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Day One For Mayor Rob Ford’s Toronto, from Gravy Packets to Subway Rackets
Rob Ford in his former seat during an OCAP protest at City Hall in 2008. OCAP was among those protesting the incoming mayor at Nathan Phillips Square today. Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.
Rob Ford’s mayor now. How’s that going so far?
Well, to start, “Transit City’s over and the war on the car is over, and all new subway expansion is going underground. And that’s pretty well it.” Either that, or Transit City’s not over, because there’s a “showdown” coming, not just between the province and the City but between Ford and councillors. Oh, and because a subway along Sheppard would be shorter than, and cost at least three times as much as, the planned Transit City route. And because Ford plans to freeze taxes while somehow managing to pay for something the province says it has no more money for.
No matter: much to people’s surprise, we learned this morning from Ford that people do not want streetcars, even though Light Rapid Transit vehicles aren’t streetcars, and people actually do want them. (We also learned from a few jokers on board the 504 King streetcar that it’ll all be better in no time.)
And while Eye‘s Ed Keenan pointed out that Ford will immediately lose Toronto millions more dollars than Sandra Bussin or any other gravy train riders ever could, outgoing mayor David Miller and staff at least liked gravy enough to leave some behind in the mayor’s office for Ford. Ford promptly trapped himself inside the office.
Outside City Hall, some people showed up to protest the new mayor; others were too far gone.
As for Mayor Miller, midnight marked his lordship’s end. Never one for anachronism, Miller changed his Twitter handle from @mayormiller to @iamdavidmiller, which prompted the Post to solicit better suggestions from readers. They received none.
It was Twitter, too, where there was much thanking and commiserating on Tuesday night. Ivor Tossell wrote an excellent piece about the great deal of good that David Miller did as mayor, which Spacing later republished.
As Tossell pointed out, though, Miller’s “oftentimes furrowed, droning performance as a communicator” sometimes kept that great deal of good hidden. (We’ve addressed just that problem before.) Then again, today, it was Rob Ford’s new email address that didn’t work.
And that was Rob Ford’s first day as mayor. There are only 1460 ones like them left.
Extra, Extra will return on Thursday.