Saturday’s headlines

23 comments

1. Yes, Liberty village is a disapointment.However the people who live in the area have made the best of a badly planned neighborhood.Torontonians are a very resilient bunch.I attended an open house concerning a new LRT line that will run from etobicoke to union station and I was shocked that the line didn’t go through Liberty village.It’s as if the area didn’t exist.Instead the new TTC line will go through the CNE grounds and anybody who lives in the Liberty village area will have to cross over a new bridge to the CNE grounds to be able to use the new line.Or traverse up to King street.But the rail line is a barrier and anybody would have to walk over to Strachan and then up or down the street to catch a ride on the TTC.Considering the new condominiums going up this seems to be an obvious oversight.So I wonder what the city is going to do?Buses?
   At the open house a representative from Liberty village looked on with interest.And it was obvious she wasn’t pleased, it seems the voice of the new neighborhood isn’t being heard,not unusual in ward 19.

2. As for the waterfront, I still remember the very first phase at the foot of spadina that started the transformation.At that time strict controls were in place to make sure consominiums were restricted to a certain height.Well that is over and Toronto looks more like a “Moscow makeover”,nothing but tall condos and no green.Those buildings create a wind tunnel effect so that even if you try to make the area pleasant.The area will be uncomfortable because of the fast moving air.Nice in the summer but a disaster any other time of the year.Trees are only good during the summer months when leaves are on the branches.
   So I watch with belated breath as the rest of the waterfront has become “profit city” for developers and the citizens will have to sit quietly and be told how their city will be built.Almost makes you feel like you are in Bejing.Maybe in the distant future somebody will think of the people of this city again.City Tv used to call it “people city”.Now we can call the Miller vision for Toronto “chicken coup heaven”.

3. I wonder how that nice new Museum station will look in a year with accumulated grime, litter, gum, unreplaced tiles and ceiling panels, rough patching and drip buckets as referred to in the other Star article.

4. I got a sneak peak at some of the new columns in Museum station while they were building it and saw some people snapping photos.

   I was expecting them to show up on a local blog, but no luck 🙁

   Also, Rob Ford running for mayor would be the biggest joke in the world, and he actually knows it.

   I think Miller will handily take the next election, despite the criticism and the frequent charges of “accomplishing little.” If he decides to pursue a career in federal politics (I heard a rumor that he is being tutored in French to prepare for such a campaign,) Adam Giambrone would probably be seen as the most logical successor, and he would make a fantastic mayor.

5. You can literally see the brake dust accumulating on Museum’s fancy new purple (now greyish-purple) walls as we speak!

6. Kevin >would you respect david Miller if he ran as a Liberal?

   As for Rob Ford he is trying to help people.Or should I say do his job unlike many of the freeloading councillors who don’t even care about what the constituents want or ask for.As for mayor he would be sabotaged by the NDP party during the election ,he wouldn’t have a chance against the machine.

7. Kevin: Adam Giambrone’s French lessons serve/d two purposes (I’m not sure if he’s still doing them). When he was first elected to Council, Giambrone was given a title that insinuated he was the French spokesperson in Miller’s administration. And, until 2006, he was the president of the federal NDP and that required a level of bilingualism.

   The federal candidacy rumour is understandable: Adam has spent lots of time on the federal scene, has experience as a multilingual globe-trotting archaeologist, and is a high-profile candidate that represents part of what the party he is affiliated with believes is a winnable riding under the right circumstances. But clearly Adam has his hands full with his council and TTC duties, and I’ve heard him talk about lots of things he’d still like to accomplish at City Hall. So I’m sure we’ll get to see MP Giambrone one day but that won’t be in the short term.

   George: Rob Ford is great as long as you aren’t Asian, Italian, homeless, gay, sexually active (or considering it), HIV positive, a person with substance abuse issues, a cyclist, a participant in a City grant-funded program…the list goes on. The man doesn’t even run for office on his own merits — the first bullet in his 2006 election campaign leaflet was “Son of the late Doug Ford, MPP.” I’m proud of my family, too, but I sure don’t put my family on my resume, let alone at the top of it.

   Ford’s most redeeming quality is the personal touch he puts on constituency issues. But all that makes him is a flamboyant and overpaid constituency assistant (constit. assistants make around $40,000/yr and councillors $95,000/yr). Ford hasn’t contributed one iota to the governing aspect of his job at Council (certainly other right-wingers have) and that’s what we pay councillors to do above and beyond everything else. Frankly, I don’t need my councillor to come to my door when I have an issue, I need him to administer an office that acts on my requests while he does the strategic decision-making that keeps Toronto on the right path.

8. George > you seriously think the “NDP machine” would sabotage Ford? I would think his mouth would do it for him just fine.

9. Here, here Adam. Even the devil would know better than to advocate for Rob Ford. Although, as a theoretical experiment it would interesting to see Ford run Toronto without spending ANY money. Or, more likely, watch him become the most corrupt mayor in Toronto history.

10. Ford is a joke (or rather an outright disgrace) as a councillor. But I will not fault him for not contributing one iota to the “governing aspect” of his job at Council. In fact, given the quality of governance we’ve received from this Council, I’d say there are several other councillors who one might also wish had contributed not one iota in terms of governing aspect. But I guess it all depends on whether one thinks Toronto is being kept on the right path.

11. Adam>I just wish councillors like Joe Pantalone would at least do their jobs of taking care of constituents problems so that I wont have to refer then to bulldog ford who seems to actually help people.I’m just sick of the Layton “nobody left behind “rhetoric yet the “team” seems to leave the taxpayers on their own.Or don’t the taxpayers count anymore?But you must admit the Miller team just loves to go after Ford, you would think that they wouldn’t waste time considering they have a majority and are going to do what they want anyways.I am still surprised at the attention given to Ford over his comments.But it seems his constituents must love him for not being as elitist as the rest of council and staying in touch with the common persons of his ward.

    Remember Joe Pantalone made similar remarks regarding Italians living around “Little Italy”.

12. Sam: Even if you don’t believe that Council is on the right path there are still valid ways to contribute to the governance of the City. For example, though I often disagree with her, Karen Stintz offers up a relatively respectful and coherent set of ideas to do things differently at City Hall, and she’s actually taken a leadership role on a couple of minor files like the noise by-law. Though I wouldn’t confuse that with the heavy lifting that the Shelley Carrolls, Adam Giambrones and Joe Mihevcs of Council do, it certainly qualifies in the one iota and up category without being a supporter of the Mayor’s strategic direction.

13. George:

    1. Back up your complaints about Pantelone not taking care of his constituents. You just complain but never present fact.

    2. You wrote: “it seems his constituents must love him for not being as elitist as the rest of council and staying in touch with the common persons of his ward.” By saying he’s in touch with the common person you are implying his ward residents are full of drunk, racist, beligerent, fear-mongering people. Stop defending Ford for his ass-backwards apporach to governance. He does not do the same amount of work as your hated NDPers. You may not like their policy but the centre-left councillors are the hardest working bunch. The rest are spiteful and lazy. Their terms under Lastman proved it — when they had power they did squat and only screwed up this city further.

14. ‘The man doesn’t even run for office on his own merits — the first bullet in his 2006 election campaign leaflet was “Son of the late Doug Ford, MPP.” I’m proud of my family, too, but I sure don’t put my family on my resume, let alone at the top of it.’

    You should tell Senator Clinton that and see what she says.

15. milo>thanks for the opportunity,I already have one constituent who is having a problem with people parking on her property.She approached Joe on my advice.Well Joe told her to take it to her fellow constituents and there was nothing that can be done.So she has approached Rob Ford who has made an appointment to meet her personally.I will keep you in touch to see if he does anything.Fair enough?I as well approached Joe for the budget figures in relation to our ward.His response was clear “make a freedom of information request” and good luck.Others have complained about things like snow removal,the lack of TTC service in Liberty village and the forming of the dundas street BIA when there was no real support for it.It just goes on and on. Spacing had a story about those lights so I didn’t make it up.The constituents think its “crazy”,but Joe doesn’t care he just loves spending on his pet projects.

    I am far from being a conservative and I have met Ford in his office.I must say he is a bit odd.But you have to admit it seems strange that a long time servant in city hall was “kicked out”after he released information to Ford.Check out his website.
    I don’t think you should insult people that you have never met.Isn’t that what Miller is asking Ford to apologize for?People have a right to vote for whomever they please,it’s called a democracy.

16. At least Lastman brought in the army to clean the streets of snow instead of complaining he had no money….

17. George, there’s that little detail about Lastman having inherited healthy reserves to draw on to finance his stupidity.

18. I love it when it’s this easy. Did George just defend Mel Lastman calling in the army as an evidence of his good governance? Wow…that was a great treat on a Sunday night.

19. George — Public art projects that receive public money, and art projects that are “required” parts of Condos and other developments, are chosen by a jury process. For somebody that gets no votes, you spread a lot of misinformation and have shown yourself to be an amateur propagandist. I can’t believe anything you write, you joker conspiracy theorist.

    As a taxpayer, I say thank god you’re not in charge. Torontonians are a smart bunch though, so I know you never will be.

20. Adam – steady on. David Miller has spent over 1 billion dollars of reserve funds in his time as Mayor. Seems to me that it was Lastman who handed those off to him.

21. Adam, there is also that little detail of Miller having used 270% more of reserves, in a single year, than Lastman ever did. Page 23 of this.. http://www.toronto.ca/budget2007/pdf/pres_opapril20.pdf Are you suggesting that Miller gave us 2.7 times the amount of stupidity?

22. The 2003 budget wasn’t Miller’s. Lastman’s council would have approved that in late Q1/early Q2 2003 and Miller took over December 1, 2003. So your 270% figure is more than 100 percentage points off.

    But more to the point: Given the conditions that Lastman was working in (ie, early downloading when infrastructure costs were deferred because buses/roads/etc weren’t in dire need of replacement), the fact that he had to use a penny out of reserves to pay for operating is outrageous. If Lastman had taxed at a moderate rate, there would have been no need for reserves and Miller, who is now faced with all the infrastructure issues that Lastman deferred, wouldn’t have needed to use a third of the reserves he did in 2006.

23. Adam,

    I credited the 2003 budget to Lastman. In which he utilized 99 million from reserves. Compare that to the 270 million of Miller’s 2006 budget.

    While Lastman may have deferred capital expenses, Miller campaigned like there would be no penalty to that decision. Essentially, he was telling people that the piper would not have to be paid.

    I don’t slight him for having to raise taxes to pay for running the city. What I do find issue with is the political (sic) rhetoric that obscured this ugly fact.