[Fresh Start]

I was beginning to think I was wrong, but your ability to misquote and make up facts are Glen Beck-worthy. Thanks for redeeming my faith in your ilk, Freshy. I can almost hear your eyes starting to water in outraged love for your city.

What does anything that you quote-bubbled there have to do with me?

 

[Fresh Start]

Surely, the use of the phase "Comrade Miller" serves to discredit absolutely everything you say. Miller has never, to my knowledge, ever been a communist. Why are you trying to deceive people about this?

And calling people "trash" and "douchebag" and "buffoon" and "ignorant" doesn't discredit you? It's undeniable the socialist streak City Hall has undergone in the past eight years.

And a 39-day garbage strike? Good grief, it wasn't that bad! Compare to the 95-day strike in Windsor.

Is tourism a large sector of Windsor's economy? The City losts millions of dollars in revenue because of the strike.

 

[adma]

And calling people "trash" and "douchebag" and "buffoon" and "ignorant" doesn't discredit you? It's undeniable the socialist streak City Hall has undergone in the past eight years.

Look at it this way: Ford appeals to the kinds of Torontonians who'd look admiringly to Brantford for clearing out the kind of urban trash that Toronto's Socialist Silly Hall would cling on to dear life as "heritage"

If that's your own POV, then...

 

[GenerationW]

We see the same sort of reduction of societal complexity into personal gripes and single issue advocacy among members of the NDP. I don't think it's a left or right thing, I think it's a problem when the political discourse moves away from the centre and towards the extremes. Have you ever read the political section of NOW magazine? It reads like the Sun - it's the same sort of naive anger that's misdirected toward an implausible, simplistic enemy.

I think in recent years NOW has become even worse than the Sun in that regard. But it's hard to say no to free entertainment like that.

 

[nfitz]

And calling people "trash" and "douchebag" and "buffoon" and "ignorant" doesn't discredit you?

Miller isn't a communist. I'm not picking on Ford because of his politics, or this artificial right-left thing. Thompson seems to be even further right than Ford; I'm not convinced she has the experience for the job, and her platform has more holes than box of doughnuts ... but even she would be a far better choice than Ford.

The City losts millions of dollars in revenue because of the strike.

Not sure it was that high .. but if it was, it still saved so much money from not paying people during the strike that they dropped 1.1% of the proposed tax increase earlier this year.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The funny thing is I am not even arguing against privatization - I am pointing out the reality that see privatization as the panacea of all ills, which is how it is often represented by those on the right. For every example of cost saving, there is a counterexample of higher cost and poor services.

Privatization can be both good and bad, but at least by having another option out there to offload some of Toronto's massive budget burden on, other underfunded programs such as affordable housing, road repair and neighbourhood revitalization can take some essential services' place.

That posits those who are interested in saving money (and if it save money) are also interested in shifting any potential savings to these areas. Are they though?

One may claim that we'd be privatizing our profits as well as our loses, but give me one example of where the TTC is actually profitable... and I doubt you could find one. What are these so-called profitable aspects of the TTC? Which routes are worth more than what they cost citizens and taxpayers-- including vehicle and fuel costs, maintenance, and salaries? The way the TTC is operated today, routes can never be profitable because buses/streetcars never run on reliable schedule and meagre efforts are being made by the transit authority to proactively expand the only mode that comes close to profitability. By contrast bus service along VIVA routes is highly dependable.

Give me one example of a transit system that is profitable in a relatively low density environment regardless how they are run? And since you used the example of VIVA, what is the cost recovery ratio in comparison? In addition, comparing bus service along VIVA routes, with the extremely limited number of stops and relatively low frequency (~10 mins at peak) to what are essentially neighbourhood bus services at what, ~5 minute or less headway is like apples and oranges. TTC definitely isn't alone when it comes to schedule reliablity when it comes to high frequency routes - you'd find that in MT as well, particularly passing through areas with high traffic/stop frequency.

Bob Kinnear should've be fired for his incompetency and creating a culture of laziness and disrepect to customers on the TTC, but his union post protects him from justice. And contracting out garbage collection? Etobicoke already does this, saving the City $2 million annually

As much as I dislike Bob Kinnear and his tactics, he is under the employ of the union, not the city. His job (as much as we might dislike it) is to represent the interests of TTC workers. Just like having a lawyer for the defendant. Once again, I have to question your understanding of labour law and how things really operate.

Ford proposed offering rent subsidies to help move people waiting for a home into a private apartment building though, whereby the poor could occupy the many thousands of private units available.

You said:

He just seems to stand for the same things that I do: cancel Transit City, build more subways, fix the road network, downsize the bureaucracy, privatize some essential services, slash taxes, build more affordable housing, create job programs for disenfranchised youth, etc.

Don't shift around and tell me all these "nice things" that he had done - that is not building more affordable housing. In addition, the so call rental vacancies tend to be at the higher end of the accomdation spectrum, not exactly something subsidies would be able to help paid for - and I quote:

Rob Ford proposed offering rent subsidies to help move people waiting for a home into a private apartment building stating that there are currently forty thousand private units available, although this particular figure has been disputed by The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott. Following the debate Mr. Shapcott stated on Twitter that the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reports there are 7,962 vacant unites available, and many are in the “upper end of the rent scale.”

http://www.votetoronto2010.com/board/big-idea-hammering-home-the-need-for-affordable-housing/

And to further that argument - if you want to say that TCHC buildings can be terrible - yes, but I don't think the lower end of what private sector offers is much better. In fact, I would argue that it is universally worse - imagine what you'd get (if there is rental to be get) for what, 1/3 of your welfare income, for example? So, we are providing public money to put people in substandard housing on a temporary basis, with no gain in assets on the part of the city and actually encouraging the private sector to benefit from public largesse?

So I don't necessarily think that his trademark voting against the majority is really about dissenting against an issue raised, but in the how City Councillors propose to tackle it i.e. spendriftly, requiring hired consultants, running past deadline, offering no temporary solutions while the people affected are left to wait, etc.

Really, even considering the majority of monies actually go into paying for new units and renovation of old ones? That's spendthrift? And if you don't build, you will be offering nothing but temporary "solutions".

AoD

 

[The_Waffler]

Look at it this way: Ford appeals to the kinds of Torontonians who'd look admiringly to Brantford for clearing out the kind of urban trash that Toronto's Socialist Silly Hall would cling on to dear life as "heritage"

If that's your own POV, then...

Umm, have you ever been to Brantford? It does not benefit from the population or economy of Toronto and if these buildings were left standing, what would be done with them? You can sum Brantford up in one phrase, depressed economy, and its not like they're going to fill up with trendy, over-priced boutiques or become facades for new condo towers. It is never nice to see our past being ploughed under, but if not, then they stand and decay. Not sure which is better... but what is Toronto doing with its theatre?

Ford appeals to voters that do not share your views, which probably makes them (voters) wrong.

 

[js97]

One day, try to live "temporarily" on welfare. It's actually impossible due to the paltry amount people get. I'm amazed that any human being can live on welfare. Unless we want to increase welfare while we get rid of subsidized housing, we are going to have a lot more people living on the streets and permanently incapable of rejoining the workforce. Homes are an essential requirement for work.

speculation, rhetoric.

I've actually have had.... 6 months! Perhaps I'm just not human.
You shop at nofrills, you don't eat out, you don't eat prime/rib steak, and you don't buy 5 dollars a loaf designer multigrain bread.

It's supposed to be minimal, sustaining... It's not supposed to be a 'way of life' It's supposed to be a temporary 'bridge'.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

js97:

And when was that? How much are you paying in rent vis-a-vis where you live and what you get from welfare?

I don't think Parkdalian is suggesting that one eat prime rib or designer multigrain bread - now who's the one doling out the rhetoric?

AoD

 

[voxpopulicosmicum]

What does anything that you quote-bubbled there have to do with me?

Sorry 'bout that. I thought we were all operating on the assumption that you're his sock-puppet or vice-versa, but I guess it's possible that there are two of you. In any event, I note that this persona didn't even comment on the Pantalone-on-the-bus thing. My bad.

 

[Parkdalian]

speculation, rhetoric.

I've actually have had.... 6 months! Perhaps I'm just not human.
You shop at nofrills, you don't eat out, you don't eat prime/rib steak, and you don't buy 5 dollars a loaf designer multigrain bread.

It's supposed to be minimal, sustaining... It's not supposed to be a 'way of life' It's supposed to be a temporary 'bridge'.

Well, I know people who live on welfare and the only way they can make it work is by going to food banks. You may have been fortunate enough not to have borrowed money, but I was shocked at what some people got. Like $800 a month? My friend had cheap rent, but he was paying more than half of his welfare checks to cover it. Nevermind basic living expenses like laundry, toiletries, transportation, phone, etc. It's not a happy place to be.

 

[GraphicMatt]

I hope js97 isn't confusing EI with welfare.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Three months ago if anyone had asked me, I would've told them that I'm voting for Sarah Thomson. However, I feel as though if Toronto doesn't make a drastic enough change by shuffling up Council/Mayoralty, very little will be accomplished over the course of the next four years, residents will grow to despise their own city because it's not working for them or their community, and people will always wonder "what if?"

Trust me I did this for years after Jane Pitfield lost in '06. She promised 2 kms of new subways per year as now being copied by Rocco Rossi. People - the mainstream media really - questioned the veracity such a plan. The TTC skewed some numbers on a Macintosh that effectively outpriced and overvalued subway construction costs well beyond the industry standard or rate of inflation (see all of what Vancouver built in the period '06-'09 for just $1.9 billion or Montreal from '04-'07 for $750 million). Miller with the assist of Pantalone, Mihevc, Giambrone and Moscoe promised Torontonians the moon and the stars and people fell for it. Four years later, nothing's built, costs have ballooned and the people feel betrayed by our leaders.

Not saying Ford would be any better, but I've had my fill of Liberal/NDP local politics. I'm inclined to give someone else a try, see if they have the answers - not through well-scripted speeches, but by deeds. If Toronto truly is a democracy, a minority of hardliner left-wingers should respect the decision of a majority of vote-castors if Ford's elected. And if he's not, I won't lose any sleep over it... at least not til my house is repoed from all the outrageous taxes Smitherman probably would unleash on us.

Good Points overall. Taxes have to be low and spending has to be cut. But I do look forward the Fords plan for transit, etc. Maybe we really need to give someone else a chance for once.

 

[js97]

Well, I know people who live on welfare and the only way they can make it work is by going to food banks. You may have been fortunate enough not to have borrowed money, but I was shocked at what some people got. Like $800 a month? My friend had cheap rent, but he was paying more than half of his welfare checks to cover it. Nevermind basic living expenses like laundry, toiletries, transportation, phone, etc. It's not a happy place to be.

I agree, it's not a happy place, and I don't think it's supposed to be. That's why it should encourage people to get off it. It's supposed to be for a 'transitional' period, until you figure out the means. You literally have to penny pinch, where you don't decide what to buy, but the decision is based on the price, for everything you consume. Again, from my point, it's not supposed to be a viable lifestyle alternative. Welfare is not meant to be a permanent feeding tube.

Although I do think in this age, the government should mandate/suggest that the telecommunication companies offer a reduced rate for basic phone lines and minimun internet access for those on social assitance.

and no, it wasn't E.I.

 

[nfitz]

I agree, it's not a happy place, and I don't think it's supposed to be. That's why it should encourage people to get off it. It's supposed to be for a 'transitional' period, until you figure out the means. You literally have to penny pinch, where you don't decide what to buy, but the decision is based on the price, for everything you consume. Again, from my point, it's not supposed to be a viable lifestyle alternative. Welfare is not meant to be a permanent feeding tube.

Okay ... or short-term cases.

But what do you do with the unemployable, the mentally ill, the disabled, etc. Just slowly starve them to death?