Friday’s headlines

14 comments

1. Re: TStar’s “Give us the games, we need the subway”…well, looks like every columnist at the Star is REQUIRED to shill for the Pan Am games. Probably part of their conditions of employment.

   Re: TTC Chair Giambrone’s RedRocket Show. What a pathetic — and inappropriate — waste of public resources. If he’s so desperate to enhance his profile for the coming election, he should do it on his dime.

2. There are so many inaccuracies in Shelley Carroll musings that I don’t know where to begin. Other than to say you can’t spend more and charge less then cry poor.

   While Councillor Carroll may believe, “We can’t cut our way out of this problem, we can’t property tax our way out of this problem and frankly we can’t privatize our way out of this problem,”, I am certain we must vote our way out of this problem.

3. Glen: the reason you don’t know where to begin is because you are not at City Hall, not on staff with intimate knowledge of the budget, and not a city councillor.

   Arm chair critics are fine, but to state that you seem to know more about how to run the City’s $8-billion budget is the height of arrogance. And specifically, Carroll is not an ideologue and is considered by both sides of the political spectrum to be an upstanding councillor.

   If you vote our way out of this problem, we ned up with a council of neo-cons who do not believe in the services local governments are expected to provide. And we end up in a worse spot then we are currently in.

4. Glen has got to be the neediest person responding here. Prolific, always saying who is wrong, demanding more information, and then a pithy “vote ’em out” sentiment.

   Why don’t you run glen? Make a platform, and run on it. Or make a platform, and ask others what they think. Do it, or are you just armchair?

5. Have to side with Glen here.
   Carrol’s claim that Toronto has “a unique problem” is pure gobly gook. Does she get her head out of the sand occasionally and read about anything but local problems. The whole western world has the same problem.
   As for Miser and Joan it is not the ‘height of arrogance’ to express an opinion unless you have some superior knowledge to enlighten use with about how the City runs.
   I have been following City Hall closely for 15 years, have read many staff reports, made numerous deputations and listened to and spoken with many Councillors and have been attacked and vilified for telling the truth by the Mayor and his gang because I know alot more than they do about Construction issues.
   So I can tell you as an interested an engaged citizen of Toronto that Glen is right. Carrol has been for years a virtual lap dog to the will of Mayor and his NDP majority Executive with disasterous fiscal results. In addition the quality of staff management and reports has steadily declined because of political interference coming out of the Mayor’s offfice to spin every piece of information in his favour.
   So if you two have some good inside info to the contrary please enlighten us or stop with the puerile insults.

6. Here is my platform Joan 🙂

   Cost savings (some would require Provincial approval):

   – Move all traffic related enforcement from police to bylaw enforcement.

   – End the fair wage program.

   – Require that TTC construction be contracted out.

   – Contract out TTC station managment.

   – Modify Transit city to have a shared track, with passing sections.

   – Ensure that all infrastructure programs are co-ordinated so that redundancies are eliminated. (eg. replacing water mains on a newly paved street)

   – Have specified garbage pick up areas between houses. So if one house places its garbage for pick up at the right side, the neighbouring house on the left would place theirs on the left, Being side by side would eliminate the number of stops needed for collection.

   Taxation and revenue:

   I would completely revamp the current system. To be replaced with the following:

   A single class of property, no more beggar they neighbour polices.

   A minimum tax of $1,500 for the first $200,000 of assessment value.

   A yearly parking tax of $500 per spot.

   The balance of property tax revenue would be generated from a single tax rate, applied equally to the assessed values over $250,000.

   Have a single LTT rate for all properties.

   End tax cancellations for seniors and change to a deferral.

   Move to have TTC fares paid by distance.

   Niceties

   Potted palm trees on the beach, with a contained water area that could be cleaned and heated.

   Seasonal bike lanes and pedestrian areas via lane closures on certain streets (Queen St. comes to mind).

   Grafitti cleanup.

   plus many more……

7. Dave,

   I second your point re: “In addition the quality of staff management and reports has steadily declined because of political interference coming out of the Mayor’s office to spin every piece of information in his favour.”

8. Dave: so you say you know a lot more about construction than councillors because you’re in the industry. So what makes that any different than Glen (or you) saying you know more about the budget than a person like Carroll who is intimately involved with the budget? Oh, right: hypocricy doesn’t apply to armchair critics.

   I’m just as just as engaged citizen as you, and maybe moreso since I’m retired, have the time, and have followed these issues for nearly 40 years and worked in civic and provincial government.

   If you don’t want to look at the history of what caused this fisual crisis — its truly a provincial funding clusterf*ck — than stop with the inane bashing because you don’t like a person’s politics. Ontario cities — from Windsor to Ottawa to Thunder Bay — are facing all the same funding problems. Its not who is elected locally since they are from all parties of the political spectrum; its the province who changed funding in the mid-90s and the Liberals who promised to change the formula and didn’t. Spending has gone up in Toronto but not at a rate that is crazy (since the Feds and Prov increase their budgets above 10% each year). The only problem is that its illegal for the City to run a deficit unlike the other levels of government, which continue to choke cities. If Glen and Dave don’t want to acknowledge this fundamental flaw than it shows just how weak their arguments are.

   I won’t a well-funded and well-managed city. There is much waste to be cleared, no doubt, but the services the city offers 75% mandated from other levels of government. If they don’t fund the City properly how can the City do its job?

9. So in addition to being inappropriate (the TTC chair should not have be a host of a TV program – there should always be a neutral host to ensure that – for instance – he answers the question asked and not the one he wishes was asked, see stevemunro.ca) intending riders were prevented from boarding this Rocket.

   They could at least have used the back half of an ALRV and let riders have a bit of service.

10. I’m not sure I agree with all (many?) of Glen’s points (at least as espoused in his platform). But I don’t think he is off base questioning Carroll’s credibility on various budget issues. The fact is that she is a politician and uses the budget process for political purposes. Nothing wrong with that — but the problem with Carroll (and various other politicians) is that they like to pretend their range of options is smaller than it is and that the decision they made is the only rational decision possible and anyone who thinks different must be a nut or un-green or whatever. Personally, I agree with Miser Maloney that the province has screwed/is screwing Toronto royally (without going into all the ins and outs of how) — but even acknowledging that, I don’t agree that the range of options is as narrow as Carroll pretends.

    As to those who think you need to be a councillor or on staff at City Hall to question what she says, sorry, but that’s just blatant elitist tripe. As a politician, part of your job is “explaining” issues and “advocating” for various positions in a public forum in which you will be called to account and what you say will be scrutinized on behalf of those for whom they supposedly work. That doesn’t mean that the members of the public are right (or wrong) in their views about politicians — but neither are they automatically wrong simply because they are not politicians or technocrats.

    Oh, and by the way, not all Councillors are enamored of her positions as some people here seem to think. That said, many of her critics (but not all) are people I agree with a lot less than Carroll.

11. It’s worth noting that in some (most?) parts of the city on-street and off-street permit parking imposes a parking tax on residents, in addition to the MVT. Transients using lots and office/school parking as well as condo residents could and should also be taxed. Even at a level equivalent to a parking pad (about $130/year I think) there’s a lot of spots out there.

    Speaking of parking @Glen you missed one for your manifesto – progressively leasing out of all TPA off-street lots to the private sector, with TPA only responsible for on-street and their off-street property to be transferred to Build Toronto to manage and eventually developed for “post-parking uses”.

    After the credit card machine fiasco and their involvement with illegal signage it’s time to downsize TPA, and having off-street parking in private hands (yes, including City Hall, reduces the charge that the City is not a neutral player when regulating private parking interests.

12. It’s hilarious being criticized in a comment section for being an armchair critic.

13. Miser Maloney,

    A lot of data is available regarding the city’s finances. Here is one of my preferred sources…..

    http://csconramp.mah.gov.on.ca/fir/Welcome.htm

    Council is legally bound to make this information public. As such it is easy to gather enough information to make informed opinions. The only advantage proximity gives is that of seeing the political influences.

14. If anyone is interested I suggest that they look at the multi yea comparison for Toronto. There is some real eye opening trends.

    http://csconramp.mah.gov.on.ca/fir/View/Review_Toronto%20C.xls

    For example and with regards to Shelly’s ‘we can’t tax more’ and we have ‘cut to the bone’ remarks have a look at the spreadsheet. Have a look at rows : 18,57,71-73,479-483,531-542. You can also see Toronto shrinking non residential assessment base at rows 370-371 (down 9.8% since 2002).