Why You Should Never Take Kate Carraway to IKEA
Subway Suicide Statistics Released
Polling Booth: "Kick a Ginger" Controversy
Newsstand: November 27, 2009
When the feds handed out $37 million for improving security on transit systems nationwide yesterday, Go Transit received $5.3 million, $4.3 million went to Union Station, but the TTC received only $1.46 Million, just shy of the $17 million it asked for. "It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee,'" said Howard Moscoe, distractedly pushing a rusty shopping cart full of discount surveillance cameras.
Meanwhile, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty greeted David Miller's bright-eyed demand for a portion of the T-Dot's federal and provincial tax haul with a yawn.
A man is in a coma after being pepper-sprayed by transit cops.
The busy eye centre at Scarborough Hospital has been following an outbreak of toxic anterior segment syndrome, which can cause nasty complications following surgery.
The Hershey's chocolate warning alert level has been upgraded to almond, repeat, almond.
You might want to put those coal-plant-closing party plans on the backburner (or maybe just take them outside to bake in the sun). The Ontario Power Authority suggests 2014 would be a much more comfortable closing deadline than the McGuinty government's wacky 2007-2009. "But they're calling us fossils!" environmentalists insist.
Photo by Trevor Haldenby in the Torontoist photo pool.
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"It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"
Wow. First of all, how unsurprised am I to hear Moscoe use the euphemism 'bum'. Secondly, a "bum", or "Street person" would be someone down on their luck, without a job, someone suffering from poverty. The TTC is poor because NO ONE RUNNING IT KNOWS WHAT IN THE HELL THEY'RE DOING.
So, to use Mr. Moscoe's analogy, perhaps the Fed's will give the TTC some money when they think it isn't being run by "a bum".
Thank you. I was hoping someone would notice that.
I think the staff at the TTC know what they're doing. I'm sure Moscoe, after years on the Commission, knows what he's doing. It's just the usual politics; nobody had the brass ones to say to Queen's Park and Ottawa, "thanks for the subway help. Actually, we'd rather have more buses and operating cash, and oh yeah. Some freakin' LRT's would be nice, thank you very much." But really? That little? We're the system [and Montreal and Vancouver] most likely to get hammered by terrorists, if at all. Systems like these will be more useful in solving usual crime and helping with transit worker fears of violence.
Wow. Jim Flaherty's comments in the Star's article about the sales tax request are rather laughable, though only because he'll be back on the Opposition bench soon enough.
Ottawa has committed hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funds to the GTA, but the more Toronto gets, the more the mayor wants, he said.
Flaherty said Miller ought to be a "chastened mayor" because he did not win a bigger mandate from voters on Monday and, as such, "would try to get his own house in order before he starts asking other" levels of government "to subsidize him."
This coming from a guy who took only 44% in his own riding last federal election (just 5% more than his nearest rival and almost 15% less than Miller managed on Monday) and whose party constantly claims to have a strong mandate with 40% of seats in Parliament.
And what amount of these hundreds of millions is continued stable funding and not just one or two-time leftovers from the previous federal government?
Well, I certainly agree that no one in the TTC will know what to do with a paltry 1.46 million. It's a ridiculously insulting amount.
Give Moscoe a little credit ... the analogy was undeniably crude, but to try to say that the TTC is crumbling JUST BECAUSE of incompetence is totally unfair.
Ok, agreed to a point. But you have to agree that the TTC is always crying poor, but has little to no clue on how to generate any money themselves. Look at the TTC schwag that Marc Lostracco came up with IN A FRIGGIN DAY, that would sell A LOT, as opposed to the silly stuff the TTC contracted.
The London Underground seems to make a LOT of money off of marketing themselves. The TTC is absolutely clueless. I think the Feds should've given more money to the TTC, but the TTC has to make it look like they're TRYING to support themselves, don't you think?
I'd kind of like to get a look at the different funding proposals submitted before taking a serious guesses at what really went wrong with this one.
What went wrong is that everyone outside of Toronto is in complete denial about just how important Toronto is in the national scheme.
Agreed there, brokenengine. Granted, money from swag can't possibly make up too significant a part of a transit agency's budget, but God, that stuff was ugly.
Or maybe this is a sign of their frugality? They won't spend the money to hire a better marketing team.
OK, but the GTA itself got something like 30% of national funding-- more of it just went to GO and Union station. So why specifically slight the TTC?
Oh yah, we can fund a rapid transit system to serve several million people by selling T-shirts. Next we can abolish the GST by selling Mountie action figures.
The TTC people are really good at actually running the system and as a rule doing it on a shoestring, the fact that they are lousy at pointless crap like selling T-shirts is, in my mind actually kind of a plus.
'Cos the Federal PC's hate Toronto.
Dude, I'm seriously surprised ANYTHING is your mind even approaches being a plus.
Uh. That's "in."
Chester, where did I say that selling swag would solve anything? They run the trains on time. Mostly. The don't strike every month. Great. My point is, other mass transit systems do it better, and actually manage to market themselves so that they make some money without asking the feds for everything handed to them. Why can't the TTC? A lack of imagination, and a lack of leadership.
The point is the TTC cannot market itself out of debt and financial straightjacket. It is not under the gun because it hasn't sold enough t-shirts. It is not inefficient, dirty, crippled by massive necessary infrastructure improvements it can't afford, subject to a recalcitrant union and saddled with legacy costs, subject to declining ridership and relevance, or underfunded because the t-shirt designs suck or don't suck. Selling t-shirts isn't going to keep them from calling on the feds - better management, a looser capital structure, the ability to incur more long-term debt for infrastructure costs and increased ridership will reduce government dependency over time. Ask yourself if you were GM of the TTC whether you would direct your managers to work on t-shirt designs when pressed with these other problems.
(BTW - I fully agree that the TTC should license its IP to those who do have the aptitude to design, but I don't see how this would ever be anything other than a blip on the balance sheet. No one ever states the obvious that the TTC is not the London Underground).
And while I don't echo Chester Pape's tone, those questioning a "lack of imagination" aren't terribly imaginative themselves, in that the sole focus seems to be to complain about the unused brand potential. Give me 50 words on how to increase ridership which doesn't talk about buttons.
What the TTC needs is better management isolated from the blind elders of City Council and the ability to use their government relationship to raise money in the long-term bond market, to make the infrastructure investments necessary to attract new ridership and reduce its labour costs.
"other mass transit systems do it better, and actually manage to market themselves so that they make some money without asking the feds for everything handed to them"
Ok, call me crazy, but isn't TTC pretty much the most self-funded big-city transit system in north america? IICR, they have less "handed to them from the feds" than anyone.
Conservatives live in the 905 and get off at Union Station to get to their Bay Street jobs! I've figured figured out the conspiracy!
Toronto as a whole needs to market its issues better. As long as the 905 belt and the rest of Canada views Toronto as something to be ignored, ridiculed, etc. Money will not flow.
Toronto needs to get its message that its success means success for the nation as a whole out to the people outside of 416.
Things cannot continue this way. Toronto cannot keep having its policy and decisions either made or unmade by the province (and to some extent by the Feds). It has to stop.
How can we spread the word and make this a big issue?
Love all the conspiracy theories going here. Has anyone considered why a FEDERAL government should pick up the cost of a LOCAL transport network? If Toronto wants a 1st class public transport system, Toronto should pay for it, not people living in the Yukon, Alberta, maritimes, etc etc.
Plus - it's the local government that keeps agreeing all the salary hikes, service provision, fare levels, etc. Unless the federal government has a say in how the money is spent, they shouldn't be expected to throw money the TTC's way.
Well Little Boy Blue,
It could be something to do with the fact that Torontonians send almost $7 billion more to the feds than they get back in services or investments? Why should Torontonians pay for health care and education for people living in the Yukon, Alberta, maritimes, etc? (Because we don't like seeing our neighbours suffer needlessly?)
It could be that property tax is not an effective means to raise money for major capital infrastructure improvements?
Maybe it's the fact that in countries where the federal government does invest in transit (i.e. just about everywhere else in the world), more infrastructure is built, service levels are higher and the money is made back by way of a stronger economy? Maybe because anyone who's ridden the TTC before and after the provincial and federal divestitures knows which model works and which is just ideological twittery?
I think the real question is why is Moscoe so obsessed with terrorism. When people have security fears about the subway I suspect terrorism might be in the top 5 but NOT number 1.
It was my impression that the cameras the TTC is installing have more to do with day to day driver and passenger safety, whereas the federal money "targets" anti-terrorism measures.
Province... of... Toronto?
Quickly, I work on Bay Street. Most of the people I work with rush to Union to grab the GO to somewhere outside of Toronto - as far as Hamilton, or Guelph even. A lot of them probably vote Liberal, and some Conservative. Probably not too many NDP'ers here.
Given how downloaded and sideloaded Toronto is, the fact that we account for 20% of Ontario's GDP, and that our federal tax revenue is probably sky-frakkin'-high, I don't see why we shouldn't claim part of that back to fund transit and make life in this city better. Arguing that Ottawa doesn't have any responsibility to pay for this is basically an argument then that Ottawa doesn't need any of our tax revenue.
I don't know if I can spew 50 words to increase ridership without talking about buttons [why is that such a source of i-ration?], but better bus service in suburban areas like Scarborough where people have been complaining for a while now that the service is slow, infrequent, and not capable of carrying all the people who need it. Also, if City Council and the Mayor would only get off its collective ass and reduce traffic along the streetcar routes, we'd see more people taking them.
And then my morning and evening commute would be even more crowded. I'm making sacrifices, people.
A few years ago when the TTC turned 50, The Star did a special section on our "beloved" transit system. It included a breakdown of the amount of money federal governments pump into transit in cities across NA and Europe. The TTC had the highest percentage of revenue coming from the fare box of all the cities (New York, Chicago, London etc). So, for the feds and McGuinty to cry poor when Miller asks for money is baloney.
The system works now, but it doesn't work as well as it should or could. We're in a maintaining phase, not an improving phase. Bring on the LRTs!
So why can't the city grab more money from property taxes? Would everyone be up in arms? Would there be mass migration to the 905 (where they taxes are higher anyway)??
I was just watching CityOnLine (no jokes please) and a caller mentioned making the TTC free and fund it directly from taxes.
Sounds like an idea worth debating. Every Toronto resident would receive a TTC card and have unlimited access to the system.
To raise 1 Billion we have to taxes an extra 1000 per dwelling (on average). Talk about progressive! (At least I think so!)
Patrick, that's the kind of thinking out loud that get's you branded as some awful central-planning communist, out of touch with the 21st century realities of our economy. Have you ever, ever, ever read any newspaper op-ed calling for an increase in taxes? How many times a day do you hear the term "tax cuts"?
It's the truth, that no politician wants to have to say to the public because it will spell the end of his or her career. And the public doesn't want to hear it because it's more important that they can buy the latest iPod.
When I wrote my first couple of comments, they were about the fact that the TTC can't market itself, but that was intended to show a SYMPTOM, not the cause. Apparently, that was lost on my detractors.
So, I suppose those people think that the TTC is totally workable the way it is, and will be happy to pay every fare hike that comes along, and sing a nice little tune the next time they go on strike, or the next time they have to wait 30 minutes for a bus/streetcar/train, or the next time they run out of metro passes, or (insert myriad of issues here)
Don't forget when the city grows beyond the capacity and reach of the subway!