City Hall: Up for debate this week

Cross-posted from Eye Daily.

City Hall will be abuzz this week, with council scheduled to meet both tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday and a Budget Committee meeting planned for 1:30 Friday afternoon. And Joe Pennachetti is likely relieved that the last of those public consultation meetings on the use of new “revenue tools” will be taking place Wednesday evening (7:00 to 9:00 at the Scarborough Civic Centre). Only one more night left of being told he’s mismanaging the city’s finances. He’s probably counting the minutes.

Here’s a look at a few of the items up for debate this week.

1. Street Furniture — Not much public space activists can do about it now; city council will no doubt officially approve the 20-year, multimillion dollar contract with advertising company Astral media to provide new bus shelters, benches and garbage cans. Of course that doesn’t mean that they can’t still protest the deal. The Toronto Public Space Committee has a special Art Attack planned this week — watch for outdoor advertising’s new makeover Wednesday morning when council meets.

2. Judy Sgro Avenue — The city has a rule against naming streets after sitting politicians, but bylaws were meant to be broken (or maybe our city council would prefer I say there are exceptions to every rule — either way, the result’s the same.) Fortunately, Councillor Howard Moscoe remembers the reasons this law was drawn up in the first place. He says that council’s decision to name a street after current Liberal MP Judy Sgro is akin to paying for the MP’s campaign paraphernalia. If we’re going to do that, he argues, why not go full out? The cheeky politician is bringing a motion before council to rename the street “Re-elect Judy Sgro Avenue.”

3. Keeping jobs in the city — It seems that condos are like an invasive species in Toronto. Building them has become such an easy way for developers to make money that residential units are slowing taking over land designated as employment, much like non-native trees and plants are taking over our ravines, disrupting their natural ecosystem.

“If Toronto becomes a bedroom community, we are out of business,” councillor Michael Feldman was quoted as saying in the Globe and Mail.

High-paying manufacturing jobs are leaving our city and attracting new industry has been difficult, which doesn’t bode well for Toronto’s future.

Writes the Globes Jennifer Lewington:

Industry contributes $138-million a year in taxes, with jobs paying at well above minimum wage.

But some say the die is cast.

“I have trouble seeing how manufacturing can survive in urban areas when you have high-density residential and the official plan wants more,” says Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth). “Manufacturing in most cities moves to the suburbs.”

City council is expected to debate this week ways for Toronto to keep its manufacturing jobs and attract new ones.

4. Heritage Buildings — There was nothing to do but watch Walnut Hall, Toronto’s first apartment building, crumble over the weekend due to deteriorating conditions. Council had made deals with the developer to save the building, but since previous owners had failed to keep it in good condition, the developers weren’t interested. How do we prevent something like this from happening again? Rae plans to bring forward a proposal that would force owners of historic buildings to maintain their upkeep. Failure to do so would land them fines up to $5,000.

Photo by Tony Zimmerman from the Toronto Star.

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