Rob Ford's Toronto

[Simple Man]

Ford will be able to do this no problem...


-Cut the Car tax and Land tax
-Privatize Garbage collection
-Reduce perks and budgets for councilors
-stricter measures for reducing graffiti
-free up the bidding process and get more private sector involvement
-reduce hiring
-increase the police force (not needed, but will easily pass)
-make TTC an essential service
-put in more Bike Lanes

Now way even Adam Vaughan can stop these things as these ideas are widely supported from George supporters as well.

So people saying he will not get anything done is silly however he will have a hard time with the TTC

 

[paraone]

When have you ever heard of a tax actually being repealed? I'll believe it when I see it, and it surely won't be by January.

 

[GraphicMatt]

The car tax is not a huge revenue generator. It'll be eliminated in the new budget and the revenue will be made up with a small property tax increase. Pantalone was going to eliminate it too, that's how expendable it is.

Land Transfer Tax I could see him waffling on. It's such a good tax relative to other taxes. And it clearly didn't impact the market. (It crashed a long while afterwards.) He's pushed his target on this back to 2012 because he knows it's only workable if council is able to have a couple of years with no budget pressure.

Garbage Collection being privatized is inevitable.

Grafitti measures are actually pretty strict already, but I guess enforcement could be stepped up. (I think suburban residents care more about this than downtown residents, weirdly.)

Bidding process is already pretty good. Big challenge these days is private companies coming in way over project budget with their bids. Look at the platform project at Union.

Hiring, sure, though this is where his promise not to cut services is going to be tough to keep. There's only a small sector of the city workforce that can be slimmed down, so his attrition cuts will hit certain departments way harder than others.

100 new police officers is probably a given.

Making the TTC an essential service is a stupid idea but, yeah, it sounds good so he'll do it.

Bike Lanes? In ravines? I guess?

 

[Herman_muntz]

I hope everyone understands the problem with privatization to fix up short term budget problems. Remember the buyer or operators of these services are in it for the long haul and they see making a profit on their investment over a long time span, while the sellers ie the city are worried about their short minded political future. As you can see the way its set up does not take the public interest into account. There is an article out on the rolling stone that better describes this: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/222206?RS_show_page=0. So just be vigilant for any privatization schemes that may hurt the unions but will probably bit you in the ass few years down the line.

 

[Eug]

So what about garbage collection in Etobicoke?

 

[Simple Man]

^^^

that only happens when you go super privatized.

Like privatizing the TTC and such.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

I'm pretty certain most of the drivers for Waste Management, Miller Disposal, Wasteco, and some of the other big firms are all Teamsters or another union. So privatizing garbage collection isn't the same as getting "rid" of the union. Think of it in terms of the privatization of CN rail: former Crown corporation, but still retains a unionized work force. I guess the issue then is would the city get a fair price in terms of selling works yards, vehicle fleets, etc. I could even see a scenario where the city *leases* works yards to the companies that win the bidding while retaining ownership of said facilities.

 

[Eug]

I'm pretty certain most of the drivers for Waste Management, Miller Disposal, Wasteco, and some of the other big firms are all Teamsters or another union. So privatizing garbage collection isn't the same as getting "rid" of the union. Think of it in terms of the privatization of CN rail: former Crown corporation, but still retains a unionized work force. I guess the issue then is would the city get a fair price in terms of selling works yards, vehicle fleets, etc. I could even see a scenario where the city *leases* works yards to the companies that win the bidding while retaining ownership of said facilities.

Yes, but costs are still often lower, despite employing unionized workers. So obviously they're doing something different, yet people in places served by those companies aren't complaining.

 

[Peepers]

Does anyone know if there is a breakdown by ward of votes? I'm curious to see how much support Ford got downtown. I voted for him him ward 27 which is in the heart of Smitherman country.

 

[Dilla]

For garbage collection, beyond lower costs, it takes a lot of power away from the 416 union during a strike. Most people wouldn't have known there was a strike going on the other year, were it not for the garbage.

Once outsourced, no more strikes.

 

[salvius]

Yes, but costs are still often lower, despite employing unionized workers. So obviously they're doing something different, yet people in places served by those companies aren't complaining.

Private vs public sector unions are two different beasts. Unions working in the private sector cannot push a company to the point where it becomes unprofitable; or if they do end up doing it, it means everyones job disappears. And since the city can put out a tender every X amount of years, it can contract the service elsewhere if the quote is too high. In other words, there is a real threat of the business packing it in, and so unions have a very real ceiling on their demands. In my opinion, that's exactly how unions should operate. No such pressure exists in the public sector unions because they can always walk off and wait for the city to capitulate and simply raise property taxes.

 

[picard102]

Does anyone know if there is a breakdown by ward of votes? I'm curious to see how much support Ford got downtown. I voted for him him ward 27 which is in the heart of Smitherman country.

I've been looking for this as well. I'd be more interested to see it on a poll by poll basis.

 

[grey]

"Property Tax?: We'll have to see what Ford will do to our property taxes. He has not committed to an increase, decrease or freeze."


From the Toronto Sun. Ahahaha, the other shoe drops.

 

[Tewder]

New streetcars (both TC and legacy replacements) will also be low floor, making access, even through just one door, a lot quicker and efficient (think of subway boardings).

Eglinton LRT running on the surface won't have to deal with left turns. Look at the plans.

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.

With respect to 'taking up a lane of traffic', how about looking at the overall number of people moved on the street? Are you moving more people in that lane taken over by the street car carrying upwards of 50 or more people or by that lane being given to single passenger cars?

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.

I'd personally love more subways, with the DRL as the number one priority. But I'm also not about to advocate throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars already spent and committed to main TC lines like Sheppard and Eglinton when the result will likely be nothing at all built.

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.

 

[greenleaf]

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?