syn
Senior Member
I liked the revised City of Toronto Act, City Beautification, Nuit Blanche and the general increased arts focus. Improved public transit was pretty good too.
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What's your favourite policy/program of the Miller gov't?
- Thread starter Admiral Beez
- Start date
sixrings
Senior Member
I liked the "vision" of Transit City... A cost effective reliable comfortable and relatively fast form of rail infrastructure.. I put this in since I dont believe TC is completely dead. Finch and SHeppard may go back to this plan. And that would be a good thing.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
People crap on it but I've got to say 311 is a HUGE transformative change in how individuals have access to city hall. I deal with my fair share of problems where the city needs to be contacted and I have to say that 311 is a comparatively positive experience. Prior to this you would just have to leave a message with someone in the department who would never return your call. And every time you called back you would have to deal with a new person and the cycle would continue.
Incidently 311 has now passed its 1 millionth service request. The city is still as slow and unreliable as ever in dealing with service problems but now you have a system that tracks your service request where you can call and verify the status and there is a history of how slow and unreliable the city has been. By tracking this the city gives you ammunition to hold them to account in the event that they do not preform their duty to a reasonable level of expectation.
Incidently 311 has now passed its 1 millionth service request. The city is still as slow and unreliable as ever in dealing with service problems but now you have a system that tracks your service request where you can call and verify the status and there is a history of how slow and unreliable the city has been. By tracking this the city gives you ammunition to hold them to account in the event that they do not preform their duty to a reasonable level of expectation.
js97
Senior Member
Tower Renewal program - talk about corporate welfare! The government, subsidizing private landlords to 'improve' their rental buildings? If anything, they need to tighten restrictions and environmental standards on rental units. The idea behind the Renewal program is great. Perhaps those supporters should start throwing fundraisers for the Hundreds of Millions of dollars going to private landlords?
EnviroTO
Senior Member
Waterfront, Union Station, Eglinton LRT, St.Clair, Regent Park Redevelopment, Nathan Phillips Square, and the streetcar fleet purchase. These investments will shape the future of our city for the better.
Waterfront: HtO, Marilyn Bell Park, Mimico Waterfront, West Don Lands, and East Bayfront. When you think of the people that will live and play in the West Don Lands and East Bayfront the city will reap the rewards of this investment for a century. Whether or not there will be LRT to serve the area is up in the air.
Union Station: The purchase of Union Station and the decision to think big rather than do some remedial work will create a building able to handle large scale growth and create a building the city can be proud of. When I think back to the deals Lastman was about to make prior to the Paula Dill incident... spotlight on a piano in the grand hall proposals, one decent proposal... none of them hold a candle to what we are going to get. Throw in the GO train shed work, the air rail work, and the TTC station work and this is going to be an amazing place in 2015.
Eglinton LRT: Being able to go crosstown north of Bloor and connecting to the Don Mills / Eglinton employment centre and eventually the Airport Corporate Centre and the airport. This is a huge benefit. When it was going to partially run on the surface it made sense as an LRT... I think it would make sense as a four car subway if the whole thing is grade separated.
St.Clair: Naysayers be damned. The street looks much better than it did, the transit works well, the street is active with pedestrians, and the street doesn't move that badly.
Regent Park Redevelopment: The results are already becoming visible and the project has only started. Shuter Street will no longer be purposely misspelt Shooter once this project is done.
Nathan Phillips Square: It never looked that inviting, the changes over the years from blocking off walkways to installations in the square, and ageing concrete made it into a place that didn't look its full potential. Once complete this will be a place we can be proud to show visitors... not just "hey that is city hall" and a quick moving on but a place you walk around and check out.
The Streetcar Purchase: While the cars themselves don't look as great (in the renderings) as they do elsewhere (and here for the TC cars) they will allow streetcars to show their real value and allow the city to determine whether or not there is a place for them in the transportation network. The all door boarding, increased capacity, and accessible low floor will ensure people evaluating the value of the streetcar do so with a modern example of what that can be, not the equivalent of a 1970s electric trolley bus on rails. How will they work here and does the European on street experience translate to a North American city? We are about to find out. It can't be worse than the under capacity, inaccessible with steep stairs, low capacity dinosaurs roaming our streets today.
Waterfront: HtO, Marilyn Bell Park, Mimico Waterfront, West Don Lands, and East Bayfront. When you think of the people that will live and play in the West Don Lands and East Bayfront the city will reap the rewards of this investment for a century. Whether or not there will be LRT to serve the area is up in the air.
Union Station: The purchase of Union Station and the decision to think big rather than do some remedial work will create a building able to handle large scale growth and create a building the city can be proud of. When I think back to the deals Lastman was about to make prior to the Paula Dill incident... spotlight on a piano in the grand hall proposals, one decent proposal... none of them hold a candle to what we are going to get. Throw in the GO train shed work, the air rail work, and the TTC station work and this is going to be an amazing place in 2015.
Eglinton LRT: Being able to go crosstown north of Bloor and connecting to the Don Mills / Eglinton employment centre and eventually the Airport Corporate Centre and the airport. This is a huge benefit. When it was going to partially run on the surface it made sense as an LRT... I think it would make sense as a four car subway if the whole thing is grade separated.
St.Clair: Naysayers be damned. The street looks much better than it did, the transit works well, the street is active with pedestrians, and the street doesn't move that badly.
Regent Park Redevelopment: The results are already becoming visible and the project has only started. Shuter Street will no longer be purposely misspelt Shooter once this project is done.
Nathan Phillips Square: It never looked that inviting, the changes over the years from blocking off walkways to installations in the square, and ageing concrete made it into a place that didn't look its full potential. Once complete this will be a place we can be proud to show visitors... not just "hey that is city hall" and a quick moving on but a place you walk around and check out.
The Streetcar Purchase: While the cars themselves don't look as great (in the renderings) as they do elsewhere (and here for the TC cars) they will allow streetcars to show their real value and allow the city to determine whether or not there is a place for them in the transportation network. The all door boarding, increased capacity, and accessible low floor will ensure people evaluating the value of the streetcar do so with a modern example of what that can be, not the equivalent of a 1970s electric trolley bus on rails. How will they work here and does the European on street experience translate to a North American city? We are about to find out. It can't be worse than the under capacity, inaccessible with steep stairs, low capacity dinosaurs roaming our streets today.
Electrify
Senior Member
Least favourite:
Implementing new, municipal specific taxes rather than adjusting the property tax rate.
Banning and shutting down shooting ranges because some kids in Scarborough felt like killing each other.
Cancelling Island Airport bridge
Dragging feet as much as possible with Presto
Proposals to demolish the Gardiner Expressway
Most favourite:
Green bin iniatives
Trying to make Metropasses reasonably priced
Creating a shift towards cycling in our transportation network, though its execution was severely lacking
Public space development
(Full disclosure: Not a resident of Toronto)
Implementing new, municipal specific taxes rather than adjusting the property tax rate.
Banning and shutting down shooting ranges because some kids in Scarborough felt like killing each other.
Cancelling Island Airport bridge
Dragging feet as much as possible with Presto
Proposals to demolish the Gardiner Expressway
Most favourite:
Green bin iniatives
Trying to make Metropasses reasonably priced
Creating a shift towards cycling in our transportation network, though its execution was severely lacking
Public space development
(Full disclosure: Not a resident of Toronto)
SlickFranky
Active Member
Out of curiosity...why do you dislike this?
GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
For the record, Miller never proposed to demolish the Gardiner Expressway. He just supported a Waterfront Toronto study that explored the idea of replacing the eastern end of the expressway (past Jarvis) with an at-grade boulevard.
Presto was and is a bad deal. Karen Stintz is now echoing the same concerns Giambrone had. The cost the province is trying to place on the TTC for implementation is crazy, especially considering that bids for an open payment system could be much cheaper.
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Electrify
Senior Member
Because one can live a few side streets beyond the city limits (which I did for a period) and avoid them completely. The city should have been focusing on adjusting its property tax rates to balance the budget, like every other municipality in the province, rather than creating new taxes.
SlickFranky
Active Member
The function of these taxes isn't to 'balance the budget', it's to make taxation more equitable. Every municipality uses fees in this way.
And any policy from any Mayor/Council ends at Steeles, tax rate adjustments included, so I'm not sure what your point is there.
jn_12
Senior Member
I agree with all of this.
I'll add the "one cent now" campaign as well. While it wasn't successful it threw attention to municipal issues and undoubtedly put some pressure on the other levels of government to provide ad hoc funds. Sure, a sustainable source of revenue would have been nice, but the seed has at least been planted and perhaps it's an idea that will be revisited if/when a more progressive government is found at the municipal and federal level. Ultimately, perhaps Miller's greatest policy legacy was his ability to display how economically powerful cities are. The fact he moved on to the World Bank as a champion of urban issues says a lot.
thepatrickblack
New Member
Agreed
It's still a policy of his and he did everything he needed to do to get it going. Moreover, I thought it was a really great plan and I really appreciated the adult compromise: we get a city-wide system but we don't get subways. I prefer the former to the later.
It's still a policy of his and he did everything he needed to do to get it going. Moreover, I thought it was a really great plan and I really appreciated the adult compromise: we get a city-wide system but we don't get subways. I prefer the former to the later.
nfitz
Superstar
I love the new garbage cans (it was a pain carrying 4-5 blue boxes to the curb ... and then trying to walk down the street at the end of the day with blue boxes everywhere), and many of the infrastructure upgrades, such as the new streetcars and subway trains, and TTC service expansions.
But my favourite is perhaps putting together the deal to get BMO Field built, at little cost to city (and perhaps even at a profit now, given that it provides revenue to Exhibition Place every year).
Of course, Giambrone and Miller's manipulation of Metrolinx and Presto to push them to provide a better deal to the city to implement Presto, and push Presto to committing to a plan to implement Open Payment is certainly up there! Even now, the tail seems to be wagging the dog.
But my favourite is perhaps putting together the deal to get BMO Field built, at little cost to city (and perhaps even at a profit now, given that it provides revenue to Exhibition Place every year).
Of course, Giambrone and Miller's manipulation of Metrolinx and Presto to push them to provide a better deal to the city to implement Presto, and push Presto to committing to a plan to implement Open Payment is certainly up there! Even now, the tail seems to be wagging the dog.
Brian69
Not the Messiah
The waterfront. That's about it.