Rob Ford's Toronto

[W. K. Lis]

Pick up and save all the Rob Ford for Mayor signs you can find on public property this week.

When the sidewalks or roads don't get plowed, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign in it.

When there is a public sector strike, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign beside them.

When libraries or swimming pools are closed, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

A line-up at transit stops, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

Unmowed, burn grass in a park, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign in it.

For any problem that Rob Ford will cause or be a party to, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

 

[Eug]

A comment on privatized garbage services:

A relative of mine lives in the US where the city has privatized garbage pick up. He says it is slightly cheaper for the consumer than the city next door, but not a whole lot. There are six different garbage pick up providers, so you have 6 times the amount of garbage trucks going up and down the block throughout the week. This means six times the amount of air and noise pollution in the neighbourhood. Is that worth it to save $50-60/year?

No, but that's not what happens in Etobicoke. The private company controls garbage pickup for the entire region, for the duration of the contract. Then the contract goes out for tender again. The city could win that contract too.

Pick up and save all the Rob Ford for Mayor signs you can find on public property this week.

When the sidewalks or roads don't get plowed, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign in it.

When there is a public sector strike, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign beside them.

When libraries or swimming pools are closed, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

A line-up at transit stops, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

Unmowed, burn grass in a park, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign in it.

For any problem that Rob Ford will cause or be a party to, stick a Rob Ford for Mayor sign near it.

When someone tomorrow goes bezerk and cries that the sky is falling because of yesterday's result, stick a Rob Ford sign in him?

 

[Asterix]

I was talking about streetcars in general. As for Eglinton there are all kinds of other issues I didn't even bring up. The fact is streetcars are flawed for many and various reasons. They are not a good long term plan for a city the size of Toronto and for a city with the kind of growth projections that Toronto has. If an employee of mine made an analagous recommendation i'd seriously question their judgement.

Street space is limited. It doesn't make sense to deplete it further unnecessarily. The best way to optimize the number of people moved 'period' is for subways beneath streets, freeing up the streets for as much traffic as possible... nevermind the fact that freeing up streets could also allow for the widening of sidewalks for pedestrians where possible or the adding of bike lanes.

Sure, in a perfect world I'd have subways everywhere. But just because having a subway under a given street could theoretically move more people quicker than a TC-style LRT line doesn't mean it is economically feasible or efficient.

Surface LRT can provide improved transit to a far greater number of people for a given amount of money than a few token kms of subway. If we're to spend billions on more subway, far and away my first priority would be the DRL because delivering people faster to the Yonge line is pointless if there is no room for them on the subway.

How about advocating for the right and responsible solution rather than accepting the peanuts on offer? The nature of these projects is that they are long term and require commitment, leadership and vision to implement. It seems unbelievably myopic and intolerably 'political' to knowingly settle for the wrong choices, not to mention potentially very costly when the wrong choices have to be corrected. Subways will not be a wrong choice. Period.

DRL! That should be the next significant capital project once the TC lines designed and started are completed.

But if we cancel TC (and pay hundreds of millions for absolutely no new service) and wait until we have enough money to build subways and only subways, we'll be waiting a long time before we see anything built. Maybe in the earlier days of the TTC they should have said 'forget about buying more buses for suburban routes, we're not going to spend anything until we can build subways along those roads'?

 

[Eug]

Hmmm… I wonder if his transit advisors (if he has any) would tell him to continue the Transit City Eglinton core tunnel with LRT but with westward and eastward expansion, and then run buses in separate ROWs in Etobicoke for the remainder.

That way he could claim that he has created an Eglinton "subway", leaving open the option for further tunnelling in the future.

Some say it may make little sense, but hey.

He'd also be extending Sheppard stubway too.

 

[Tewder]

If we're to spend billions on more subway, far and away my first priority would be the DRL because delivering people faster to the Yonge line is pointless if there is no room for them on the subway.

I have no problem with a DRL and would agree that it is an important part of the puzzle.

But if we cancel TC (and pay hundreds of millions for absolutely no new service) and wait until we have enough money to build subways and only subways, we'll be waiting a long time before we see anything built. Maybe in the earlier days of the TTC they should have said 'forget about buying more buses for suburban routes, we're not going to spend anything until we can build subways along those roads'?

No, instead they invested responsibly on the right transit choice that was the subway system... and thankfully they did. If only the generation of the past twenty/thirty years had continued with that plan. Time to turn the wrong-mindedness around and get back on to a responsible and sustainable path rather than continue to throw good money after bad.

 

[lafard]

My parents live in a rural part of BC. There is actually competitive garbage collection, a couple companies provide it, it's completely privatized and the government has washed their hands of it.

It is not, however, any cheaper than what you pay in Toronto.

 

[MetroMan]

I wrote Adam Vaughan and Pam McConnell. Considering that they were both re-elected with an overwhelming vote of confidence, and that they're both very left and as anti-Ford as you can get, I don't think they're going to be letting Ford cancel the West8 plans for Queens Quay. It's just too important to their ward. They know their way around council and their seniorship lends me to believe that they'll be able to build alliances on council to oppose scrapping existing waterfront plans.

 

[Urban_Enthusiast86]

... yet you seem to partake of the same kind of hyperbole.

Why the smoke and mirrors? At the end of the day one extra set of doors and 'restrictions' on turning left don't make for all that different of a transit reality than good ol' Queen Street streetcars. The right of way is different to some existing streetcar routes, granted, but still poses several real concerns, i.e. taking up a lane of traffic, coming to a stop at interstections, problems with left turns etc. We've already seen this on St. Clair.

The big difference with this line is that it will be underground for 12km, effectively making it a subway for a decent portion of the route. The lack of interruptions makes it "rapid" transit, unlike the streetcars on Queen.

 

[nfitz]

It is not, however, any cheaper than what you pay in Toronto.

No, of course not. While the employees wages will be lower, there still needs to be 10% to 15% profit on the whole thing, to pay the owners of the private enterprise.

So we save little to nothing, reduce the wage of a lot of people, and make a very few people wealthy.

I guess a multi-millionaire who inherited a business might think it's a good idea.

As for streetcars ... is there a single councillor with streetcars in their ward ... east of the Humber at least, who favours removing the service? I can see there may be some justification for it on Kingston Road, or Lakeshore west of Humber ... but that's saves what, a half-dozen cars at peak-hour? We can change the current order from 204 to 200.

 

[Red October]

Remember it's not a crosstown route.

Acutally, it is.
Well thats what it is called anyways..
It goes from Kennedy to (eventually) the airport.

 

[Eug]

No, of course not. While the employees wages will be lower, there still needs to be 10% to 15% profit on the whole thing, to pay the owners of the private enterprise.

So we save little to nothing, reduce the wage of a lot of people, and make a very few people wealthy.

Yet Etobicoke's former mayor Holyday claims they save $2 million on their garbage contract, as compared to the city garbage workers.

So stop stating these claims of "we save little to nothing" as fact.

 

[nfitz]

Yet Etobicoke's former mayor Holyday claims they save $2 million on their garbage contract, as compared to the city garbage workers.

So we will save another $6-million for the over 3/4 of the city?

This is the biggest aspect of Ford's contracting out, and he's only talking $6 million?? Yet he's talking about hundreds of millions in tax cuts?

Did I miss something here?

 

[Eug]

So we will save another $6-million for the over 3/4 of the city?

This is the biggest aspect of Ford's contracting out, and he's only talking $6 million?? Yet he's talking about hundreds of millions in tax cuts?

Did I miss something here?

Yes, you missed the fact that $6 million isn't pocket change.

P.S. Ford claims $10 million for this, not hundreds of millions, but that's probably very optimistic.

 

[Simple Man]

the fact Miller found 100 million dollars under his seat at his office at city hall shows, there is a lot we don't know about the budget at that place.

 

[GraphicMatt]

That tends to be how budgets work - you expect to earn a certain amount of revenue and have a certain level of expenditures, but generally your accounting department doesn't report actuals in real-time.