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Morning Brew: Rob Ford's road repair issues continue, TTC won't subsidize Eglinton LRT, an olympic parade, talking a Casa Loma museum, and a DeLorean sighting

Posted by Chris Bateman / September 21, 2012

toronto union stationRob Ford's controversy du jour - the expediting of road repairs outside his family's business in time for a 50th anniversary celebration - continues to rumble on. According to The Globe and Mail, the mayor met with city staff at Deco Labels and Tags on Greensboro Drive and his office at city hall to push for the unscheduled repairs. The Star speaks to locals who have had calls for road repairs fall on deaf ears.

Let the war of words begin. Toronto Transit Commission chair Karen Stintz told Metrolinx yesterday that the TTC will not subsidize the operating costs of the new Eglinton LRT now the provincial transit agency has decided to seek an independent operator for the line. Stintz's remarks came after Ontario Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli said Metrolinx and the TTC were discussing sharing the costs. Expect this one to run on.

In related news. The Star is discussing the effect of having two separate operators might work in Toronto. Bottom line, the humble TTC token could be headed for the deadpool.

Toronto officially welcomes home Canada's olympians with a short parade today. The event starts at 11:30 on Bay Street north of Queen and will head south to Maple Leaf Square by the ACC via Wellington Street and York Street for 12:15. The TTC (them again!) is offering a special $5 half-day pass for between 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Could Casa Loma make a comeback as a museum? The city is currently seeking an operator for the historic mansion after it was reclaimed from the Kiwanis Club in 2011. In an open letter published in the National Post, councillors Josh Matlow and Joe Mihevc say repurposing the property would create "a new cultural institution that will protect and share our city's heritage."

Finally, speculation is flying on Reddit over a Back to the Future-style DeLorean spotted with a film crew near the Church of the Holy Trinity behind Old City Hall. Is it Back to the Future 4? Kick Ass 2? Robocop? Something else? All we know is it looks functional and there's no sign of the Doc.

But before you go, here's a slightly unnerving 1985 advert for Snuggle Bear laundry detergent from Retrontario. There's something off about the way that bear's mouth moves...

ALSO HAPPENING:

Photo: "Union" by Ben Roffelsen in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Discussion

17 Comments

JLankford / September 21, 2012 at 08:51 am
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Looking forward to a decade of fighting over transit funds, and eventually filling up more holes without any progress. Toronto sure knows how to screw up transit projects like no other city.
Ben / September 21, 2012 at 09:13 am
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Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown was a scientist and a Ph.D, but he was no professor.
Chris Bateman replying to a comment from Ben / September 21, 2012 at 09:18 am
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Touché, sir.
Adam / September 21, 2012 at 09:28 am
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ONE POINT TWENTY-ONE GIGAWATTS?!

(just getting it out of the way)
Alex / September 21, 2012 at 09:28 am
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I thought the whole point of getting a new operator was that the TTC was not involved, so why would they be expected to subsidize that line? I don't understand how this is an issue in the first place. The city or province will just pay the subsidy to that line, I don't understand why the TTC would be involved in that at all.
Justin Flontek / September 21, 2012 at 10:00 am
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Rob Ford is a joke!

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=rob+ford+nazi&;hl=en&sa=X&biw=883&bih=770&tbs=isz:m&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnso&tbnid=NgsmqekOlkxu4M:&imgrefurl=http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2012/07/whats-toronto-jewish-community-thinking.html&;docid=NZ9ktYhOQOeYgM&imgurl=http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ford-neo-nazi.jpg%253Fw%253D620&;w=620&h=465&ei=bnJcUOruF-6B0AHHqYGoDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=267&vpy=177&dur=324&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=143&ty=105&sig=112693001152032238975&page=1&tbnh=122&tbnw=163&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:75
Taylor / September 21, 2012 at 10:10 am
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Well, Snuggle Bear made my Friday.
Picard102 replying to a comment from JLankford / September 21, 2012 at 10:51 am
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When it comes to Ellington, the province holds the distinction of being the screw up here.
iSkyscraper / September 21, 2012 at 12:36 pm
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I'm not paying much attention to the TTC infighting, as we all know how this is going to end. I can only think of three major metropolitan transit networks in North America where the core part of it is independent and still owned by the city as if it is 1945. Toronto is one of them - I'll let you guess the other two. (And we are talking big multimodal cities here, not Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary...)

In the end, the regional agency takes over and runs the show for the whole commuting catchment area, which is how it should be. The TTC will, like GO, ferries, the suburban systems and toll roads, eventually become an agency of Metrolinx. There is no other possible outcome in 2012.
Alex replying to a comment from iSkyscraper / September 21, 2012 at 01:57 pm
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Why? GO and TTC are completely different, it doesn't make any sense for them to be run by the same agency. Similarly with the ferries. Generally when you make a public organization like that bigger, you make it worse (see Megacity, Ajax/Pickering Transit, Durham Region Transit, etc.). I shudder to think of the suburban systems ever merging with the TTC. If you think the TTC is a bad transit system just try getting around a suburban area on their transit for one day, you will definitely appreciate the TTC a LOT more after that.
iSkyscraper / September 21, 2012 at 02:26 pm
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Alex, you seem to have missed my point. You need to visit/live in other big cities to understand how this would work.
Alex replying to a comment from iSkyscraper / September 21, 2012 at 03:03 pm
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Toronto isn't those cities though, it's Toronto. The solution to our problems can't always be "let's do what they did". Especially since most major cities get a lot more transit funding than we do.

You didn't actually say how that would be better either. GO and YRT already use Presto, and soon TTC will too. TTC and YRT already work together to run combined routes. TTC, MiWay(Mississauga), YRT, and Brampton already work together to provide the GTA Weekly pass. There's no point to making Metrolinx larger (which would cost a lot more money) when these agencies have already shown they can communicate and work together.
iSkyscraper / September 21, 2012 at 03:21 pm
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"Toronto isn't those cities though, it's Toronto" is an absolutely terrible argument. That kind of thinking leads to fewer bike lanes, a underutilized waterfront, idiotic street furniture, Mayor Rob Ford, etc. Toronto has a serious problem with not learning from other cities, probably because it spent decades teaching them how to do things right and got a tad complacent. Yes, any solution should be tailored to fit and not everything will work, but you can't go around with your head in the sand ignoring broad trends in successful cities.

SEPTA, MTA, MBTA, RTA, WMATA, LAMTA, TriMet, TransLink etc. all have lessons, good and bad, to learn from for how to structure the future Metrolinx-TTC relationship. (For example, the TTC will certainly continue to exist and focus on what it does now, but under Metrolinx authority and Metrolinx budget and Metrolinx capital planning). It's going to happen, so best to learn from other cities how to do it right.
CanoeDave / September 21, 2012 at 03:59 pm
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As always Perks has only one perspective that being if a proposal means fewer members for his public sector allies it is automatically a bad idea. But this is a great opportunity for Toronto if Stintz gets her way. If the rider pays the same fare but the Province is responsible for most of the subsidy it takes most of the cost off Toronto's books. It is the equivalent of a Provincial Transit subsidy the City has been demanding for years. It had better be part of the deal that Toronto should also be getting rid of the hassle of hiring and dealing with more ATU employees. The new lines will have unionized employees but they don't have to be ATU and they will be negotiating with a private employer from scratch so you can be sure there will be no Jobs for Lifers and a defined contribution pension plan so another big liability is off Toronto’s. An added advantage is that once the new operator is in place if things are going well it makes it easier for Metrolinx to take over more lines and save more money just like privatizing Garbage collection. It all comes down to who pays how much of the subsidy and Toronto should not be held liable for a provincially made private deal.
_n / September 22, 2012 at 10:05 am
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Welp. Time to get a bike.
Picard102 replying to a comment from iSkyscraper / September 22, 2012 at 12:59 pm
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Ya, it's always good to have a big faceless group run a regions transit and have no accountability to the people.
realityCheck / September 24, 2012 at 01:23 pm
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@Iskyscraper... sorry but you are confusing/conflating inter-regional transit with inter-municipal transit. The GTA has had a history of GO (now Metrolinx) operating regional transit. The GTA is a REGION. TTC is/operating inter-city (ie within the CITY of Toronto) transit. The proposed LRT lines do not qualify as inter-regional transit by any stretch of the imagination. They will strictly be serving people looking to get from one part of Toronto (the City) to another part of Toronto (the City). Balkanizing municipal-level transit operations makes no sense from a fiscal or operational point of view. Privatizing non-core cleaning services, which the TTC wants to do, will likely save some moneyh. It also might make sense for the private sector to be building the LRT lines... since the TTC has a poor record in building anything. BUT once built, it makes no sense to bring in a private firm to operate lines when the TTC's mandate is municipal-level transit. What Metrolinx is ignoring are the coordination challenges this suggestion would pose. It is also ignoring the costs related to the support/infrastructure that needs to be in place for routes to run. It is one thing to spread out those costs over transit in an entire city. But it is very costly to spread them out over just three LRT lines. This suggestion is insanity... especially given the lack of oversight that the province exercized over ORNGE, the privatized air ambulance service.

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