[SlickFranky]

I'm picturing the chamber packed with jocks following-up every Ford proclamation with an emphatic "woof! woof! woof! woof!"

I pictured the exact same thing...but I added foam-domes, giant #1 Fingers and lawn chairs. Not sure why (in my brain) they aren't just using the chairs provided. Something about downtown elitist seating or something probably.

 

[Irishmonk]

To steer this thread back on to Mayor Ford's Toronto -- of which the conversation about clean streets is perfectly legitimate, but not the only issue -- besides cleaner streets, what else can we expect Toronto to look like in the next 4 years?

- Will some of our festivals die from lack of funding and/or city support?

- Will cycling culture receive a death blow now that it is unlikely that bike lanes will continue to sprout like in the Miller years? What's going to happen to existing bike lanes?

- Will the Waterfront wave decks and bridges continue to be built? Will the Queens Queen West8/DTAH project go ahead?

Discuss and pose other questions...

I'm sure His Worship would love to see the end of Pride Week, and, who knows, maybe that's part of Ford's Hidden Agenda. However, I think the larger festivals will be able to survive with corporate sponsorship and grants from the senior governments. Many of the smaller festivals, however, could be in danger.

Waterfront development is something I'm worried about. Ford has voiced his contempt for waterfront spending on many occasions and his voting record backs up those sentiments. There could be a temporary suspension of work when the new budget comes down but eventually Waterfront Toronto will adjust to the new regime and continue their work but in smaller, slower increments. (They do, after all, still have money from the senior governments and Pan Am game commitments) The Queen's Quay revamp will almost certainly be an early casualty since it's expensive and eliminates 2 traffic lanes.

As far as city building in general, it's going to be an almost endless succession of cancelled plans and "gravy train over" bleatings, unless council develops a backbone and decides not to kill every single thing Our Dear Mayor-King voices his displeasure about.

 

[TrickyRicky]

In a way I think a lot of people here need to accept how and why Ford won. Accept it so that you can use the knowledge for your own ends. Accept it so you can bring into your fold all the people that you think you are better than. Here are some thoughts I had which you might consider:

1) The election was not won on the basis of policy. Elections are not won on policy, certainly not in our political system, even though you may think this is the case.
2) Although policy is the end result of government, government and leadership is chosen by people on the basis of assumptions of character
3) Assumptions of character are determined by the unconscious mind. People do not use logic or reason to determine how they feel about character
4) People have very different characters precisely because there are many behavioural strategies you can employ to be successful in life
5) People with different characters and life strategies are just that, different, not better or worst than you

So, I've set this up for a kick-ass sarcastic reply, but instead of thinking of Ford as a big fat jack-ass (which we all know already), why not consider what positive attributes he tapped into in the unconscious minds of countless people. Attributes you yourself could employ to forward the causes you care about in the realm of policy and reason. Realms where you yourself clearly feel superiority over others, as each one of us does.

 

[adma]

To be fair, while Ford's reaching out to his supporters, he isn't disinviting, let alone blocking, non-supporters. (Yet.)

It may be interesting to see what kinds of supporter-vs-opponent confrontations there might be, in the long term...hippies vs hard-hats, that sort of thing...

 

[SimonP]

Council just voted to kill the car tax, which wasn't a big surprise. All three mayoral candidates opposed it. The vote was 39 to 6. More notable was the vote on Vaughan's motion that no services be cut as a result of the lost revenue, which the Ford team voted down.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Reduction of councillor expense counts passed too. Interesting group who opposed it:

Frank Di Giorgio, John Filion, Pam McConnell, Ron Moeser, Gord Perks

These are the people who clearly have no intention to ever seek higher office.

 

[allabootmatt]

And surely the TTC essential service designation will pass by a similarly wide margin tomorrow. Ford will be able to congratulate himself. But it gets much, much harder from here. He managed to put the three most palatable initiatives into one Council meeting, and I imagine they drop right off after that.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Essential Service is going to be harder because it's an irreversible change. And the only argument for it seems to be "Come on, the TTC *is* essential!"

Also allow me to throw out a crazy prediction based on little but half a hunch: Josh Matlow will be Mayor of Toronto one day.

 

[spider]

A question for all the anti-Ford people who comforted themselves in the aftermath of his win with the certainty that this buffoon couldn't possibly assemble enough support among the body of councillors who were obviously so much brighter and better intended than he.
What happened?

 

[GraphicMatt]

What happened is that he's only put forward agenda items no one really feels all that strongly about. Even Pantalone was going to kill the car tax.

 

[SimonP]

Very few councillors spent anywhere close to the limit, so cutting expenses to $30,000 doesn't affect much.

Because of rapid back-to-work legislation, essential service designation for the TTC is also pretty meaningless.

 

[ShonTron]

Reduction of councillor expense counts passed too. Interesting group who opposed it:

Frank Di Giorgio, John Filion, Pam McConnell, Ron Moeser, Gord Perks

That's a strange list, a mix of mushy council4lifers and a couple of lefties. I thought Perks would have voted for the reduction myself, but I'm one of many left-of-centre voters disappointed by this guy.

 

[adma]

Reduction of councillor expense counts passed too. Interesting group who opposed it:

Frank Di Giorgio, John Filion, Pam McConnell, Ron Moeser, Gord Perks

These are the people who clearly have no intention to ever seek higher office.

Dunno--in Perks' case, especially (and he's the youngest/most likely of the bunch), I can picture a Moscoe-esque "value for money" argument...

 

[ShonTron]

The "essential service" motion passed tonight.

While I understand the arguments for - particularly a bone-headed, stubborn and self-destructive union management who show no concern for the customers who keep the TTC going; and the necessity that people have on transit to get to work and other important commitments; the status quo, a quick strike followed by swift back-to-work legislation kind of works.

But who is essential? Bus and subway drivers I would imagine, and then station collectors, but mechanics, cleaners? Good luck keeping the system running!

I hope to move within biking distance of work by the time ATU 113 pulls a "work-to-rule" under an essential work status - that won't be very fun for anyone.

 

[GraphicMatt]

The real motivation behind the Essential Service thing has to be, I think, the political security it brings. Now our politicians are free to be tough-on-unions without actually having to do the important work of negotiating and settling contracts.

Either way, I'm not overly bothered by it. It'll be interesting to see what the province does with it as they ignored council's earlier request to designate WheelTrans an essential service.

Big takeaway: The totally unsurprising roster of the Mayor's spineless followers. These are the dudes who in 2008 voted against designating the TTC an essential service and yet, today, two years later, voted for it. They are:

Holyday, Cho, Di Giorgio, Kelly, Mammoliti