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Skating Rinks

M

MajorComplainer

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It's so sad and pathetic that the city can't even cough up $200K for something...
I feel so ashamed that we basically need other corp to donate $$ to feed our city....what a world class city it is...

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/266260

Someone should tell that useless Miller (I used to like him, but no more) instead of taking more $$ from us, he should find a way to get some $$ from Queen's Park or Ottawa... We didn't elect him so he could take our $$.
 
It's really not fair to criticize Miller for not pressing higher levels of government enough. He harrasses them constantly, both in the media and directly. Eventually you get diminishing returns to harrassment as the Premier and Prime Minister can't stand to listen to you anymore.

He's accomplished the City of Toronto act, the gas tax money, and the uploading of disability and medical benefit spending. That's pretty impressive, though uploading clearly should go further.

As for the rinks, good for MasterCard. This seems like a win all around. Why spend tax dollars for something like this when a corporate sponsor will cover it?
 
unimaginative2 said:
It's really not fair to criticize Miller for not pressing higher levels of government enough. He harrasses them constantly, both in the media and directly. Eventually you get diminishing returns to harrassment as the Premier and Prime Minister can't stand to listen to you anymore.

He's accomplished the City of Toronto act, the gas tax money, and the uploading of disability and medical benefit spending. That's pretty impressive, though uploading clearly should go further.

As for the rinks, good for MasterCard. This seems like a win all around. Why spend tax dollars for something like this when a corporate sponsor will cover it?
Click to expand...

What do you mean not fair? We elected him to run the city, not taking the $$ from us. He obviously didn't do enough, or did a lousy job to harrass the big cheeses for $$. So at the end, he just take the $$ from us? WTF?

What's so good about another Corp come for the rescue of the city? The reason MasterCard did that cause WE DID NOT HAVE MONEY. So what if next Spring that Toronto doesn't have $$ for the flowers? Let's hope another big Corp to come for the rescue again or else, the gardens will be in ruin? There's nothing good about it. It's shameful that a "world-class" city like Toronto can't even afford to make a public skating rink for people to skate! What a joke!
 
MajorComplainer said:
What do you mean not fair? We elected him to run the city, not taking the $$ from us. He obviously didn't do enough, or did a lousy job to harrass the big cheeses for $$. So at the end, he just take the $$ from us? WTF?
Click to expand...

Well, one would assume that the money to run a city would come from the people that live in the city, so I don't get what you mean. As for not being good at harassing the "big cheeses," I could be the most persuasive person in the world, but I couldn't get Galen Weston to give me a billion dollars. That doesn't mean that I'm bad at persuading. It just means that he doesn't want or perhaps can't afford to give it to me.

What's so good about another Corp come for the rescue of the city? The reason MasterCard did that cause WE DID NOT HAVE MONEY. So what if next Spring that Toronto doesn't have $$ for the flowers? Let's hope another big Corp to come for the rescue again or else, the gardens will be in ruin? There's nothing good about it. It's shameful that a "world-class" city like Toronto can't even afford to make a public skating rink for people to skate! What a joke!
Click to expand...

The Wollman Rink has corporate sponsorship. Does that make New York not world class?
 
MajorComplainer said:
It's so sad and pathetic that the city can't even cough up $200K for something...
I feel so ashamed that we basically need other corp to donate $$ to feed our city....what a world class city it is...
Click to expand...

World class like New York, London, Paris...where companies and wealthy individuals routinely underwrite civic amenities. Toronto needs more of this, not less.
 
unimaginative2 said:
The Wollman Rink has corporate sponsorship. Does that make New York not world class?
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I have no problem with Corp sponsorships. We need them for arts and cultures and such.

But this case is different. It's NOT a corp sponsor. They did it to pity the city cause it couldn't even afford to have a skating rink for people to skate.

Mathra Stewart Co. should get ready, cause I'm sure the city will need someone to donate flowers next Spring for our city. :rolleyes:
 
MajorComplainer said:
What do you mean not fair? We elected him to run the city, not taking the $$ from us. He obviously didn't do enough, or did a lousy job to harrass the big cheeses for $$. So at the end, he just take the $$ from us? WTF?
Click to expand...

You're doing justice to your name MajorComplainer. I think you're being unreasonable. How far did Mel Lastman get with begging for money?

David Miller is on the right track getting the people in power on his side. We've seen how he's convinced Dalton McGuinty to use his leverage to ask the Feds for 1¢ of the gas tax. Toronto is finally getting recognition of it's problems and as the heart pumping blood to the rest of the province and country.

I think that more of the unfair provincial downloads will be uploaded in McGuinty's new term and David Miller was absolutely instrumental in achieving that.

Re: 'taking money from us' ... that's how a city is run. You pay taxes to insure your street is paved, your garbage is collected and your neighborhoods are safe.
Miller is simply one vote on council. If he has rogue councillors elected by "us", he can only do so much. It's our job to elect the kind of people who would support the Mayor's direction and would have avoided all the cuts that we've witnessed.
 
MetroMan said:
David Miller is on the right track getting the people in power on his side. We've seen how he's convinced Dalton McGuinty to use his leverage to ask the Feds for 1¢ of the gas tax. Toronto is finally getting recognition of it's problems and as the heart pumping blood to the rest of the province and country.
Click to expand...

Don't get me started with the 1 Penny thing! Ya, he's doing such a great job that, as of to date, we still don't see a penny, and yet, we are risking to have to foot the legal bill cause Royal Mint is sueing the city for it! :rolleyes:
 
MajorComplainer said:
Don't get me started with the 1 Penny thing! Ya, he's doing such a great job that, as of to date, we still don't see a penny, and yet, we are risking to have to foot the legal bill cause Royal Mint is sueing the city for it! :rolleyes:
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which if you divide that bill by the population works out to be about 1 cent per person. :eek:
 
Is the fact that we haven't 'seen' the penny Miller's fault? He has launched a sustained and so far fairly effective lobbying effort toward senior governments. No, we haven't won yet on the sales tax thing, but keep in mind that it's an absolutely radical suggestion for Canada. That said, it is picking up momentum and I think we are no more than a few years away. Meanwhile Miller has secured the new City act, some degreee of uploading, and sustained gas tax revenues. That's a hell of a lot of progress considering that Mel did very little but whine, and to no avail.

I think people really underestimate just how weak the office of the mayor is, and how huge the structural obstacles are for big cities in Canada. Miller is making the best of an absolutely awful situation, and doing so requires some pain, patience and yes, trust on the part of the residents of Toronto. Has he made mistakes? Of course he has. But he is determined to drag this country, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the 20th century when it comes to the treatment of municipalities. We are lucky to have a leader who, warts and all, is so hell-bent on doing so, and I would challenge anyone to argue that they, if placed in a position with such massive systemic limitations built into it, could do a better job. Miller is a champion for this city, and it's absolutely awful that it has failed to get more strongly behind him.

While I support the currently proposed tax measures I agree that the endgame here is in Ottawa and at Queen's Park, and for those purposes it is crucial that Toronto speak with a unified voice, and not be riven by unbelievably petty squabbling between the Miller-haters and supporters.

One day we might even reach the 21st century, too.
 
Well said matt -- I can't think of many other cities where the council has become so ridiculously politicized it is doing nothing but to harm the city in the long run. Not surprising, though, consider how diverse the population of the city is to begin with..
 
looks like they're going to keep the library's open too. this time the corporate sponsor is hustler magazine.

;)
 
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