Rob Ford's Toronto

[the lemur]

I don't quite understand her point. I'm also a migraine sufferer and I've taken transit every day for the last 20 years without issue. When a migraine hits, you're in for agony regardless of how you get your ass home to curl into a tight ball of pain and nausea in a pitch black room, so why use it as a con for public transit?

I imagine that when you have a migraine, taking transit home is also easier and safer for everyone than if you were to drive ...

 

[the lemur]

She calls Rob a visionary. "Rob Ford is no Frank Gehry, but that doesn’t make him any less of a visionary. And that’s because we don’t choose visionaries; they choose us. The undertaking Ford is attempting — to make subways and not LRTs the standard for Toronto — outsizes the ambitions of more recent mayors. It’s a grand gesture and grand gestures require grand personalities. Ford is not what most Torontonians expected. He’s polarizing and the scale of his plans, especially his willingness to move money around to achieve them, is jarring the Toronto establishment in profoundly evocative ways. However, the Toronto Transit Commission needs help and I suspect Ford is their most likely saviour. Residents should remember that and remember that leaders do not need to look like them to succeed."

On the flip side it gives you an interesting view to how someone that is not considered typical ford nation can be a Rob Ford supporter.

The scale of his plans! He doesn't have any goddamned plans!

I get the feeling that if you were to tell her that Ford insisted on putting part of the Eglinton LRT underground (so it's not 'spatially disruptive' like ... an above-ground stretch of subway line, or an autoroute below grade) and then complained about the cost of doing so, it would be news to her.

 

[nohostages]

I don't know what it is, but Rob has something going with the ladies."

We underestimate fords' charisma at our peril. I have seen the effect he has on people in person and it is inexplicable, but very real.

 

[the lemur]

Phoning someone around 2:00 am illustrates that Ford has mental health issues aplenty. No rational, responsible adult would would even think of doing that, unless, of course, it's an emergency, or that person is high on something.

Or the emergency is related to that person being high.

'This is Mayor Rob Ford returning your call ... bro, I can't feel my face'.

 

[casita]

Ford comes out of courthouse but says she can't comment.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 11m
Ford's case put over until Aug 26.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 26m
She is on the docket today for two charges, failing to re-attend court and failing to comply with probation.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 27m
Here at the Finch courthouse for an appearance by Mayor Ford's sister Kathy.

https://twitter.com/Shawn_Jeffords

 

[Greg Banks]

It's worse than that. Nine years wait for 3 *replacement* stops in Scarborough. Rob's subway subway subway will only replace the SRT. It goes from Kennedy-Lawrence East (new location)-STC or McCowan, can't remember which, and then a (possible) final stop on Sheppard East.

Three stops replace five old SRT stops making it less accessible to the non-car-owners who use it. And the routing is a bit further east, so as to maximize traffic disruption during the years of construction.

Add no new rapid transit for the good burghers of Scarborough (except for the final run to Sheppard East).

Eat your hearts out Centennial students. Nothing in your children's lifetime.

So the most populus Wards of Scarborough (based on electors) are not going to any rapid transit relief (Ward 44...41,738 Ward 42...41,338 Ward 41...41,095) and the B-D Extension will only through Ward 38...36,059.
At least with the existing SRT/LRT ROW Ward 37...36,972 as well as Ward 38 were served shucks it even nips at Ward 40...34,145 and would have reached Centennial and into Ward 42 should the full Conlins yard be built...as sits now the Sheppard LRT is going to be an orphan the big thinkers over at Metrolinx must be doing some headscratching....

 

[Soop]

Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 1m
Rob Ford's spokesman says he won't be at City Hall today. He's at 15 Cougar Court (a building he visited twice already) right now

 

[SFO]

Ford comes out of courthouse but says she can't comment.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 11m
Ford's case put over until Aug 26.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 26m
She is on the docket today for two charges, failing to re-attend court and failing to comply with probation.

Shawn Jeffords ‏@Shawn_Jeffords · 27m
Here at the Finch courthouse for an appearance by Mayor Ford's sister Kathy.

https://twitter.com/Shawn_Jeffords

I sure would like to understand why this case keeps getting delayed.

 

[GavinTheAlmighty]

I wonder what the IQ is of those 23%? I'd bet it's under 100. (way under 100)

Probably tops out at about 89 -- the 23rd percentile of the IQ distribution.

My next-door neighbour is still a hardcore Ford supporter. He's a very smart guy, works in consulting. But when it comes to Ford, he just seems to have found his position and refuses to deviate. Perhaps it's a matter of pride, as in not wanting to admit that he was wrong. There's definitely a significant element of him just being straight-up a selfish, spiteful jerk. He frequently talks about how he's glad that "despite his personal problems, Ford sticks it to the socialists on council". When pressed for details, "he's not raising my taxes". When asked to rationalize that against the Scarborough subway tax, "it's just a 0.25% tax raise". When explained that a) it's 1.6%, and b) a raise is a raise, he falls back to "Well the other options will be worse. Chow will just tax and spend and appease the unions."

He's a smart guy but he's set in his ways. He's bought into a lot of the Ford mythology and misinformation, and he just refuses to budge. In a way, it's actually much more frustrating. His support is based off of things that simply aren't true, and he refuses to acknowledge them as lies, despite clearly being smart enough to think critically about them. If he were a stupid person, I'd at least understand, but he isn't.

 

[Videodrome]

Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 9m
Rob Ford's spokesman says he won't be at City Hall today. He's at 15 Cougar Court (a building he visited twice already) right now #TOpoli

Scarborough is the new Ford Nation...

 

[whatthe]

I sure would like to understand why this case keeps getting delayed.

It's completely normal. The wheels of justice turn extremely slowly. If, for example, she is required to complete a certain number of community service hours, she is likely coming back to court periodically to give an update on her progress. That's normal.

 

[SFO]

My next-door neighbour is still a hardcore Ford supporter. He's a very smart guy, works in consulting. But when it comes to Ford, he just seems to have found his position and refuses to deviate. Perhaps it's a matter of pride, as in not wanting to admit that he was wrong. There's definitely a significant element of him just being straight-up a selfish, spiteful jerk. He frequently talks about how he's glad that "despite his personal problems, Ford sticks it to the socialists on council". When pressed for details, "he's not raising my taxes". When asked to rationalize that against the Scarborough subway tax, "it's just a 0.25% tax raise". When explained that a) it's 1.6%, and b) a raise is a raise, he falls back to "Well the other options will be worse. Chow will just tax and spend and appease the unions."

He's a smart guy but he's set in his ways. He's bought into a lot of the Ford mythology and misinformation, and he just refuses to budge. In a way, it's actually much more frustrating. His support is based off of things that simply aren't true, and he refuses to acknowledge them as lies, despite clearly being smart enough to think critically about them. If he were a stupid person, I'd at least understand, but he isn't.

People keep trying to define the nature of Ford's core support, but can't seem to pin it down. Maybe it's disgruntled older white folks, or maybe it's impoverished new Canadians, or maybe it's this area of the city or that one. But they're not asking the right question. It's very simple, folks: "selfish, spiteful jerks" are his true demographic, and they come from all walks of life and all districts.

 

[SFO]

It's completely normal. The wheels of justice turn extremely slowly. If, for example, she is required to complete a certain number of community service hours, she is likely coming back to court periodically to give an update on her progress. That's normal.

I guess I thought that too... but also idly speculating that it might have to do with the rumours about the second crack video possibly being a set-up by her.

 

[Greg Banks]

Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 1m
Rob Ford's spokesman says he won't be at City Hall today. He's at 15 Cougar Court (a building he visited twice already) right now

Has anyone been keeping track of R Ford's sucess rate at the private buildings he visits?
I'm thinking off the top of my head the Dawes Rd building for one...

 

[Videodrome]

My next-door neighbour is still a hardcore Ford supporter. He's a very smart guy, works in consulting. But when it comes to Ford, he just seems to have found his position and refuses to deviate. Perhaps it's a matter of pride, as in not wanting to admit that he was wrong. There's definitely a significant element of him just being straight-up a selfish, spiteful jerk. He frequently talks about how he's glad that "despite his personal problems, Ford sticks it to the socialists on council". When pressed for details, "he's not raising my taxes". When asked to rationalize that against the Scarborough subway tax, "it's just a 0.25% tax raise". When explained that a) it's 1.6%, and b) a raise is a raise, he falls back to "Well the other options will be worse. Chow will just tax and spend and appease the unions."

He's a smart guy but he's set in his ways. He's bought into a lot of the Ford mythology and misinformation, and he just refuses to budge. In a way, it's actually much more frustrating. His support is based off of things that simply aren't true, and he refuses to acknowledge them as lies, despite clearly being smart enough to think critically about them. If he were a stupid person, I'd at least understand, but he isn't.

Did you ask him what he would do if/when Ford loses?