2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Mayoral Race

[salsa]

Denzil Minnan-Wong, councillor and Rob Ford critic, confirms he won’t be running for mayor | National Post

The long-time Don Valley East councillor, one of the fieriest critics of Mayor Rob Ford at the height of his crack scandal, had for months told reporters he was mulling over his options.

On Thursday, he registered to seek re-election for Ward 34. “I’m running for council because I think there are a lot of things to do,” said Mr. Minnan-Wong.

“It serves the city’s interests to get a fiscally conservative mayor,” he said. “As a fiscal conservative, the field is very crowded, and the last thing I would like to see is to go back to the days of David Miller.”

He is not endorsing anyone for mayor at this time.


http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...critic-confirms-he-wont-be-running-for-mayor/

 

[spider]

I doubt he wishes to live on such a street. Based on his former signature, I believe he lives in Don Mills, maybe on a street designed to keep away outside traffic as much as possible. But the people who live on those streets want other streets that people live and work on to operate like expressways. John Tory and Rob Ford and most of council probably also live on streets designed to minimize other people's traffic.

Yes I do live in Don Mills and no I don't wish to live on Eglinton Avenue or the 401 for that matter but that doesn't say that these roads shouldn't exist. People who choose to live on Eglinton Avenue and decry the fact that is so busy remind me of those who buy a house under a flight path at Pearson and complain about the noise.

 

[spider]

Eglinton does not support cycling at all the way it could or should. The road isn't going to be narrower and the chief difference with St Clair is that Eglinton LRT will be largely underground and St Clair's current problem is the insistence on on-street parking, not the streetcar ROW or any concessions to cycling or pedestrians.

Could or should, could means that we are capable of building bike lanes anywhere, should asks why are we building bike lanes anywhere without defining the need. If the same base line numbers were employed to prove that 3 lanes were enough at Yonge Street were applied to the bike lanes we would be lucky to build them as far east as Brentcliffe never mind Kennedy.

The road allowance is not going to be narrower but the portion of that allowance to be allocated for vehicular use certainly is.

What hope is there that the powers that refuse to give street cars signal advantages on St Clair will treat Eglinton any differently?

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Well you just proved you don't really know or understand what life in Midtown or around Eglinton is like what with the comparison to the 401 and Pearson.

The people here want urbanity, bike lanes, LRT, wide sidewalks, streetscaping, strip-retail and enjoy the splendid mix between the busy city life and the suburbs. This is not the suburbs, and it ain't downtown either, it is Midtown, we are a mix of both and its awesome!

Business owners will complain in the short-term like in St. Clair and that is to be expected, but just like the residents and businesses of St. Clair today, once the LRT and Eglinton Connects are completed we will love it.

If removing the bus lane from Eglinton results in fewer trucks treating the street as an arterial road and sending them to the 401, that is a win-win as far as I am concerned.

 

[typezed]

remind me of those who buy a house

How about those buying houses in neighbourhoods where everyone needs a car to go get a bag of milk who then complain when the roads travelling through other people's neighbourhoods are too congested with cars?

 

[newearthling]

Well you just proved you don't really know or understand what life in Midtown or around Eglinton is like what with the comparison to the 401 and Pearson.

The people here want urbanity, bike lanes, LRT, wide sidewalks, streetscaping, strip-retail and enjoy the splendid mix between the busy city life and the suburbs. This is not the suburbs, and it ain't downtown either, it is Midtown, we are a mix of both and its awesome!

Business owners will complain in the short-term like in St. Clair and that is to be expected, but just like the residents and businesses of St. Clair today, once the LRT and Eglinton Connects are completed we will love it.

If removing the bus lane from Eglinton results in fewer trucks treating the street as an arterial road and sending them to the 401, that is a win-win as far as I am concerned.

I used to live near St Clair and Christie. The construction was indeed terrible but now St Clair is awesome! It is much more walkable and safe. Cars don't speed as much now. This is a good thing, as I got hit by someone speeding along St C and was badly injured back before the streetcar lines were re-done.

My friend lives at Yonge and Eg. It always surprises me how cosmopolitan it feels up there. There is definitely a different vibe there, and people are quite sophisticated.

It is definitely not the suburbs.

 

[pman]

I used to live near St Clair and Christie. The construction was indeed terrible but now St Clair is awesome! It is much more walkable and safe. Cars don't speed as much now. This is a good thing, as I got hit by someone speeding along St C and was badly injured back before the streetcar lines were re-done.

My friend lives at Yonge and Eg. It always surprises me how cosmopolitan it feels up there. There is definitely a different vibe there, and people are quite sophisticated.

It is definitely not the suburbs.

I agree with everything you said - the St. Clair rebuild was a huge improvement, and Yonge and Eg is definitely not the suburbs. But thanks to amalgamation all decisions about the form Y&E takes will be determined by the suburban majority on City Council, for whom planning begins and ends with maximizing the amount of public real estate devoted to cars.

 

[adma]

I agree with everything you said - the St. Clair rebuild was a huge improvement, and Yonge and Eg is definitely not the suburbs. But thanks to amalgamation all decisions about the form Y&E takes will be determined by the suburban majority on City Council, for whom planning begins and ends with maximizing the amount of public real estate devoted to cars.

Despite all Ford-ian appearances, I doubt said "suburban majority" is as inherently, monolithically vengeful t/w city-type stuff. And perhaps even less so as Ford's nuclear shadow over policy fades...

 

[King of Kensington]

I agree with everything you said - the St. Clair rebuild was a huge improvement, and Yonge and Eg is definitely not the suburbs. But thanks to amalgamation all decisions about the form Y&E takes will be determined by the suburban majority on City Council, for whom planning begins and ends with maximizing the amount of public real estate devoted to cars.

I consider Y&E to be uptown but that's increasingly a minority opinion. Even though the "because of amalgamation uptown is now midtown" makes no sense to me.

 

[King of Kensington]

God, Sarah Thomson is such a joke and she's mostly obsessed with the Olivia "stole low income housing" smear. I don't know why I follow her on FB:

"Do you think it is okay to take a three bedroom low rent co-op home in downtown Toronto away from a low-income family in need? Even though a politician like Olivia Chow paid market rate and it was perfectly legal, why then did she suddenly start paying more when caught out by the Toronto Star?"

 

[pman]

Despite all Ford-ian appearances, I doubt said "suburban majority" is as inherently, monolithically vengeful t/w city-type stuff. And perhaps even less so as Ford's nuclear shadow over policy fades...

I agree they're not monolithically vengeful. Just monolithically stupid and stuck in an unworkable 60-year-old vision of how cities are supposed to be designed and how people should move around them. And some really are vengeful - for example Shiner recently advocated double-decking the Gardiner.

 

[TonyV]

God, Sarah Thomson is such a joke and she's mostly obsessed with the Olivia "stole low income housing" smear. I don't know why I follow her on FB:

"Do you think it is okay to take a three bedroom low rent co-op home in downtown Toronto away from a low-income family in need? Even though a politician like Olivia Chow paid market rate and it was perfectly legal, why then did she suddenly start paying more when caught out by the Toronto Star?"

I don't think we really have to concern ourselves with Sarah Thomson. No one is watching her at all except when she makes another bid for attention. In general she's not being taken seriously at all.

 

[TonyV]

I agree they're not monolithically vengeful. Just monolithically stupid and stuck in an unworkable 60-year-old vision of how cities are supposed to be designed and how people should move around them. And some really are vengeful - for example Shiner recently advocated double-decking the Gardiner.

Yup, you've got Shiner sized up right.

 

[spider]

I agree they're not monolithically vengeful. Just monolithically stupid and stuck in an unworkable 60-year-old vision of how cities are supposed to be designed and how people should move around them. And some really are vengeful

I suggest that if suburban opinion is monolithic about anything (I don't think they are) one of the topics would be their amusement at the ranting and derision heaped on them by the "downtown" crowd because they don't choose to live downtown. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[cassius]

Different strokes for different folks.

Agreed. We should be letting the community surrounding Eglinton decide what they want of their neighbourhoods, as opposed to people from outside the area whose only real interest in said neighbourhoods is being able to use their roads and demand that those roads cater to their outside wishes instead.