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Duly Quoted: Paula Fletcher

By Hamutal Dotan

“This is a triumph for the public… This is a Toronto moment, a Jane Jacobs moment.”

—Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth), on the “consensus” that has emerged on city council that Mayor Rob Ford’s proposal to drastically overhaul plans for the Port Lands are wrongheaded, and cannot be approved. TheToronto Star is reporting that a team of councillors—some Ford allies, and some from the opposition—are working tonight to finalize the details of a drastically downgraded motion for city council to debate tomorrow. Instead of wresting control of the Port Lands from Waterfront Toronto (the agency set up by all three levels of government to manage waterfront development) and building a large-scale tourist attraction and monorail there, this new motion will apparently simply urge WT to accelerate the pace of development and consider input from a City agency also operating in the area. It is a tremendous defeat for the Fords—though they are still in their first year, it will be counted as one of the most significant in their administration. It also comes immediately after two polls showing dropping support for the mayor, and after his hand-picked Executive Committee pulled back on several severe budget cut proposals. In short: Ford has exercized almost complete control over city council votes since being elected to the mayor’s chair last October; that pattern has now been shattered.

Background: The letter from nearly 150 urban thinkers that crystallized opposition to Rob Ford’s plan for the Port Lands, in conjunction with a mass public show of outrage.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Don’t celebrate quite yet… I don’t trust this cabal of scumbag opportunists as far as I could throw them:

    “Ford has exercized almost complete control over city council votes since being elected to the mayor’s chair last October”

    And, why is that, exactly?

  • Brett Lamb

    “Great, kid! Don’t get cocky …”
    - Han Solo

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Smith/702636082 Steven Smith

    This establishes clearly that he mayor is just one vote on council, and the end result of a Smitherman victory would have been pretty much the same “austerity” plan as what Ford can achieve, but Smitherman would have had slicker optics.

    • Anonymous

      I disagree with you about Smitherman. While I doubt he would have been as forward-thinking as Miller, he most likely would have at least maintained many of his long-term projects, particularly Transit City. For all his shortcomings, he had a far better grasp of the big picture than (the) Ford(s) do(es). Heck, even Rossi did.

  • Anonymous

    The Toronto Port Lands Corporation is a management/remediation/leasing business, why should they have a larger role in deciding the overall planning, in effect becoming a contributor to slowing down the process? Toronto is already a full partner in the existing Waterfront Toronto organization: that’s where the City should bring its concerns & arguments about speeding up the process!! Not by creating more political gridlock…

    A lousy compromise, I think, one that complicates the way forward. Yet *another* evaluation of waterfront flood-proofing plans?!?

    The City and WT should immediately request that the current EA be APPROVED and MOVE FORWARD!!!