Toronto Mayor Rob Ford shuts down transit debate

Mayor Rob Ford shut down the Sheppard Ave. transit debate Wednesday night to stop council from voting for light rail and then fled into an elevator to escape reporters’ questions.

The bizarre scene, described as “scattered and desperate” by centrist councillor Josh Colle, included Ford failing to delay the vote until April 4 — a bid that triggered mayhem on the council floor. The council meeting resumes Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

Ford allies denying routine permission to let last night’s meeting run past 8 p.m. also apparently prevented another spectacle — a mayor who rode to victory pledging to “end the war on the car,” publicly supporting creation of a $100-per-spot tax on commercial parking spots to fund subway building.

Council’s centre and left members who support LRT on Sheppard were fuming after Ford bolted down a hall into an elevator, a press aide blocking reporters scrambling behind.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc. “People were witness to a filibuster that was shameless,” and will backfire, he said.

Scarborough Councillor Glenn de Baeremaeker called the 13.5-hour delay “a very desperate tactic by a very desperate man. The mayor saw defeat just minutes away and just said ‘Let me escape.’”

Karen Stintz: the great right hope

How the TTC chair went from being one of David Miller's leading adversaries to the most vocal proponent of his Transit City legacy.

No one at City Hall in early 2009 would have believed you if you’d told them that Karen Stintz would one day be leading the charge to preserve David Miller’s legacy.

 

Back then, she was known as “the unofficial leader of the opposition” and was considered a leading candidate to run against Miller for mayor. This week, when she led a revolt to torpedo Rob Ford’s transit plan, Stintz once again became the unofficial leader of the opposition, at least for the time being.

Stintz’s career has been both fascinating and frustrating to watch since she arrived at City Hall in 2003. A civil servant with master’s degrees in journalism and public administration, she answered an ad in the paper placed by a group of Ward 16 residents looking to unseat a long-serving councillor.

Rob Ford’s political death wish

Could this be the week the city actually rolls back the last 16 months of minority rule and returns to the broad Toronto  consensus of the last 40 years?

Events of the last couple of weeks, and this one in particular – council’s transit rebellion and the triumph of CUPE 416 in the court of public opinion – have made it clear that the majority of residents are looking for responsible and progressive government, not a right-wing revolution.

What seems to be reasserting itself is that characteristic Toronto mix of fiscal conservatism and social progressivism. In this model, the one we know best, budgets are balanced and, slowly, progressive changes are enacted. At the same time, taxes are kept low, the lowest in the GTA, and debt levels remain below those of most mid-sized and large Canadian and U.S. cities.

Fast-forward to this week. Media observers seem to assume the settlement with CUPE 416 is a Rob Ford victory. It is certainly not a loss. But CUPE 416 and its president, Mark Ferguson, can clearly be credited with an excellent strategy that insures they will remain critical players in city decisions and grassroots politics.

While we don’t know all the terms yet, some job security for employees appears to have been negotiated, and despite all the mayor’s team’s invective about overpaid workers, CUPE members, according to reports, appear to have achieved yearly increases of around 1.5 per cent a year and more or less maintained their benefits.

Special transit meeting: Council rejects Mayor Rob Ford’s proposal to postpone

Council has rejected Mayor Rob Ford’s attempt to defer the transit vote for a month.

In a last-ditch bid to stave off a likely defeat, Ford proposed an expert panel to study the issue and report back to council. But many councillors said they already had sufficient information, and council voted 24-19 against the proposal.

The final vote on TTC chair Karen Stintz’s proposal is still to come, but the first vote is an ominous sign for Ford. He has not been seen in the council chamber since.

Earlier, Stintz offered a goodwill gesture to Ford, even though his allies had already suggested they would probably reject her plan if it was put to a vote.

The special meeting was called to provide Metrolinx with clarity on how Toronto wants to spend $8.4 billion in provincial transit funding.

Ford wants a subway on Sheppard and wants the Eglinton LRT to run underground from Black Creek Dr. to Kennedy Station. It would come above-ground in only a couple of spots, including at the Don Valley.

Stintz wants to return to a plan that would see above-ground LRT on Eglinton between Kennedy and Laird Dr., and street-level tracks on Sheppard and Finch.

But, in an olive branch to the mayor, she has amended her proposal slightly to defer a decision on Sheppard to an outside panel of experts to recommend the mode of transit best suited to that corridor.

TTC chair Karen Stintz moves to bury Mayor Rob Ford’s subway

Mayor Rob Ford’s victory in avoiding a strike by city outside workers could be short-lived as a group of 24 city councillors moves to effectively bury the mayor’s vision of underground transit.

If they are successful, Toronto would return to a 2009 light rail transit plan, and it will be clear that Ford’s unwillingness to compromise is seriously hampering his ability to move his agenda forward.

TTC chair Karen Stintz plans to present a petition to the city clerk on Monday morning asking for a special council meeting on Wednesday. The petition is signed by 24 councillors, which constitutes a majority which in turn requires the clerk to schedule a meeting. Under city bylaws that meeting must be held within 48 hours.

Councillors at the special meeting will be asked to confirm a 2009 memorandum of agreement (MOA) for a light rail plan forged during former mayor David Miller’s administration. It is signed by the city, TTC and Metrolinx and runs out March 31.

That agreement calls for LRTs on Eglinton, Sheppard East and Finch West, and effectively scuttles Ford’s vision of tunneling the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT east of Laird Dr. to Kennedy station.

Checking Rob Ford’s polling: Do Scarborough residents want a subway?

The people of Scarborough told Rob Ford they wanted subways last weekend.

That’s what the mayor told media on Monday, responding to the recent campaign to revive an above-ground option for transit on Eglinton Ave.

“I was out in Scarborough over the weekend; people came up to me and said they want subways. That’s it,” he said.

Ford’s answer represents the same kind of anecdotal polling used in his other surveys — like the time he was facing criticism during the core service review and noted that wherever he went, “nine out of 10” people were telling him: “Rob, stay the course.”

The numbers are nearly impossible to check since his worship doesn’t make his schedule public and the media can’t tag along to these places of nearly unilateral support and uniform opinion.

Until now.

Since it’s public knowledge that Ford was at the Eglinton Square mall this past weekend for a “community walk” in his bid to lose weight, the rare chance to check in on Rob Ford’s polling sample presented itself.

Mayor Rob Ford goes on the offensive for his transit plan

One day after Mayor Rob Ford’s allies on the TTC board blocked a report on the potential pitfalls of his plan to tunnel the entire Eglinton LRT, Ford himself went on the offensive to dismiss alternatives to his vision.

“I campaigned on building subways and I stand behind that commitment 100 per cent, because it is the right thing to do,” Ford said at an outdoor rush-hour news conference at Eglinton and Victoria Park Aves. “Putting trains down the middle of congested, jammed-up streets like the one behind us is not the answer. It is wrong.”

Tuesday’s vote was a bruising defeat for TTC chair Karen Stintz, who supports running part of the LRT above-ground and using the $2 billion saved for other transit projects. When asked whether Stintz should stay on as TTC chair, Ford said “the commission spoke loud and clear in how they voted.”

TIMELINE: HOW TORONTO’S TRANSIT MESS UNFOLDED

Stintz repeated Wednesday that she has no plans to resign. She’s looking forward to steering the TTC’s customer service initiatives and new performance standards, she said. But she stressed that the Eglinton issues need a public debate.

On Wednesday, Ford was flanked by supportive councillors Michelle Berardinetti, Gary Crawford, Mike Del Grande and Norm Kelly. Seven of 10 city councillors from Scarborough have signed a letter supporting Ford’s plan to bury the LRT.

Mayor Rob Ford had no authority to cancel Transit City, lawyers say

A report by a respected Toronto law firm says Mayor Rob Ford exceeded his legal authority when he cancelled Transit City without city council approval.

Councillor Joe Mihevc, who solicited the legal opinion, will release it publicly on Monday.

It says the mayor had no business entering into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the province that authorized a new transit plan, including a Sheppard subway and a longer tunnel on the Eglinton light rail line. It says he further overstepped his powers when he told TTC chief general manager Gary Webster to stop work on Transit City.

Since the mayor had no legal authority to enter into the memorandum of understanding, it shouldn’t be acted upon until council approves it, say the lawyers. Until that happens, it is only an agreement in principle.

Mihevc is calling on the mayor and city manager to bring the transit issue before council immediately.

The lawyers’ report comes as a battle is brewing between the mayor’s office and city councillors from across the political spectrum, including Ford allies John Parker and TTC chair Karen Stintz. They disagree with the transit plan the mayor committed to with the province.

Transit City Code Red

If the Code Blue T.O. campaign saved Toronto’s waterfront, can Code Red (coderedto.com) rescue Transit City from oblivion?

That’s the hope behind a burgeoning movement spearheaded by some of the same folks who did in Doug Ford’s port lands fantasy. That battle dealt the mayor his most dramatic council defeat to date, and transit activists now hope to stage a repeat.

“It would be amazing to emulate the success of Code Blue,” says Laurence Lui, a transportation planner and one of a core of urban experts who set the Blue campaign in motion. Now he’s working to kick-start, Code Red, a movement to resurrect Transit City.

The mayor has promised to ditch Transit City’s multiple light rail lines and replace them with a Sheppard subway and an underground Eglinton Crosstown LRT, both of which are prohibitively expensive and would serve fewer people than David Miller’s extensive light rail network.

“We need to put a halt to this unnecessary, unaffordable and irresponsible transportation plan by Mayor Ford,” says Lui.

Come back, Transit City, all is forgiven

Holy crap, it’s been an insanely enraging week (or month, or year) of news from the world of Toronto transit. Right now, as I type this, apparently 70 people are lined up to speak to the TTC commissioners about the proposed 10-cent fare hike. But really the increase—around the rate of inflation, thanks to TTC Chair Karen Stintz’s refusal to consider a 15-cent fare increase—is the least of a transit users’ worries.

First, the very recent news:

Earlier this week, Gordon Chong, the man hand-picked by the mayor to figure out how to give us a private-sector financed subway extension on Sheppard Avenue, told the Globe and Mail that there is no way the private sector will pay for more than 10 to 30 per cent of the cost of construction, and that to find out if we can even get that much from them, we’ll need to spend another $10 million over the next year.

Then yesterday, TTC General Manager Gary Webster told city council’s budget committee that the city will be on the hook for at least $65 million in costs simply to cancel Transit City. That was higher than the numbers previously cited, and it is mysteriously not included in the TTC capital budget currently under debate. The really troubling question about that $65 million (or more—the number has not been finalized) is that city council has never, ever authorized spending it, or agreed to spend it. City council has still never had a vote on replacing Transit City with the Ford subway scheme—the provincial agency Metrolinx has changed plans based simply on the mayor’s expressed desire, and Metrolinx and the mayor cooked up a memorandum of understanding about the change that says the province will have no additional costs related to the change and that the city will cover any sunk costs Metrolinx has already incurred related to building the original plan. The meter is still running on those costs, but so far they total $65 million.

Transit City cancellation to cost $65M

Cancelling Transit City in favour of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's subway-focused plan will cost $65 million, TTC general manager Gary Webster says.

The Toronto Transit Commission's chief used the figure — which is $16 million more than the previous number cited — during the city's budget committee meeting on Tuesday.

Bruce McCuaig, CEO of the regional transportation agency Metrolinx, said in March the city would be liable for about $49 million in penalties, but said that number was likely to rise.

The province announced earlier this year that the province would support an Eglinton light rail line underground, effectively killing former mayor David Miller's Transit City plan.

When he took office last December, Ford said he would scrap Transit City because it would run at street-level and obstruct traffic.

Toronto Transit City Cancellation To Cost $65M

Cancelling Transit City in favour of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's subway-focused plan will cost $65 million, TTC general manager Gary Webster says.

The Toronto Transit Commission's chief used the figure � which is $16 million more than the previous number cited � during the city's budget committee meeting on Tuesday.

Bruce McCuaig, CEO of the regional transportation agency Metrolinx, said in March the city would be liable for about $49 million in penalties, but said that number was likely to rise.

The province announced earlier this year that the province would support an Eglinton light rail line underground, effectively killing former mayor David Miller's Transit City plan.

When he took office last December, Ford said he would scrap Transit City because it would run at street-level and obstruct traffic.

Coun. Adam Vaughan, a frequent Ford critic, said he didn't understand the mayor's thinking, especially given the 2012 spending cuts that council has been debating.

"We turn around to the children and say, 'Sorry, you're not going to get rec programs, you're not going to get a breakfast program, the library won't be open necessarily when you go to use it,' " he said. "And yet the mayor's priority is to spend $65 million on a handshake with no input from any staff or any of the other councillors. $65 million? Just to cancel stuff?"

Council Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, countered that Torontonians want subways and the cancellation fees are worth the cost.

One change in the mayor's plan replaces a $950-million light rail extension on Sheppard that would have been built eastward from Don Mills station with a subway extension pegged at $4.2 billion.

Origin
Source: Huff 

Federal transit cash linked to Transit City, not subway, McGuinty says

Premier Dalton McGuinty has responded coolly to a request from Mayor Rob Ford for quick help funding the Sheppard Ave. subway expansion, a project that was supposed to proceed without provincial assistance under the March transit agreement that killed the Transit City plan.

McGuinty said Ford asked him to speedily provide some of the money - up to $650 million that the province agreed to direct toward Sheppard if it had leftover funds from the $8.2 billion Eglinton Ave. light rail project it is responsible for.

“We'll take a look at the request. I think I've got a slightly different take on the $650 million,” McGuinty said after the meeting in his Queen's Park office, which lasted more than 50 minutes. “The memorandum of understanding that we entered into provides that we could make up to $650 million available once we have determined what our costs are associated with the Eglinton line. And it's pretty hard to make that determination at this point in time.”

Scrapping Transit City 'short sighted': Miller

Former Toronto Mayor David Miller says the repeal of his Transit City light rail plan is "remarkably short sighted" and "sad."

Miller made the remarks in an interview with CBC's Metro Morning on Wednesday one day after he was appointed the Future of Cities Global Fellow by the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, which is based in Brooklyn. He said his role there will be to help engineers understand their solutions to urban issues mesh with the public policy context in which they are operating.

Miller also broke from his self-imposed silence on Toronto political issues since leaving office late last year, and was blunt in his assessment of the decision to strike down the Transit City light rail plan, which envisioned a system of light rail lines crossing the city.

"That's one decision that I think is so remarkably short sighted," he said.

"The people know it. All the polls show across Toronto people understand that to take a transit plan that took 30 years to develop, that was ready to go, that had its environmental assessments done, that literally started construction in one place is not only sad, it's not very smart either."

Full Article
Source: CBC news