Long time lurker, first time poster, and emailer to the Exec Committee
Hello everybody. I've lurked here for a long time, mostly to read a lot of the Metro Man files, like many others. I wanted to post the letter I sent to the Exec Committee. If you haven't sent one, do. It's important.
As for the people looking to organize a rally, it's a laudable thing and I wish you luck. The one caveat I'll lay down from a bit of organizing in the past -- FB & Twitter and BBoards is not enough. It's not a replacement for a good old fashioned boots on the ground phone tree. Buying a Robocall and building a list of names and phone numbers, and having them go into RL is far more effective. 100 people who each commit to phoning, confirming, and bringing out ten people each is a much better way to get to 1000 than FB messages and likes. Remember how many people show up to FB "events." Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the many great contributions here from many of you. It has been a pleasure to read, for those times away from Toronto where I wondered if the whole city was going insane and buying into this crap.
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Here's the letter I just sent to the members of the City of Toronto Executive Committee:
To the Members of the Executive Committee,
I write to you today as a resident and taxpayer of the City of Toronto, but a taxpayer and resident who's had a very different experience over the last year.
Due to circumstances of my self-employment, I have found myself traveling widely through North America in the last year. I am currently working a job in Vancouver. I spent a couple of months in Los Angeles. I also drove across North America to get home this summer, with visits to places like Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit and Denver.
I write not as a travelogue -- but as a picture of a Torontonian who's had a chance to view our city from the perspective of others these last several months.
We've become a joke. Everywhere I've gone, in coffee shops, in the offices of my coworkers, in banks and travel agents and conversations with hotel clerks and concierges, I've been asked about our Mayor and our current civic drama. The questions break down to three: 1) How is he still mayor? 2) Why don't the members of the civic government take a stand against him? 3) Is Toronto really that backward a place?
I've been asked versions of these questions while waiting for a beautiful LRT in Salt Lake City, that extensively serves the whole downtown with fast, economical, and affordable service. I've been asked these questions while waiting for my car to be washed, by a man who proudly told me how and why he was voting for Mayor Garcetti -- "He knows how a modern city should work" was the answer. I've been asked that question by a guy at a deli in suburban Detroit who wondered if Mayor Ford was going to wind up like Kwame Kilpatrick.
The hit that Toronto's reputation has taken in the last several months has been sad to witness, and even sadder from so far away. I marvel at the fact that when I return I find streets clogged with more traffic, a subway that is perpetually in Rush Hour, where telephone poles boast of memorial after memorial for cyclists killed trying to get from A to B. And through it all there seems that there is no will to act, no brief, no outrage that will rouse our civic leaders to bridge the gaps and work together in the way our civic system is designed. Shame on you for that. You all bear that stain, though it has been our Chief Magistrate's ultimate legacy.
It is stunning to think that a city that once was home to Jane Jacobs, that sports Richard Florida and so many other smart thinkers about how to forge a modern urban future, is saddled with the sideshow antics and local government paralysis as embodied in the sideshow of our cross-addicted, narcissistic, selfish and divisive mayor.
Though I currently reside downtown, I grew up in Etobicoke, not far from Mayor Ford. I was originally from the US and in my travels there I've seen hollowed out downtowns and the havoc that played with local governance. Toronto has been able to escape many of the paroxysms of decay and decrepitude that sank many urban areas in the US. People live and work downtown, and more commute there, and the result is a vibrant, multicultural, mixed-density and mixed economic city that we love.
We are being ridiculed and reduced in each and every place I've seen over these last six months. It is affecting the image of Toronto as a place to visit, and a place to do business. I'm fielding questions from people who wonder if it's safe to visit, and if there's any point investing there. I've heard from other expats who are selling their properties because they fear what will happen to the city's economy.
But mostly, I'm being asked about will.
How is there the will to allow this continue?
You are the symbol of us, of us all -- of our hopes, our dreams, our business. You represent the entire city.
There is a moral dimension to this for which each of you are responsible. Rob Ford is clearly a man in trouble. He is being enabled by those around him -- including you. It is time to take a stand. It is time to demand that he resign. And if he will not, then it is time to stand up for what is right, whatever your political stripe, and refuse to serve on his executive committee. Toronto deserves better. And any pragmatism you may have about your own careers is secondary at this point to the needs of millions of Torontonians who are being hurt by a man who puts his own ego above the good of the city. SARS harmed our economy for years. Rob Ford has made himself a virus; his lies, weaknesses and tantrums infect the entire body politic, and if you do not act, the fallout will be as great as it was with SARS. But this time, your names will be tied to it. We will not forget.
Rob Ford has shown contempt for our institutions. He has lied repeatedly, shown terrible judgement in his choice of companions, vouched for criminals. He is unfit to serve. And if you serve with him, his tainted Mayoralty will be your legacy as well.
Stand up for the people of Toronto.
It is time for the sideshow to end, and for you to get back to the task of repairing our shattered civic reputation. Demand his resignation. If he will not step aside, then you must. To continue to serve along side him is to say what he is doing is okay. I couldn't live with myself if I were in your shoes and I did nothing. What will each of you do?
Sincerely,
etc.
