[TheTigerMaster]

I've lived most of my life in Scarborough and Ford's little extension to Scarborough Town Centre does little to nothing for the majority of the residents of Scarborough whereas the proposed LRT line (especially if it's extended to Malvern) reaches more of Scarborough and does a much better job of eliminating the lengthy bus rides you describe above. At the same time, neither the LRT plan nor the subway do a single thing for the people of southeast Scarborough trying to use transit to get downtown but only one is likely to hurt the chances for future solutions. The waste of an extra 500 million to 1 billion dollars on the subway option significantly reduces the chances of an extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT further along Eglinton East that would actually help the residents of southeast Scarborough get downtown faster and easier.

LRT is not a second rate technology and it is not streetcars. Many world-class cities (like Paris, Berlin & Boston) have LRT lines and so they are not an insult to Scarborough and they don't make Scarborough second class.

On the length of your journey from Middlefield/McNicoll to Union, I don't think I've ever tried it from around there but the Google maps directions for that trip suggest that in rush hour it takes about 1 hour and 16 minutes and going down to Kennedy Station isn't one of the suggested routes. The fastest is to take the 42 bus along McNicoll all the way to Finch Station and then straight down to Union from there which doesn't seem like that difficult a journey.

This is absolutely disgraceful. It's too bad that the mayor and councillors are more concerned with scoring political points (yea, Subways FTW!!! Scarborough rules!!), than actually building proper transit. The first candidate in 2014 who promises to raise the heck out of my taxes to build a proper transit network will have my vote.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

If there were ranked ballots in next year's election (actually, ranked ballots may come in 2018), I would vote Chow first, then Stintz second, then Tory third, then Ford fourth.

Ranked ballots wont be in 2014. Apparently it's too early for them to work out the details.

 

[Johnny Au]

Ranked ballots wont be in 2014. Apparently it's too early for them to work out the details.

I know, right. I meant as a hypothetical scenario.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ranked ballots wont be in 2014. Apparently it's too early for them to work out the details.

Seeing how long it will take the PRESTO card to be implemented across the TTC, instead of only a select stations, its no surprise it would take so long to get ranked balloting.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

The first candidate in 2014 who promises to raise the heck out of my taxes to build a proper transit network will have my vote.

I had lunch with a friend who lives in Pickering on Friday. He is planning on moving to Don Mills (for various reasons) but one pretty important reason for him was that he would 1/2 his property taxes by moving to Toronto. I said, no way, it's not that much -- but he had run the numbers as part of the plan to move, and it was around a 50% drop for the same house value. Wow.

 

[inyyz]

Jinx!

Ha! shhhh

 

[Peepers]

I had lunch with a friend who lives in Pickering on Friday. He is planning on moving to Don Mills (for various reasons) but one pretty important reason for him was that he would 1/2 his property taxes by moving to Toronto. I said, no way, it's not that much -- but he had run the numbers as part of the plan to move, and it was around a 50% drop for the same house value. Wow.

I suspect for the same house value you can get twice the house in Pickering compared to parts of Toronto.

 

[Michael62]

My property taxes in Vaughan with 5500 sq ft house on 3/4 acre wooded lot sold for $750000 were much less than my 1500 sq ft $750000 condo in downtown Toronto.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I suspect for the same house value you can get twice the house in Pickering compared to parts of Toronto.

Depends on how you define "twice the house".

If it's by square footage, absolutely.

But if you're measuring by access to transit, access to amenities, public services, retail (etc...), any house in Pickering wouldn't come close to matching a house less than half its size in Toronto.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that a medium sized condo in Downtown Toronto is 10x the home any McMansion in Pickering can ever hope to be. A home extends far beyond the box you sleep in.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I had lunch with a friend who lives in Pickering on Friday. He is planning on moving to Don Mills (for various reasons) but one pretty important reason for him was that he would 1/2 his property taxes by moving to Toronto. I said, no way, it's not that much -- but he had run the numbers as part of the plan to move, and it was around a 50% drop for the same house value. Wow.

Taxes are just half the equation. We also get an incredible amount of services for those taxes. It's the best possible combination.

I really hope that polls like this are an indication of what kind of candidate will win in 2014. A tax increase of a few points (potentially among other tools), would be inconsequential to most people. And the benefit of the new taxes to build more infrastructure would surely outweigh the downside.

 

[TOvp]

I had lunch with a friend who lives in Pickering...he would 1/2 his property taxes by moving to Toronto.

My investment property in Pickering is worth roughly $400k, taxes $4k p/a. A quick glance of Don Mills resales backs up Riverdale Rink Rat's friend, bearing in mind that the same amount of cash still tends to more house and property in Pickering.

But transit wise, you get what you pay for. It's still faster to walk, bike or drive if you're trying to get somewhere in Pickering other than the GO train.

 

[adma]

Take note that polls like these are fairly useless as the mayoral race will likely not be a head-to-head race. However, it's useful in that it proves that Ford's bedrock support remains at around 33%, and he needs only 40% to win, which can easily occur if vote splitting occurs (i.e. Tory and Chow). Organizers, take note.

But note something else: neither Tory nor Chow have, at this moment, an active campaign going. At this point, they're just names being offered by a polling agency.

OTOH Ford's not just the incumbent w/the requisite "incumbent advantage", but practically by his own admission even, he's already campaigning for 2014. And yet...he's still down in the polls.

With that in mind, don't be surprised if, once viable opponents have active campaigns going, even that seemingly impermeable 33% Ford bedrock starts crumbling to the point that he's a goner vs even a multiply split opposition...

 

[christiesplits]

But note something else: neither Tory nor Chow have, at this moment, an active campaign going. At this point, they're just names being offered by a polling agency.

I think its even more remarkable that Karen Stintz is this competitive, for the reason you mention but also due to the fact that her name recognition isn't nearly as strong as Tory or Chow. I'm sure Chow is happy to see a lot of potential candidates coming out from the centre-right. As MM said, she will likely be the flag bearer for the Left with little competition within her ideological camp.

It is important to note that the Liberal Party usually has atleast one or more standard bearers. In 2003 Liberal support was split between Hall and Nunziata, in 2010 support was split between Rossi and Thomson. It is highly unlikely that the Liberals would put their support behind a former PC leader, an NDP MP or a North Toronto right-of-centre councillor who is palsy with Hudak. Which makes me think Shelley Carroll, a card carrying Liberal, would be their most obvious choice.

 

[nfitz]

My property taxes in Vaughan with 5500 sq ft house on 3/4 acre wooded lot sold for $750000 were much less than my 1500 sq ft $750000 condo in downtown Toronto.

That can't be, even though Vaughan taxes are lower than many 905 communities. The combined 2013 Municipal/York taxes in Vaughan are 0.6849% compared to 0.5338% in Toronto. (both cities are also subjected to the 0.212% education portion that goes to the province).

Either your assessed values are not both $750,000, or your only looking at the Town of Vaughan portion and not including the Region of York portion.

For the record, the 2013 municipal/regional tax rate in Pickering are shockingly high at 1.109% - more than double the municipal tax rate in Toronto. Which must be shocking for houses that are very close to each other in Rouge Hill/Rosebank.

 

[Silence&Motion]

I think its even more remarkable that Karen Stintz is this competitive, for the reason you mention but also due to the fact that her name recognition isn't nearly as strong as Tory or Chow. I'm sure Chow is happy to see a lot of potential candidates coming out from the centre-right. As MM said, she will likely be the flag bearer for the Left with little competition within her ideological camp.

It is important to note that the Liberal Party usually has atleast one or more standard bearers. In 2003 Liberal support was split between Hall and Nunziata, in 2010 support was split between Rossi and Thomson. It is highly unlikely that the Liberals would put their support behind a former PC leader, an NDP MP or a North Toronto right-of-centre councillor who is palsy with Hudak. Which makes me think Shelley Carroll, a card carrying Liberal, would be their most obvious choice.

I don't understand your claim that Rossi and Thomson split the Liberals in 2010. What happened to Smitherman? Was Thomson even a Liberal back then? I thought she was being billed as a Conservative with the support of Conrad Black. In reality, neither Rossi nor Thomson lasted until election day. The actual Liberal vote was split between Ford and Smitherman (Kouvalis claims that his internal polling showed a lot of provincial Liberal supporters leaning toward Ford, so the Liberal Party's "get out the vote" campaign actually delivered voters to Ford).

Anyway, all this fear about vote-splitting is overblown in my opinion. Ford won in 2010 because he was actually a very good candidate against a slate of duds almost all fighting over the same anti-Miller message. Seriously, can anyone actually remember what Smitherman, Rossi, and Thomson stood for, other than basically claiming to be less-scary versions of Ford? All three of them seemed to expect that people were mad enough at Miller, but unwilling to vote for Ford, so they should win by default.