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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Doug Ford openly stated today on the Matlow show that we can't afford "1.4b debt-financed streetcars" and the ".5 billion TTC Garage".
Well, that sounds ominous.

What's interesting about the Ford camp is that the personal issues one would reasonably assume would kind have of died out, are still roasting on their rotisserie. They are nothing if not single-brained. Here you'd think their initial antipathy towards streetcars would have been lost in the flurry of very real, momentous, crisis-producing decisions that are crashing in everywhere...but - nope!
It's hard to stomach that this new "rule-by-error" fad that's sweeping North America knows no bounds.

Is Doug as erroneous with his figures as Rob was during his campaign? He mentioned a $774 million shortfall (while mentioning Greece, Spain, Italy). Any idea what this is supposed to tie to, exactly? Certainly not the swiftly-quoted figures about the dread Red Front streetcars, which outstrip it by two hundred and some-odd percent.

The radio show gaffe about not buying votes was interesting. Essentially, Doug phoned in to tell Matlow off about publicly revealing a private conversation, in which Doug reiterated that unless Matlow was going to be publicly supportive of Doug's schemes [esp. the portlands], Doug wouldn't appear on his show. That's pretty funny - phoning in to deny it by confirming it. Nonetheless, despite being quoted saying "everyone has their price", Doug then says "I [we] don't buy votes".

This on top of the usual quote about their [the brother's] unquestionable integrity. That's starting to sound a bit disturbing - as if they were separated only by mitosis.
I'm afraid "No one questions our integrity" sounds more like the slogan for a discount meat and furniture chain than the offices of the Mayoralty.

My, my, my.
 
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Oh please, the Ipsos report is old news - besides, unlike you, we don't put that much weight on the poll such that we felt the need to discredit or support it. However, what you can do is triangulate those results with the voting intentions of the councillors, who are a better litmus test on the mayor himself. I've noticed that you haven't addressed that particular issue, or any specifics we've listed on that matter. Speaking of which:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...treat-from-controversial-cuts/article2170833/

I suppose Ford himself knows better than anyone/polls as to where he can stand.

AoD
 
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With Sue-Ann Levy on vacation, here's Joe Warmington to fill in the blanks!

Ignore the naysayers and stick with plan: Warmington
Joe Warmington

TORONTO - Stay the course.

It’s not only what Mayor Rob Ford and his supporters on council must do, it’s also what thousands of people who voted for this slate are urging him to do.

Of course, if you read some media reports, the Ford Nation’s sky is falling and he is too.

The mood is nasty as political enemies try to portray the foundations of his support collapsing as brighter, thinner, more suited political intellectuals line up their next more-worthy socialist tax-and-spend candidate to restore the buffet at the trough.

It’s a tough time for squealing pigs when they are not fed. Much of the sneering left is not pleasant at the best of times, let alone when they don’t get their way. Now, they are stooping to levels of trying to insinuate that Ford is some sort of overweight buffoon who doesn’t like people who read and enjoys watching families starve.

What they are really doing is insulting many of you.

But you see through them.

While the divide and destruct campaign has enjoyed some success, the truth is its own support is largely coming from the same crowd who unsuccessfully, but regularly, hit Ford below the belt during last year’s election campaign.

It’s like the campaign is still on. And Ford now must fight back by getting out among his base — the average Torontonian who also doesn’t know Margaret Atwood is sometimes called Peggy by her superior friends.

Spent ten minutes with the mayor in public and you see a far different reaction than what is presented coming out of the city hall bubble. Atwood would drool for such interest and adoration.

People also know that the vitriol and laughing track is being sold by the same oh-so-clever crowd who didn’t do a good job when they had the baton.

Remember how they spent tens of millions buying a bar in the entertainment district and went way over budget as they turned it into a homeless shelter? Or how they floated the idea of having a sidewalk tax or destroying Jarvis St. with the expensive, unnecessary bike lanes?

The left’s waterfront plan was no less out there than what they claim of Ford’s. The difference is Ford’s, with private investment, could actually happen.

Most of his enemies are haters and dynamiters, unless they are spending your money on their wasteful causes. Then they are urban, city-building geniuses. This is what Ford is fighting. And the public needs to be explained a lot of it is orchestrated by union interests.

Mayor Ford, and those in his executive committee, have got to stay strong as they look for ways of trimming the fat and show people more tax savings in future years.

Meanwhile, there are polls showing Mayor Ford is dropping in the polls and there is hysteria because he dares to take on the entitled. The polls mean nothing. He is not up for re-election for 38 months. Ford, who already has eliminated loads of rapacious taxes and cut city spending significantly, should not be judged on his efforts until he has had a fair chance to do his mandate.

The polls are also useless since they were conducted by the likes of public services unions, who helped create the $774-million shortfall. Of course they want Ford out. They want the gravy train back.

Today, when the executive committee meets, there are going to be all sorts of freeloaders whining how tough their lives are because there is a sensible administration in charge of the purse strings at city hall.

But this is not Ford’s mess. It is, though, his job to clean up. Smart people know they can’t bail on him now.

They also know there is an effort to fracture the power base of Ford’s support by getting some of the councillors in the inner circle to bail. They may think twice after walking in a public venue with him though because he is still very popular. I saw this first-hand at the Ford Family BBQ a couple of weeks back.

Everywhere he goes, Mayor Ford gets the rock-star treatment.

“We went to the Danforth and could only get 50 feet in 40 minutes,†said his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, who described a “mob scene†atmosphere again at Saturday’s lingerie football game.

“It was amazing to see because so many people wanted to shake his hand.â€

And, says Doug with a chuckle, they are all telling him the same thing.

“Stay the course.â€
Click to expand...
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/18/ignore-the-naysayers-and-stick-with-plan-warmington
 
Well, if he is so confident about his course and his numbers, feel free to cut the libraries and day care instead of the pathetic mea culpa being delivered today. With regards to smart people - what I do know is this - they don't read the Sun. Certainly not spending their own money to do so. Nuff said.

And I hate to give it to Joe, but his writing style might be more suited to the Juche socialist paradise of North Korea. Rockstar treatment? He will be constantly doing hole-in-ones over there.

AoD
 
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The Star's Christopher Hume has been on the Fords' case non-stop, but I think his current dig is particularly satisfying: that the Fords were suckers for "peddlers" pitching the Portlands like some get-rich-quick scheme.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1055737--hume-fords-fell-for-same-old-waterfront-pitch?bn=1

“There’s people knocking on my door all the time,†Rob Ford likes to tell his friends on radio.

They’re there because they want “to buy the zoo,†or “to buy a theatre,†that sort of thing.

When it came to buying the Port Lands, they went instead to the mayor’s brother, Doug Ford, peddling visions of megamalls, monorails and money.
* * *
And when Doug Jr. unveiled his Port Lands plan a couple of weeks ago, those who weren’t appalled by the secrecy of the process and banality of the project were amused by its familiarity.

The same hawkers have been flogging the same schemes for years.

But until the Fords came along, no one paid attention. Rube-like, the brothers fell for it hook, line and sinker. The bigger and shinier, the better they like it.
Click to expand...
 
jje1000 said:
With Sue-Ann Levy on vacation, here's Joe Warmington to fill in the blanks!


http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/18/ignore-the-naysayers-and-stick-with-plan-warmington
Click to expand...

I notice a common thread among the right...namely that they're very good at just saying stuff (i.e. bullshit) without any of that stuff having any basis in truth...

...like the so-called truth that thousands want him to continue doing what he's doing...really? Isn't it interesting how he conveniently forgets the REAL truth that NO ONE voted for this as EVERYONE was told repeadetly that he would NOT cut services and that there was LOADS of gravy that is EASY to find (funny how he had to pay consultants (with OUR money) to find what he told us was EASY to find)...

...when people pointed out during the campaign that he is a LIAR, the right calls that, "hitting below the belt"...I guess when it's one of their own, it's okay to lie...

...and how they keep saying that NOTHING is happenning on the Waterfront...I guess it must be all in my head when I go down there and see progress...I must just be dreaming!

It's so easy to go on and on and on with this...and yet they keep trying to feed the masses with even MORE bullshit...
 
The population of Toronto went from 2,385,421 in 1996 to 2,481,494 in 2001, and 2,503,281 in 2006. Today's population is estimated around 2,600,000. That's an increase of around almost 100,000 in 5 years. Not counting people smuggling in from the 905 and using services like the TTC. We'll be getting the first population counts from the 2011 Census by Wednesday, February 8, 2012. Rob Ford must be hoping the population of Toronto increases zero percent, or maybe he'll order a 10% decrease in population.

There are forecasts of population reaching 2,915,000 by 2021 and 3,000,000 by 2031. And Rob Ford wants to reduce the number of libraries, even though there are increases in population? I fail to see the logic.

With increases in population, wouldn't there also be increases in demand for other city services?
 
CanadianNational said:
Doug Ford openly stated today on the Matlow show that we can't afford "1.4b debt-financed streetcars" and the ".5 billion TTC Garage".
Well, that sounds ominous.

What's interesting about the Ford camp is that the personal issues one would reasonably assume would kind have of died out, are still roasting on their rotisserie. They are nothing if not single-brained. Here you'd think their initial antipathy towards streetcars would have been lost in the flurry of very real, momentous, crisis-producing decisions that are crashing in everywhere...but - nope!
It's hard to stomach that this new "rule-by-error" fad that's sweeping North America knows no bounds.

Is Doug as erroneous with his figures as Rob was during his campaign? He mentioned a $774 million shortfall (while mentioning Greece, Spain, Italy). Any idea what this is supposed to tie to, exactly? Certainly not the swiftly-quoted figures about the dread Red Front streetcars, which outstrip it by two hundred and some-odd percent.

The radio show gaffe about not buying votes was interesting. Essentially, Doug phoned in to tell Matlow off about publicly revealing a private conversation, in which Doug reiterated that unless Matlow was going to be publicly supportive of Doug's schemes [esp. the portlands], Doug wouldn't appear on his show. That's pretty funny - phoning in to deny it by confirming it. Nonetheless, despite being quoted saying "everyone has their price", Doug then says "I [we] don't buy votes".

This on top of the usual quote about their [the brother's] unquestionable integrity. That's starting to sound a bit disturbing - as if they were separated only by mitosis.
I'm afraid "No one questions our integrity" sounds more like the slogan for a discount meat and furniture chain than the offices of the Mayoralty.

My, my, my.
Click to expand...

Doug Ford says a lot of things, and that comment came at the end of a long stream of semi-coherent commentary so I am cautious of reading too much into it. Additionally, I figure if the Fords wanted to can the streetcar order the time to do so was on Day One of their co-mayoralty--ie, before many millions had been spent on it on their watch, as they did with Transit City. Given that the streetcars have already survived one complete budgeting cycle, and remain in the revised TTC Capital Plan (revised with instructions from City Hall, and approved by the Ford-friendly Commission), I am trying not to worry too much about our beloved Red Rockets.

That said, the twin Fordmayors' antipathy toward streetcars is well-known, and they are probably one of the largest single items in the capital budget, making them a tempting target for the axe. Much will depend on Stintz (who is on-record rejecting the suggestion that the order should be cancelled), should she remain in the post. It should be noted, however, that the Ashbridges carhouse, which the TTC says is essential to house the new vehicles, is not yet fully funded.

Whatever the result of the streetcar saga, I think it holds a lesson for Canadian public procurement in general: that fleet replacements should be continuous and incremental, rather than left until the last minute. These giant contracts to do it all in one go present tempting political targets for cost-cutters (see the Chretien-Sea King affair) and risk block obsolescence should anything go wrong.
 
W. K. Lis said:
The population of Toronto went from 2,385,421 in 1996 to 2,481,494 in 2001, and 2,503,281 in 2006. Today's population is estimated around 2,600,000. That's an increase of around almost 100,000 in 5 years. Not counting people smuggling in from the 905 and using services like the TTC. We'll be getting the first population counts from the 2011 Census by Wednesday, February 8, 2012. Rob Ford must be hoping the population of Toronto increases zero percent, or maybe he'll order a 10% decrease in population.

There are forecasts of population reaching 2,915,000 by 2021 and 3,000,000 by 2031. And Rob Ford wants to reduce the number of libraries, even though there are increases in population? I fail to see the logic.

With increases in population, wouldn't there also be increases in demand for other city services?
Click to expand...

I think reducing the number of libraries and selling off the properties to developers is a great idea. Keep several big centralized libraries but really in the age of the internet what do we need so many libraries for anyway? Look no further than the US when Borders in bankrupt and Barnes & Noble is shuttering stores everywhere. It is only a matter of time before Gerry Schwartz pulls the plug on his wife's expensive little hobby, ie Indigo, as well.

Get with the times or be left behind!
 
Bookstores and libraries are two different things; there have been multiple postings about how busy library branches are, and links to library reports with stats, etc.
 
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