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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Forgotten said:
The people did not elect Rob Ford to talk to the cameras and dispense updates during a crisis. They elected Rob Ford to respect the taxpayer and fight waste at city hall. He's there to look after the pennies and dougnuts. He was at city hall today doing just that.

He reflected on it last night while talking to his family. He admits he's not perfect. That's all he can do.
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It's time for a basic civics lesson Forgotten - http://www.toronto.ca/civic-engagement/learning-material/governance.htm#mayor
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
He is the leader, the "point-person" for this city, what the hell is he doing sitting in an SUV in his driveway - during rush hour - when he should be at City Hall during yesterday's unprecedented event instead of skipping out early (as usual). He should be directing and getting updates from emergency services and doing media updates but no, leadership was absent once again. This was a record amount of rainfall in Toronto history, exceeding that of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 over some areas of the city. This is all very valid criticism and once again - I'll repeat, once again our "Mayor" was MIA during yet another crisis. I hope the John Tory's and Olivia Chow's of the world are keeping detailed notes to sink this useless idiot when out on the campaign trail and engaging in debates.
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What should he have been doing?

So far, you're the only person on here that I've seen bring up what you actually expect Ford to have done: direct and update emergency services and do media updates.

There were no fatalities yesterday. Emergency services seemed to be operating pretty fine without Ford. I don't think emergency services need Rob Ford to dictate what they should be doing, and I don't think running emergency services falls under the purview of any politician, let alone Ford. As for media updates, who cares? Do we really need the Mayor updating the media on whats going on? CP24 and Co. seemed to do a good job of updating people on whats going on. You really want Ford reiterating the same information we're already hearing from other sources?
 
CowboyLogic said:
What should he have been doing?

So far, you're the only person on here that I've seen bring up what you actually expect Ford to have done: direct and update emergency services and do media updates.

There were no fatalities yesterday. Emergency services seemed to be operating pretty fine without Ford. I don't think emergency services need Rob Ford to dictate what they should be doing, and I don't think running emergency services falls under the purview of any politician, let alone Ford. As for media updates, who cares? Do we really need the Mayor updating the media on whats going on? CP24 and Co. seemed to do a good job of updating people on whats going on. You really want Ford reiterating the same information we're already hearing from other sources?
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I do not accept a lazy, incompetent, slacker "Mayor" running the 4th largest city in North America playing 311 operator from his driveway when he should be at City Hall managing the crisis. If your standards are that low, so be it - mine are not. You could use a civics lesson also, see above.
 
Tulse said:
Right, and if you look at the 2012 Operating Budget table, you'll see that this claim comes from the comparison of the Total Levy Operating Budget, which notes a reduction from the 2011 budget figure it offers of 0.2%. If you think this a one-fifth of one percent reduction is significant, you're welcome to tout that figure as gospel.

However, when one does an apples-to-apples comparison, that decrease actually vanishes. The number the 2012 table gives for the 2011 approved budget is 9,409,056.4, but the number given in the equivalent 2011 budget table is 9,382,869.1. This figure is actually less than the comparable 2012 figure of 9,389,954.2, meaning that, by this comparison, the 2012 budget was actually $7 million more than the exactly comparable 2011 amount. And things get even dicier when we look at the 2013 budget table, which has the 2012 budget at 9,417,784.7, higher than the number in the 2012 table, and certainly higher than either figure for the comparable 2011 amount. In other words, those comparisons show an increase in 2012, and not a decline.

(Of course, you can see this as well in the listed budget summaries that I linked to originally -- 2011 says that that "the 2011 tax supported 2011 Operating Budget is $9.383 billion", and 2012 states that "City Council approved a balanced tax-supported 2012 Operating Budget of $9.4 billion". By any math I do, 9.4 is bigger than 9.383, not smaller.)

That 2013 table also has something interesting: by the same comparison in 2012 that claimed a budget decline, the 2013 numbers show an increase from 2012 by, yep, 0.2%.

Now, I am not an accountant, and there may things I'm missing here. But on a straightforward reading of the figures, it sure seems to me that the claim "He did put out a budget smaller than the year before" is a) at best only technically true and represents no major decline, b) is incorrect when later figures are used and direct apples-to-apples comparisons are made, which themselves show an increase in 2012, and c) is wrong when one looks at this year, where there was an increase that matched percentage-wise the best claim for a decrease the year previous.

Anyone with a greater understanding of city finances is welcome to correct me.
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First of all, I'd just like to strongly refute the suggestion (from others) that I'm parroting Ford's talking points. Both Matt Elliot and John Tory have made the same claim (that Ford did release a budget smaller than the year), so, at the very least, I'm only parroting what those two Urban-Toronto-approved individuals said.

Now, back on point. Your breakdown is very interesting, Tulse. Essentially, you're saying that while there was technically a decline in the operating budget, the approved budget actually saw a small increase when the later figures are taken into account. Your figures back you up.

However, I think you're missing the point when you say...

If you think this a one-fifth of one percent reduction is significant, you're welcome to tout that figure as gospel.
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That is significant. You're seeing the forest for the trees if you don't think any reduction is a huge achievement. Not only is a one-fifth of one percent reduction significant, but a 0.2% increase is significant.

Whether or not he posted a reduction, Ford dramatically slowed the rate of budget increases from the Miller years. Under Ford's tenure, there has been a 0.53% increase in the Gross Operating Budget, compared to a 11.59% increase under Miller's tenure.

The graph is available here.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I do not accept a lazy, incompetent, slacker "Mayor" running the 4th largest city in North America playing 311 operator from his driveway when he should be at City Hall managing the crisis. If your standards are that low, so be it - mine are not. You could use a civics lesson also, see above.
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And what exactly do you want him to do?

I'm asking you to explain exactly what Ford could have done that would have made any difference.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I do not accept a lazy, incompetent, slacker "Mayor" running the 4th largest city in North America playing 311 operator from his driveway when he should be at City Hall managing the crisis. If your standards are that low, so be it - mine are not. You could use a civics lesson also, see above.
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The reality is we just don't know what Mayor Ford was doing during the flood crisis because unlike Calgary Mayor Nenshi - Ford was not sending out self-serving tweets every 10 minutes to let everyone know what a great job he was doing. For all we know Mayor Ford was working quietly behind the scenes quarterbacking the city's emergency responses. Most importantly to me is the morning after, Ford acknowledged that the emergency response was far from perfect and he promised a review of the emergency response systems and procedures (from what I observed Toronto Police let the city down but Fire and EMS performed exemplary).
 
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Peepers said:
The reality is we just don't know what Mayor Ford was doing during the flood crisis because unlike Calgary Mayor Nenshi - Ford was not sending out self-serving tweets every 10 minutes to let everyone know what a great job he was doing. For all we know Mayor Ford was working quietly behind the scenes quarterbacking the city's emergency responses. Most importantly to me is the morning after Ford acknowledged that the emergency response was far from perfect and he promised a review of the emergency response systems and procedures (from what I observed Toronto Police let the city down but Fire and EMS performed exemplary).
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Yep, those self-serving Tweets, not sleeping for more than a day-and-a-half, making decisions about which neighbourhoods got priority, coordinating efforts between public (police/fire/emergency) and private (power/buildings/citizens). Terrible example.
 
CowboyLogic said:
And what exactly do you want him to do?

I'm asking you to explain exactly what Ford could have done that would have made any difference.
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Lead the city in a crisis, to be exact. There were thousands of crisis all over the city last night while this buffoon chilled out in his SUV and slept, and if your okay with that then just come out and say so. The 92 year old Mayor of Mississauga was on the job until well after 1am, and she arrives at City Hall at around 7am every day after breakfast and some gardening.
I'll cite one example, why did it take over six hours to unload a stranded GO Train on flooded tracks with several feet of swift moving water passing by it? Perhaps if someone was actually in charge of emergency management proper resources and equipment could have been directed to the site to get those folks out and onto dry land in a reasonable time frame.
 
CowboyLogic said:
I'm asking you to explain exactly what Ford could have done that would have made any difference.
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Perhaps not announcing to the world that his way of dealing with a power failure was to get into his SUV and turning on the air conditioning??

Perhaps even showing a tiny bit of leadership.

The man is clearly a complete moron. And I'm not using this an an insult, but in the traditional usage, as a measurement of his intelligence.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Lead the city in a crisis, to be exact. There were thousands of crisis all over the city last night while this buffoon chilled out in his SUV and slept, and if your okay with that then just come out and say so. The 92 year old Mayor of Mississauga was on the job until well after 1am, and she arrives at City Hall at around 7am every day after breakfast and some gardening.
I'll cite one example, why did it take over six hours to unload a stranded GO Train on flooded tracks with several feet of swift moving water passing by it? Perhaps if someone was actually in charge of emergency management proper resources and equipment could have been directed to the site to get those folks out and onto dry land in a reasonable time frame.
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I agree it was disgraceful that it took over six hours to rescue stranded GO Train passengers but if you are looking for someone to blame I would direct the blame at John Tory! It was John Tory who killed off the amphibious "Hippo Bus" when Tory was overseeing Ontario Place on behalf of the corrupt McGuinty Government. Had the "Hippo Bus" been available passengers would have been rescued in a fraction of the time it took. It was John Tory who sunk the Hippo Bus in Toronto!

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/324003/hippo-tours-sunk-in-toronto/

With the future of the landmark uncertain, those now in charge — namely former Ontario PC leader John Tory — didn’t allow Hippo Tours access to the ramp this season.
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