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The Urban Jungle
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Rob Ford - Why the Supervillian?

I don't think this scandal will have that much effect. At this point everybody knows that Ford says and does stupid things, and his base doesn't really care.

I do find Sue-Ann Levy's kid glove handling of this funny. Imagine if it was Giambrone who'd been caught offering to buy drugs for someone. She'd be hollering for to resign immediately and be jailed for life.
 
One thing I do find worrying is the building narrative among Ford supporters that there is some sort of gay cabal out to get him. Ford just hints that "someone’s out to get him," but based on the comments from Sun readers, they know exactly who is after him. Delving into Toronto Sun comments is kind of scary, but here are a few selections just from near the top:

*"Proof positive that the Gay community is not to be trusted"
*"Toronto Star setup working with gays and run by Smitherman campaign to take down Ford"
*"Team Sodomite all gleeful over this crap."
*"Your rant tells me you are of the gay persuasion and probably working under the influence of a Smitherman's campaign worker under the radar."
*"Setup by the STAR and Georgie to take down Ford, no doubt about it. They took down Gimabrone by having gays watch him in the bar and club scene. "
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Interesting piece on TTC by his new "Director of Policy" - and the rest of the blog is a fun read:

http://towhey.com/wordpress/?p=427

AoD
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Holy hell, nice find - to bring the salient point over here:

A simple exercise: eliminate the TTC

Here’s what planners should do. First, they should assume the City will simply stop funding the TTC come April 1, 2011. Period. No more city money to transit.

Why is the city in the transit business anyway? Clearly, they’re no good at it. Return the millions (and billions) of city dollars spent on transit to the taxpayers, reduce (or hold the line) on property taxes. The City should focus its efforts on delivering the services that only a City can deliver. Transit isn’t one of them.
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Rob Ford's Director of Policy believes we should eliminate the TTC.

Over to you, Fresh Start.
 
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To be fair, his Director of Policy isn't the same as Rob Ford - but you bet one should scrutinize the upcoming platform closely.

AoD
 
SimonP said:
I do find Sue-Ann Levy's kid glove handling of this funny. Imagine if it was Giambrone who'd been caught offering to buy drugs for someone. She'd be hollering for to resign immediately and be jailed for life.
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My thoughts exactly. Levy's so-called crusade against those "corrupt seals" in "silly hall" is asbolutely laughable when she does so as the most slanted voice in Toronto municipal journalism. It should be noted that Ford canvassed for Levy when she was running as a Tory in St. Paul's, which is only a wee' bit ironic, considering she rants about cronyism in city hall in practically every one of her columns.
 
I guess if nothing else we've just proved that Sue-Ann is not only a slut, but is also bent.

Now what about Mary Richards?
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I don't think calling anyone a slut is an intelligent addition to the debate.
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I didn't call her a slut! I called her ditzy. GenerationW corrected me 2 pages above and said she was slutty. Perhaps Ted Baxter was the ditz ...

And really, a thread about Rob Ford intelligent - surely farcical is the only way to go.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Interesting piece on TTC by his new "Director of Policy" - and the rest of the blog is a fun read:

http://towhey.com/wordpress/?p=427

AoD
Click to expand...

These are real dollars and they are driving out-of-control increases in property taxes that are forcing Toronto residents, and especially its small businesses, to begin planning an exodus to the outer suburbs.
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Increases of what? Under inflation, compared to more than inflation in the suburbs?

This guy is an idiot.

He talks about the subway being a good asset. The public invested the equivalent of billions in it. I wonder what company would pay the billions it cost to build it to run it in a city with super low densities that don’t support transit profitably.

Good grief. Between Smitherman saying middling things, Pantalone being non-comittal, Sarah Thomson is looking better and better.

In fact, I image there will be entrepreneurs who look to run “mini-buses” in poorly served neighbourhoods, connecting people from their homes to the subway and major bus routes. Operating smaller vehicles, with non-union drivers (or owner-operated,) they could make a profit at an affordable price.
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I thought this never worked out because of licensing requirements, and I dunno, liability insurance??

Maybe city residents would be better served by licensed neighbourhood minibuses picking them up from their front doors and dropping them at the nearest subway stop. Maybe the city should subsidize taxi rates rather than buying new buses.
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Isn’t this what the TTC is right now? Picking people up and dropping them at subways? We subsidise TTC fare costs, and the province/feds buy the vehicles at the end of the day anyway as a big mea culpa to dying industry.


SimonP said:
That blog is an interesting read. In the same vein as Ford's plan to cut down city council, here is his policy director proposing the abolition of the Canadian parliament.
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That parliament piece is actually quite funny and spot on given the current circumstances and how far we’ve come from the spirit of Westminster.
 
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