{"id":1538,"date":"2007-02-15T19:47:51","date_gmt":"2007-02-15T23:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1538"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:18:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:18:36","slug":"dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Everyone’s bored of the board<\/h3>\n

If there’s one thing city council can agree on these days, it’s that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) sucks. Even Rob Ford, council’s notorious dissenter, says the provincially appointed body, the final word on development applications in Toronto, should be scrapped. His opinion didn’t prevent him from voting against the motion to appeal the OMB’s decision to allow developers in the Queen West Triangle (QWT) to build a cluster of towering residential units. Not that his vote made any difference — the motion passed with flying colours. And though chances of actually winning the appeal are slim, most agreed that it was more about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sending the province the message that we’re not going to take it anymore,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to quote Scarborough Ward 44 councillor Ron Moeser.<\/p>\n

The fight against the all-powerful OMB looks good on city council and Mayor David Miller. Our municipal government, the underdog, is up against \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a Frankenstein monster that is out of control,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Glenn De Baeremaeker. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It must be destroyed. It must be eliminated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

With rhetoric like this being flung around council chambers, it’s easy to forget that the OMB isn’t the only thing to blame for bad planning in this city. Council should share some of the responsibility — in the case of the QWT, it could have voted to save 48 Abell, which houses live-work studios that many councillors are now bemoaning the loss of. It also could have set up an interim control bylaw (which would have put a hold on development, giving the city and the community the time it needed to develop coherent plans for the area).<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping that council’s sudden realization that good planning is important in this city motivates them to do more than fight to get rid of the OMB. Council needs to start thinking about what it can do under regrettable circumstances, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n

North York councillor John Filion was one of the few councillors to point out that the planning department might need more cash. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The QWT decision] is not the only injustice by the OMB; it’s not even the worst,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes, we need to pay attention to Queen Street West, but we also have to pay attention to applications in other wards. I have several coming up where just as much, if not more, damage will be done to the official plan. We need to give the planning department and legal department the resources they need.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Never waste an opportunity to speak<\/h3>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did you have a motion?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asks the Speaker, Sandra Bussin, somewhat confused after listening to Rob Ford ramble on about where he stands on the OMB.<\/p>\n

Not having much more to say, Ford pumps his fist in the air and shouts: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Vote Conservative October 4th!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then, smiling, takes his seat.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

Spacing<\/em>‘s managing editor Dale Duncan writes a weekly column<\/a> on City Hall. Each week we’ll post her columns on the Spacing Wire — you can also read it on Eye Weekly<\/em>‘s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone’s bored of the board If there’s one thing city council can agree on these days, it’s that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) sucks. Even Rob Ford, council’s notorious dissenter, says the provincially appointed body, the final word on development applications in Toronto, should be scrapped. His opinion didn’t prevent him from voting against theContinue reading “Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4003,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,2,20],"tags":[408,331,35,425,423,905,4619,421,426,1176,22085,316,227,3259,3994,2390,19,496],"class_list":["post-1538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-politics","category-urban-design","tag-councillor","tag-dale-duncan","tag-dale-duncan-columns","tag-david-miller","tag-eye-weekly","tag-glenn-de-baeremaeker","tag-john-filion","tag-managing-editor","tag-mayor","tag-ontario-municipal-board","tag-politics","tag-queen","tag-rob-ford","tag-ron-moeser","tag-sandra-bussin","tag-speaker","tag-toronto","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everyone’s bored of the board If there’s one thing city council can agree on these days, it’s that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) sucks. Even Rob Ford, council’s notorious dissenter, says the provincially appointed body, the final word on development applications in Toronto, should be scrapped. His opinion didn’t prevent him from voting against theContinue reading "Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-02-15T23:47:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T18:18:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dale Duncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dale Duncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/\",\"name\":\"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-02-15T23:47:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T18:18:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b7aac892ac8cfff42d1afc439a45786\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b7aac892ac8cfff42d1afc439a45786\",\"name\":\"Dale Duncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a661d41f6f8bddb7086be206cb78fc7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a661d41f6f8bddb7086be206cb78fc7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dale Duncan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dale-duncan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Everyone’s bored of the board If there’s one thing city council can agree on these days, it’s that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) sucks. Even Rob Ford, council’s notorious dissenter, says the provincially appointed body, the final word on development applications in Toronto, should be scrapped. His opinion didn’t prevent him from voting against theContinue reading \"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2007-02-15T23:47:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T18:18:36+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dale Duncan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dale Duncan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/","name":"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007 - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg","datePublished":"2007-02-15T23:47:51+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T18:18:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b7aac892ac8cfff42d1afc439a45786"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/dale-duncan-cityhall.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/15\/dale-duncan-at-city-hall-feb-15-2007\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dale Duncan at City Hall: Feb. 15, 2007"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b7aac892ac8cfff42d1afc439a45786","name":"Dale Duncan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a661d41f6f8bddb7086be206cb78fc7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a661d41f6f8bddb7086be206cb78fc7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Dale Duncan"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dale-duncan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36971,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions\/36971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}