CITY HALL
• City to hire watchdog to stand up for citizens [ Toronto Star ]
• Top official leaving city after 2 years [ Toronto Star ]
• Rights message ‘clearly heard,’ Miller says [ Globe and Mail ]
• Chinese mining firm to open Toronto office [ Toronto Star ]
• Major miner eyes T.O. base: Miller [ Toronto Sun ]
TTC
• TTC talks described as close to boiling point [ Globe and Mail ]
• TTC to consider relief line by 2018, chief says [ National Post ]
• TTC wants cops to curb drivers [ Toronto Sun ]
MISCELLANEOUS
• Crackdown on taxis refusing fares in Toronto nightclub district [ CBC.ca ]
• Mob scene at launch for Toronto book [ National Post ]
• Selling our city to the highest bidder [ National Post ]
11 comments
Re: the taxi article…cabbies can get fined for refusing a fare?
One of the conditions they must meet to earn a city permit is to not refuse fares on any basis other than a reasonable expectation that their safety is endangered.
Without this condition, cabbies could (and would) refuse fares based on race, destination, distance or on many other criteria that would render them of no service to a large part of the community.
i bet there are already 35 ppl who have the responsibility of ‘watchdog’
yay! more lazy under-performing and over-paid city workers!
No — this is a good watchdog. I work in the media and it’s impossible to get some of the bureaucracy to do it’s job, imagine how it is for a “regular” person. This is a helpful watchdog.
Lenna Bradburn gone after two years is a shocker.
Giambrone responds to the downtown relief line! I wonder if it had something to do with Mr Marshall’s recent article. but 2018 seems like a crazy amount of time to wait.
Bernard, the idea for this watchdog might be useful, but based on what the city has done with it’s integrity commissioner post (Council routinely ignores the individuals advice AND the bylaw/policy under which the person works has been so watered down that what he does bears virtually no resemblance to what most people think of as “integrity”), this may not have much substance behind it. I hope that is not the case, but creating these types of positions can sometimes be little more than a PR exercise intended to deflect criticism of an administration. (And darn if the Mayor didn’t recently point to the fact that we had an integrity commissioner and were going to get a citizens watchdog as reasons for Torontonians not to be too worried about the strong mayor system he has been advocating.) To the casual observer, these positions often imply a scope of responsibility that is just not bourne out in actual practice. (I would say this comment is certainly applicable to the City’s auditor general and integrity commissioner posts.) But hey, it certainly does sound great that the city has an “integrity” commissioner… and will soon have an “ombudsperson”. I’m not saying these posts are a bad thing — but I am saying that potentially, there is less here than the spin we are given — and which the Toronto Star reporters all too readily seem to accept as fact.
Hmm… I don’t go to the club district because of the yobbish behaviour, even though it’s more likely to be a shove or curse than a knife or gun. If I had to work those hours most nights of the week, I wouldn’t drive taxi in the district either, because if you pick up fares there regularly, there is “a reasonable expectation that [your] safety is endangered”.
I’d love to see that go to court as refusing a destination arbitrarily, because it’s not arbitrary: not about where people live, but about where people self-medicate. The crime rate is much higher than the rest of the city, because of the drink and drugs, and because of what comes in from the ‘burbs (where the crime rate is higher than the city).
If I drove taxi, I’d drop off there long before closing time and keep my light off: “sorry, going off duty”.
Giambrone responds to the downtown relief line!
I dunno. It’s more like: Giambrone hears a lot of people talking about the DRL, commits to not considering it, promises that a future replacement will.
I’ll add to that the totally fictional thoughts of Adam Giambrone (intended as satire and therefore not libelous…hear that lawyers who read blogs?):
Brain: Hey Adam! Wake up!
Adam: Huh?
Brain: Read Spacing Wire, I think they’ve given you a great opportunity to get your face in the paper tomorrow!
Adam: Huh?
Brain: Well it seems that a group of transit enthusiasts have resurrected a great plan for subway relief, the DRL.
Adam: Huh?
Brain: Oh for crying out loud! Just call the newspaper, pick a random date and smile for the camera!
Adam: Camera? Where?!?
I’ve been pushing a Front St. transitway as an interim Relief Line for a few years – but the TTC officials and politicans are NOT interested in serving the core as our function is to ship money to suburbs and beyond.
We could have two reasonable capacity lines via Front: one following the Weston railtracks up to the NW; the other extending out to Etobicoke, (and it isn’t the WWLRT either) I don’t know that we can do subways now given the needs over the entire region, but I’m sure that we could get a reasonable capacity option done in a shorter term – given that we waited five years to see if anyone in the NDP civic government might consider to think of transit instead of the Front St. road project.
So – nice comment Josh.