This kind of talk just seems to distract from real issues. The collector position is largely outmoded and their numbers will be reduced once a workable alternative is in place. I'd advise that it'd be more productive to express frustration regarding the slow pace of implementation of a fare...

An early Ford implosion -- like the one we might be seeing now -- opens the door to a centre-right candidate like Michael Thompson or Karen Stintz. Look at how Thompson subtly positioned himself on the waterfront issue: after the Fords got everyone angry with a crazy plan, he was the one who sat...

You mean the incident involving the police and a mentally ill patient in front of St. Mike's Hospital? That was on Shuter Street and doesn't really seem relevant to this discussion.

I doubt WT and McConnell and Fletcher would be on-side with anything that puts the fundamentals of the project in jeopardy. At this point, a lot of what we're seeing is a face-saving exercise — an attempt to put the waterfront genie back in the bottle.

Oh, for sure. I think there are tremendous problems with management at the TTC. I'm just wary of people who think that right-wing politicians are best equipped to effectively tackle those problems. Inevitably, they'd rather just cut transit service and save money that way.

It's rarely as simple as it seems. At this point, most ticket takers working for the TTC are injured workers. I agree that ultimately the position should be removed and replaced with fare card machines, but it's not as if a government can just wave a magic wand and make that happen. They've...

I think at least one of the questions -- the last one, about service cuts -- is leading enough to make the results questionable, but spider's allegations would seem to border on libellous. Pollsters don't falsify data.

I get that you're mad at unions, but labour negotiation isn't simple. The Miller administration tried to eliminate the sick bank for public workers, and ended up with a forty day strike that cost him a ton of popularity and contributed to his desire to leave politics. Just because Rob Ford is...

I guess? Sure, an alternative delivery model for the zoo could be a good thing. I'm all for exploring it. Privatization of garbage might prove marginally effective at keeping the user fees for garbage collection lower over the next few years, but that's all it'll ever do. Yoga classes at...

Toronto doesn't really have a debt problem. We're the only government that continues to make payments on principal every year, as the feds and province tend to just go interest-only. Toronto's budget problems basically amount to two things: 1) We're too dependent on property taxes, which don't...

Anything's possible, but I can't imagine that would go over very well. I'm sure councillors will be very careful not to wander too far -- and anyway, he's too many votes short of a needed majority to have much of a chance to get away with a move like that. If anything underhanded happens, I'd...

Yeah, John Tory doesn't know what he's talking about. An approval rating in the 40s is disastrous for a municipal politician. We can already see how: it's no coincidence that councillors this week have been a lot bolder in their public criticism of the mayor. On the Port Lands item: the mayor...

As the public workers strike was kicking off, he was at 43%, higher than Ford is now. It was about 29% at the end of the strike. But by the end of his term he was back up in the low 40s. Prior to the strike, I don't believe he ever polled below the mid-50s. It seems exceedingly rare for a...

Waterfront Toronto has very strict policies on where and when they can meet with developers. They've met with and made deals with several developers in the East Bayfront and West Don Lands neighbourhood, but it would verge on unethical to meet with developers regarding the Port Lands and Lower...

I'm thinking either Liberal minority propped up by NDP or straight-up Liberal majority. PCs got played on the immigration stuff this week.

It's a bizarre comment in so many ways, as the Waterfront Toronto plan for the Lower Don lands sees a large amount of commercial space -- ~13,000 people will work in the area.

I don't think a lot of these ideas are coming from Rob Ford, who is primarily focused on avoiding tax increases. (Which explains the Port Lands thing.) The Executive Committee, particularly Denzil Minnan-Wong, has become very adept at pushing issues that they know they can get Ford's support on...

The whole reason Waterfront Toronto was created was because a phased holistic approach to all the available waterfront land would create maximum value. You can see the domino effect at work already, where Corus (w/ Sugar Beach) led to George Brown led to Hines. The land value goes up and becomes...

The WT plan has a completed EA and has gone through hundreds of hours of consultation. The TPLC vision didn't exist until three months ago when their board awarded a sole-source contract behind closed doors to a design firm and said "go nuts." They're not even in the same universe. The only...

The stadium is not part of this 'vision.' Which is the other point to make to this thread: be careful in interpreting these photos as anything more than an advanced game of Sim City. It's nowhere close to being detailed enough to be called a 'plan', and its creators have said as much.