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Morning Brew: Ford dodges football coaching questions, new Regent Park plans revealed, TTC fare hike coming, lights for deadly intersection, and finding a stolen bike
Rob Ford has responded to allegations yesterday that taxpayer-funded "special assistants" from his office help coach his football teams. In a statement, Ford called his accusers "cowards" but did not directly address the accusations. Later that day, an anti-waste taxpayer's group, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, criticized Ford. Even the The Sun, usually a dependable ally, said Ford needs to "smarten up." No love from taxpayers and The Sun? Yikes.
Developers unveiled their plans for phase three of the Regent Park revitalization yesterday. A new park, Regent Park Athletic Grounds, will add a soccer pitch and cricket ground to the neighbourhood between Sumach and River, north of Shuter. The construction project could also add more then 2,500 new homes to the area.
Looks like the TTC will increase fares in the new year. TTC chair Karen Stintz says the hike, which will likely be kept in line with inflation, hasn't been finalized. The Commission also has to hammer out the details of its proposed outsourcing of cleaning duties.
The west end intersection where cyclist Jenna Morrison was killed last November is getting traffic lights and a ban on right turns on red. The public works and infrastructure committee voted yesterday to spend $175,000 on the upgrades in the hope of making the intersection of Sterling Road and Dundas West safer.
Finally, bike thefts in Toronto usually end the same way: police reports are filed, insurance pays out (ideally), and the property is never recovered. Recently Redditor David Park spotted someone with his stolen bike and decided to confront the rider. His girlfriend caught the exchange on video.
ALSO HAPPENING:
- Jays' Romero drops 13th straight decision [CBC]
- Secrecy on trash pick-up frustrates councillors [The Star]
- Tenth victim comes forward in Annex sex assault case [The Star]
- Natural Environment Trail Strategy: Have your say [Toronto]
- What do you think should be done with Casa Loma? [National Post]
- Toronto blue box to accept clamshell containers [CBC]
Photo: "Linseed: Green Roof" by Vic Gedris in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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(I do have to say, on the other hand, that this is all rather entertaining, and I'll certainly miss the Ford circus when its gone)
Let's, for argument's sake, take him here at face value and believe that his "special assistants" truly are volunteering with his football team on their own time and not at all using any taxpayer-funded anything.
Even if this is the case, would he not clue into the fact that this could possibly present an issue for him? Wouldn't he think "You know what? These guys work for me at City Hall. Even though everything we're doing here is above board, I can see how this might look bad and I'm only inviting potential criticism and problems that I certainly don't need. Maybe I should find volunteers who aren't employed by the City of Toronto"?
He just doesn't seem to understand the importance of the appearance of accountability, let alone, ya know, actual accountability.
Each day seems to bring with it yet another example of how in over his head this guy is as Mayor of Toronto.
Deep down inside, we all know that he's the best mayor this city has ever seen.
And if being born into a multi-million dollar family business and not actually having to work more than a few hours a week (by his own admission) doesn't qualify as 'elite', never mind 'elitist', I don't know what does.
On behalf of all the 'elitists' who feel that we should have a Mayor of intelligence, integrity and vision I am sorry. We find it a bit hard to know if he is '...the best mayor this city has ever seen.' as we haven't really seen him do or accomplish much beyond near constant (and now possibly criminal) foolishness.
Let me put it this way, I'm a Leafs fan. As much as we don't like the Senators, the real and historic rivalry is with Montreal. I hate the Habs. If suddenly Montreal was embroiled in a game fixing scandal though it stops being a rivalry and brings the whole game into question and makes it look foolish. That is Rob Ford.
So it you are a Conservative, that's cool, I'm not, no biggie. If you are a Conservative though the best thing to do is cut all ties with this guy (maybe even the SUN is actually starting to) if you want your team to ever have a chance of winning anything in the next decade.
Even the criticism regarding his football activies - no one is suggesting that its a bad thing that he enjoys coaching football and really seems to care about these kids. In fact, its admirable. Hell, I wish he'd do it full-time and leave the rest of us alone. However, he's not a councillor anymore - he's the damn Mayor and its clear now that his football activities are interfering with his PRIMARY duties as Mayor of the City. Heck, it seems like everything else in his life is interfering with his duties as mayor, since he doesn't appear to do much on the Mayor front (Ford apologists claim otherwise, but given that the man refuses to release his itinerary how are we to know what he actually does?)
Not to mention, for a man who was so keen on accusing others of conflicts of interest or wasting taxpayers' money in his Councillor days, he seems blissfully oblivious to the blatant hypocrisy of his own actions.
Let's not forget, this man railed against a councillor for renting a damned bunny suit to participate in a children's parade in her Ward, but apparently sees nothing wrong with using his paid political staff to help him coach a football team. Apparently its fine to use City resources to do something for the kids, as long as he's the one doing it.
As for the conflicts of interest matter? Please - Ford is damn near the only person in the City who would have allowed his own obtuse stubborness to let this to get to the point that it did. Anyone else would have diffused this ages ago. The fact that he deliberately chose not to be informed of the actual conflict of interest rules (as opposed to his own bizarre and incorrect interpretation of those rules) and then blatantly ignored the ruling to teh Integrity Commissioner (you know, the person whose job it is to interprety to COI rules?) just makes his handling of the situation worse.
And by the way Steve, your guy, the college drop-out son of a millionaire and former MPP who has never had to work a day in his life is the very definition of "elite" - unless of course you're using the Toronto Sun definition of "elite" which apparently only requires a downtown address, a preference for Italian style coffee (which you know is also sold at Tim Hortons and Coffee Time by the way) , some level of formal education beyond high school and the ability to wear clothing that fits.
Just because Ford's an idiot doesn't mean he's not a card-carrying member of the "elite" you so routinely chastise.
But then again, why even bother explaining this. You Ford supporters seem to be as willfully blind to this man's buffoonery as he is.
As for being a pedestrian, crossing at that intersection is downright dangerous and walking to either Lansdowne or Sorauren is not an option.
Traffic in that area is only going to increase as Sterling becomes developed, so allowing more shit to happen, as you put it, isn't going to help anyone.
By the way, the way to make a proper right turn on a bike when there is a truck in front of you making a right is to stay well behind the truck and make a right after the truck does, not to the left of it.
How does that even make sense? How do you "go after" a newspaper? They aren't going after Rob Ford either, they're doing what newspapers do, which is hold politicians accountable to the public. Any Mayor of a big city will live under a microscope, why are the Fords acting like Rob should be exempt from this rule? Considering how often they lie about stuff they should be watched even more closely by the media to warn us when they try to make backroom deals and do unethical things.
This whole Football foundation thing with Ford is a perfect example of who he is. He's a very nice guy that wants to help people, but he isn't smart enough to be able to do it very well. He can handle simple concepts like running a football foundation to help disadvantaged kids. He can't handle the more complicated city-wide concepts a mayor has to deal with though, so instead he goes with the easier job of the football foundation and lets other people run the city. He just doesn't seem to understand that as a mayor he can help a lot more people, and that other people with less responsibilities can handle his football foundation for him.
I still can't believe we're stuck with him for mayor, he's just not capable of doing the job. I understand being the mayor probably sucks, you have no privacy and you're always working, but there's gotta be at least one person in this city willing to take one for the team who would be a great mayor. Especially after last election when there weren't any good candidates. We need at least one good candidate next time, Toronto desperately needs some leadership and planning.
The fact that, regardless of size, all Ontario cities have high transit fares relative to all other cities in North America certainly says something though. The funding mechanism is clearly broken.