Monday’s headlines

8 comments

1. Re: Budget Chaos

   I have read the Policy Options paper that forms the basis for the article. Prof. Schwatrz, makes little mention of the following reality…

   In 2008 Toronto residents paid;

   $204 less than Mississauga

   $886 less than Vaughan

   $968 less than Oakville

   $755 less than Markham

   $917 less than Richmond Hill

   $1,101 less than Pickering

   $814 less than Oshawa

   Difference: $806 per year, per household.

   All while Toronto spends considerably more per household and per person.

   http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-20057.pdf

   Take the average difference and multiply it the number of households and that would increase the city’s revenues by ~800 million.

   Toronto has a political crisis. It can spend, it just does not have the political balls to have residents pay for the spending.

2. Re: Windy City. Finally, a factual article that compares Toronto to another city rather than make isolated musings about local issues as if other big cities did not exist. Let’s expand this discussion to transit, green/LEED leadership, streetscape cleanliness, bike lanes and other claims made by self-consumed T.O. denizens.

   The emperor has no clothes.

3. iSkyscraper,

   Right on! All this navel gazing has left us with a perception that Toronto is doing much better than it is (by most metrics). For example, much has been made about the the success of the TTC ridership growth strategy. If one takes a look at N.A ridership, they would see that despite the RGS, the growth Toronto’s ridership has been below average. Same for employment, assessment base growth, tourism, poverty, etc.

4. Glen> I agree. Everybody wants services for free.

5. I also will have to take issue with the Condos for cash deal. It is not the issue of supporting the arts that I have a problem with. It is the question of is this the best use? IMO, no. As the Windy City article shows, and similar in the way shopping malls and public attractions work, the city needs anchors. Small spaces like these will spur nothing, as the same impediments remain. Forgoing $6,100 in yearly tax revenue, on top of the $75,000 capital outlays, give far to little in return.

   Perhaps use the funds to provide some seasonal art shows for local artist only.

6. Glen said, “If one takes a look at N.A ridership, they would see that despite the RGS, the growth Toronto’s ridership has been below average.”

   It’s hard to compare Toronto, with most North American cities because the TTC has always had a sizable share of the ridership compared to most cities in the US, which means the low hanging fruit have already been plucked.

   In other words, when the gas prices rose a few years ago many people in the US who could conveniently use transit switched to transit, but in Toronto people who could conveniently use transit where already using it. As ridership grows, it is harder to get each additional rider.

7. Fair enough Darwin, I will see if I can compare just larger PT transit markets. Stay tuned.

8. Darwin,

   For New York …….. From 1995 to 2005, the authority said, ridership on city buses and subways grew by 36%, compared with a population gain in the city of 7%.

   Page 4 of this …
   http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/374794/2002transit_ridership.pdf
   Shows a comparison of Canadian PT use from 98-04.

   The following paper has a look at the relationship of gas prices to ridership in the mature market of Chicago…

   http://www.transportchicago.org/images/3-Transit_Ridership_Models.pdf