Welcome back. I hope your bigot button is taped over
As far as I know, I was blocked for making an ironic joke about my gender. I've had no communication before, during, or after to indicate what that was about. Which also means I don't actually know what to do any differently, other than avoid making jokes about myself. Meanwhile we've seen some bizarre incidents and editorials about the very issues I frequently harp on. There's little point getting into it though ...
Over 40% of the city supported Ford in the last election, many of them consider themselves centralists, I would think. Certainly most will not repeat their vote for a Ford this time.
I think you mistake populism with centrism. Though I can't really fathom what people who STILL support Ford consider themselves. I can see why some voted for him in 2010 ... but now? Really?
As for panhandlers....can we forget this term? There is no pan. They're beggars, and that's an honest name for it. How would you fine them? Instead how about we just enforce the laws we have against begging in stopped traffic, outside banks, etc? Again, nothing left or right wing about asking for the laws to be followed.
I generally agree. But John Tory is the one who wanted to fine them. What would this accomplish? We made great strides with the visible homeless problem during the Miller era, and haven't seen it get much worse currently. Tory certainly got the issue wrong last time, and the outreach programs under Miller that have still continued under Ford seem to be money well spent - at least for the visibility side of the problem. I won't pretend to know enough to comment on the actual extent of the problem itself.
As for me, I vote for everyone, if you're for running an efficient govt and providing good services, you're my gal or guy.
Sure ... but sometimes providing good services does mean spending money. No city in North America pays less than we do per capita (or at least per ride) for transit. One could argue that some of our horrendous transit issues could be fixed simply by spending a little more. TTC themselves have said this ... and have put together a plan to improve things for a mere $60 million or so a year. Which on one had sound astronomical. But on the other, is less than a 10-cent fare increase, and is almost a rounding error on the $1.5 billion or so operating budget. And yet Chow wants only to spend $20 million - about a 3 cent fare increase. And Tory waffles nice noises but won't commit to anything.
On roads, we here lots of noise about road closures, and that in this day and age we can fix roads without closing them, particularly during the day. Yes, that true. But it also costs more money, to do 2 weeks of night work, rather than a 2-day weekend closure. Do we want to spend more money for more convenience?
