[Fresco]

Here's The Star's list of would-be Mayoral contenders:

Potential candidates mull Toronto mayoral run after John Tory resigns

The clock is ticking on a byelection that could happen in May and mayoral hopefuls will have to make quick decisions on whether to run.

www.thestar.com

Its behind the paywall, but I'll share their pic here as that will give most of the requisite names

Copy/paste the link into this site, click save, and it will bypass every paywall thats out there:

archive.vn

create a copy of a webpage that will always be up

archive.vn

Your article: https://archive.vn/IVxDE

 

[Mr.Tang]

This is where the dynamism of the democratic system really kicks into gear to come up with the worse possible set of options for the electorate. Maybe a Mammoliti v Layton (or who is farther left than him?).

 

[christiesplits]

Seriously, I've long seen Brad Bradford as some kind of "establishment fauxgressive" anointed successor to John Tory. So look out for *him*.

(And I remember ages ago--heck, going back to the Miller era--sounding a "watch Michael Thompson" note re potential mayoral bids. And oh irony when it comes to subsequent sex scandals *there*...)

Bradford always gave off Manchurian Candidate vibes. As if a team of Tory loyalists and political insiders created their ideal successor in a lab.

 

[Northern Light]

Interesting to see that the print edition of the Star only had 8 on the front page, relegating Bradford, Layton, and Cho to page 6.

My observation on The Star's editorial choices here would be to comment on their photo selection. Clearly, The Star will have range of pics to choose from for each candidate; I would argue only Layton's was reasonably flattering; Cressy's isn't bad, but they look to me like they're making fun of Matlow with that choice. A few others could be said to be neutral, though pushing faces that look worried, or any photo of Mitzi w/o her trademark smile is certainly a conscious choice.

 

[Fresco]

Cressy is out

Joe Cressy won’t run for mayor

The former city councillor for Spadina—Fort York had been considered a potential candidate to replace John Tory after the mayor’s shock resignation on Friday.

www.thestar.com

 

[W. K. Lis]

I'll vote for whichever candidate promises to get rid of those dreaded speed cameras

I'll vote for whichever candidate promises to EXPAND the use of speed cameras.

Would be better if they redesign those streets to force drivers to slow down. Speed limit signs are useless if the streets are designed for the "safety" of speeders, and not for the safety of pedestrians.

 

[christiesplits]

I find it intriguing that most of the potential high profile candidates have made a public statement saying “yes,” “no” or “possibly,” yet we still haven’t heard from Mike Layton.

 

[Fresco]

I'll vote for whichever candidate promises to EXPAND the use of speed cameras

If you dont like the way I drive I suggest you stay off the sidewalk

 

[concrete_and_light]

I find it intriguing that most of the potential high profile candidates have made a public statement saying “yes,” “no” or “possibly,” yet we still haven’t heard from Mike Layton.

This is pure speculation but I've been thinking that Layton's life plan was to take some time off with the family before entering back into politics and running for Mayor or another office at a better time (both for him and politically) and while he wished he could have taken that route this situation may now be presenting an opportunity that he feels he might need to jump on. We'll see. I think he'd be the most viable candidate so far, is a good faith honest person and wants to build a good city (despite being a little slow on pushing things forward and having the traditional homeowner left biases while on council) and I would support him in absence of other good options.

Penelosa lost my vote saying streetcars belong in a museum and that buses were better and not responding to people asking questions about rider experience and accessibility. I don't trust a mayor who has such a "me and my opinions are the simple solution to our problems" approach to things and who doesn't engage with meaningful criticisms of his half-thought-through-but-strongly-expressed opinions. He already seemed non-serious to me last election but was fine enough as a protest/advocacy candidate in that context and I voted for him, but I don't think he has the seriousness either in policy or around the practical and political realities of winning and running the city required for this election.

And he certainly needs to be pushed to clarify if he would work to remove streetcars or neglect the system in favour of his opinion that buses are better. I wont vote for him unless he completely walks back his previous streetcar position and pledges not only to not get rid of them but to properly invest in them. And shows he can take things seriously, meaningfully engage with others who don't agree with him and work together.

I had similar concerns seeing how he engaged with and just didn't seem to listen to HousingNow previously as well (I think it was HousingNow from my memory) and didn't respond meaningfully to criticisms on the viability of his housing "solutions". I worry he seems to avoid responding meaningfully to people criticizing his positions substantively in good faith and seems to ignore the point/dodge to another point.

 

[ShonTron]

I’m not impressed by that list one bit.

Stan Cho? The guy who got the Bradford Bypass moved away from the family golf course? If Liberals are backing that guy, I don’t know what to say.

I don’t be supporting anyone close to the Ford or Tory machines, and that includes a lot of Liberals too. Apart from possibly Layton, I’m not impressed by the left’s potential candidates either.

 

[Fresco]

Keesmaat says she wont run

 

[W. K. Lis]

If you dont like the way I drive I suggest you stay off the sidewalk

Like how they did with Avenue Road in the late 1950's?

Would like to see a mayor who will return Avenue Road back to the way it was, or better.

---

Avenue Road: Re-inventing and Pedestrianizing the Avenue​

From link.

This study proposes a re-imagining of Avenue Road to return it to its prominent role in the city’s public realm by reducing six lanes of speeding traffic to four and creating new public space. This new space would increase the area for sidewalks by 240% and accommodate 580 new trees.

Avenue Road, which was set up as a major civic boulevard in its original form, punctuated by the Queen’s Park precinct in the south to Upper Canada College in the north, lost its grandeur in the 1950s when, along with scores of other streets in Toronto, it was widened to accommodate vehicles. This intensification came at the expense of public space, verges, front gardens, sidewalks, lighting, and street addresses, but nowhere was it so destructive as it was for Avenue Road, which had been a tree-lined thoroughfare. This study suggests a reversal through tested urban design methods, precedents, visualization, research, and focused directions for action.

By reversing the lane widening of the 1950’s, this study seeks to address key issues of pedestrian safety. The widening of the vehicle lanes has left the sidewalks dangerously narrow and set immediately beside six lanes of speeding traffic. By reducing the lanes for vehicles from six to four, as with south of Queen’s Park on University Avenue, the sidewalk can regain a more generous width that will provide a safer route for the many residents and school children who use Avenue Road as a primary daily route.

The full Right of Way (ROW) width for Avenue Road is 25 metres. Currently, that is divided between six vehicle lanes (for a total width of 20 metres) and two sidewalks at 2.5 metres each. At some points, however, the sidewalks are as narrow as 1.4 metres, below the city’s guidelines.) The reduction of lanes to four, for a total width of 13.32 metres, would allow for an asymmetrical distribution of pedestrian / public space with a widened 3.5-metre sidewalk on one side, and 8.17 metres on the other. The asymmetrical arrangement is a key strategy for the study, allowing for the establishment of a significant linear park, with enough width for a double line of trees and generous sidewalks.

This new linear park is transformative at a civic scale. The Avenue Road Park could become a key linkage in the City of Toronto’s Park Ring concept of interconnected public spaces encircling the city, while also forging new potential linkages to the Greenline and strengthened connections to Ramsden Park. This new public network would also become the northern partner to University Park, the recently proposed reconstruction of University Avenue to the south, where a similar reduction in traffic lanes and shifting of the newly achieved public realm into an asymmetric arrangement, offers the opportunity to become a major civic promenade.

Avenue Road Park, at a local context, is equally transformational. The 1950s road widening created a highway where the accommodation of the vehicles is paramount, when in fact Avenue Road is a richly populated city street with main street shops, institutions, parks, schools, and residential buildings. The six car lanes created not just minimal and unsafe pedestrian sidewalks, but also a great divide between one side and the other, where a more urbane street section once existed. This new cross-street condition made in this study begins to stitch together this divide, where neighbourhoods can become reconnected, and crossing the street from one side to another does not become a dare-devilish act.

Specific sections of the Avenue Road Park study show views of the proposed linear park, the structured verge as a new landscape, detailed plans, and intersections. Special attention is paid to the crossing at Davenport Road, connections to Ramsden Park, reconnecting fragmented parks and to making new special urban places at De La Salle College, completed by Avenue Road’s historic context and urban analysis mapping series.

This study shows how a return of balance to the space for pedestrians and vehicles would revitalize a key boulevard in the city. The reduction of lanes would offer a sidewalk esplanade with a new urban tree canopy, putting the needs of pedestrian front and centre. The study documents the existing conditions of the thoroughfare, explores options for reducing lanes in favour of the public realm. It shows, block by block, the resulting transformation of the sidewalk and verge accompanied by 3D views. Archival photographs and reproductions of Goad’s mapping* show what was lost when the space for vehicles was expanded and the mapping of civic relationships and physical attributes show what can be returned.

The rediscovery of Avenue Road can be a major part of the city’s infrastructure of public space networks that will have benefits of greening, interconnection, and generosity to the pedestrian for a new generation of active citizens.

 

[concrete_and_light]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624919186433613827

Ben Spurr on Twitter:

In the hours since we published our list of potential TO mayoral candidates there have been additions and subtractions. Joe Cressy is out. Ward 9 Coun. Alejandra Bravo is mulling a bid, as are Parkdale-High Park NDP MPP Bhutila Karpoche, and former councillor Josh Colle.

I've thought that Bravo might have mayoral aspirations at some point after a term or more as a councillor, but this would certainly be an accelerated schedule. She crushed the Davenport race — would she be able to build a city-wide voting base, or run up the score in certain areas of the city enough to win? I've been thinking about how motivated and organized regional voting and get out the vote efforts might really have an impact with this race being a mayor-only byelection if some areas come out to vote and some don't.

She's my councillor and I've been looking forward to seeing her do good work in the role and for the ward. In an ideal world I think some time with her working in council would be beneficial and put her in a better position to run as well and use the experience on council to build a platform and campaign from. But the situation has developed unexpectedly fast and requires all these potential "one day" candidates for mayor to make this decision so unexpectedly soon.

Bravo's more-stridently-left-than-we're-used-to politics might seem traditionally unlikely to win in Toronto, but perhaps there's a path with bringing in a coalition of traditional progressives + disenfranchised voters, working class, service workers, who the current city isn't working for and who want to hear a new message. Bringing in new voters and also in a byelection is a challenge though, but Bravo's organization seems to have a pretty good ground game in general. However jumping up from winning in Davenport to organizing and winning city-wide is huge. But if she did run presumably it would also be with the NDP organizational establishment behind her.

But there will only be one NDP-aligned candidate in the end here which could be Karpoche (or Layton). I think Karpoche could be a very good candidate and is well positioned to run and win and also do the job well with experience in office and some public profile. I think she's a good communicator as well and could have crossover appeal.

 

[adma]

I’m not impressed by that list one bit.

Stan Cho? The guy who got the Bradford Bypass moved away from the family golf course? If Liberals are backing that guy, I don’t know what to say.

I thought a post above said that it was *Conservative* operatives eyeing him--and interestingly, Brad Bradford as well; which might be where the "Liberal backing" confusion derives...

 

[nfitz]

I'll vote for whichever candidate promises to get rid of those dreaded speed cameras

What's the benefit of eliminating speed cameras?

Josh Colle'd be an interesting choice.