News   May 17, 2024
Masterplanned Community Proposed Near Northfield ION in Waterloo
 1.2K     0 
News   May 17, 2024
Sevoy's 1515 Pickering Parkway to Join Pickering's Growing Downtown
 768     2 
News   May 17, 2024
Canada’s Most Important Transit Oriented Development
 6.7K     7 

Rob Ford's Toronto

Status
Not open for further replies.
ShonTron said:
It's his route to and from work. He complains about cyclists and streetcars, but he always takes Edenbridge -(stop at the Tim Hortons/Esso) - Scarlett - Dundas - Bay to work. Every day. So does his brother, who almost ran me down getting off the Dundas streetcar once.
Click to expand...

That would explain why one of my kids claims to see him quite often, and also puts some truth into another one of my kids' claim that he saw Ford stop at the Coffee Time (next to the LCBO) at Dundas/Roncesvalles a few weeks ago.
 
Rob Ford supports TCHC head "100 percent"

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...onduct/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

some choice quotes from Ford:

“He will not be dismissed as long as I’m mayor,” he added, although he acknowledges it is up to the TCHC board.

“If they can prove it and there is criminal wrongdoing here, that’s a different situation,” Mr. Ford added.

“As of now, I support Eugene Jones. He’s done a phenomenal job. No one has been in more Toronto Community Housing buildings than I have. I’ve seen the improvement over 14 years.”
Click to expand...
 
Was cycling home along Dundas a few weeks ago around midnight and saw Ford on his way home (think there was a monster council meeting that day). Jerry was driving the escalade. Beatles' "a day in the life" was blasting and Robbie was bopping along.



Then later on I wiped out on roncey.
 
kbdid said:
Rob Ford supports TCHC head "100 percent"

“As of now, I support Eugene Jones. He’s done a phenomenal job. No one has been in more Toronto Community Housing buildings than I have. I’ve seen the improvement over 14 years.”
Click to expand...

Wha?
 
OSS 117 said:
Lot's of nasty stories about that place, and those people. I'm sure they make a good veal sandwich, but knowing where their money is going/coming from, I wouldn't eat there. And I'm not generally political about that sort of thing.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. The Commisso Brothers are still active and they're still dirty criminals. They just stopped with the bombings and public violence.
 
To all those responding to/taking the bait from "Kir" (oh, New to UT? What a surprise.):

Don't.
Just don't. Stop.
Why? Please.
Really. Stop.
 
newearthling said:
Could Toronto become another Detroit? The reason Detroit started to decline was because of institutionalized corruption, right?
People started moving because they weren't getting good value for their taxes. Then there was a wide enough tax base, rising crime, and presto bankruptcy.
I know that is very simplified. It could be wrong.
But are we on that path?
Toronto isnt the city that "works" anymore.
We are passing billion dolar subway boondoggle deals when other plans are passed over.
Council seems just as paralyzed as the traffic enveloping the city.
I guess we will see if things improve once someone else is mayor.
But if we dont have people with bold vision and the courage to get it done, Toronto will see an exodus and a decline.
Click to expand...


Sadly, the reality of the decline of Detroit is far more complicated and multifactorial than the tired cliché’s of race riots, white flight, collapsing tax base etc. A good article (of hundreds that exist--for those who are interested), written by an Detroit born Urban Planner:

The Reasons Behind Detroit’s Decline by Pete Saunders

http://www.urbanophile.com/2012/02/21/the-reasons-behind-detroits-decline-by-pete-saunders/

Among the factors he cites:

Poor neighborhood identification:

Ask a Chicagoan where they’re from, and they will likely give you a neighborhood name – Wrigleyville, Jefferson Park, Chatham. The same is true in other neighborhood-oriented cities like New York, Boston, even Washington, D.C. However, ask a Detroiter where they’re from, and they will likely tell you East Side or West Side; if pressed, they might note a key intersection. While the Motor City does have its share of traditional enclaves (Indian Village and English Village) and emerging hot spots (Midtown), Detroit is notable among large U.S. cities for having very poorly defined neighborhoods.

Poor housing stock:

Detroit may be well-known for its so-called ruins, but much of the city is relentlessly covered with small, Cape Cod-style, 3-bedroom and one-bath single family homes on slabs that are not in keeping with contemporary standards for size and quality. The general national perception of Detroit’s housing might be of a city that resembles the South Bronx in the late 1970’s – long stretches of dense but abandoned walk-up apartment buildings with a smattering of deteriorated single-family homes. The truth, however, is that Detroit may have one of the greatest concentrations of post-World War II tract housing of any major U.S. city.

A poor public realm:

Detroit’s streetscape is unbearable in many places. Major corridors have long stretches of anonymous single-story commercial buildings, with few trees or other landscaping. Signs, banners, awnings and decorative lighting are noticeably lacking. Overhead electrical wires extend for miles, and streets have been rigidly engineered with road signs and markings. The city’s corridors are hardly pedestrian friendly.

A downtown that was allowed to become weak:

Detroit did not always have a relatively weak downtown. The city’s core was a strong retail and commercial center through much of the 20th century, with the advertising, legal and financial offices that supported the auto industry. At some point, Detroit’s downtown became secondary as an employment center to the factory locations scattered throughout the city and metro area. Just like homeowners, offices began relocating to the suburbs. By the ‘60s more and more people saw downtown as a retail center as opposed to an office center, and one that could not compete with suburban malls.

Freeway expansion:

This is something a little more familiar to planners when explaining the decline of central cities, but it’s acutely relevant in Detroit. I have no documentation to support it, but I suspect Detroit has more freeway miles per land area than most cities in the nation. The auto-dominated economy wanted a landscape that supported its values.

Lack of/loss of a transit network:

Detroit had an elaborate streetcar network that was in existence until the 1950’s, but was largely replaced by buses. The auto industry took special interest in the conversion of the streetcar network to buses. General Motors lobbied the city’s Department of Street Railways (DSR) throughout much of the ‘50s, stressing that diesel-fueled buses were an effective lower-cost alternative to streetcars (no more rail maintenance costs!) and could provide much greater flexibility to meet shifting travel demands. Coincidentally, GM produced exactly the kind of buses that would easily facilitate the transition. By 1953, the DSR began a three-year effort to convert streetcars to buses, and the last streetcar route was completed in April 1956.
 
Kir has now been completely pruned and won't be back. Previously quoted posts are now all you'll have for memories. So sorry,

42
 
ShonTron said:
It's his route to and from work. He complains about cyclists and streetcars, but he always takes Edenbridge -(stop at the Tim Hortons/Esso) - Scarlett - Dundas - Bay to work. Every day. So does his brother, who almost ran me down getting off the Dundas streetcar once.
Click to expand...

So typical of the Fords. They know it's not an ideal way since they have to share the road with the hated transit and non-motorized transportation, but they do it anyway out of an enlarged sense of entitlement.

If they took Jane and the South Kingsway and then the Queensway or Lakeshore, there'd be fewer cyclists and the transit would be separated from other traffic (on the Queensway, at least).
 
SFO said:
To all those responding to/taking the bait from "Kir" (oh, New to UT? What a surprise.):

Don't.
Just don't. Stop.
Why? Please.
Really. Stop.
Click to expand...

I'm glad he was pruned before I was tempted to respond to him. As I recently heard someone say, arguing with a troll is like playing chess with a pigeon: it knocks over all the pieces, craps on the board and still struts around like it won.
 
interchange42 said:
Kir has now been completely pruned and won't be back. Previously quoted posts are now all you'll have for memories. So sorry,

42
Click to expand...

Thank you and ShonTron for responding to my request for moderator intervention so quickly.

For members who want to stop trolls, talking about the disparagingly in the thread does NOT help. Neither does responding to their posts. Both of these tactics -- used by some surprisingly senior members of UT -- make it worse. Reporting the post (click the exclamation point to the lower left of the post) is the fastest and quickest way to get rid of the troll from the forum. If you don't want to do this and the posts aggravate you, put the troll on ignore. People who engage in discussion with a troll should stop. This discussion goes off the rails within a post or two. You may think you are smart and making good arguments but you are unwittingly being an accomplice in trolling. Please stop.

(I feel compelled to raise this in the thread because this is the third time in less than a week where members have fed a troll for pages and pages of off-topic/irrelevant drivel. We've got to use some self-control, here. This is a great forum for information and discussion. Don't contribute to advancement of the "Troll Agenda", lol) Thanks for listening!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top