Rob Ford - Why the Supervillian?

[tkip]

Current situation....

As someone who has lived in Toronto their entire life, I can say with all honesty that there Toronto has been in delcine for years now. Not saying it started with Miller but I don't think he's helped while he's been in power. Toronto is not as clean anymore.

People are ruder. Well, people are just plain boorish morons walking the streets now anyway.

Transit is woefully inadequate and falling apart. Streets are filty. Graffiti everywhere. Roads are falling apart. The list goes on. And Miller and company just keep spending. While things have been falling apart for a while and it can be argued that the general demise of manners among the population is evident elsewhere and not just in Toronto, I still have seen this city slowly go down the drain.

Things are definitely worse now compared to a decade ago.

 

[nfitz]

Transit is woefully inadequate and falling apart. Streets are filty. Graffiti everywhere. Roads are falling apart. The list goes on. And Miller and company just keep spending. While things have been falling apart for a while and it can be argued that the general demise of manners among the population is evident elsewhere and not just in Toronto, I still have seen this city slowly go down the drain.

I just don't know where this comes from.

There certainly may be more graffiti ... but it's certainly not as bad as some cities; Paris comes to mind. But transit has been expanded; I see buses running both more frequently, and much later on routes I use. The streets certainly are not filthy - I was shocked coming to Toronto how often the streets are swept, and plowed, compared to other Ontario cities. Roads seem to be generally well maintained ... have you driven on Montreal streets?

Whine, whine, whine ... what a bunch of whiney folks we have here!

Is the Rob Ford campaign platform .... whine, whine, whine ... who are you calling fat, whine, whine, whine ....

 

[The_Waffler]

You haven't noticed the tendancy of the Toronto media to publish all sorts of stuff that isn't true? You posted the 2007 article that said Toronto would decalre bankruptcy in 2008; clearly that wasn't true. Why do you believe it to be true?

umm ... almost 80-year old retired York prof .... come on, let's be serious!

Tendency is a subjective opinion, not really an argument. My question is if Toronto isn't in trouble, why all the press year after year? The same media posts stories about murders, drug busts, global warming and celebrity deaths. Is none of that true?

Dismissing someone because they are almost 80 years old? What are you inferring, at that age everyone is senile? Are you bigoted against the aged?

 

[Oliver Tweed]

Does anyone know where Ford stands on the unions? It would follow that as a right-leaning candidate he'd be in favour of unions having less power and not holding the city hostage with outrageous salaries and benefits for poor work. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

 

[The_Waffler]

I think in general it might be unfair to say that all city workers do poor work. In most cases, this is untrue. It is true, however, that the city could save a massive amount of money by increasing the amount of work they can do in a day, but the unions won't let that happen. I can think of a fmr co-worker that went to the TTC and was reprimanded for inspecting more than the union mandated quota in a day (won't say what was being inspected, but it was in the subway system). They can inspect 6 or 8 of this item whereas in the private sector we can do 36 - 40, more if you actually want to work a full eight hour day with your lunch. We are paying too much for too little.

Also love the city forcing private contractors to pay their staff city pay scale if they're working for the city competing with city unions... eliminating any real hope of cost savings.

 

[nfitz]

Tendency is a subjective opinion, not really an argument. My question is if Toronto isn't in trouble, why all the press year after year?

Umm ... but that's the whole point isn't it? Reports, year after year about the impending bankruptcy of the City of Toronto. And yet bankruptcy hasn't ever been close, taxes are lower than surrounding cities, and haven't been rising as fast, and experts rate Toronto's debt very highly.

Dismissing someone because they are almost 80 years old? What are you inferring, at that age everyone is senile? Are you bigoted against the aged?

No, I'm bigoted against him, because he has forgotten to include some important details in his work. I stressed his age and that he is retired, because you managed to imply that he is still a professor at York (which even then doesn't exactly have the most stellar Economics department in the country!).

Also, if you read, he doesn't support your position that the city is bankrupt, simply that taxes may have to rise. He also lays much of the blame on Conservative Mike Harris’s decision to download welfare, housing and other provincial responsibilities to the city in 1998. Does his study consider that McGuinty is now uploading these welfare costs over the next few years?

 

[Tewder]

There certainly may be more graffiti ... but it's certainly not as bad as some cities.

... truly the mantra of the desperate!

Paris comes to mind. But transit has been expanded; I see buses running both more frequently, and much later on routes I use. The streets certainly are not filthy - I was shocked coming to Toronto how often the streets are swept, and plowed, compared to other Ontario cities. Roads seem to be generally well maintained ... have you driven on Montreal streets?

Well if nfitz sees it, it must be so! Nobody else's personal experiences or interactions matter, obviously.

 

[The_Waffler]

Umm ... but that's the whole point isn't it? Reports, year after year about the impending bankruptcy of the City of Toronto. And yet bankruptcy hasn't ever been close, taxes are lower than surrounding cities, and haven't been rising as fast, and experts rate Toronto's debt very highly.

No, I'm bigoted against him, because he has forgotten to include some important details in his work. I stressed his age and that he is retired, because you managed to imply that he is still a professor at York (which even then doesn't exactly have the most stellar Economics department in the country!).

Also, if you read, he doesn't support your position that the city is bankrupt, simply that taxes may have to rise. He also lays much of the blame on Conservative Mike Harris’s decision to download welfare, housing and other provincial responsibilities to the city in 1998. Does his study consider that McGuinty is now uploading these welfare costs over the next few years?

GM was warned year after year that they were in deep trouble, yet they averted bankruptcy by increasing borrowing and, amazingly, continued to find people willing to lend them money. Now they are a bankrupt ward of the state. It took decades for GM to hit the wall, but they were warned all along.

We keep hearing the same warnings for Toronto year after year, and bankruptcy is averted by continuously adding debt. Toronto still has leeway in terms of adding new taxes and fees and by raising it's lower property taxes, which it will, until they cost advantage it has enjoyed over the 905 is gone. Then, the real crisis begins. As the tax base drains away and the property values start to drop, what does Toronto do? All glory is fleeting, and empires rise and fall... fall usually due to their own excesses and belief that they are too smart to fail.

Chicken little may work in the media, but not every warning is false.

 

[urbandreamer]

Rob Ford: where's my pay cheque? (I take all the credit for his popularity.)

 

[fouronesix]

GM was warned year after year that they were in deep trouble, yet they averted bankruptcy by increasing borrowing and, amazingly, continued to find people willing to lend them money. Now they are a bankrupt ward of the state. It took decades for GM to hit the wall, but they were warned all along.

We keep hearing the same warnings for Toronto year after year, and bankruptcy is averted by continuously adding debt. Toronto still has leeway in terms of adding new taxes and fees and by raising it's lower property taxes, which it will, until they cost advantage it has enjoyed over the 905 is gone. Then, the real crisis begins. As the tax base drains away and the property values start to drop, what does Toronto do? All glory is fleeting, and empires rise and fall... fall usually due to their own excesses and belief that they are too smart to fail.

Chicken little may work in the media, but not every warning is false.

But Toronto isn't averting 'bankruptcy' by taking on more debt. Preparing a municipal operating budget is different than a corporate balance sheet. The budget sets out expected expenditures and revenue sources for the coming year. If the expenditures are expected to be greater than the revenues, taxes or user fees are raised. Toronto's debt is assumed to pay for items in its capital budget, not its operating budget. The debt is serviced through the operating budget, so while assuming debt does impact the operating budget in terms of paying off principal and interest, Toronto does not borrow money to balance its budget.

 

[js97]

Umm ... but that's the whole point isn't it? Reports, year after year about the impending bankruptcy of the City of Toronto. And yet bankruptcy hasn't ever been close, taxes are lower than surrounding cities, and haven't been rising as fast, and experts rate Toronto's debt very highly.

No, I'm bigoted against him, because he has forgotten to include some important details in his work. I stressed his age and that he is retired, because you managed to imply that he is still a professor at York (which even then doesn't exactly have the most stellar Economics department in the country!).

Also, if you read, he doesn't support your position that the city is bankrupt, simply that taxes may have to rise. He also lays much of the blame on Conservative Mike Harris’s decision to download welfare, housing and other provincial responsibilities to the city in 1998. Does his study consider that McGuinty is now uploading these welfare costs over the next few years?

Keep in mind that these opinions are coming from a guy that thinks 'RIVERDALE' homes run 350k. It's like selling Burlington 'just 'west of Toronto, a short commute from the core.'

obviously in touch with Numbers and reality.

 

[kettal]

Keep in mind that these opinions are coming from a guy that thinks 'RIVERDALE' homes run 350k. It's like selling Burlington 'just 'west of Toronto, a short commute from the core.'

obviously in touch with Numbers and reality.

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=9374717

 

[js97]

But Toronto isn't averting 'bankruptcy' by taking on more debt. Preparing a municipal operating budget is different than a corporate balance sheet. The budget sets out expected expenditures and revenue sources for the coming year. If the expenditures are expected to be greater than the revenues, taxes or user fees are raised. Toronto's debt is assumed to pay for items in its capital budget, not its operating budget. The debt is serviced through the operating budget, so while assuming debt does impact the operating budget in terms of paying off principal and interest, Toronto does not borrow money to balance its budget.

Nope.. but it refinances, sells capital assets to 'balance' operating budgets.

So really, the 'debt' was accumulated via capital assets, but those where used to finance operating costs... so essentially, it's the same thing, except you've put down capital assets as collateral instead of City Credit ratings

 

[gei]

The fact that Rob Ford has support from more than 0% of the population truly and deeply disturbs me. As I've said many times, the man is nothing but a buffoon. He would be the worst thing to ever happen to this city.

 

[js97]

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=9374717

Again.. obviously not in the market for a home.

It would be the equivelent of me showing you home 3 blocks away that's listed at 1.2 million and telling you that's where the prices are and homes are not affordable.

The median/average home in that area is around 600k.

But I'm not comparing.
The original comparison was for a 'detached' home.

Also, ask a realtor to see the final sale price.. there is always a discrepency in date and price. That home could be conditionally sold, but is still listed because it hasn't closed, and the actual price has been bid up substantially.

As i originally said out of touch of Toronto's real estate market.