Tuesday’s Headlines

9 comments

1. My letter to Ford last night:

   —-

   Dear Mayor-Elect,

   Congratulations on your victory. I was not among your supporters but
   I wish you and the city good luck and a good term.

   Now that the heat of the moment is over, and before you take action on
   your campaign promises, please take a quiet moment to think about
   global trends concerning streetcars. I know the TTC has neglected
   this valuable resource (largest network in the English-speaking world
   after Melbourne, Australia) and the current lines badly need some
   modern technology, fare payment, traffic light management, stop
   relocation, etc.to improve performance. But please, do
   not strike down streetcars, their planning or expansion without due
   consideration. There is something going on in the world that cannot
   be ignored inside the bubble of Toronto politics.

   Atlanta is building a streetcar, despite being a car-loving town.
   Tempe, Arizona is building a streetcar despite being a small city in
   the Southwest. Detroit and Cincinnati are building streetcars to spur
   development in their scarred downtowns. Even subway-rich Washington
   DC and New York are now studying or adding streetcar lines.
   Philadelphia has brought back an abandoned streetcar line. San
   Francisco is building more. Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle
   and Charlotte are among cities that have added LRT lines that act as
   streetcars downtown. None of this was true when you first became a councillor — things have changed.

   In the big picture, Toronto is still well ahead of the game due to its legacy system and must not now fall behind its competition. Revise policy, study what you need to study, but clearly if all these places (American cities, at that!) are adding streetcars and Light Rail Transit then there must be something of value to such infrastructure, something that goes beyond just another bus line. To slow down, postpone, or discard any streetcar work in Toronto would be grand waste indeed, the kind you were elected to stop.

   Please give this careful thought. The world is watching.

2. Thanks you very much, Mr. Miller. We owe this colourful new mayor to you.

   Well, this is not the end of the world. Most of his crazy ideas probably would not fly anyway; the ones that he actually can have a shot at, maybe not such bad things to give a try.

3. I am fairly confident that our legacy streetcar network is safe. I can’t imagine the new council ever voting to scrap any existing lines. Yes, there are many new faces on council, but still enough progressives to stop such a move. Bussin (a Miller supporter) was ousted by environmentalist Mary-Margaret McMahon, someone whom I’ve known personally for several years, and someone who I don’t think would support such a move. Over in Toronto-Danforth, long-time Conservative councillor Case Ootes retired, and is now replaced by Fragedakis, an NDP supporter, vocal proponent of Transit City (and by default, I’m assuming, the legacy streetcar network). I also can’t imagine McGuinty, and MetroLynx, agreeing to scrap Transit City plans, stopping the Sheppard LRT, and funnelling billions of dollars for subway construction exclusively within Scarborough. It just won’t happen. Move Ontario spreads the money throughout not just Toronto via Transit City, but also throughout the 905. It would be political suicide for the provincial Liberals to starve most of the GTA of transit funds in order to fund such massive subway construction in one corner of Toronto. Not to mention that building two subway lines to STC would be absurd, when the region as a whole is so desperately in need of enhanced transit. You can bet that McGuinty will stay the course and make sure transit investments are spread evenly across the city and region. So I think we’re relatively safe in terms of our streetcars – both legacy and new.

4. I agree with Leo’s sentiment. “Scrapping streetcars” is one of his crazy ideas that I don’t think will fly.

5. McGuinty is open to Ford’s ideas on TC: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101026/mcguinty-ford-101026/20101026?hub=TorontoNewHome

6. Another one to add to Leo’s list: Transit friendly Bill Saundercook was defeated by transit friendly Sarah Doucette.

7. We can’t let his crazy ideas happen. We need to be vocal and prominent in criticizing any destructive changes.

8. Congrats to the Sun, Post, and AM640. You got the candidate you wanted. I assume this means that in 4 years, we will have lower taxes and improved services. Budgets will be balanced as well thanks to all the money saved from cutting up zoo passes.

   You told the people who to vote for, and if things don’t pan out as you expected, here’s hoping they hold YOU accountable for your journalistic integrity!

9. If the term of office doesn’t start until December 1, will there be anything productive actually going on before that? I’m not sure I can handle one whole month of intrigue and punditry from the usual media outlets/personalities I despise.