Rob Ford's Toronto

[Danielinthecity]

Haha, holy shit, the mayor of Toronto is holding a press event in a new car lot.

Don't ya love the symbolism, huh?

 

[toto]

Haha, holy shit, the mayor of Toronto is holding a press event in a new car lot.

Ford will once again state that the "war on cars" is over. What he won't say is that the "war on the TTC, bikes and pedestrians" has just begun.

 

[Hipster Duck]

I'm loving how Ford is basically playing all his cards this early in a 4-year term. In 4 years, voters will not remember that he declared the "war on cars to be over" in some symbolic Chrylser* dealership, but they will get the impression that congestion in the city will either be the same, or worse than it is today. Since roadway traffic is an example of an induced demand, that will pretty much be how it plays out regardless of who's in charge.

*In 4 years, I'm not even sure if Chrysler will still exist, but that's another story.

 

[Hipster Duck]

AS for repealing the plastic bag fee, I'm confident that reality will trump ideology:

- most people who support Rob Ford and scrapping the bag fee live in the suburbs.
- most people in the suburbs shop at chain grocery stores
- most chain grocery stores voluntarily instituted a bag fee and have promised that they will not do away with it, even if given the option.

Also many retailers are not willing to scrap a fee that pays for what would otherwise be a nuisance cost to them (providing plastic bags that offer no sales benefits to them). The secret to making this program work was precisely that retailers got to pocket the 5 cent charge, and I don't think they're going to voluntarily give this up, either.

 

[TonyV]

I can't believe that people are writing about that plastic bag fee. I can't believe that I'm writing about people writing about the plastic bag fee.

I can't believe the issue was on the front page of The Star today.

I think people should resolve not to revisit, or talk about, the plastic bag fee, in 2011.

Happy New Year !!! Even in Rob Ford's Toronto.

 

[ShonTron]

The only retailers who will for sure scrap the 5 cent fee are take-out and delivery food vendors, where the bag fee is very silly as there is no choice on being levied the fee or not. Otherwise, I'm okay paying the 5 cent fee (I pay something like 20 cents a week, the bags get used again for the garbage chute) and I think most people are too. It's when it gets silly that it aggravates reasonable people.

 

[gabe]

I'm kind of surprised the major retailers are still charging 5 cents, since the retailers can charge whatever they like for plastic bags. The bylaw only requires they charge a minimum of five cents.

 

[GenerationW]

The fact is Ford is setting himself up for a huge failure on Transit City. There's no way council and Metrolinx are going to support cancelling all of TC to build Sheppard as a subway. He's going to look weak when he fails on this and whoever is the leader of the "opposition" will take it as an opportunity to propose a realistic alternative. If that passes, we have a new "Mayor".

Metrolinx has little power here, and if the Province and Ford come to an agreement, Council will fall in line half a second later.

 

[nfitz]

Metrolinx has little power here, and if the Province and Ford come to an agreement, Council will fall in line half a second later.

Depends what the agreement is.

I think Ford would be hard-pressed to find 23 councillors to agree cancelling the entire Eglinton RT.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I'm surprised that David Miller did nothing to protect his transit legacy while in office. He knew he wasn't going to run again, and thus knew ages ago that his TC project would be either supported, amended or canceled by his successor. To protect his TC idea he should have included the likely successors to the mayor's chair in the planning process. Instead of filling the transit committee with left-wing yes-men, he should have included Rob Ford and other right wing councilors in the committee. Sure this would have meant more debates and battles, but at least Ford today would have some personal investment in TC.

Of course Ford is doing the same thing now, stuffing the committees with right-wing yes men, and will see his programs and initiatives torn down or amended by his mayoral successor in four or eight years time. The difference is, Ford isn't going to be building anything, but instead is about tearing down and ripping apart existing and planned programs in the name of saving taxpayer dollars. However for Miller and other left-wing politicos that believe in big government, and big infrastructure and gov't social and other programs, if they wanted to keep these past their time as mayor they should think about how to do that by working in advance with their likely successors. And that doesn't include working with Joe Pants or other lefties that had no chance - the feel of the city and across North America is that the era of the right-wing, angry, cost-cutting politician has arrived.

 

[allabootmatt]

I agree that Miller could have done a better job of investing more of Council in Transit City...but on the other hand, it's unlikely any sucessor other than Ford, who let's not forget seemed like a very long shot as late as August, would go so far as to all-out cancel the plan. I think Miller probably bet that no future mayor would be silly enough to scrap a massive transit expansion with billions in committed funding and work underway. Whether he was right about that remains to be seen, of course.

In other news, I think it's worthwhile to comment on how often even Ford's ostensible allies seem to be publicly disagreeing with him on his signature issues. By my count Doug Holyday (TTC essential service), Mike Del Grande (hiring more cops), and Denzil Minnan-Wong (plastic bag fee) have all gone on the record with reservations about his policies. In the first case Holyday eventually voted with Ford, of course. But it is interesting that barely a month in even the right is expressing concern. One has to wonder what will happen on Ford's many 'party of one' issues, and on choices that involve difficult tradeoffs, after the honeymoon ends. Seems to me there are a lot of things that, basically, only Rob and Doug Ford think are good ideas.

 

[JasonParis]

It's not about the 5c fee, it's about the nanny state interfering in your daily lives. If plastic bags are evil, then make it illegal for stores to provide them in Toronto, and illegal for firms to produce or import them in Ontario.

And how's that not "Nanny State?"

 

[Irishmonk]

I'm surprised that David Miller did nothing to protect his transit legacy while in office.

Agree 100% on that one. It's also surprising that Miller hasn't expressed anything publicly (at least that I'm aware of) about the trashing of his biggest "legacy". He should have gotten all his TC ducks in a row with McGuinty long before his term ended so that his successor couldn't just unplug the whole thing in a single soundbyte.

 

[nfitz]

I seem to recall Miller pushing McGuinty very very hard over the last year to not delay Transit City. Sheppard East and Finch West were originally going to start construction other than the Agincourt grade separation in 2010 ... Miller seemed to be pushing very hard to keep to the original Metrolinx schedule.

 

[MetroMan]

Agree 100% on that one. It's also surprising that Miller hasn't expressed anything publicly (at least that I'm aware of) about the trashing of his biggest "legacy". He should have gotten all his TC ducks in a row with McGuinty long before his term ended so that his successor couldn't just unplug the whole thing in a single soundbyte.

Even if rails had already been laid and construction well in progress, Ford could have delivered the same "Transit City is dead" soundbyte. He'd have an equally difficult time to actually kill it. The only way Miller could have prevented his legacy from being taken away would be if he had run for a third term. By 2015, several projects would have been inaugurated and the momentum would be so strong, it'd be difficult to reverse.