Could we all please remember that when the city hires a private contractor, we are not just paying the workers? We also pay shareholder profits and other costs associated with private businesses (higher borrowing rates, risk premiums, contract oversight costs, etc.) The only apples-to-apples...

Long play? Marcus Gee today says there is a long play behind the Jarvis hit-job. He says Denzil Minnan-Wong needed a sacrifice so he could credibly justify bike lanes to Ford supporters in an "only Nixon could go to China" sort of deal. It is possible that similar reasoning was behind the...

KPMG says most Economic Development & Culture services are delivered below standard According to KPMG's Economic Development and Culture service review study, over three-quarters of the City's EDC services are delivered at a standard lower than what prevails in other municipalities. Twenty-four...

The City would actually have to spend money to clean its own property, which is why the bus shelters remain covered in graffiti. It's cheap and easy to write tickets and threaten fines to private property owners. If there has been any improvement in graffiti, thank the property owners who paid...

Two years ago, Mark Grimes voted to remove the reversible Jarvis traffic lane that he recently voted to reinstall. The other current councillors who voted to remove the reversible lane in 2009 were councillors Carroll, Cho, Davis, De Baeremaeker, Di Giorgio, Filion, Fletcher, Kelly...

During the Santa Claus parade, Ford marched right through pinko-town, and was received warmly, at least where I was standing. Also, I recall that Mel Lastman was received very warmly at his first Pride parade, despite his earlier hesitation about participating. Good lord, Rob Ford is making me...

The track work was done by TTC crews, and they were finished on time and on budget, back in October.

I am still not sure why no one is suggesting Casa Loma for the proposed Toronto Museum. Apparently some folks are disappointed that the museum, now proposed for Old City Hall, would be much smaller than originally envisioned.

I also hoped Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice would keep Bush from screwing up too badly. But ideological tunnel vision can afflict anyone, and cause even smart people to do incredibly stupid things ... especially when they dismiss the democratic process as needless tediousness.

From yesterday's National Post: Matt Gurney: Rob Ford’s plan to sell assets to cover deficits an insult to taxpayers In his column, Matt Gurney blasts Rob Ford over his proposal to sell City assets to pay ongoing operational costs. He writes: "One-time-only sales of city assets to partially...

To be fair, the actual question asked about not only marathons, but public festivals, walkathons and marches, some of which certainly can be hosted in parks. The poll was pretty badly worded. It is neither ignorant nor ill-formed to believe there are too many marathons in Toronto, and that...

In Etobicoke. City-wide, it is 70%, according to a recent Toronto Real Estate Board poll.

We should all be very skeptical of the claim that the hypothetical "cheaper" design will actually cost less. As I mentioned earlier, the confidential staff report says the cost of the bridge will "skyrocket" if it is delayed. The prospect of skyrocketing costs would normally make principled...

Toronto voters overwhelmingly rejected casinos in a 1997 referendum. And even if they have changed their mind since then, the simple fact is this: the province controls gambling revenue in Ontario, not the City of Toronto. Let's all be clear: when the Ford brothers muse about casinos and how...

My understanding is that the real reason Ford, Shiner et al voted against the bridge was because they want to develop parkland around the bridge (which apparently would not have been possible with the proposed bridge design). They said that the real cost of the bridge was not just the extra $4...

"Past performance" can have different meanings, and my hunch is that the City defines this pretty tightly to mean outright incompetence that is provable in court. Things like good communications, considerate and minimally disruptive construction staging, and dust management are more subjective...

The City's procurement policy is summarized here. It says: "the expectation is that the lowest bid meeting the requirements specified in the Call would be accepted, subject to any other provisions of the City’s Municipal Code." Later in the document, it indicates that other factors, such...

I counted three crews last week, plus Enbridge. I have never seen three crews on Roncesvalles.

The City hired a consultant (Chisholm, Fleming and Associates, I believe) to prepare the tender for the second phase of the Roncesvalles construction. I have no idea if this is standard procedure for more complex projects, or a response to the shortcomings of previous contracts. Perks has said...

BlogTO has an article about the Roncesvalles reconstruction, featuring an interview with Councillor Gord Perks. In the interview, Perks says Sanscon simply did not put enough resources into finishing the job on time. The obvious follow-up question is, why didn't the City crack the whip? Perks...