[Towered]

I don't underatand why they'd sell off the corridor. Especially when rapid transit is planned for it and partially under construction. Seems like an incredibly short sighted decision to me.

Well it's all a moot point now since the virtually entire corridor from Martin Grove to Islington is under construction. Any extension of the Crosstown will either be at grade in the middle of the street or underground.

 

[newearthling]

Since the Twitterverse has very little interest in Soknacki, he would have a hard time reaching out to others.

Soknacki does not even have a Wikipedia article for his mayoral campaign (he is the only one of the major candidates without one): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Soknacki_mayoral_campaign,_2014&action=edit&redlink=1

Maybe you could volunteer for him too and do his wiki page?
I don't he is doing too badly on twitter. He had a good thing going when his team did those bright yellow and red ads, saying that he was unknown to police, etc. It got made into a bit of a meme with re-dos and re-tweets.
He needs the same hip style for his policy announcements. Instead of pressers which are not his forte, he should get his social media savvy team to release lots of videos and graphics...that can potentially go viral.

 

[BurlOak]

Well it's all a moot point now since the virtually entire corridor from Martin Grove to Islington is under construction. Any extension of the Crosstown will either be at grade in the middle of the street or underground.

How close will the various buildings be to Eglinton. You probably need about 8m to bring an elevated line through there. I imagine the offset will be more than that. At intersections, the road allowance usually widens which would give space for stations.

Those arterial roads are 1 km apart. To actually run at grade and then over the N-S road would require about 250m or climbing and descending. Leaving 500m at-grade. However, I believe that all these major roads have at least one mid-block intersection so effectively, it could never have been at-grade on a North Side alignment.

The only thing this may do is create more NIMBYs who might oppose an elevated line. But the converse may be true - it will create more demand and create people who want rapid transit through their area.

 

[Greg Banks]

I don't underatand why they'd sell off the corridor. Especially when rapid transit is planned for it and partially under construction. Seems like an incredibly short sighted decision to me.

one name one title....should tell you all you need to know Doug Ford Vice Chair....

 

[edmundoconnor]

He needs the same hip style for his policy announcements. Instead of pressers which are not his forte, he should get his social media savvy team to release lots of videos and graphics...that can potentially go viral.

A good social media campaign only works if the product being sold (the candidate) is someone that people can actually connect with. While such a campaign can work for a while without the candidate being prominently featured, eventually people need to get to know the person on the ticket, otherwise they begin to wonder why the campaign is hiding the candidate. His social media team is not going to be on the ballot. He is.

 

[edmundoconnor]

But it can be more complicated than "apparent frontrunners"--as I've said before, back in 2003, once the sign campaign got underway, supposed frontrunner Barbara Hall was ominously AWOL for the most part, which wound up telling the whole story for *that* election...

The sign war part of the campaign always shows when an emperor (or pauper) has no clothes.

 

[Admiral Beez]

What the heck is Chow saying here?

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/ne...e-is-returning-phone-calls&pubdate=2014-04-22

Does she think a mayor should be returning all calls?

A better Chow attack ad would start with the police video of Ford exchanging packages in gas stations, peeing in parks and then show a crack pipe, then show the admission to buying and using illegal drugs, and close with Ford's DWI mugshot from Florida.

 

[typezed]

She's saying that Rob Ford doesn't return all the phone calls that he claims to. I don't know why reporters haven't debunked his claims a long time ago.

Instead they do as the columnist does and continue to pass them on as truth, untested:

This is downright silly. You can accuse Mayor Ford of a lot of things. But one thing you can’t accuse him of is being unresponsive to telephone calls from voters. This is a guy who is continuously on his cell phone, returning calls from constituents.

I don't see how we know he is continuously on his cell phone, returning calls, other than him saying it, and reporters unquestioningly repeating it. The video, perhaps not effectively, attempts to simply point out that the claims are not all true. Ford scores a lot of points off this myth.

The problem is not that Mayor Ford doesn’t return calls. Quite the opposite: one of Mr. Ford’s main drawbacks is that he obsesses on the minutia of city services. He’s so busy schlepping off all the time Toronto Community Housing units to check on cockroaches or leaky faucets that he rarely keeps any kind of regular office hours. Partly as a result of this lapse, Mr. Ford has lost control of city council, and has rarely won a vote in the past year.

He has been ineffective not because he's busy checking out TCHousing or returning phone calls, neither which he does with the frequency that he or the writer here claim he does, but because he has substance abuse issues that make it difficult for him to get into work before noon, or focus while he's there, and because he's spending time hanging out in bushes near the high school downing bottles of vodka with his drug dealer.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

I don't know if Chow's ad will be effective or not, but she's aiming it at Ford Nation, not the rest of us. The reporter's comment is that 'he answers lots of calls, but he shouldn't'. Chow is saying, 'he's lying to you about answering 100% of the calls'. Both are true, but only one resonates with Ford Nation.

I'm starting to see a glimmer of the Chow plan. They're trying to soften the Ford base support, not necessarily to capture it, but to see if they can get them confused/disappointed enough to not vote. So, next step is to put forward a bunch more campaign planks for the non-Ford Nation crowd? Or attack ads? Neither will resonate with FN, but will speak to the other 85%. I'm betting it's new programs, rather than attacks.

 

[christiesplits]

Bingo, everyone knows - including a piece in the National Post yesterday - that a chief magistrate returning phone calls about raccoons in green bins is a horrendous waste of management. But Chow is playing it smart by by tackling "Rob Ford the myth" and trying to poach his soft supporters.

 

[Silence&Motion]

I really do wonder how many calls Rob Ford actually returns each week. My sense is that it's MUCH, MUCH lower than either the Fords or the media claim it to be. But it's a great cover story whenever Rob skips work to get wasted.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Chow campaign has actual polling data on the number of people who haven't gotten their calls returned.

 

[W. K. Lis]

She's saying that Rob Ford doesn't return all the phone calls that he claims to. I don't know why reporters haven't debunked his claims a long time ago.

Instead they do as the columnist does and continue to pass them on as truth, untested:



I don't see how we know he is continuously on his cell phone, returning calls, other than him saying it, and reporters unquestioningly repeating it. The video, perhaps not effectively, attempts to simply point out that the claims are not all true. Ford scores a lot of points off this myth.



He has been ineffective not because he's busy checking out TCHousing or returning phone calls, neither which he does with the frequency that he or the writer here claim he does, but because he has substance abuse issues that make it difficult for him to get into work before noon, or focus while he's there, and because he's spending time hanging out in bushes near the high school downing bottles of vodka with his drug dealer.

I'm sure that most can't even get through, or his voicemail is full. Else, he'll be constantly on his cellphone during council meetings.

 

[newearthling]

I can't wait for the day when this race does not revolve around Rob Ford anymore.
If he is not going to drop out, then he needs to drop in some other way.
(Not that I would ever wish any harm to him....but c'mon, he is overdue for some kind of attack!)

 

[ttk77]

I really do wonder how many calls Rob Ford actually returns each week. My sense is that it's MUCH, MUCH lower than either the Fords or the media claim it to be. But it's a great cover story whenever Rob skips work to get wasted.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Chow campaign has actual polling data on the number of people who haven't gotten their calls returned.

Given that he seems to be wasted when he returns the calls, it's quite possible he actually believes that he returns them all.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Given that he seems to be wasted when he returns the calls, it's quite possible he actually believes that he returns them all.

Aw, that'd be cute....getting little drunk texts from Robby.

(I can't comprehend the fact that people still take him seriously)