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Rob Ford's Toronto

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The SS Ford is listing to starboard and the rats are scurrying to abandon ship:

Said one member of Ford’s inner circle: “Basically, we all acknowledge the subway plan was a big mistake. It was unrealistic. And we’re just trying to get (Ford) out of this without having egg all over his face.”
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Can we get some kind of public apology from every politician, voter and UT poster who has supported Ford? Would that not be fair, at this point, given all of the evidence?
 
Ford himself is setting a course for his own destruction. The vast majority of council, including many on his own executive committee are speaking out in favour of reverting to the old Eglinton plan. Today Ford announced he's still building a "subway". Never have I ever seen such an un-saavy politician in such a position of power. This man is so pigheaded to the point of not even caring about his own political wellbeing. When council votes overwhelmingly against the Mayor's plan, he's going to crash hard. This is going to be entertaining. The city is working as it should with council serving as checks and balances against the Mayor. They'll be running this city without him after this defeat.
 
Does anyone know how reverting back to above ground impacts the build out schedule? (ie. how long Scarborough will have no transit to STC after 2015)

Also, just to refresh my memory - would Eglinton LRT above ground still have subway-sized stop spacing or would it be more frequent stops?
 
Rob Ford campaigned for "service excellence" instead we got service cuts.

Everyone wants subways. I want subways too. I want all the TTC routes to be subways. However, it is not cost efficient, especially where the density is as low it is.

Light rail is efficient, going underground where space and density warrants it. Transit City should be built, but with some adjustments yes, but built none the less. We could have had construction already started on the Finch West LRT, but Rob Ford phobia has negated that for the time being. We need Transit City now, not when Rob Ford leaves office.

Subways are needed where it is NEEDED, not just wanted. The Downtown Relief Line (DRL) is needed, as heavy rail or light rail, but needed.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Everyone wants subways. I want subways too.
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What I find interesting is that he named Scarborough residents as the ones that voted him in for that -- wouldn't it be funny if a sort of coalition of Scarborough residents came out and said that they want the new plan? That would stick in his craw.
 
MetroMan said:
Ford himself is setting a course for his own destruction. The vast majority of council, including many on his own executive committee are speaking out in favour of reverting to the old Eglinton plan. Today Ford announced he's still building a "subway". Never have I ever seen such an un-saavy politician in such a position of power. This man is so pigheaded to the point of not even caring about his own political wellbeing. When council votes overwhelmingly against the Mayor's plan, he's going to crash hard. This is going to be entertaining. The city is working as it should with council serving as checks and balances against the Mayor. They'll be running this city without him after this defeat.
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I agree Metroman. A year ago things looked pretty dire, but it is very amusing to watch the Rob Ford phenomenon implode in just a few months.

In retrospect, given that he has been so ineffectual, and that his "power" was so shortlived, I'm actually kind of glad that he got elected as mayor. It proved to a large segment of the population that this man is a complete farce, and it mercifully ends his political career before it can go any further. If he would have not been elected, many would still paint him as a fiery councilor from North Etobicoke fighting waste at city hall, and an all-around guy who you would want to have a beer with. Now those same voters realize that the waste was largely nonexistent, and they might think twice about wanting to have a beer with a guy who has been revealed to be a humourless, cowardly asshole who runs away from a 60 year old woman dressed in a warrior costume.

Of course, there will always be a tiny segment of Toronto's population that love Ford, but those people are irrational and would defend him even if he committed genocide.
 
Hipster:

The bigger problem it didn't solve is the what to make of the x% of softcore supporters who bought into his message in spite of the evidence, and the future that bodes. The Frauds might be out, but the spark behind it hasn't.

Of course, there will always be a tiny segment of Toronto's population that love Ford, but those people are irrational and would defend him even if he committed genocide.
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But as we all know, mass murder is, according his worship, the purview of the 5 comrades on council who is "left of Stalin".

AoD
 
For some bizarre reason, despite consistent behaviour from him a decade plus at city hall, I continue to be surprised by Rob Ford's wholesale idiocy on a daily basis. As if that weren't bad enough on its own, it's combined with a level of stubbornness that's borderline sociopathic. Council was fair to give him a chance to prove himself in his first year as mayor, but fortunately they've smartened up and will now ignore him going forth. I just hope that won't backfire at the next election, when he'll predictably blame his ineffective term on the "left wing pinkos" hijacking council and advocate citizens to vote in other neo-con nut jobs like himself in order to push through his insane agenda.
 
What the #!%*?: Competing visions fight for future of Toronto’s rapid transit (National Post)

City councillors seek own changes to transit plan (Globe and Mail)

Whatever your ideological position on Ford, Miller, and their respective transit plans, one thing is clear: Miller has proven himself to be a far better leader. It's true the mayor is only one vote at council, but the mayor is also tasked with holding council (an inherently fragmented group) together on major issues. Miller took a lead on the transit file, presented a coherent plan, got council on his side, and lobbied Queen's Park to provide funding. Ford has allowed many of his supposed allies undermine him (e.g. Chong and Stintz). He's provided very little leadership other than throwing out blanket decrees now and then, essentially saying "I promised such and such during the election, so we need to make it happen. I don't care how or when, just do it!" As a result, the transit file is falling apart. There's absolutely no certainty on what the city wants. Plans keep changing and councillors keep switching positions. As the province gets ready to prepare major austerity measures, Toronto seems to be doing everything it can to make its transit funding look like an easy kill.

And where is the mayor during this mess? He's been hiding from the media and then issues a single statement over facebook! What kind of leadership is that? The mayor needs to either rally his troops and get in front of this issue, or get out of the way and let council vote quickly on a new plan.
 
I like the subway plan though.
I people in Toronto are short sighted.
LRT will solve some problem in the short run, but in the long run, it creates more problems.
It is difficult to take out the LRT and rebuild a subway in the future if the capacity is not enough.
Building LRT will satisfy some people's desire to have some new transit system.
Time will prove that Ford is right about the subway.
People suggest the LRT because they want to keep their seats. If they need to choose between their job and the city's future, they will of course choose their job. It is human nature. Ford is the only one who risk his seat for the city. The reason is that he do not need to worry about his seat. He wants to be major because he wants a better future for the city. He is the only one who will choose the city's future over his seat.
 
theflyingsquirrel said:
I like the subway plan though.
I people in Toronto are short sighted.
LRT will solve some problem in the short run, but in the long run, it creates more problems.
It is difficult to take out the LRT and rebuild a subway in the future if the capacity is not enough.
Building LRT will satisfy some people's desire to have some new transit system.
Time will prove that Ford is right about the subway.
People suggest the LRT because they want to keep their seats. If they need to choose between their job and the city's future, they will of course choose their job. It is human nature. Ford is the only one who risk his seat for the city. The reason is that he do not need to worry about his seat. He wants to be major because he wants a better future for the city. He is the only one who will choose the city's future over his seat.
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Sprawling suburbs don't have enough density to support subways, and a tunnel here would cost in the range of billions. That money would be much better spent improving transit in other parts of the city that really need it. Throwing it all behind a single project that will be underused (like she sheppard subway) is a big mistake.

Ford doesn't care about the city or its future, he cares about people not being inconvenienced while driving. Otherwise why did he promise during election-time that he'd replace streetcars with BUSES? Not subways, buses. He'd use a more polluting costlier less comfortable mode of transportation just so that it's easier (though in reality it isn't) for cars to make right turns.
 
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