Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
Peeve Patrol
The Making of a Medley
Third Floor, First Rate
Three elephants from the Garden Brothers circus escaped their handlers and took a brief tour of a residential neighbourhood in Newmarket last night. The elephants aren’t kept in cages but do have a rope around their foot to keep them from wandering, which doesn’t work. Local residents said that after initial alarm they were delighted with the unexpected early morning zaniness.
Good news for traveling half-wits—airport screeners have been instructed to issue a warning rather than automatically calling police when passengers make "jokes" like “Hi, Jack!” Hijacking planes remains illegal.
Following Mayor David Miller's decision to impose a raft of new taxes on the city, a poll has found that 69% of Torontonians would like to see any new taxes discussed in the next municipal election before being implemented. The other 31% didn’t understand the question.
Funeral services for much-loved Toronto icon Honest Ed Mirvish will be held today at 11 a.m., and at least 3000 people are expected to attend. Details are here if you want to pay your respects.
Photo by GunnerX from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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I really wish the elephants had gotten away and escaped on some fabulous adventure. Circuses give me the creeps.
Of course, people don't want new taxes. The only sensible solution is to reverse the downloading from the province that Mikey Harris did.
Actually hard to believe we still even have circuses.
I've always found them to be more sad/cruel than fun.
Poll schmoll, if you word the question right you can get any answer you want. If you rephrased the question as "which would you rather have 1) a 18% increase in property taxes or 2) lay off a couple hundred cops and stop re-paving roads or 3) a 2% municipal land transfer tax" what kind of answer do you think you'd get?
Chester Pape - The problem is that city council only imposes taxes easy to collect, not that are appropriate to how the city works. The fact that the LTT doesn't affect a rich guy living in Rosedale who will be carried out of the house feet first is a measure of how dumb it is. A new monster house which imposes more burden on city services will be exempted $2,000 for a first time buyer but the older smaller house demolished to make way for it has no such exemption.
As alternative to your "fire cops and stop repaving" - how about
Current funding: big things like
-) Increase in development charges for all those new condos which stress our water/sewer/power instead of land transfer tax which has no effect on city services
-) Tax downtown office parking spaces and impose a congestion charge using 407ETR as a billing system.
-) Tax billboards and vigorously fine landlords of illegal signs
small things like:
-) Import Calgary's pet licencing and enforcement system lock stock and barrel (it's self-financing there it seems!)
Capital funding:
-) Sell the Toronto Parking Authority's off street lots to one of their private competitors, with only on-street parking remaining theirs.
-) Sell 49% of Toronto Hydro on the stock market (with the added benefit that City Council can't raid them for reserve funds any time they want)
-) Get on with developing their valuable surplus properties at Yonge-Eglinton and Yonge-Davisville, in fact why not relocate TTC entirely to a new building at Wilson subway yard and sell the current HQ.