Mayoral Race
• Mayoral hopefuls say Toronto is too self-centred [Toronto Star]
• Quotable moments from the Toronto mayoral debate [Toronto Star]
• Scrap poorly planned projects, Rossi urges [Toronto Star]
• Smitherman’s desperate lurch to the right [Toronto Star]
• Toronto mayoral candidates face off on the economy [Globe & Mail]
• Rossi proposes cutting Toronto council in half [Globe & Mail]
• Ford would scrap streetcars in favour of buses [Globe & Mail]
• Smitherman’s estranged brother runs for council, endorses Ford [Globe & Mail]
• Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Howard Moscoe takes a parting shot at Rob Ford [National Post]
• Rob Ford releases his transportation plan for Toronto …on YouTube [National Post]
• Mayoral candidates square off on Hollywood north [Toronto Sun]
• Ford plan deserves the green light: Levy [Toronto Sun]
• Pantalone’s big push [Now Magazine]
• It’s on: the mayoral race gets serious [Eye Weekly]
• An open letter to George Smitherman [Eye Weekly]
• Police and state [Eye Weekly]
• Gimme shelter: why a greener Toronto should be at the top of the election agenda [Eye Weekly]
GTA Elections
• Hurricane Hazel will run for re-election one last time [Globe & Mail]
• McCallion asks voters to pick council that works for her [Toronto Star]
• Hume: Time for McCallion to quit [Toronto Star]
• Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Hazel goes for dozen [National Post]
• Hazel in the spotlight [Toronto Sun]
City Building
• Huge Jewish centre rises in Vaughan [Toronto Star]
• Let there be lightbox [Now Magazine]
TTC
• A Streetcar named Retire? [Toronto Star]
• The big issue: Transit City [Now Magazine]
4 comments
I can’t type well when purple with rage, so I’ll just say that any candidate who says anything about removing streetcars, in an age when dozens of US cities are moving heaven and earth to bring them back, deserves a firm slap on the wrist.
Fix the streetcars so they run more like light rail, sure — there are a million details from fare payment to stop placement to lane separation that can be dealt with to improve service. No one is arguing for slower transit. But Jesus H. Christ, wake up! Transit City has its flaws, but more rails on the ground is the solution, not the problem.
ISKYSCRAPER,
Rarely do I find much to disagree with with your posts. This one is an exception. Just what is TC a solution for? Without addressing the problem of high unemployment in the city, and the lose of commercial space in the inner suburbs, TC (and most transit expansion) in Toronto is a solution looking for a problem. Employment density, not population density, is the most influential driver of PT usage. A DTRL is potentially a better use of limited capital.
Toronto’s problem with prosperity and employment have nothing to to with being ‘inward looking’. Nor is it a marketing problem. Only Rob Ford identified the problem, high commercial taxes.
City staff produced an excellent report over ten years ago that identified many issues and made some great recommendations. Many of the non tax related ones are similar to those of proposed in the background paper by Joe Berridge from Urban Strategies. http://www.toronto.ca/business_publications/pdf/eds_report.pdf
Some day I will learn to stop being an idiot and just cut off the news. There’s always something bad happening and I always disagree with the majority of the internet commenter crowd being neo con internet trolls. No use arguing with them. I just wish Mr Ford would be honest with his decision to push for the termination of streetcar service, that it is for idelogical reasons and not financial, becuase immediately cutting off the work is unaviodably going to cost millions in cancellation fees. The suburbs own us now apparently and need to be able to speed through the downtown arterials without some pesky efficient mode of transportation getting in the way of their pick up truck. Until the inner city can find some way to deamalgamate itself from the suburban boroughs (as a note many cities in Quebec sucessfully de amalgamated after the forced mergers of the 90s), the culturally rich inner city shall remain to a large degree at the mercey of outside interests (i.e. Conservative party forcing G20 on downtown Toronto). Guess I better run before teh neo con internet troll comment goons come get me! (actually you guys can go ahead and rip apart everything I just said got better things to do so cheers and have a nice day)