Community drug prevention.
Priority Neighbourhood care.
Horticulture activities.
Grass cutting in parks.
Tree replacement.
Beach Maintenance.
Child Care.
Our entire library system.
The Metro Zoo.
Exhibition Place.
Affordable Housing.
Parking Lots.
Housing Improvement Loans.
City-owned theatres.
City Grants for the Arts.
Public Realm Improvements.
Supplements for the aged and infirm to get medical supplies.
BIA's. (Business Improvement Association) help.
Heritage Grants and the Heritage Tax rebates.
Illegal signage investigations.
Public availability of building information.
The welfare, public housing, medical and language training costs of refugees.
Oh - and Riverdale Farm.
The entire streetcar network, possibly.

Attempted: The Entire Toronto Waterfront Revitalization, The 5 cent bag fee thing, and that thing called Toronto Pride Week.

The councillor's lunches bitchslap deliberately showed that nothing was too small be spared as an insult. The Transit City debacle deliberately showed that nothing, no matter how important, was off-limits to fuck up.
In between those two ends of the scale, everything is fair game to this guy (these two?).

Because of the sheer amount of cuts that have been suggested, even a random sampling of them, if actually enacted, could quite damaging to the city.
Click to expand...

Boy, that is quite the list. How "Ford Nation" could look at that and still feel good about voting in Ford, is beyond me.
 
tkip said:
The problem with posting quotes is that many times, they're taken out of context from the original article they were taken from.

Ford has never made it a secret that he thought the city paid too much for services and for things it shouldn't be paying at all. I'm not surprised that there's this chopping block list being proposed. Do I like it? Not in it's entirely. We all know for example that the police budget is grossly inflated and Toronto doesn't need this amount of officers. So cuts need to made here.

But a big part of this fiscal fiasco we've found ourselves in lies at Miller's feet. His administration racked up spending like there was no tomorrow and someone like Ford had to come in and clean it up. So we can criticize Ford on the dept of his proposed cuts and mindset for thinking everything should be privatized, which Ford never hid from the public and I personally don't care for.

Voters brought Ford in to clean up the mess. And that's exactly what he intends to do. He's going to do what Harris did back in the 90's.
Click to expand...

You may have understood Ford's true intentions, but I think that a large population were deceived. They thought that Ford, instead of cutting back on many essential services, was going to make the way services were delivered more efficient (ie. streamlining process, cutting down on unneeded employees). Really, the KPMG report does not offer any recommendations of increasing efficiency, but is rather a report on what services to cut back.

As for Miller's spending increases, you do have to remember that in the 90s, service was cut under Harris.
 
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Torontovibe said:
Boy, that is quite the list. How "Ford Nation" could look at that and still feel good about voting in Ford, is beyond me.
Click to expand...

I agree. So, couple these other factors in. First, the more he talks, the more trouble he gets into. The Star has sliced and diced the CP24 comments to pieces today. Second, the guy is really poor at communicating any valid ideas he might have, and that is an absolutely huge failing.

I will maintain that his support base is already eroding. Those of us who oppose him can take satisfaction that he is destined to shoot himself in the foot, big time. So, just let him keep on talking, and let KPMG release the laundry list for him.
 
I think people liked things like cutting the red tape and making things simpler at City Hall. We all hated how the street food cart fiasco unfolded. It was too micro-managed. Stupidity like that pissed off a lot of people, including me. Zoning restrictions with bars and patios are just too much, people want to see things more relaxed and Ford seemed to be the guy to do that. Christ, you can't even open a proper dance club anywhere in this city.

Few people realized all the changes Ford was going to bring about. I also want less red tape and fewer restrictions but I don't want to see this city nickelled and dimed to death.
 
I am so, so proud of being an idiot helping to elect an idiot to office. Common sense! Gravy! GET BIG GUBMINT OUT OF ARE POCKETS.
 
tkip said:
Voters brought Ford in to clean up the mess. And that's exactly what he intends to do. He's going to do what Harris did back in the 90's.
Click to expand...

Are you that clueless? Why do you think Miller had to spend so much money?
Why do you refuse to believe that all these cuts will cost more in the long term.
Had Harris not cut cut cut you think Miller would have had to spend.
Sometimes i get so pissed off at Miller for not running fo reelection. I feel like he quit on the city and the big plans and vision he had for Toronto. Only to have some whack job come and set us 10 years back. I can only imagine what Toronto's congestion will be like in 2020 if we somehow get the Olympics.
 
jje1000 said:
You may have understood Ford's true intentions, but I think that a large population were deceived. They thought that Ford, instead of cutting back on many essential services, was going to make the way services were delivered more efficient (ie. streamlining process, cutting down on unneeded employees). Really, the KPMG report does not offer any recommendations of increasing efficiency, but is rather a report on what services to cut back.

As for Miller's spending increases, you do have to remember that in the 90s, service was cut under Harris.
Click to expand...

Then people are fools. I won't mince words here. People collectively at times are easily deceived because they want to believe a lie.

When you hear that the city is hundreds of millions of dollars in shortfall for it's budget and someone promises to balances the books somehow, if you even pay attention to history then you know instantly that without raising taxes, you have to cut spending and services. It's not rocket science.

But people are sheep and most don't think things through. But as I always say, this is basic human nature. We're hardwired to only think short-term.
 
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