City
Morning Brew: Igor Kenk Spared, All Things TTC and Adam Giambrone, Tweeting the Mayoral Race, PanAm Games CEO Named, Pizza Olympics
Photo: "golden eye ducks landing in mist" by louise@toronto, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Igor Kenk must have enjoyed his time away from the Don Jail yesterday as he got not only some time out from behind bars but the assault charges against him were stayed by the judge, effectively concluding his court appearance schedule. Perhaps a fitting end to a story that started with fireworks - near endless bike seizures - and has been slowly fizzling (run of the mill plea bargain). No doubt when Kenk is released from jail his life will be dramatically different. When and how he lands on his feet - and I predict he will - could be another interesting chapter.
Will it be the City of Brotherly Love to the rescue? In the TTC's attempt to take its proverbial foot out of its mouth, officials are looking at Philadelphia's transit system - and major customer service improvements that agency has implemented - for help. Any help is welcome in my book.
Speaking of the TTC, Mayor Miller is standing by his man. He endorsed Adam Giambrone as the right man to helm the TTC at this time. That's a position not everybody agrees with, and Giorgio Mammoliti is suggesting this is an issue for the ethics committee. We're only talking about the next 8 months or so as the next mayor will undoubtedly select somebody not-named-Giambrone as TTC chair. Could a new chair really accomplish much more than Giambrone the rest of this term?
And speaking of Adam Giambrone, now a report has surfaced that he won't even run for his council seat, which would end (for the time being, anyway), his municipal political career. Giambrone's inevitable return to the public eye, and what he'll do over the next 8 months - and beyond - are sure to be hot topics.
And back to the TTC for a second. Unlike just about any other city service, the much-maligned transit agency (under the chairmanship of the much-maligned Giambrone) broke even in 2009.
Tweeting Toronto: Twitterers who care about Toronto and its mayoral race convened in the Annex to Tweet their ideal mayoral traits. As "candidates" spent 4:16 minutes making their case the audience Tweeted reactions and commentary. Is anybody not on Twitter listening?
On the eve of a decidedly higher-profile sporting event kicking off, Ian Troop (a business executive) has been named CEO of Toronto's 2015 PanAm Games. He's got a career's worth of experience in consumer packaged goods and a $1.4 billion budget. Good luck, Ian!
What better way to celebrate the Olympic opening ceremonies than with Amy Pataki's pizza olympics gold medal winner? After anointing a Junction legend as gold-worthy, I, sadly, found my favourite slice in the city - King Slice - doesn't hold its own in delivery (which, also sadly, I've seen borne out in my experience, too).
And my public service for the day: still looking for a Valentine's treat? Maybe start here.
Discussion
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the Giambrone matter all day yesterday--like ants at
a picnic. They were relentless in their working this
story to death because they have such a hate-on for
liberalism and anything progressive.
Jack Russell terriers, once they've got hold of something,
won't let it go--at least not without a big fight.
It's a pity that so many people are taking really hurtful
shots at a person in such a serious situation. Small wonder
he left the country for a few days.
First Giambrone gets exposed for the cheating scum that he is. Then he drops out of the Mayoral Race. Now it's almost guaranteed that the next Mayor of Toronto will dump his useless butt as soon as the election is done (if he doesn't resign earlier, like he should). And lastly, we hear that he won't run again for City Councillor!
I can honestly say now, Mission Accomplished!! Good Riddance Giam-phoney. Your ueslessness couldn't last forever, could it?
You can fool some people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time!
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
PS: And Miller continues to show that he's full of crap! He "stands by his man" by making statements that Giambrone's a great leader because he's succeeding, and then in the same statement, he says that the TTC has never had so many problems??? He truly is an idiot. The worst Mayor Toronto has every had.. And every single Torontonian is counting the days until he'll disappear into the same Oblivion where Giambrone is headed... They're both meant for each other! True "partners" if you will.. ;)
Hmm?
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
Giambrone will bounce back. Torontonians aren't a scandalous lot - we don't normally air out dirty laundry. The TTC's problems go deeper than just its leadership.
LJ, I find that not clicking on links is a good way to avoid them.
<blockquote>I've made it my goal to rid us of Giambrone "the useless"</blockquote>
Wow, get a life.
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
PS: RBeezy, I would take Mayor Mel over Miller anyday!
now i know what kind of coke you're referring to in your url.
The city is hanging on a precipice, folks. Ottawa is already openly considering hacking billions off the transfer payments to the Provinces and Ontario (didnt' we just sign a multi-billion dollar contract to give away high-priced energy contracts to some foreign consortium?) is also in the poor farm.
The next Mayor, whomever the poor sap might be, will not be able to go hat in hand to Queens Park anymore. Miller has already tapped that one out. We are in for a very, very rough ride over the next decade.
Performance issues obviously aren't an issue when it comes to the TTC, and his extra curricular activies, while giving insights into the man, aren't reason enough to get rid of him.
BTW: I'm all for adding a filter to get rid of links in comments.
Moderating would most useful if BlogTo has the staffing for it.
This guy was touted as some kind of tech-savvy boy wonder, but he doesn't have the sense to know that his text messages to whatshername might get saved and come back to haunt him? Really? My 70 year old father who still thinks a blackberry is only a fruit would know better than that.
And just because you ride the TTC to work and are "enthusiastic" about it, doesn't make you an effective TTC Chair. Yes, many of the problems pre-date his tenure, but how can you argue that he's made things better? What exactly are his accomplishments as Chair? St. Clair streetcar line? Good idea, terrible execution. TTC online ride guide? MyTTC.ca is a vastly superior product that took a fraction of the time to get out of there without the bugs. Fare increase? Handled so well that they had to stop selling tokens to prevent hoarding and then started issuing tickets that were good for 2 months. Smart Cards? Apparently waiting for the "right" technology even those this technology has been in use in major cities around the world for years now, and even the suburbs have caught on to Smart Cards. Staff relations? Handled so well there was a wildcat strike, staff morale is in the toilet and the animosity between riders and operators is worse than its ever been.
Yep, a heck of a legacy there. If he was the left's standardbearer, no wonder they're nervous about this election.
The only reason I didn't mention disclosing the info about the fare increase is because I think it amounted to telling someone a piece of information which I'm sure they already knew (like... "Guess what? The sun will rise tomorrow.") That said, the fact that he mentioned (IF that can be proven) would suggest someone who plays fast and loose with confidential information. ... Just so we're clear, my main reason for getting rid of him is that his credibility is shot (shot not because of his sexuality/randiness but because of the deceitful and manipulative character he has revealed himself to be).
I received Jerrold's request and will comply.
You can all rest assured that I'm investigating my errors, and am now putting into place the processes and procedures to ensure that it doesn't happen again.. (to quote our infamous politicians).
Cheers.
--jackandcokewithalime
I still think someone new will emerge on the left. It can't possibly be Pantalone carrying that whole side of the spectrum.
Is this incredibly hilarious to anyone else
These provincial Libs have broken every promise and driven a great province into a "have-not". I realize we had a recession but the slide started well before. Can we trust Smitherman and his deep ties to McGuinty's spendthrift trough-feeders with our city?
I don't understand people who are enjoying this. Anger and frustration YES, but having fun? Must have no life.
http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/09/the_ttc_metropass_mess/
I'd love to meet this piece of shit, preferably with a baseball bat in a back alley.
Drug dealer, bike thief, and overall turd: why is he allowed to remain in Canada? Deport this thieving ass back to Slovenia!
We've seen no evidence of either.
it's like the "news" that councillar denzil minnan wong thinks that this is a reason giambrone should resign. what a stunner. political hay-making. has there been a day since giambrone was made the head of the ttc that wong didn't think he should resign?
And I still stand by the statement that Miller is the worst Mayor we've ever had in Toronto! Ask around, I'm not the only one who feels that way...
--jackandcokewithalime
PS: And by the way, Lastman didn't saddle up with a "partner" for "politidal reasons", like Giambrone did, Ok. Giambrone's entire life is a lie. An entire next level of deception.
this is a distraction. i'm comfortable saying i'm no a fan of giambrone. but if the rest of this municipal campaign is fought on personal-scandal-digging and scapegoating the current state of toronto either on miller and his leadership, or harris and the downloading, I predict a very sad and unproductive 4 years. let's see some actual vision.
Maybe it's just too complicated for you..
It's ok. You're still cool.
--jackandcokewithalime
like someone else said, get a life. better yet, get a job.
Check this YT link out and see if you don't agree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXtduNC2cfw
Kenk can have his Canadian citizenship revoked, assuming we have a judge with the balls to do it.
Canada doesn't need imported turds like Kenk floating around our country... we have enough shit here as it is.
--jackandcokewithalime