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Rob Ford's Toronto

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MisterF said:
golodhendil, of the cities you've mentioned the one I've been in most recently is Madrid. There's hardly any postering there as far as I could tell, both in the centre of the city and in more outlying areas. It's definitely not overrun with posters the way Toronto is. What struck me is how immaculate everything is. It's not just the postering but the complete lack of overhead power lines, higher quality sidewalks, and the little things like newspaper kiosks. Compare Yonge Street, Queen West or Nathan Phillips Square with Gran Via or Plaza Mayor - the difference is like night and day.
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I don't disagree. European cities in general, in my experience, are much "neater" and does a better job in keeping their streets "clean" (though some of the offences there, like graffiti on some 4-500 years old townhouses, are probably more abhorrent).
Places like Hong Kong, however, are even "worse" than those pictures depict. Usually the posters will go on the walls, doors and windows of places like banks that are closed on weekends, get cleaned up first thing on Monday, then up the posters go again on Sat. Sometimes the posters would even just go on overnight.
 
Ultimately it's irrelevant what other cities choose to do with postering isn't it? The only thing that's important here is what the people of Toronto want. Unfortunately it seems to be very difficult to get the people of this city to care enough about anything to even contact their councilors. If you can't even convince a majority of people to vote, how do you convince them to care about a piece of paper glued to a lamp post.
 
ttk77:

That's the most frustrating thing - you hear all these people complain about the general degradation of the public realm and yet I see so few people actively take part in maintaining it - even when their properties are directly impacted by the mess in the vicinity (e.g. storeowners). Maybe it is this expectation that the city can do everything and that they themselves have no role in maintaining cleaniness that is the ultimate problem?

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
ttk77:

That's the most frustrating thing - you hear all these people complain about the general degradation of the public realm and yet I see so few people actively take part in maintaining it - even when their properties are directly impacted by the mess in the vicinity (e.g. storeowners). Maybe it is this expectation that the city can do everything and that they themselves have no role in maintaining cleaniness is the ultimate problem?

AoD
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Tell them that they're taxes are going up and see what they!
 
Mayor Ford specifically invites only HIS supporters for city hall debate.

From today's SUN:

Mayor Rob Ford is reaching out to election supporters and asking them to come down to City Hall Thursday when city council votes on scrapping the car tax.

In an e-mail to Ford campaign supporters sent Tuesday, the "Rob Ford team" is encouraging residents to, "Come Support Mayor Ford!"

The e-mail goes on to describe the vote on the car tax and other Ford-fuelled measures as being "of great importance to the future of our city."

"In support of our new Mayor, Rob Ford, you're encouraged to come pack the Council Chambers in support of these important votes," the appeal states. "They include voting to eliminate the $60 Car Registration Tax, voting to limit Councillor Expense Accounts, and voting to make the TTC an Essential Service.

"Mayor Ford needs our support on December 16th."

Council meets Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
 
MetroMan said:
- Will cycling culture receive a death blow now that it is unlikely that bike lanes will continue to sprout like in the Miller years? What's going to happen to existing bike lanes?
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It is highly unlikely that will happen. I've been actively cycling since 1980 and bike lanes are pretty much useless.
 
CanadianNational said:
Mayor Ford specifically invites only HIS supporters for city hall debate.

From today's SUN:

Mayor Rob Ford is reaching out to election supporters and asking them to come down to City Hall Thursday when city council votes on scrapping the car tax.

In an e-mail to Ford campaign supporters sent Tuesday, the "Rob Ford team" is encouraging residents to, "Come Support Mayor Ford!"

The e-mail goes on to describe the vote on the car tax and other Ford-fuelled measures as being "of great importance to the future of our city."

"In support of our new Mayor, Rob Ford, you're encouraged to come pack the Council Chambers in support of these important votes," the appeal states. "They include voting to eliminate the $60 Car Registration Tax, voting to limit Councillor Expense Accounts, and voting to make the TTC an Essential Service.

"Mayor Ford needs our support on December 16th."

Council meets Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
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What is the purpose of doing this? Does he actually think that having his supporters pack council chambers will influence the council vote in his favour? Has there been any indication from councillors on how they intend to vote?

I think the votes are likely to pass anyway. It's important that council show the city they're willing to work with the mayor on certain issues while at the same time save energy for the more important battles (ie: Transit City, waterfront redevelopment, etc...)
 
It's weird because I don't think any of Ford's three major priorities for the first council meeting (Axe the Car Tax, Make TTC essential, reduce expense budgets) are issues that his opponents really care about. I can quibble with all three but, honestly, they all seem minor in the grand scheme of things.
 
hipster:

On the other hand, with Mike Layton's new motion to demand an apology from Maclean's over their Asian Universities article, we have a left wing councilor who is out to show Torontonians that Rob Ford isn't the only politician who can waste time with hollow, symbolic non-issues.
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Totally agree - painfully stupid strategic move on the left as a whole as well - basically let others brand him in a way that will haunt him later. Then again, knowing who he is, that's probably what he wanted. What a yawn.

AoD
 
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I'm picturing the chamber packed with jocks following-up every Ford proclamation with an emphatic "woof! woof! woof! woof!"
 
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