[nfitz]

This has been an easy winter but snow is hardly a rare occasion in Toronto. The city gets 133 cm of it every year on average, more than every major city out west.

Downtown (near Bloor and Spadina) using the 1971-2000 climate normals, yes. But that's ignoring what's been happening this century. It's noticeably lower at both Pearson and Ashbridges Bay. Also if you look at the 1961-1990 climate normals, it's lower than it was. If you dig back to the 1800s you'll find a very noticeable long-term reduction in snowfall, though precipitation has been variable (not much different in the 1800s, but much lower in the first part of this century, notably the 1930s). I expect by the time we get a 2011-2040 climate normals come out, they won't be 133 cm downtown.

I don't think mandatory snow tires are necessary but I have them on my car.

I have them on too. But it's not to drive around Toronto, in particular it's to drive around rural areas, and particularly rural Quebec (where because snow tires are mandatory, I always worry they are going to stop clearing the roads as well).

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

we are living in the mafia ciy with a dictator. Chicago 1962.

 

[Hipster Duck]

we are living in the mafia ciy with a dictator. Chicago 1962.

If we are going to have a ruthless machine politician who hires people by patronage and thumbs his nose at democratic processes, I'd rather have Richard Daley than Rob Ford.

Unlike Rob Ford, Richard Daley clung to power because he had a vision for his city. Rob Ford clings to power for the sake of power. He doesn't have a vision, just some nonsense "respect for taxpayers" - as if cutting taxes was an ends, not a means.

 

[adma]

Well, if Toronto's to be a tinpot dictatorship, might as well revive the notion of a potential assassination attempt on Rob Ford. I mean, if I told ya once, I told ya a million times: who cares if it's "un-Canadian", under a mayor like Ford, there's no limit to the depths of abject whatever possible...

(NB: that's by way of prediction/anticipation, not by way of advocacy)

 

[hawc]

I'll give him credit for it. So the complete list of positive things that Ford has done are:

- Preventing a strike
- Graffiti Blitz

Good job Mr. Ford!

- Make TTC essential service
- Privatize half of city garbage collection
- Got rid of hugely unpopular vehicle tax
- Got rid of Jarvis bike lanes

So far city has not fallen apart...

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

If we are going to have a ruthless machine politician who hires people by patronage and thumbs his nose at democratic processes, I'd rather have Richard Daley than Rob Ford.

Unlike Rob Ford, Richard Daley clung to power because he had a vision for his city. Rob Ford clings to power for the sake of power. He doesn't have a vision, just some nonsense "respect for taxpayers" - as if cutting taxes was an ends, not a means.

Exactly, this is a clown show of the highest proportions. He cant even dictate right.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

- Make TTC essential service
- Privatize half of city garbage collection
- Got rid of hugely unpopular vehicle tax
- Got rid of Jarvis bike lanes

So far city has not fallen apart...

Toronto wants subways but wants someone else to pay for them.

 

[Johnny Au]

[sarcasm]
Congratulations Rob Ford on lowering the average IQ of Torontonians!
[/sarcasm]

Toronto's 2 Big Brothers are running the city like Airstrip One.

 

[gristle]

- Make TTC essential service
- Privatize half of city garbage collection
- Got rid of hugely unpopular vehicle tax
- Got rid of Jarvis bike lanes

So far city has not fallen apart...

No, the city hasn't fallen apart, but the city is more than a deficient mayor.

As for his laughable list of supposed achievements:

-As an essential service, TTC negotiations can end up in the hands of an arbitrator who can impose a settlement. The city could have no say, and that settlement may not necessarily be in the best financial interests of the city.
-The jury is out on the effects of the very long-term garbage contract that has been signed.
-Getting rid of the vehicle registration fee merely means a larger property tax increase.
-As for getting rid of a bike lane on Jarvis, wow, what an immense achievement. Canceling a bike lane in a city that already has an incredibly poor record of building bike lanes.

Don't forget about the impending multi-million dollar contract penalties for the cancellation of the Sheppard LRT, or the monumental waste of time following his illegitimate "cancellation" of Transit City. Those are huge benefits to the people and a success for the transit-hating fat-ass Ford brothers.

Yeah, the guy is a huge bonus to the city. Like a bomb.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

- Make TTC essential service
- Privatize half of city garbage collection
- Got rid of hugely unpopular vehicle tax
- Got rid of Jarvis bike lanes

So far city has not fallen apart...

No, but it's a harsher and less pleasant place to live in now to a small degree -

* Make TTC essential service: Me personally, I agree. How about Paramedics now?
* Garbage privatization west of Yonge: hundreds of people who had good paying jobs with excellent benefits are now out of a job, or working at a considerably lower wage for "for profit" companies where the owners line their pockets with wads of money.
* Got rid of hugely unpopular vehicle tax: all taxes (include the Land Transfer tax here) are unpopular but we need them to keep the machine called Toronto running. Hundreds of millions are gone, or going, from the city coffers
* Got rid of Jarvis bike lanes: wow, how very progressive. How many bike lanes are there downtown now that cause such mass disruption of traffic? Not many. This is the Rosedale/mid-town crowd's quick escape home, up Jarvis & Mt. Pleasant and they scream the loudest so they get their highway back. Well done.

Not much to give Ford credit for IMO.

 

[adma]

Yeah, the guy is a huge bonus to the city. Like a bomb.

Yeah, but bombs is good. That's why WWII came as a boon to redevelopment-obsessed modernist urban planners...

 

[nfitz]

Yeah, but bombs is good. That's why WWII came as a boon to redevelopment-obsessed modernist urban planners...

Have you seen the crap they filled the bombed out areas in England in the 1960s? Much of it is pretty ugly.

Go visit Coventry city centre - one of the cities that Germany firebombed.

 

[ttk77]

How many more councillors need to be swayed before they can move to take away the powers given to him by the City of Toronto act?

I can't figure out if he's doing this purely out of spite (bad) or if he truly believes that what he's doing is in the best interest of the city (worse). In either case, IMO, council can't act quickly enough to shut him out of every decision making process they can.

 

[jn_12]

How many more councillors need to be swayed before they can move to take away the powers given to him by the City of Toronto act?

Why would you want to do this?

 

[ttk77]

Why would you want to do this?

Because he's proven himself completely incapable of running this city. In the absence of a mayor who can produce consensus and work for the good of the city, council must take control. Without a powerful executive at the mayor's back and the ability to appoint committee members, this becomes much easier.