Rob Ford's Toronto

[Electrify]

Perhaps if Ford realized that a downtown line would potentially kill the King and/or Queen streetcar lines, he might have second thoughts about such a statement.

 

[ParkdalePetunia]

Mammolitti's off the executive council????? He's gotta be PISSED!!!! He has towed the Ford line like a robot, weird to boot him. I'm glad Ainslie left, I think he has too much integrity to stomach more of that. If Ford replaces him with a brand new councillor though......sigh.

His comment about the downtowners and subways was dumb and divisive. Not shocking though.

 

[evvabeing]

I couldn't find any quotes but was there ever a time when Rob or Doug, possibly as candidates, made anti-drug and anti-gang comments? If so, it would be rather hypocritical if they did so while at the same time actively doing business with dealers/gang members and engaging personally in the drug trade.

“Two innocent young people are dead because some idiot thugs decided to settle a disagreement with violence,” Ford said. “This is not acceptable in our city. I will not accept it. I am furious about it.

“It is time to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ It is time to take action against these spineless cowards causing the violence,” he added.

Ford said city, provincial and federal officials will work together to target Toronto’s gang violence.

“We must use every legal means to make life for these thugs miserable, to put them behind bars, or to run them out of town,” he said. “We will not rest until being a gang member is a miserable, undesirable life.

“Some people have suggested there is a gang war brewing,” Ford said. “I don’t know if that’s true. But, I do know it’s time for us to declare war on these violent gangs.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/17/rob-ford-calls-scarborough-shooting-isolated-insists-city-safe

“It just tore my heart apart. And I just thought, this is not the city that we live in, this is — I was mad. More than upset, I was mad. I said, ‘Enough’s enough.’ I’m lookin’ around, and I said, ‘I’m not gonna sit here, I’m gonna be proactive.’ I talked to the premier, got a hold of the premier, called the prime minister’s office, I said, ‘I want meetings. I want something to be done.’ I want these people out of the city. And I’m not going to stop. Not put ’em in jail, then come back and you can live in the city. No. I want ’em out of the city. Go somewhere else. I don’t want ’em living in the city anymore,” Ford said.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha..._says_gang_members_should_leave_the_city.html

“I want to see our taxes down so people will come here and create jobs, the best social program is a job,” Ford told reporters in Toronto’s east end. “I don’t believe in these programs - I call them hug-a-thug programs - they haven’t been very productive in the past and I don’t know why they are continuing with them.

“The kids need jobs, and you need businesses to come into the city and create the jobs, and right now our commercial taxes are too high.”

Asked why he’s voted against funding for anti-gang programs and community grants, Ford dismissed the question and sounded off on the Global News reporter that asked it.

“No one helps youth more than I do, no one helps youth more than I do,” Ford said. “You know that and for you to ask that question is embarrassing. I put more of my time and my own money helping these kids more than anyone does.”

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2012/07/19/20006861.html

 

[rm20010]

Yer mayer speakin'

Proves that Ford understands everything at a superficial level. Until the Fords are turfed and their style of policy are relegated to the sidelines, these "us vs them" things will keep on happening.


https://mobile.twitter.com/CP24/status/388710039172575232?screen_name=CP24

Wow. Just wow. Guy is clearly way over his goddamned thick head.

Maybe that's his really cynical way of getting people to hate public transit when we require dedicated subway pushers thanks to his fucking ignorance of chasing after a useless subway extension.

 

[blearghhh]

“It just tore my heart apart. And I just thought, this is not the city that we live in, this is — I was mad. More than upset, I was mad. I said, ‘Enough’s enough.’ I’m lookin’ around, and I said, ‘I’m not gonna sit here, I’m gonna be proactive.’ I talked to the premier, got a hold of the premier, called the prime minister’s office, I said, ‘I want meetings. I want something to be done.’ I want these people out of the city. And I’m not going to stop. Not put ’em in jail, then come back and you can live in the city. No. I want ’em out of the city. Go somewhere else. I don’t want ’em living in the city anymore,†Ford said.

“No one helps youth more than I do, no one helps youth more than I do,†Ford said. “You know that and for you to ask that question is embarrassing. I put more of my time and my own money helping these kids more than anyone does.â€

And this is Rob Ford mayorin' at it's best.

He calls powerful people into meetings. Notably though, there is never any mention of what they talk about. Never any policy suggested, never any action taken, never any conclusions. I have to conclude that to Ford, that's what being a boss is: having meetings. He seems to think that you just have meetings, and then things happen, like in the movies, or TV. It's like that summit he had with the developers on P3 for the subways. They came out of the meeting and yeah subways were a great idea, but they weren't going to do anything. Because they weren't asked to do anything specific, they weren't given any specific information, Ford just brought them in, told them exactly what he says in the sound bytes, everyone had sandwiches, and then predictably enough... nothing happened.

There was a discussion about the CEO of Mcdonalds on Fark the other day, who makes over 8 million dollars a year. Many people were asking what a CEO does to be worth 35K per day, and nobody had any idea, they were saying ridiculous things like oh my 5 year old could do it, all they do is sit at a desk and order people around, go to meetings, it's not like it's real work or anything. I have to confess that I don't really know what a CEO does on a day by day basis, (nor am I going to get into the specific discussion about what it's worth) but I do know that they do work hard, that it's difficult, and that some people are really good at it, and others aren't. I have now demonstrated a better understanding of the role of a leader than Rob Ford apparently has.

He has half the staff that he needs. The staff he does have answer phones like glorified 311 agents. Because he doesn't know what they should be doing. He doesn't understand why he needs more staff or that he should be getting people to do more stuff, because he has no clue, nor does he have any desire to learn, what the mayors office should be doing other than 'setting the tone'. Not developing policy, not doing research, not exploring options or running through simulations or developing options or doign outreach...

He of course understands the individual stuff - he does do things for individuals, because he can understand what to do. Nobody doubts that he cares about people and when he's interacting with them on a personal level, he does help them individually.

It is hard to understand how to lead and to do things on a large scale. This is why people go to business school - so they can understand what to do to act at the abstract level and make things happen. When Ford tried to go to school to learn about it, he flunked out. He doesn't know, and he hasn't shown any ability to be able to learn. This is why he's ineffective, and why he's a bad mayor, no matter what your political leanings are.

 

[ParkdalePetunia]

Bung. Mammolitti is still on the exec, he's been moved to Ainslie's job.

 

[NormEron]

What if that element has ties to organized crime/construction industry/garbage industry/corruption in the police force/prostitution, etc, etc. Do you want your mayor in a position of weakness when dealing with these institutions?

*Cough *Cough GFL... *Cough *Cough

 

[pattycakes]

*Cough *Cough GFL... *Cough *Cough

I always wondered why the rush to privatize all of the city - everyone knows that garbage is a very lucrative business.

 

[greenegg]

*Cough *Cough GFL... *Cough *Cough

You think they're also making deliveries??

 

[Peepers]

Paxton even looks a bit like Steve Paikin (the only gerbilist on this side of the pond I could see doing this).

Really ? Steve Paikin is nothing but a Liberal party shill - a complete fraud! The worst part about that is WE are paying his lavish six-figure salary!

The ONLY Canadian TV Journalist with pit-bull instincts is Ezra Levant. Watch this brilliant episode where Levant confronts the hypocrite and fraud - David Suzuki!

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/2735775008001

 

[TinyTiny]

*Cough *Cough GFL... *Cough *Cough

What does GFL mean?

 

[CowboyLogic]

OK, there's a lot for me to reply to and I have things to do, so sorry if I missed anything.

At the beginning of his term Ford had control of council. But through his unparliamentary and disgraceful behaviour as mayor, he lost their support quicker than I've ever seen of any politician at any level of gov't. The one and only person to blame for that is Rob Ford. If the man had not shown utter contempt for our elected councillors and had more respect for our mayors office which we entrusted him with, he would probably still be in control of the agenda.

I'm not going to let council off that easily. These are the elected officials who represent us and are paid consummately for their work. Disgraceful behavior on the part of the mayor does not excuse disgraceful behavior on the part of council. Yes, Ford is responsible for working with council, but I also expect council to work with the best interests of their constituents in mind as opposed to spiting Ford.

The claim was not that spending increased disproportionately - its that its continued to increase. Ford has not been able to materially slow the rate of spending at city hall, and property taxes have essentially continued to rise at approximately the same rate relative to inflation (give or take half a percent)

Ford never promised to decrease the rate of spending. That would have been ridiculous. In fact, its just the very nature of spending that it is going to increase year-by-year. No mayor has ever turned in a budget lower than the previous years, and while it would be one thing to hold Ford to that if he promised it, he didn't.

Furthermore, Ford may have slowed the rate of spending at city hall. I'm not going to get back into the whole gross-operating-budget debacle, but it did essentially flat-line and the reasons for that are difficult to determine. Without the facts, I'm not going to make the claim that Ford has slowed the rate of spending, but at the very least, there's a good possibility he has. Unfortunately, the data is inconclusive.

One thing I'm wondering is if anyone has a chart of property tax increases year-by-year relative to inflation. I couldn't find anything on Google.

By all means state them. Avoid wishy-washy statements like "Changing the culture at city hall". I can only think of four direct and current effects (ie actual ways that Toronto residents have been affected) of the Ford Mayoralty:

- Cancelled Bag Tax
- Cancelled VRT
- Cancelled Jarvis Bike Lanes
- Private garbage collection for 50% of the city

Along with what you've listed:

- Without Ford, there is a good chance we would have had LRT's and wouldn't have had the Scarborough subway extension. I understand Ford doesn't get the full credit for these developments, but as mayor he was instrumental in these developments, both in shifting the tone and focus of council, cancelling Transit City and getting federal/provincial funding.
- Negotiating effective deals with the unions (excluding the police union) and avoiding any strikes (besides that minor librarian thing).
- Refusing to introduce new revenue tools or taxes onto citizens, and keeping property taxes in line with inflation (I would like to see a source for property tax increases in Toronto, if anyone knows of one).
- Reducing the rate of increases in the gross operating budget [inconclusive, and admittedly something that the average citizen would not notice]

1) Crack cocaine is an incredibly powerful stimulant. This guy, given his weight problem and very very likely hypertension issue (show me one picture where his face isn't as red as a baboon's ass) is one random hit on a crack pipe away from being a bloated corpse. If you care about his job as mayor and believe he is doing it well, then you should care if he's putting his life in danger every time he uses crack. PERIOD. END OF STORY.

True, but how does this extend to him stepping down from office or being charged criminally?

2) "smokes crack on occasion" - not exactly easy to do, it's one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. Susceptibility to addiction is different for every person of course, some people can use 'on occasion' without becoming addicts, but certainly not everyone. And I would bet that Ford has an addictive personality (he's clearly addicted to overeating). If Ford is (or becomes) an addict, you don't think it would effect his job performance? His thought process, attention to detail, reasoning abilities? I've known addicts before and some of these people were literally out of their minds when they were using regularly. As it is, he's basically already a no-show mayor given that his whereabouts are only accounted for about 50% of the time.

Suggesting Ford has a crack addiction is just too implausible to me, and even most Ford detractors admitted during the crack scandal that there was no way he has an addiction at (a) his current size or with his (b) current performance of mayoral duties. He simply wouldn't be able to function as he does if he was a regular user of crack. That's something which crack addicts have attested to.

3) Doing hard drugs will inevitably eventually put the user in the position where he/she is interacting with sketchy/shady/criminal elements. We've already seen this to be true with Ford, given the picture, video, wiretaps, and numerous other situations related to projects Traveler and Brazen 2. Do you really think it's no big deal if he ends up beholden to a criminal element? Do you really think it's not a big deal if the MAYOR of your city puts himself in a position where he can be extorted or influenced by criminals? What if that element has ties to organized crime/construction industry/garbage industry/corruption in the police force/prostitution, etc, etc. Do you want your mayor in a position of weakness when dealing with these institutions?

Admittedly this would be my only concern, but I'm not sure exactly what "position of weakness" could develop from Ford buying crack off some dealer or how he, a millionaire, would become beholden to some criminal element (especially when these drug dealers supposedly supplied a large portion of Toronto politicians and elites). That would mean his involvement would half to extend well beyond simply being a drug consumer, and then maybe I would have a problem. I don't exactly see how you get from smoking crack once to tied to corruption in the construction industry. Not to mention that any politician, interaction with criminals or not, can be susceptible to extortion. If it came out that Ford did put himself in the position to be extorted by criminals, I would gladly renounce my support of him, but there's nothing to suggest that at the current moment.

4) The bottom line is that crack cocaine possession is illegal. So if you don't mind that the mayor is using it, then you either think 1) it should be legal, or 2) you think that the mayor should not be held to the rule of law. So where do you draw the line on what illegal activities are acceptable for the mayor's office? Is it ok for him to take bribes too? Participate in prostitution? Is it OK for your mayor to send out goons to physically intimidate people he doesn't like? Which laws apply to him and which don't? Just wondering...

I don't think it should be legal, I just could care less what politicians do on their personal time. What a public official does when they go home from work is none of my business, so long as it doesn't interfere with their duties and responsibilities, and they can still perform their job competently. I draw the line at illegal activities being done in or interfering with the mayor's office - what the mayor does at home, I could really care less about. To answer your question, I would care about him taking bribes or sending out goons to physically intimidate people, but I really could care less if he was paying for illegal sex services. I didn't care when Jack Layton did it and I won't care if Ford does it either.

 

[PinkLucy]

So CowboyLogic, by your own logic, how do you excuse Ford's behaviour at Taste of the Danforth? The man was a slurring, incoherent mess. That wasn't on his own time. He was attending a public function. Whatever he was was on was definitely impacting his duties and responsibilities. His "people" didn't know where he was and scrambled to find him and get the situation under control.

 

[tariqata]

- Without Ford, there is a good chance we would have had LRT's and wouldn't have had the Scarborough subway extension. I understand Ford doesn't get the full credit for these developments, but as mayor he was instrumental in these developments, both in shifting the tone and focus of council, cancelling Transit City and getting federal/provincial funding. ...
- Refusing to introduce new revenue tools or taxes onto citizens, and keeping property taxes in line with inflation (I would like to see a source for property tax increases in Toronto, if anyone knows of one).

I agree that one could argue Rob Ford 'accomplished' these things - but delaying and/or cancelling transit expansion, politicizing the transit planning process, and making it nearly impossible to have a grown-up conversation about how to fund the creation of a public transportation network that serves the whole city don't strike me as particularly positive achievements.

 

[NormEron]

GFL = Green For Life = the private waste management contractor hired to collect garbage west of Yonge St.