news
Newsstand: February 22, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
Goodbye family, and hello Tuesday! In the news today, the search for gravy reveals terrifying budget holes instead, the city’s largest landlord is subject to a large report, the buses are running in York, and The Economist thinks we’re a pretty okay city to live in.
Even before Rob Ford took office, he sicced his people on City Hall in search of the train that led to the never-before-seen lake of gravy that surely, menacingly sloshed around just beneath our feet. Well, it seems that so far the hunt for gravy has only turned up gaping budget holes of doom—and no plugs. The Ford administration has already drained the reserve funds and surplus windfalls to cover off this year’s budget and are now facing a shortage of 774 million dollars without any rainy day cash. Ford will have to conjure up some financial wizardry to avoid begging other levels of government for a bailout, and the Star reveals some of those magic spells; namely, slash and sell. Programs and services that may get axed next year include TIFF, Caribana, and the Tower Renewal program. And there’s much chatter about selling off assets like the Toronto Parking Authority. The scariest part of all this: Doug Ford said, “The goal is to be Mississauga.” Okay fine, he meant because they have zero debt, not zero good things going for them. But still.
Marcus Gee at the Globe directs us to a few potential gravy train stops. Like, say, the estimated two billion dollar premium Ford is pushing to keep the Eglinton LRT underground. Gee guesses that “the mayor’s loathing for rails on streets” could cost the city big time.
Though it’s not yet official policy, Rob Ford has said in the past he would like to see Toronto Community Housing Corporation abolished in favour of rent subsidies for low-income home-seekers to use for privately owned buildings. And he may find an excuse to do so in one of two (or even both) Toronto auditor general reports on the social housing agency. TCHC is one of the largest landlords in North America, but they’ve been in the crosshairs lately after the death of an elderly tenant after his eviction and all the trouble surrounding fires like the one at 200 Wellesley Street East. No one has seen the reports yet, but audit committee member Shelley Carroll (Ward 33, Don Valley East) says they look at procurement procedures and “expense improprieties.” The reports are expected to be issued next month.
We’re number four! We’re number four! According to the latest liveability ranking put out by The Economist, Toronto scored 97.2 out of a possible one hundred for the second year in a row. Vancouver came in at number one, but we beat Calgary, Naheed Nenshi and all. The ranking takes into account stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure, so, in light of the first story, we should probably enjoy this while we can.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday after a severely mentally and physically disabled teenager died following an alleged home invasion in Scarborough over the weekend. Police are treating the incident as a “suspicious death.”
Okay, yes we wrote about this on February 14, but no, we are not doomed to repeat last Valentine’s Day over and over again as if we were all Bill Murray and it was Groundhog Day—we don’t think. But we feel like we should let you know that the buses are (still) running in York region (for now), as the union delayed a strike. Again.