MAYORAL RACE
• Rossi first to sign up to replace Miller as Toronto mayor [ Globe & Mail ]
• Tory finally set to make mayoral bid official [ Globe & Mail ]
• Mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi decries city council’s ‘inertia’ [ Toronto Star ]
• Former John Tory aide switches sides [ Toronto Star ]
• James: Pantalone unfazed by big-name mayoral opponents [ Toronto Star ]
• Mayor’s race is on as Rossi, Smitherman make moves [ Toronto Star ]
• On your mark …:Race for change at City Hall begins [ National Post ]
• Parrish will not challenge Mississauga’s McCallion [ National Post ]
• Vaughan mayor’s race has exciting potential [ Toronto Star ]
TRANSIT
• Pantalone slams TTC for lack of ‘smartcard’ [ National Post ]
• TTC users should start preparing for the next fare hike [ Metro ]
• Stairway is better way, but it’s shut [ Toronto Star ]
OTHER NEWS
• Toronto public libraries now boast free Wi-Fi [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto Humane Society shelter reopens [ Globe & Mail ]
7 comments
I’m not convinced Giambrone has what it takes to be mayor, but I would never in a million years vote for Joe Pantalone. He’s frequently described as a progressive, but other than voting with Miller I’m not sure what he’s ever done to deserve the title.
His response to growth on Ossington was appalling and the way he tried to hold back a liquor license on Harbord shows that he thinks “father knows best”. He’s been on council for 25 years… frankly he should be following Kyle Rae and making room for some fresh thinking.
& I have to say, Giambrone is a young-looking 32, but trying to paint someone in their 30s as pubescent (Royson James) is ridiculous.
“Stairway is better way, but it’s shut” – hopefully the Fixer will enquire some day why it is scheduled to take EIGHT FRIGGIN MONTHS to refurbish a single escalator at King Station Southbound.
Mark — perhaps you could write them a letter yourself. Surely that’s how The Fixer works?
Joe Pantalone is a case for term limits. Moscoe too.In both cases those residents need some fresh thinking.
Howard Moscoe (RE: TTC Smartcard): “Every time the TTC leaps ahead, they get burned. For example, the hybrid buses have been a disaster. They haven’t lived up to promise, they keep breaking down, and the TTC spent a year studying the hybrid buses when they went into it.”
*FACEPALM*
Yes, cause smartcards are such an unproven technology. No other city in the world uses smartcards. With all the different transit systems serving the area, it is not as if a unified fare payment scheme would have any customer (aka: citizen, the word ‘customer’ is a foreign word to the TTC) benefits whatsoever.
And like he said, though current technology can meet all of the TTC’s current and future needs, some “new” technology may come out. And after all, it’s not as if we could fall behind by sticking with tokens. I mean, if they are still used in 3rd world countries, why use something better here?
(With thinking like this, it is amazing we moved on from horse-driven trolleys. Wouldn’t want to move into “unproven” electric streetcars or buses with internal combustion engines after all.)
Ah, but when the new technology is introduced it will be unproven. It will then be prudent to wait until it is proven. By the time the new technology is proven it will then be the old technology and it will make more sense to wait for the new, new technology.
Which will be unproven..
@Greg Smith – I figure @bradttc reads Spacing 🙂
As for the hybrid, that was a bit of a nightmare but two points:
1. They introduced a vehicle designed for start-stop routes and put it on the airport express rather than the smog filled downtown route that 25 year old GMs plod along, i.e. 6 Bay.
2. The lead-acid batteries which crapped out are being replaced with lithium under warranty. This is not a no-consequence issue as it means buses are taken out of service to do the work, but it is being done and it saves quite a few kilos of weight.