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MAYORAL RACE
• Smitherman promises tax break for renters [The Star]
• City hall ‘party’ is over, Ford tells business [The Star]
• Race must be one on one to beat Ford [The Star]
• Walkom: Rob Ford isn’t the Anti-Christ. His critics should get a grip [The Star]
• Fiorito: Flaherty will get us nowhere [The Star]
• Porter: Why does it have to be torture at the ballot box? [The Star]
• Travers: Hard right swing hits politicians where it hurts [The Star]
• DiManno: Played for fools, the electorate goes for the jester [The Star]
• The Smell Test: How much was the Toronto property tax hike in 2010? [The Star]
• The Smell Test: Office budgets [The Star]
• Election Ephemera: Pundits speak [The Star]
• Election Ephemera: Race cars [The Star]
• Dystopia or dream city: which version of Toronto will you vote for? [Globe & Mail]
• Flaherty’s endorsement of Ford catches some off guard [Globe & Mail]
• The mystery of the vanishing Red Tory [Globe & Mail]
• Rob Ford and the loss of hope [Globe & Mail]
• The ‘Toronto Elite’ dinner party guide to explaining Rob Ford [Globe & Mail]
• Posted Toronto Political Panel: Is Toronto’s electoral system fair? [National Post]
• Toronto Mayoral Race: The small business debate [National Post]
• The race this week: Team Ford asks supporters to fight back [National Post]
• The Contenders: Rocco Rossi – the policy wonk [National Post]
• 10 questions for Rocco Rossi [National Post]
• Take marathons off city streets – Ford [The Sun]
• “Anybody but Ford” running out of time and cash [The Sun]
• Ford’s agenda: A reality check [The Sun]

GTA ELECTIONS
• Bussin in tough to secure fifth term on Toronto council [The Star]
• Voters asked how to fill Durham’s top job [The Star]
• Vaughn regional council race becoming the one to watch [Globe & Mail]
• Ajax mayoral candidate to stop campaign [The Sun]

APARTMENT FIRE
• Tenants still waiting after fire leaves hundreds homeless [The Star]
• The hazards of hoarding [The Star]
• DiManno: City scrambles as victims of St. James town fire remain homeless [The Star]
• Over a thousand forced out of their homes after six-alarm fire in Toronto [Globe & Mail]
• Toronto goes into crisis mode to cope with high-rise fire’s aftermath [Globe & Mail]

URBAN GREEN
• ‘Leading edge’ waterfront park opens [The Star]
• Hume: Sherbourne Common is anything but [The Star]
• Park renamed for firefighter who died after Sunrise Propane blast [The Star]

CULTURAL SITES
• Hume: Brick Works complex gives city something to build on [The Star]
• Janet Carding settles in at the ROM [Globe & Mail]

TRANSPORTATION
• TTC moving fast to push electronic fare system [The Star]
• Bike-share still short of subscription target [The Star]
• Toronto traffic congestion is a perfect (dust) storm [Globe & Mail]
• One of Toronto’s worst intersections [Globe & Mail]

OTHER NEWS
• Toronto Waterfront race puts city in marathon major league [The Star]
• Conservatives make no apology for high cost of G8-G20 [The Star]
• Waging war on bedbugs [The Star]
• Facebook’s ‘Places’ feature comes to Canada [The Star]
• A New Mafia: Crime families ruling Toronto, Italy alleges [National Post]

17 comments

  1. If ranked voting had existed in 2003, and given which side of the island airport issue the major contenders were, there’s a good chance that John Tory would have been Mayor of Toronto.

  3. Glen,

    I am glad that you brought this piece up. I wanted to ask your opinion on these numbers:

    > the city’s overall office vacancy rate fell slightly to 9.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2010,

    > In the suburbs, vacancies fell from 12.1 per cent in the third quarter, down from 12.5 per cent.

    If I interpret it correctly, then the vacancy rate in core is considerably lower than in the suburb. That means demand for centrally located office is high, dosn’t it?

  4. Yu, vacancy rates are too high. The comparisons may be misleading though. As the article mentioned, there is still office construction based on speculation occurring, predominantly in the 905. When that occurs the vacancy rate is inflated. It also does not account for how much was in the pipeline before the recent downturn. To draw any meaningful conclusion, or at least somewhat, you need to look at office employment levels, demand outside of the public sector, and distribution within each area.
    To give you an example, some politicians have been saying that the recent office construction in Toronto demonstrates a thriving Toronto. What is not said is that the number of jobs in the city has continued to decline. Also what is ignored is the vacancy rates in the inner suburbs.

  6. the globe published an article two weeks ago on office vacancy rates in downtown toronto (around 5.8%), reporting that:

    “While landlords are struggling to lease space in the rest of the city, demand in Toronto’s business core has been so strong that developers are considering building new towers, a sharp shift in sentiment compared to last year when commercial real estate analysts were predicting vacancies could surpass double digits for the first time in a decade.
    …
    “The recovery hasn’t been even, however, with downtown growth coming at the expense of the suburbs. …”

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/what-recession-businesses-snap-up-toronto-office-space/article1706087/

  7. MKM: sssshhhhh! Don’t give facts that Glen will dispute in order to push his agenda of biz flight to the ‘burbs! 

    samg: that column is such BS. If you look at what Miller has done for the burbs you’d be shut right up. He has been excellent to them: transit City, Tower renewal, corporate sponsors fixing fields when the City didn’t have the funds, shelters for neighbourhoods that lacked shelters…. 

  8. ahem……

    “The recovery hasn’t been even, however, with downtown growth coming at the expense of the suburbs. ”

    “Office vacancy rates in downtown Toronto have “defied logic” as a burgeoning financial services industry takes advantage of falling rents to lease more space.”

    No change in aggregate demand. And falling lease rates. I all ready Not usually signs of health. Here is another you might like………

    http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Clash+taxes/3583370/story.html

  9. More GTA office tenants looking to suburbs

    http://www.thestar.com/business/article/865568–more-gta-office-tenants-looking-to-suburbs
    According to a report released Thursday by Colliers International, 30 per cent of GTA-based companies surveyed said they are dissatisfied with their current office space. Another 50 per cent said they would consider relocating to the suburbs.

    The top two choices for relocation were Vaughan at 38 per cent and Mississauga at 33 per cent.

    “As the city’s population continues to experience burgeoning growth, there is an increasing need for employers to consider where their employees live,” said Bill Evans of Evton Capital Partners.

    Investor interest in office buildings outside the downtown core has continued to grow as companies locate near employees, “trumping the prestige of an address or the need to be in the heart of the city,” said Evans.

    Overall, the city’s overall office vacancy rate fell slightly to 9.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2010, down from 9.6 per cent in the second quarter, according to a separate report released by CB Richard Ellis on Thursday. However, that is still higher than the 9.1 per cent recorded a year ago.

  11. Sameer, it’s not about what Miller did or didn’t do for the suburbs. Miller may have had good intentions and this City has certainly been hobbled by the province… but increasingly, constituents seem to be of the opinion that Miller’s administration has — how shall one put it — fallen considerably short of what many expected it to deliver. I don’t think Ford would be polling anywhere close to where he’s polling unless this campaign unless an anti-Miller mood had become so pronounced among many voters, not just on the right but across the political spectrum. You are free to believe what you want… but by your analysis, Pantalone should be garnering considerable support in the inner suburbs (which he isn’t). Your comments don’t even attempt to explain what’s going on in this campaign.

  12. To put the article linked to above in a bit more perspective…
    It seems that what is keeping office vacancy rates down in TO is “tenants take advantage of higher-than-usual vacancies to negotiate deals in towers that would have previously been out of their league.”… in other words, tenants seem to be extracting more favorable (cheaper) prices/terms from landlords.

  14. Shawn – This recession…….http://www.toronto.ca/business_publications/pdf/2010-august.pdf.
    Or the 2009 TES……http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf/survey2009.pdf

    In 2009, the total number of business
    establishments in the City of Toronto
    was 73,600. This is a decrease of 1,300
    business establishments from the
    previous year. Full time employment has continued
    to stay above the 1 million mark for the
    fourth year, but declined to 1,006,400.
    This is a decrease of 17,500 full-time
    employees over 2008 while part-time
    employees declined by 600 to 284,800.

  15. Shawn, considering you guys (Spacing) just won the Jane Jacobs Prize, the expectation of a more rigorous look at the city’s economy is justified. Pointing to an article using selective quotes and ignoring other, more pertinent information, tarnishes your reputation.