Premier McGuinty has created a new energy-related super-ministry for George Smitherman who has been our Minister of Health. I think McGuinty would make Smitherman Minister of Everything if he could. Some are saying this is setting the stage for a mayoralty bid for Smitherman. In my opionion, Smitherman would make an excellent mayor, and I've written here before that I would fully support him if he made that move.
We have some of the biggest potholes you can imagine in the Toronto area right now. Where is the worst of them? I would say, St. Clair Ave, driving east near Gunn's Loop, by the old stockyards. It is getting seriously dangerous to drive a car through there. Another bad stretch is along Eglinton Ave. in Mississauga between Renforth and Dixie, driving east, in the right-hand lane. There are some big and remarkably deep potholes through there. There has been some active patching along Eglinton, but the St. Clair stretch has simply been deteriorating over the past couple years with what seems like no effort at all to patch them up. I presume the idea is not not sink any money into the street until the tracks get ripped up for the TTC right-of-way. It is very difficult for the city staff to be on top of these potholes when we have so much snow, but I think it is reasonable to expect some basic maintenance when the weather allows.
Speaking of weather, I hear we may get another snowstorm on Sunday or Monday. Swell. We've already broken records for February snowfall here, and I've just about run out of places to put the stuff. Usually during or just after the storm, I hear an interview on the radio with some character from the city telling us that the main streets get priority but that all the side streets would be cleared within 24 hours. Har! That's a good one. On our street, which is a one-way residential street with street parking and speedbumps and no room to pile snow, the best we can hope for is a plow that takes just enough off the top that it's possible to carefully get through the snow. Residents pile their snow on the street, because there isn't any other place to put it.
The video is Potholes in my Lawn, by de la Soul.
A trustee of the Catholic School Board in our area, Christine Nunziata, has been fired for missing 4 Board meetings in a row. She was also all over the papers a week earlier, after her lavish and inappropriate spending habits with public funds were revealed. I wonder if she would have been fired for absenteeism if she wasn't caught in the spending scandal? Apparently, she is now in hospital. I know nothing of her medical issues, but I hope she recovers soon. Missing four meetings is a lot for a trustee, for whatever reason. Her spending, as reported in our daily papers, appears to be altogether inappropriate. I expect our local politicians to set the bar high for themselves!
Speaking of spending scandals, a Toronto City staffer named Tim Ivanyshyn was fired without cause very recently. Interestingly, he was the bureaucrat responsible for vetting the expenses of our City Councillors, expenses which have in some cases been shown to be very high indeed. Mr. Ivanyshyn has 28 years experience at his job. We don't know why he was released. He isn't commenting. I think we deserve to know why he is gone.
I've said before that I'm not impressed with our City government. I've made some comments on this blog in the past that have been critical of our Mayor, Mr. Miller; however, let me say that I'm no more impressed with most of the Councillors running the place, nor with the previous few Toronto mayors.
The other night the news on TV featured a story about the St. Clair Ave. TTC right-of-way. Regular readers have heard me rant about this before. It seems the city has failed to coordinate construction contracts, meaning that once the work along St. Clair is done, they're going to tear up parts of the streets and sidewalks again to eliminate lead water lines. The businesses along Corso Italia are taking a bath. According to this article, "the situation is dramatic, with some store owners closing shop and others suffering a 25-30% reduction in their business." The cost of the project has apparently escalated from $32 million to $100 million.
I'd like to urge Toronto residents to make a point to visit Corso Italia shops and restaurants and give these folks your business!
I was over at The Presurfer this morning, and discovered that the Mayor of Centerton Arkansas was abducted by Satan worshippers 30 years ago. He did the right thing and resigned.
Now, here in Toronto, Mayor Miller has been involved with some pretty strange activities, such as the recent narrowing of Lansdowne Ave. I wonder....
Before Mayor Miller proposed tax increases, it wasn't so obvious that the city was facing a budget crunch. After all, plans were afoot to spend millions beautifying City Hall (and the Mayor's office), construction was well under way to create a St. Clair Ave. TTC right-of-way (a plan many residents oppose), and construction was under way to narrow Lansdowne Ave (another controversial plan - whatever prompted that silly idea....including the now aborted plan to chop down 35 year old trees?).... So now the city faces cut-backs in service, library closures on Sundays, community centre closures on Mondays. As near as I can tell though, the St. Clair and Lansdowne projects are still under way. The City Hall project has apparently been shelved.
Royson James, from the Toronto Star: "We've just gone through a civic election where little of this was contemplated or debated. Every year, the city budget has progressed in a manner designed to create insomnia and lead to the impression that there will always be a saviour and a bailout, so don't worry.
And now – boom!"
I think it's time we pay a lot more attention to what the mayor and our city councillors are up to.
Is the Toronto Sun being petty examining how our city councillors are spending their office budgets? Since the Mayor was not successful in his immediate bid to hike taxes and is now looking at budget cuts, it's fair game to look at how our elected officials are spending our money. Sure the rag is being sensationalist as usual, but our councillors should be open and accountable when spending our dough. In fact, a healthy and public audit is not a bad idea.
The papers are full of City Hall scare tactics. They can't have their tax hikes, so now there is talk of shutting down the Shepherd subway line - big TTC cuts. Big cuts everywhere.
Breathe deeply. Calm Blue Ocean Calm Blue Ocean Calm Blue Ocean.
Be reasonable, Mr. Miller.
If our tax money is being spent appropriately, and we don't have enough to maintain good services, I don't have an issue with new or additional taxes. Before I hear about them though, I want to hear how the local politicians are spending our money more wisely. I haven't heard that. I have heard a lot about about a TTC right of way on St. Clair and I have heard a lot about whacking down old trees and narrowing Lansdowne, both with large price tags.
I suspect Mr. Miller was re-elected due to lack of viable opponents. I don't recall him telling us during the last campaign that he was going to raise taxes. I was involved with the last election, and I don't think I would have missed such a statement. Suddenly, we're in trouble, we have a huge short-fall, there are no options.... How much did the Mayor's new office cost again?
Forgive my cynicism.
Update
I just watched the news on Global. Hundreds of people went down to City Hall today, filling the Council chambers, including standing room, in what I can only call a tax revolt.
Bill Carroll, in his commentary, suggested that Torontonians will have a long memory about this, and predicted, "Miller is finished in Toronto". They will be debating until late tonight before the vote, but Mr. Carroll believes it will pass because Councillors know there are three long years for people to forget before the next election.
We see very low interest in municipal politics in Toronto, but if you don't find out about the candidates and what they stand for, and if you don't vote, we have to suffer bad Councillors.
wait, wait....Tuffy just called me - she says they've decided to defer the tax hikes until after the Ontario elections in the fall....this by one vote.
A group of about 25 residents are suing the city of Toronto over the narrowing of Lansdowne Ave. I drove past there this evening. You can see where they started cutting down the mature, 35 year old trees. Residents have taped signs to the trees: why do I have to die? Residents are upset because of the refusal of Giamrone and Council to properly consult. City Council apparently took a vote on whether or not to consult, and the no side narrowly won the vote.
City crew start cutting down 12 trees
As part of their plan to narrow Lansdowne Ave, removing parking from one side of the street, City works started cutting down a dozen trees along Landsdowne Ave. here in Toronto.
Resident Ken Wood is prepared to go to jail to save the trees. I heard a report on CITY TV this afternoon. The city has suggested the trees are sick, and that they are creating an unstable land area. Councillor Giambrone suggested that sometimes you have to lose a few trees to support a green project in which there will be hundreds of new ones. Interestingly, Mr. Wood supports the project to narrow Lansdowne, reduce the traffic flow and make it more pedestrian friendly, but he objects to the surprise tree-cutting.
Consultation with the residents of this stretch of Lansdowne has to start, finally, before the city cuts down another tree. The determination to avoid consultation with residents is shocking and unacceptable.
Let me say that if I cut down the tree in my front yard, you can bet the city would be at my house same day to fine me for it. The same rules apply.
In my view, Miller and Giambrone and the rest of the gang at City Hall need to concentrate on improving public transit, and not worry so much about narrowing roads and creating traffic snarls in the city. Stop putting the cart before the horse.
Check out Chris Hume's article about the demolition of the Walnut St. buildings and the plight of other heritage properties in Toronto.
This jumped out at me: "Though they may seem completely unrelated, a similar act of vandalism occurred when Mayor David Miller and his "cabinet" approved a deal that will hand over the sidewalks and their public furniture to Astral Media for the next 20 years, a deal that council is expected to approve today. Though the design of the street furniture is inferior and Astral Media operates illegal billboards throughout the city, Miller couldn't say no to the $20 million Astral will pay the city annually."
I knew nothing of this plan, but it needs plenty of discussion. What do you think?
Timmer made an important post on his blog about a plan to narrow Lansdowne Ave here in Toronto, taking out a parking lane. I guess messing with St. Clair wasn't enough for some of our city politicians. When I drove down to my music class on College St. there were big yellow signs on just about every lawn on Lansdowne between Bloore and College demanding that Councillor Giambroni back off on his plan to narrow the street.
The people are talking. Mr. Giambroni, are you listening?
Market Squeeze Play
Check out this article in NOW magazine about the city's bylaw enforcement officers cracking down on storefronts in Kensington Market encroaching on sidewalk space without a permit. Torontonians who know Kensington know that encroaching on sidewalk space is de rigeur.
Is this the beginning of the end of Kensington? I'm sure there are plenty of developers out there who would love to be able to trash the old market buildings and put up condos.
There otta-be-a-law.....no bylaw enforcement officers in Kensington Market.
The city has amalgamated licensing offices as of the end of March, which meant that I had to go to the East York Civic Centre at Coxwell and Mortimer to get my busking permit. No matter what your license-related business, you have to stand at the end of a long line. I was in it for close to two hours. Finally, I got to the counter. I handed the lady my application. What is this for? Busking? Busking like how? Busking like playing a button accordion. OK. Do you have a business license. No. OK. She typed for a minute, handed me my application and said, sit down, we'll call you. Sat down for 15 minutes until my name was called. Mister Anchovy, why are you here. To get a busking permit. Busking like how? Busking like playing a button accordion. OK, go to cubicle 6 around the corner. I stand at cubicle 6 for a minute or so. So what do you do? I play a button accordion. Please write that on the application form. OK. You know it's $34.00. Yes. I take out my wallet. No, sir, you don't pay here? I don't. No you have a seat at the cashier's waiting area. It will only be a few minutes. I wait and after a few minutes I get called. It's $34.00. OK. She hands my my permit. I want to clarify a couple of the restrictions. I'm sorry sir, cashiers don't have that kind of information. No? No. You'll have to stand in line at the front. You should have asked your questions the first time. I'll take my chances that I don't do anything wrong. I can give you our call-centre number. We have 3 people who answer the phones. OK. Have a nice day.
Early this morning, I heard a radio talk show host ramble on about how bad our green bin program is in Toronto. For those who live elsewhere, we have a program in place to separate organic waste away from the landfill using green bins. The guy was complaining how much they smelled for the most part.
We use the green bin as extensively as we can. We don't have any significant problem with smell. When the bin is closed, it doesn't smell. It gets picked up once each week. We've heard people say it is a problem because animals get in. Once, a raccoon knocked ours over, but left after it coundn't get in.
It took a week or so to get in the habit of separating. Now we separate organic waste and recylable waste from garbage, and it is just no big deal to do it. The problem Toronto has is not with recycling; it's with figuring out what to do with what is left, since the Keele Valley landfill closed. In my mind, driving it to Michigan was crazy. Now we've bought a landfill site only a couple hours away - better, but still too far. Ideally, we should be dealing with Toronto trash close to Toronto, not exporting it elsewhere.
I've heard plenty of politicians talk about burning trash, but I'm not convinced they have any idea even what the process entails. Some communities around Toronto burn garbage. Has anybody measured emissions? Let's get the science on the table. If it poisons the atmosphere, let's close the door on it now, and if it doesn't, we need to do some serious analysis.
Should we have a new landfill site in the Toronto area? The challenge is that nobody wants it in their backyard. At the same time, people are buying new homes built on the very edge of the Keele Valley site.
What do you think of the green bin program?
Do you separate organics and recyclable material in your community?
How does your city deal with garbage?
