Monday’s headlines

9 comments

1. Re: Danforth’s Decline,

   This is an unmittgated smear job on my neighborhood. If this writer had actually ventured east from Coxwell station, she would have seen the new cafes, restaurants and stores that are at the heart of a quickly gentrifying neigborhood (prooved by the red hot housing market in the area). I’ve been there for 4 years, I have never seen prostitutes or drug dealers between Coxwell and Woodbine. Now admittedly the neighborhood does get a bit rough east of Main, but this article is an abomination, a screed full of eroneous claims. This is grade school journalism.

2. I have to agree with jean-guy. Danforth from Main to Victoria Park is indeed dodgy, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But to compare that area to the Greenwood-Woodbine stretch is, well, quite a stretch. It may not be as polished as Greektown, but that mid-section of the Danforth is a very appealing area that has been steadily improving over the past several years. In fact, the Danforth described in the article sounds more like the Danforth of the 1990’s. A lot has changed since then.

3. What troubles me about these “neighbourhood in decline” stories is that there’s usually an anti-poor attitude behind them. Some people need to shop at discount stores, and for some people, $2.50 pints are the only way they can afford to socialize with their friends outside of their homes (every neighbourhood needs a “third place”: not work, not home.) Not every neighbourhood can be full of overpriced coffee, yoga studios, and tchotchke stores; and not everyone wants to live in a neighbourhood like that. As a society, we should stop vilifying people of lower income (try telling that to most of the commenters on The Star’s website…)

4. I agree Crimson Cass. I wrote about this stretch – especially Coxwell to Vic Park – and called it an incubator for small businesses. It’s not glamourous social innovation stuff (like where our Spacing office is at 215 Spadina) but mom and pop level entrepreneurial stuff.

5. With yet another ‘financial crisis’ for Toronto, this story in last weeks NP is interesting….

   http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/11/11/david-miller-s-former-budget-chief-slaughters-some-sacred-cows.aspx

   “Each resident of Toronto paid $582 for policing this year, up 67% in 10 years, while inflation rose just 25% in the same period, Mr. Soknacki said. Toronto is spending $855-million on police this year. New York City, in contrast, has reduced its police force, Mr. Soknacki noted.”

   “The budgets of the Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto Fire, Solid Waste and Parks & Recreation have each increased 100% in the past 10 years — dramatically outstripping inflation, Mr. Soknacki notes.

   Mr. Crombie noted that “in the great heyday” of the TTC, it received 50% of its operating budget and 75% of its capital budget from the province. But Mr. Soknacki counters that, hidden behind the TTC’s reputation as lean and mean, is a flabby transit commission.

   The TTC has increased its staff 13% while the number of kilometres of service has risen just 1.3%, Mr. Soknacki notes. Meanwhile, each Torontonian will pay $250 in tax for the TTC this year, up from $125 a decade ago.”

6. I really like what Crimson Cass is saying! I was pretty annoyed with the article on the Annex for similar reasons. I couldn’t put my finger on why that article irked me so much, but I think it’s just what CC is getting at. The article assumes that a successful street is one made up by specialty, high-end shops. I live above a store on Bloor at Brunswick and I love living here! There are so many things that I need, as resident who doesn’t have much money – grocery stores, fruit stands, cheap eats, coffee shops, lots of patios (and I’m one to frequent bookstores, of which there are plenty!). I find it strange that a measure of ‘good’ street or neighbourhood is one that caters to the upper-classes. In fact, this street does provide for some wealthy folks – look at the price of houses on any side-street off Bloor between Spadina and Bathurst! Perhaps ‘upper-class’ is too broad a term, since there are those with money who need to display it and those who don’t.

   As for the Brunswick, I don’t really have a problem with it. (Again, I live at Bloor and Brunswick.) As a commenter on the G&M’s article suggested, it’s usually filled with young people who are likely bored in classrooms all week, or bored in the suburbs and need a place to let loose. It seems people think they should have ‘fun’ sipping martinis with smooth jazz in the background, such as is done in the Annex Live (which is fine, just not for everyone). I understand that other residents here don’t like all the craziness that goes on two or three nights a week, but I wonder if it has more to do with the very existence of a place like the Brunswick and the behaviours it ‘enables.’ I think that if the people who are ‘against’ the Brunswick were being honest, they wouldn’t say it needs to be ‘elsewhere’ but they would say it shouldn’t exist at all. I think it’s the remnants of ‘Toronto the Good’ – a moral finger waging.

7. Glen, Steve Monro debunked the TTC numbers in that National Post article.

8. Darwin,

   The poster James makes a good point about inflation adjusted figures in that thread. A comparison of operating show that 1998 the TTC averaged an operating cost of $1.15 per ride. Indexed to inflation that would be equivalent to $1.84 today. In 2009 the cost per ride average is $2.75, 49% above inflation. Also from a posted Toronto post ..

   The Toronto Transit Commission will transport roughly the same number of people this year as it did 20 years ago. But with 25% more staff.

   In 1988, 9,963 TTC staff transported 464 million people. In 2009, 12,411 TTC staff will transport 473 million people. That’s 2,448 more staff to move 2% more people.

   I can’t vouch for the accuracy of David’s TTC stats, or that of the Post. He is reasonably accurate on the police ones though.

9. The figures used in my Board of Trade presentation and to the National Post come from TTC annual reports. Inflation stats come from Stats Canada. I wasn’t able to update all data for the current year, but remain comfortable with my conclusions.