When city councillors gather to debate and count votes, if you listen long enough you may just catch the meaning behind the rhetoric.
It took a while Tuesday when Toronto’s executive committee met to debate the future of the Port Lands, a key segment of the lakefront now under revitalization.
Mayor Rob Ford started out by claiming he can’t wait 25 years for waterfront revitalization; he wants it now — “now” being in 10 years — and the way to speed up things is to take the land from Waterfront Toronto and give it to the Toronto Port Lands Company (TPLC).
Waterfront Toronto was created by the city, the province and the federal government a decade ago to plan, organize and deliver waterfront revitalization from Mimico in Etobicoke to Port Union Rd. in Scarborough.
Two years ago, the city told its own agency, TPLC, to cede control of 170 hectares of city-owned portlands west of Leslie St. to Waterfront Toronto. TPLC was to limit its activity to soil remediation and managing the leasing of the lands. Waterfront Toronto was to take the lead.
So citizens waiting to speak to the committee Tuesday could barely hide their contempt for the sudden change in direction. For one, Ford has never shown the slightest interest in waterfront redevelopment in a decade on council. Whenever he spoke of it, disdain dripped from his mouth. This Damascus-road conversion was stunning for the mayor who, as a candidate for mayor, called Waterfront Toronto a “boondoggle.”
Secondly, Waterfront Toronto surprised everyone by being a great facilitator. It consulted widely. It earned the respect of citizens, urban planners and the development industry. It attracted $1.5 billion in investments, is about to enter into a $1 billion deal for the Pan Am Games site, and has spent nearly a billion dollars on soil remediation, infrastructure and planning and design and environmental assessments.
The executive committee, comprised of the mayor’s hand-picked lieutenants, ignored all that. Taking their cue from the emperor, the proxies claimed that the task of developing the waterfront is too great for Waterfront Toronto, an agency representing the three levels of government.
They disparaged Waterfront Toronto as laggards, its 25-year development plans powered by snails rather than horses. They argued the agency had no money to pay for essential flood protection, costing $634 million.
And when Waterfront Toronto told them they in fact have a financing plan in place — one that council asked for and one that Waterfront Toronto’s board would receive a day later — one of the mayor’s lieutenants chastised the agency for hurrying the plan to prove the committee wrong.
What could be the motivation? Enter the plain-talking budget chief Mike Del Grande.
The truth, he said, is he needs revenues from the sale of the Port Lands to fix holes in his budget. In essence, a money grab. But there’s more.
The administration already has developers in mind, has trumpeted ideas and proposals for development and is prepared to cannibalize current plans just to grab the cash.
“I know when I’m being taken for a ride,” said citizen Anthony Castaneda. The developers’ plans, presented Tuesday, “is a fantasy based on a backroom land grab.”
The executive swallowed it whole.
You sit through a day of debate over the future of Toronto’s waterfront and leave — again — with this impression: Our citizens can be so insightful and wise; our politicians can be so shallow and dumb.
Conclusion? Do not leave the future of our city to our city council. Too many of the councillors too often don’t know the details of an issue, fail to understand the core principles governing many policies, and are like a political weathervane that spins in the direction of the prevailing political power source.
Sadly, they cannot be trusted.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
It took a while Tuesday when Toronto’s executive committee met to debate the future of the Port Lands, a key segment of the lakefront now under revitalization.
Mayor Rob Ford started out by claiming he can’t wait 25 years for waterfront revitalization; he wants it now — “now” being in 10 years — and the way to speed up things is to take the land from Waterfront Toronto and give it to the Toronto Port Lands Company (TPLC).
Waterfront Toronto was created by the city, the province and the federal government a decade ago to plan, organize and deliver waterfront revitalization from Mimico in Etobicoke to Port Union Rd. in Scarborough.
Two years ago, the city told its own agency, TPLC, to cede control of 170 hectares of city-owned portlands west of Leslie St. to Waterfront Toronto. TPLC was to limit its activity to soil remediation and managing the leasing of the lands. Waterfront Toronto was to take the lead.
So citizens waiting to speak to the committee Tuesday could barely hide their contempt for the sudden change in direction. For one, Ford has never shown the slightest interest in waterfront redevelopment in a decade on council. Whenever he spoke of it, disdain dripped from his mouth. This Damascus-road conversion was stunning for the mayor who, as a candidate for mayor, called Waterfront Toronto a “boondoggle.”
Secondly, Waterfront Toronto surprised everyone by being a great facilitator. It consulted widely. It earned the respect of citizens, urban planners and the development industry. It attracted $1.5 billion in investments, is about to enter into a $1 billion deal for the Pan Am Games site, and has spent nearly a billion dollars on soil remediation, infrastructure and planning and design and environmental assessments.
The executive committee, comprised of the mayor’s hand-picked lieutenants, ignored all that. Taking their cue from the emperor, the proxies claimed that the task of developing the waterfront is too great for Waterfront Toronto, an agency representing the three levels of government.
They disparaged Waterfront Toronto as laggards, its 25-year development plans powered by snails rather than horses. They argued the agency had no money to pay for essential flood protection, costing $634 million.
And when Waterfront Toronto told them they in fact have a financing plan in place — one that council asked for and one that Waterfront Toronto’s board would receive a day later — one of the mayor’s lieutenants chastised the agency for hurrying the plan to prove the committee wrong.
What could be the motivation? Enter the plain-talking budget chief Mike Del Grande.
The truth, he said, is he needs revenues from the sale of the Port Lands to fix holes in his budget. In essence, a money grab. But there’s more.
The administration already has developers in mind, has trumpeted ideas and proposals for development and is prepared to cannibalize current plans just to grab the cash.
“I know when I’m being taken for a ride,” said citizen Anthony Castaneda. The developers’ plans, presented Tuesday, “is a fantasy based on a backroom land grab.”
The executive swallowed it whole.
You sit through a day of debate over the future of Toronto’s waterfront and leave — again — with this impression: Our citizens can be so insightful and wise; our politicians can be so shallow and dumb.
Conclusion? Do not leave the future of our city to our city council. Too many of the councillors too often don’t know the details of an issue, fail to understand the core principles governing many policies, and are like a political weathervane that spins in the direction of the prevailing political power source.
Sadly, they cannot be trusted.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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