TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[goreckm]

Unless we seriously tax generational asset wealth and crack down on tax sheltering.

AoD

This is the correct answer. But then oh no, what if the rich people all leave

 

[Amare]

Steve Munro has published an article outlining the pretty appalling state of the TTC's subway maintenance fleet and its availability. The long and short of it is that a significant chunk of the TTC's maintenance fleet has been out of service for significant chunks of time either due to maintenance issues or inspection. This in turn has affected the maintenance workers ability to do critical work across the subway system.

Here are a few pictures of the sorry maintenance state, but for the full details check out his article:

The State of Disrepair (III)

In a previous article, I wrote about problems with the TTC’s subway work car fleet that were revealed by a day-long shutdown of Line 2. See The State of Disrepair (II). A series of quest…

stevemunro.ca

Chalk up another failure to Rick Leary and his continuous crippling of TTC service. Good thing we hired him while full well knowing about the serious safety issues Boston had while he was running their system.

Oh and while we're at it, lets take a look at the mass state of slow orders which have since returned system wide. Many spots, had work done back in January/February and were apparently resolved, but have since come back yet again:

 

[turbanplanner]

The public routinely votes against taxes, or policies that would increase taxes. We are at fault, both for not critically thinking, and rewarding politicians who cater to that.

FWIW, I think that our path is unsunstainable: we want to have American-level/style taxation with European-level services in a low-growth, uninnovative economy. That’s…not going to work, and clearly hasn’t been working for a while. I think that later generations (Millenials onwards - and I say this as the oldest part of that cohort) are going to have to take massive service and benefit cuts along with increased taxes to pay off our current mistakes.

Look at it from another perspective, people would be happy to pay higher taxes if they felt they got value for it. In reality I don't know anyone who feels satisfied about any government service? 1 year wait for a passport a while back? "temporary" road fixes that last a decade or more. Some roads like Kipling have had the same stretch 3 times in 3 years ripped up repaved and repeat. Toronto hydro paying a useless ceo $6 million, I remember chow during her election race said it sucks water fountains are broken at parks yet I see so many not working.

I agree there will be a reckoning eventually.

 

[turbanplanner]

This is the correct answer. But then oh no, what if the rich people all leave

Rich people have left pretty much everywhere this was tried.

 

[picard102]

In reality I don't know anyone who feels satisfied about any government service?

Has anyone ever?

Rich people have left pretty much everywhere this was tried.

Rich people have left everyone behind everywhere. A reckoning is coming indeed.

 

[turbanplanner]

Has anyone ever?

Most people I talk to were a lot happier in the past. People weren't thrilled but they felt you got more value for what you paid.

 

[DSC]

Most people I talk to were a lot happier in the past. People weren't thrilled but they felt you got more value for what you paid.

I suspect i am considerably older than you and I can assure you that every generation looks back on the past with fondness and complains how standards have slipped, how costs have risen and how ghastly the world is now. They (we) conveniently forget the bad things in the past and the things that are clearly better now.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I suspect i am considerably older than you and I can assure you that every generation looks back on the past with fondness and complains how standards have slipped, how costs have risen and how ghastly the world is now. They (we) conveniently forget the bad things in the past and the things that are clearly better now.

True, but at the same time some of these changes for the worse is undeniable (if not necessarily unavoidable) - e.g. housing availability and job security (post-war).

AoD

 

[turbanplanner]

I suspect i am considerably older than you and I can assure you that every generation looks back on the past with fondness and complains how standards have slipped, how costs have risen and how ghastly the world is now. They (we) conveniently forget the bad things in the past and the things that are clearly better now.

A lot of city services are objectively worse now.

 

[APTA-2048]

A lot of city services are objectively worse now.

But it’s not because people aren’t getting the value for what they paid. Actually maybe they are getting exactly what they paid for because over a decade ago the promise was made to find “efficiencies” to cut taxes. Turns out there wasn’t much to be found and they cut into services like the TTC instead. So 14 years of austerity later you see the TTC in the state that it’s in now, where even the vehicles that perform maintenance suffer from maintenance deferrals.

 

[PL1]

But it’s not because people aren’t getting the value for what they paid. Actually maybe they are getting exactly what they paid for because over a decade ago the promise was made to find “efficiencies” to cut taxes. Turns out there wasn’t much to be found and they cut into services like the TTC instead. So 14 years of austerity later you see the TTC in the state that it’s in now, where even the vehicles that perform maintenance suffer from maintenance deferrals.

And (e.g.) deferred maintenance of roads leading to more potholes. Tory used to proudly point out how many potholes the city was filling -- and that was really a sign of the rot he helped instill.

 

[turbanplanner]

But it’s not because people aren’t getting the value for what they paid. Actually maybe they are getting exactly what they paid for because over a decade ago the promise was made to find “efficiencies” to cut taxes. Turns out there wasn’t much to be found and they cut into services like the TTC instead. So 14 years of austerity later you see the TTC in the state that it’s in now, where even the vehicles that perform maintenance suffer from maintenance deferrals.

Just because things weren’t found, doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of inefficiencies, like the road dug up every year. I also hate how many shortsighted decisions they’ve made like building the Scarborough extension with Block signals, etc.

 

[goreckm]

Just because things weren’t found, doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of inefficiencies, like the road dug up every year. I also hate how many shortsighted decisions they’ve made like building the Scarborough extension with Block signals, etc.

Oh for sure, although, paradoxically, this is likely because government is smaller (in certain respects) now. Less people with the expertise and cross department know-how to schedule these things, and outsourcing as much as possible to the private sector, which will get paid to do the same job over and over again.

 

[picard102]

Just because things weren’t found, doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of inefficiencies, like the road dug up every year.

Which road. Because roads cannot be dug up for non-emergency work for a period of five years after they have been resurfaced or reconstructed.

 

[picard102]

True, but at the same time some of these changes for the worse is undeniable (if not necessarily unavoidable) - e.g. housing availability and job security (post-war).

AoD

Because someone felt they weren't getting value for their tax dollars and governments cut their ability to provide those things.