Newsstand: March 17, 2010

Today	Mon	Tue
Chance of Snow -1°/-4°	Clear 3°/-3°	Chance of Snow 6°/0°

48 Comments March 17, 2010 at 8:00 am

news

Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.

Three cheers for green beers on a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day! On this day when Irish heritage is more of a sliding scale, may you end your celebrations with pots of gold, and not porcelain thrones.
One person who most likely won’t be drinking, today or any time in the near future, is TTC driver Margaret Wilson, who was given a breathalyzer by police while on her Dawes Road route this past Friday. The suspension on her licence may have ended yesterday, but today might be the end of her job too. TTC Chair Adam Giambrone said the Commission will be tough on the issue, and applauded the agency’s “fitness-for-duty” policy for drastically reducing the number of employees showing up for work under the influence. But even though it was approved a year and a half ago, key parts to the plan including breathalyzers and oral fluid tests still won’t begin until this August.
And yet another Giambrone controversy. On top of this year’s serious customer service troubles, scandalous affair, and dishonorable fall from the mayoralty race, this one’s a shocker—he likes to use taxis! Wait…what? Okay, three grand on cabs in a year may sound a little extravagant, but his overall yearly expenses in 2009 were just about average when compared to other councillors. Isn’t he allowed a few splurges here and there? After all, streetcar shelters don’t offer any more protection to him during minus-thirty blizzards just because he’s TTC chair.
Fifty years ago today, five Italian immigrants died as they forged an underground water main near Old York Mills Road and Yonge Street in 1960. The Hogg’s Hollow accident, which set a new precedent in labour safety laws, inspired a commemorative quilt entitled Breaking Ground to be unveiled this morning as a permanent feature of York Mills Subway Station.
Yesterday’s Duly Quoted showed Rob Ford’s (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) weakly disguised plans to run for mayor, as revealed to the Star’s Royson James. James was incredulous in the least about Ford’s chances of running the city, but if he thought Ford was a “burly, bombastic bulldog of a man,” just wait until Ford’s brother, Doug, gets a hold of him.
It was the goal heard around the world, and now it’s in Toronto. Sidney Crosby’s gold-medal-winning puck is on display today at the Hockey Hall of Fame. The victorious overtime goal sent nerve-stricken hockey fans into an all-night frenzy here in Toronto, while in Vancouver the prized puck managed to get lost in all the celebration. It was held at the International Ice Hockey Federation in Switzerland until VANOC decided on its new home. The puck will also travel across the country’s museums as Canada’s newest rock (rubber?) star.
If you’ve ever lost your temper with your neighbour’s kid for leaving his toys all over your lawn, apologies are in order. At least tricycles can’t burn down your house.
Finally, Hamilton musician and producer Dan Achen died on Monday night from a heart attack at the age of fifty-one. Achen was a former member of the band Junkhouse and owner of Catherine North Studios, where he worked with notable artists such as Dallas Green, Kathleen Edwards, Josh Ritter, and Achen’s niece, Feist.

Comments

Darren

Why downplay the Taxi situation, and conveniantly leave out the metrpossases and tokens he expensed for his staff?? Waiting in streetcar shelters to go home isnt a work related expense
Bill Gates doesn’t use an IPhone. The CEO of Ford doesn’t drive a Honda. The Chair of the TTC should use his free metropass at every possible situation
http://undefined Peter K

Come on. You can’t blame Giambrone for taking the occasional cab. After all, transit service isn’t any less craptacular for him just because he’s the TTC Chair.
Darren

As for Royson’s article. No one with any iota of intelligence would consider that article to be written by an unbiased and logical person. Royson showed his true colours in that article. He clais Ford is the “despised member” on council. Despised by who? And who do you think has more detractors; Ford or Miller?
Darren

Define; “the occasional cab”. I have a longer commute then him, and I splurge on the odd cab ride and I nowhere use 3k of cabs a year. I couldnt afford to either. But I am paying down a home on a single income I earn in the private sector
He also has the responsability to lead by example.
http://undefined Green Sulfur

Safe to say you don’t chair an agency responsible for over $1 billion each year, sit on a council responsible for $10 billion and serve the needs of 50,000+ people each year? I didn’t think so.
There’s no reason to give Giambrone slack for this. He doesn’t own a car so he expenses nothing for that and whether you like what he does or not, the man does more work than any other councillor.
http://undefined Darren

And he gets paid more for that work. Councillors who sit on boards get paid more
Yes he doesnt own a car, niether do I incidentaly, but he does have the privelage of gettin a free Metropass along with free access to city parking lots which is a further contradiction in the freebies they get. Did he look into using a car share program instead of a cab? Did his office really need to take a cab from Queen and Bay to Queen and John? (“Councillor Adam Giambrone likes to brag about not owning a car and that he uses pretty much exclusively public transit to get around,” Milczyn said. “I find it curious that he would take a taxi from Queen and Bay to Queen and John. I mean that you would walk or ride a bicycle or take a streetcar.”)
As a taxpayer we have the right to ask these questions.
http://undefined Green Sulfur

A columnist isn’t supposed to hide their opinion. It’s actually (surprise!) their job to have an opinion.
http://undefined _V

Good grief. Do any of you work in the real world? How much time would it take him to walk / TTC everywhere all the time? Have you never had 10 minutes to make it to a meeting, so hopped in a cab for a ridiculously short ride to avoid being late? When you’re that busy (and have as many meetings as a Councillor doing his job well should), it’s going to happen. Probably fairly regularly.
http://undefined Green Sulfur

Darren, if you don’t know what you’re talking about you should ask questions or keep your mouth shut. Now you just look stupid (again). There isn’t one City board appointment that a Toronto councillor receives that gets them additional remuneration. In the 905 there is extra pay for sitting on certain bodies and in the 416 certain boards give a stipend to citizen appointees.
Obviously I don’t know the circumstances of the Bay St. to John St. cab ride but there are potentially reasonable explanations (like carrying a large volume of files/objects).
Given his schedule, I’m guessing a car sharing program would prove imprudent. Think about it: the guy averages 3-4 $15 cab rides each week or less than $60. The rest is TTC. Car sharing would likely be more expensive, particularly considering that to ensure the cars are available when he needs them he would have to book them for more time than he actually requires their use.
The cab rides that should cause a stir are the ones like Mammoliti’s late night trip to Bolton a couple years ago.
http://undefined Darren

If he isnt content with the speed of a streetcar on Queen between Bay and John, then he has the duty and responsability to improve the service their instantanously by asking the police to enforce the diamond lanes on Queen and King.
And if he had 10 minutes to make that meeting he would have walked there in time and still had time leftover to grab a coffee. Its a 8 minute walk at most. Cabs in Toronto are a ripp off literally from the moment you get in the car. The 4 dollar fee is extremely high compared to other major North American cities. That cab ride on Queen probably came to just 6 dollars plus tip, but it had a 4 dollar fixed cost. He was aware of that 4 dollar fixed cost but though “Hey, its not my dime”.
http://undefined Peter K

Apparently my attempt at humour was a little too subtle.
http://undefined Darren

I will take you for your word that he is not paid extra for sitting on the Commission. If his schedule is too demanding and he is doing this work supposedly free then he can always decline the responsability and give the job of being a Commissioner and/or Chair to someone else.
Time Share cars can be booked online relatively quickly. He and Adam Vaughan are huge propenants of car sharing programs. So he could have made an attempt to use them one year and compare the cost of use to that of cab fares.
I agree about Mammolotti’s use. His use and that of Kyle Rae attracted a lot of attention at the time, and that attention led to the reforms on councillor expenses.
http://undefined Green Sulfur

Don’t take me at my word. Go find out for yourself. Or would that take too much time? I forget you just want drive-by smears.
Supporting car sharing is great but just because Giambrone supports it doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for his schedule. And don’t deny that you would be crying bloody murder if he tried it “for a year” and it turned out to be one dime more expensive.
Further, there is no diamond lane on Queen St. There are no-turn and no-parking restrictions that could use better enforcement but the police are not controlled by the TTC chair’s whimsy. Giambrone has been advocating better enforcement on Dundas and King. The police will occasionally do a blitz but that’s it.
Do us all a favour and go back to the National Post’s comment boards where you won’t be disrupting moderately intelligent discussion.
http://undefined Darren

I actually agreed with you Green, and said “I will take you for your word”. You must have misunderstood my point, hence the hostility.
http://undefined Peter K

Maybe he needs to invest in a bicycle…although he would probably charge that to the taxpayers too.
http://undefined torontothegreat

Question: “Do any of you work in the real world”.
Darren’s answer: “No”.
That’s basically what I just read into with your reply.
“Have you never had 10 minutes to make it to a meeting, so hopped in a cab for a ridiculously short ride to avoid being late?”
What if 10 minutes was 3 minutes Darren?
http://undefined Peter K

Even if we accept the occasional unavoidable taxi ride to make a meeting, that doesn’t explain away the $3,000 he spent on cabs over the course of the year…unless he was running late for 500 meetings.
http://undefined Darren

Then he could have been late like the rest of us stuck in crappy TTC. It always come back to this point as the rest of us see cabs as being the rare luxury not the obvious need. That is what distinguishes average people from elitist.
http://undefined Green Sulfur

I don’t know what you do for a living but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that when Giambrone is late the consequences are much more severe than when you’re late. The cost/benefit analysis here is so painfully obvious.
And what about all those councillors spending two and three times the amount Giambrone is on taxis with their claims for mileage? Why don’t you critique them?
http://undefined torontothegreat

Assuming every cab ride is 6.00 dollars The meter starts at 4 dollars and 25c for each additional .155km.
It’s not hard to take a 20 – 40 dollar cab ride in this city at all. You both speak like you’ve never actually been in one.
I would imagine I expensed close to the same amount for cab rides last year and I’m in no way as busy as Giambrone.
http://undefined Darren

I havent read all the reports, but when I do I will crittique them. The media focused in on Adam’s expense and singled that out due to his involvment with the TTC. The media has a great history of singlig out expenses, like they did with Karen Stinz’s one time expense on speech lessons. That same year Adam spent more then that on French lessons, yet no mention. So I havent seen all the reports, but what I have read about his, and the short distances travelled made me react.
http://undefined Peter K

The differences are:
1) My taxi are paid out of my own pocket, by me
2) I’m not the head of the transit commission and therefore someone who should be setting an example
Look, the guy took trips around his Ward when he could have walked or biked. He claims he needed to “carry file home” when he could’ve sprung for a rolling briefcase.
Pile this on top of everything else that’s come to light about him and it just shows how out of touch with his responsibilities Adam Giambrone really was. Hopefully for his sake he can step back and learn from all of this.
http://undefined Peter K

If Gimabrone’s meeting are so important he needs to buy a watch, hire a better scheduler, or stop boffing people in his office so he’s not running so late all the time.
http://undefined torontothegreat

You pay for cabs that are used during work hours FOR work out of your own pocket? Or are you implying you have a job that doesn’t require you to take a taxi anywhere? Or that you have never had to leave your work for a meeting?
“it just shows how out of touch with his responsibilities Adam Giambrone really was”
Not sure how you reach this conclusion.
So Giambrone wanting to be ON time for meetings means he’s lost touch with his responsibilities?
“Then he could have been late like the rest of us stuck in crappy TTC”
Now THAT is irresponsible.
http://undefined Peter K

If I’m running so late for a work meeting that I need to take a cab I pay for it out of my own pocket. It’s my fault I’m late so I need to pay for that.
If Giambrone can’t manage his schedule it shouldn’t be on us to pay for his mistakes.
It’s actually not acceptable for ANY Councillors or other elected officials to spend $3,000 or more of OUR money on cabs. It just stands out in the Boy Blunder’s case because he’s the Chair of the TTC.
http://undefined Darren

Dude, I already explained the significance of the 4 dollars becuase it applied to the short distance travelled in that one example.
I know how cabs work very fine thank you. I got out of one today, and paid for out of my pocket even though I was going to work related event. Why? Because its my responsability to get myself there. It very much so is easy to run up a 40 dollar cab fare, and thats thanks to the fare hikes that were allowed in Toronto which dwarf other cities’ cab fares
http://undefined Darren

Add to that the tokens and metropasses he expensed to his office budget for staff. Imagine that, your employer buying you a metropass that allows you free travel every evening and every weekend for your social needs
http://undefined rek

Maybe they aren’t eeeeeevil ssssssocialissssstsssss…
http://undefined torontothegreat

“If I’m running so late for a work meeting that I need to take a cab I pay for it out of my own pocket. It’s my fault I’m late so I need to pay for that.”
“I got out of one today, and paid for out of my pocket even though I was going to work related event.”
I’m sorry that neither one of you don’t have any common sense?
The positive side to this is that I’ve never heard ANYONE say this in my entire life and today I found out that 2 people in the world are like this!
http://undefined Peter K

I may not have common sense, but I take responsibility for the situations I put myself in. Maybe Councillors should too (all of them, not just the Boy Blunder).
Darren

You call that a positive side?
Maybe it a “negative side” that you associate yourself with people who want to live out of the public trough.
I know plenty of people who pay their own travel expenses, within reason obviously. One of them who is high up in one of the banks, who probably manages more people then all of the TTC, actually jogs to work every day regardless of the weather and declined the offer of a company car. Sure he charges the odd cab fare, but like the rest of us he gets to most of his work related events via his own personal time and expense.
http://undefined lifeonqueen

Who despises Rob Ford? Well, I do for a start.
As for Royson: reporters report. Columnist opine. This isn’t kindergarten, there’s no requirement to be nice to the playground bully while teacher’s watching. If there were, the majority of TO media would still be in detention over last week’s group sulk at Mayor Miller.
http://undefined torontothegreat

Yup, birds of a feather… Sorry I only hang around people with a little bit of common sense.
“I know plenty of people who pay their own travel expenses, within reason obviously.”
So by your very admission, the expenses are fine! I mean unless you think $3000 is reasonable. To me that’s fairly unreasonable to pay out of my own pocket.
You’re average for a reason champ!
Signed,
Elitist.
http://undefined Darren

Sarah Thomson just made a pretty sweet annoucement!!
http://undefined The Junkyard Triangle

I keep seeing lots of comments about Newsstand and thinking, “hey, I’ll bet there’s a witty, informed, and passionate conversation taking place, like there used to be.”
Nope, it’s just the damn Darren Show, every day lately. Someone posts, Darren replies. It’s like a talk radio dj has taken over the site, and the conversations have ground to a halt.
http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

Word on the street is that a new commenting system may or may not be in the works, which might help redress (whatever people perceive as) individual commenters’ wrongs.
http://undefined lunarworks

“Add to that the tokens and metropasses he expensed to his office budget for staff. Imagine that, your employer buying you a metropass that allows you free travel every evening and every weekend for your social needs”
Providing a Metropass for your staff can be cheaper than doling out tokens every time they need a ride, and, as far as I know, they don’t make a “no evenings, no weekends” Metropass. What they use it for outside of office hours is WAY beside the point.
Man, you seem to think that any bit of work-related travel anyone makes should be paid out of their pocket. I was once sent to get urgent computer replacement parts in a taxi, and if my employer had asked me to pay for that $50 ride, I would have told him to get them himself.
http://undefined Darren

Mention 5 employers, or just 1, in the private sector who buy employees Metropasses to cover all future work related (and by extension social) travel for the month.
http://undefined lunarworks

Well, for one, my former employers bought me a Metropass as a benefit. But aside from that, if you have employees that need to go on frequent errands, it makes all kinds of sense.
http://undefined lunarworks

Plus, we’re talking about a company’s own product. When I worked at a movie theatre, I was entitled to one free movie a week, and I could bring a friend occasionally.
http://undefined Darren

It is not the company’s own product. A significant portion of the TTC is funded by non-riding rate payers
One free movie a week pales in comparison to the 600+ dollars spent by Adam Giambrone on passes and tokens for his staff.
And this is across the board, and thats why Rob Ford is looking to have the office budget slashed to 20k from its current 53k
http://undefined Matthew

As the only candidate to seriously suggest road tolling the DVP and Gardiner, she has my vote at the moment.
Note that I currently commute out of the 416 to work in the 905, so a road toll on the these highways would probably (but not necessarily) cost me, but I support it either way.
As far as I know only Smitherman has floated the idea of tolling these roads, but he did it in the usual Liberal wishy-washy way that obviously means nothing.
http://undefined lunarworks

I think of it this way: It’s employees filling seats that would most likely otherwise be empty. Neither a loss nor a gain.
Does that $600 spent on fares disappear into thin air? No, it GOES RIGHT BACK INTO THE TTC.
Darren

What is nice about her is that she doesn’t come across as the old school anti-transit right winger, which is how many right of centre people are seen. She is pro-transit and its part of her platform
http://undefined Matthew

I think that if we have a so called right wing candidate suggesting toll roading the Gardiner it might be time to retire left wing, right wing labels for Toronto politics.
Has Miller done anything that would be considered that progressive?
http://undefined Darren

The paranoia about right wing candidates being anti transit is here to stay from the looks of it. She wont even come close to Smitherman in the vote, and he has publicly been endorsed by several unions. Right now being pro-union would be seen as a negative not a positive.
http://undefined Peter K

YAY CENSORSHIP!
http://undefined torontothegreat

No, a significant portion is paid via the fare box. The recovery ratio is currently 75% of the TTC’s budget.

After the Vote: What Does the Future Hold for Council and the TTC? Light-rail proponents were thrilled by Wednesday's transit vote, but the path forward is far from clear.	A Glad Day for Glad Day Bookshop
Saving the Space Rocks	What to Catch at the 33rd Annual Rhubarb Festival The Rhubarb Festival, which opens tomorrow, continues its reign as Canada's oldest celebration of new and experimental theatre, spanning two weeks, with more than 40 performances and over 100 artists.
I Want Your Job: Nathan Enkel, Medieval Times Falconer We grilled a Medieval Times falconer about what it's like to wrangle birds of prey for a living.	“They Want Subways”: A Rob Ford Remix

Torontoist

news