City must make cuts downtown: Mammoliti
DAVID NICKLE
August 12, 2011
North York councillor Giorgio Mammoliti says he's heard enough from the public to know where the cuts should come when the city sets about balancing its 2012 budget.
And it's pretty straightforward. In two words: downtown Toronto.
"This whole budget - the whole core services review - has been an eye-opener to a lot of us," said Mammoliti.
"There's a possibility we could find the savings we need in the downtown core and bring the levels of service up in the suburbs. This core service review has told me I was right - there's a lot of money being spent in the downtown core and perhaps we need to bring the services in the suburbs up to par. Libaries is one place we can do that."
Mammoliti made the comments after he shut down a Facebook page, just up for a few days, inviting "average" Torontonians to weigh in on the city's Core Services Review.
Mammoliti made headlines saying he would make sure that so-called "communists" - defined by him as downtown Toronto residents who were not adequately employed, and who wanted the city to give them money - weren't invited.
But even without the communist influence, Mammoliti said that many of the participants felt that some of the recommendations put forward in the review by KPMG weren't on.
In particular, he said residents didn't want to see their libraries closed.
"Not everyone agrees that we need to shut down libraries," he said. "I think we need to look at efficiencies, how to save money, and continue with some of the service cuts we're suggesting but in an efficient way."
Mammoliti said he interpreted that to mean that cutting libraries - or indeed any services - in the old suburban cities of North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke shouldn't be contemplated.
But the downtown core, he said, could stand to see some significant cuts, particularly when it comes to library branches.
"I think amalgamating libraries is something that we should be looking at," he said.
"There are libraries in certain pockets of the city where there may be three or four of them within walking distance. We should be looking at amalgamating and looking at making one larger."
Mammoliti argued that it made sense to remove those and other services from downtown Toronto residents to free up cash to improve services in wards such as his own, in northwestern North York.
"It seems that in the downtown their wish list has always come through for them - and our wish list in other parts of the city is still a wish list."
Mammoliti's idea didn't go over well with some councillors.
Beaches-East York Councillor Janet Davis sits on the Toronto Public Library Board. She said that Mammoliti's premise that the suburbs have been under-represented in past budgets is simply false.
"He is so far off the mark on that," she said. "Since 2006 when we began to implement the Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force recommendations, we have invested more capital in the priority neighbourhoods and areas outside the downtown than ever before. He's completely wrong."
She said that Mammoliti is simply seeking to widen the suburban/urban divide in Toronto.
"We don't build a healthy city by pitting one area against the other, and Giorgio is not showing leadership by doing that," she said.
"We need to build in those areas that have been historically under-serviced over time. Not setting up downtown versus the suburbs. It's counterproductive, it's polarizing and it's just bad politics."
Shelley Carroll, who represents suburban ward of Ward 33 Don Valley East, said a policy like that would be a fast road to a city with a hollowed-out downtown core such as Detroit.
"If you just strip the downtown to create glowing suburbs you get crazy things," she said. "Shut down the schools rather than fix whatever's sick inside them? Put kids on buses? Then you end up with a dead downtown."
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/cityhall/article/1056706--city-must-make-cuts-downtown-mammoliti
Indications of what's to come? Or just more ranting from Mammo?
