Thursday’s headlines

15 comments

1. Dear City of Vaughan,

   If you’re looking for a new motto, may I propose:

   Vaughan: The City Without a Hospital

2. How about:

   Vaughan: Where Toronto gets it money from!

3. Vaughan: Toronto’s hat

4. Vaughan:

   City that has five houses on a HUGE street and sucks taxes out of Toronto to maintain HUGE sewers, roads, and sidewalks (the latter of which we just want for looks but don’t actually use because we aren’t keen on social interaction). We love to consume, consume, CONSUME and stuff our cheap overspaced houses of things we don’t need and consume, consume, CONSUME some more from American big boxes! We don’t need Toronto just their money for more roads so we can drive, drive DRIVE to our housing development that is named after the very thing that we bulldozed over and destroyed!

   I think that would be suffice for the sign on the 400.

5. Very neat new TTC technology at Spadina:

   http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/12/wheres_the_streetcar_right_there_and_there_and_there/

6. Chris,

   I would love to see some evidence that Vaughan sucks taxes out of Toronto. Clearly the evidence points the other way around. It is Toronto that gets more than $2,000 dollars per year per household, from the province, than Vaughan. At the same time residents pay on average $500 less in property tax.

7. Good article on vaughan:

   http://www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags106.pdf

8. That is not an article. It is propaganda. It seems that Gordon Price has never heard of Google, otherwise he would have found this…..
   http://www.city.vaughan.on.ca/newscentre/projects/corporate_centre.cfm

   It is remarkable that he missed the fact that similar developments have been developed in Toronto, like on the Queensway or Stockyards. At least in Vaughan they did not have to use land already occupied by job producing commercial buildings.

   Convenient how he also missed the huge commercial industrial areas that have materlized a stones throw away from VCC. An area that came in to being while Toronto’s I/C areas were turned into used car dealerships and places of worship.

9. And then there are those who are happy to cash a city paycheque, i.e. police, TTC employees, teachers, etc. but evade paying T.O. tax by skedaddling to burbs like Vaughan.

10. Glen,

    It is pretty evident to see why Toronto receives more from the province. Let’s see where should I begin as it isn’t easy to figure out:

    Vaughan is new and doesn’t have to go back to pay for old infrastructure…YET.

    Vaughan is collecting plenty of development fees as it SPRAWLS. Just like Mississauga did until it filled up and started to age and break down. Now Hurricane McCallien is crying for money from the province…TAXPAYERS.

    Vaughan doesn’t solely pay for its highways such as the 401 and 427. The sprawl and the people that move out there are begging for highways.

    Not to mention the environmental costs that the province is getting billed from all your asphalt runoff.

    Had the 400 series highways not been built Vaughan would not exist.

    Toronto has made mistakes building highways, had you taken these highways out Toronto would be a much cheaper city to run. The core of T.O. is mainly transit based and is the most ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, and ENVIRONMENTALLY development to sustain. Vaughan will eventually turn into slums. Vaughan has no quality architecture or pedestrian based community. It’s only hope is VCC of which it was TAKEN from Toronto because of some backroom peddling. Scrap the VCC and make transit to the airport from Toronto.

    Since Vaughan doesn’t have a pedestrian base and no social network there are few homeless and mentally ill that live there. Toronto, on the otherhand, does have a pedestrian base and fits the bill for those that have suffered from the big box socialess interaction syndrome.

    Vaughan will definitely self destruct itself. Just keep driving everywhere, pour more asphalt, and build your big boxes.

11. Chris,

    The additional funding that the Province provides to Toronto, more than $1053 per person, for non infrastructure spending. If you think that Toronto’s financial strain is because of old infrastructure I invite you to look at the budget. You will see that, while material, it is not an undue expense.

    http://www3.thestar.com/static/PDF/070918_905_stats.pdf

    The cost of the 400 series Hyws, was not paid for by the city. They were constructed with provincial funds and maintained, to this day, by the province.

    Lastly linking mental illness with ‘socialess interaction syndrome’ demonstrates a level of ignorance beyond further comment.

12. Glen,

    I still can’t comprehend why you defend Vaughan and their asphalt big box sprawl. You are the person that says global warming doesn’t exist.

    That extra money Toronto receives is to fund programmes Vaughan doesn’t have and is an extra incentive to live in a dense population. Again, dense population CITIES are a more ENVIRONMENTALLY, SOCIALLY and ECONOMICALLY way to manage. If you think you should get that extra money for simply driving everywhere and tearing up the roads to stuff your oversized house full of garbage then you, sir, are ignorant and should move down south of the border where you will flourish in consumption and weight.

13. Glen,

    You are not going to win as you appear uneducated in the ways of how infrastructure and costs work. All you see is your house your car and your road. As long as those are there for you will be happy, but you need to look beyond those things. I am sure you will continue to argue pointless comments, but in the end you are wrong. So just move on to something else and attack someone else like you who doesn’t know what they are talking about. Enjoy your time in Vaughan while Vaughan is still there.

14. Chris when you are through putting words into my mouth I hope you can enlighten me. But be warned, understanding homeostasis in complex systems is a hobby of mine.

    Did you ever think that Vaughan does not have a hospital because the city cannot afford one. Even though residents pay more in taxes for less services. Yet they have a considerable amount of their other taxes going to Toronto. Ignoring that point while arguing that Toronto must provide them because Vaughan does not makes you look like a fool. If those funds were spent on a per capita basis throughout the province there would have been a hospital 5 years ago.

    PS. Vaughan does have some redeeming qualities and has made moves in the right direction. But I also appreciate that a lot of its growth, as that of other 905 cities, has been of a result of Toronto’s missteps.

15. Muzzled by the truth Chris?