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Newsstand: March 31, 2011
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.
It’s Thursday, and you all know what that means: Rob Ford, Rob Ford, Rob Ford, transit done like dinner, Rob Ford, Rob Ford, Rob Ford’s dinner with fraudster, Rob Ford, Rob Ford, no strike zone for TTC, Rob Ford naked, Rob Ford, what Jane Jacobs would say, and Rob Ford.
Dalton McGuinty is expected to officially make official for real the underground transit dreams of our mayor. The province is agreeing to fund the undergroundification of the Eglinton LRT and conversion of the Scarborough RT to LRT. The City’s on the hook for any further transit spending, like the Sheppard subway, which may be why they’re getting creative in their hunt for new TTC revenue streams. And turns out the mayor doesn’t need council’s support to officially end Transit City, because, the provincial money committed to this project was already in place. This is just a resource shuffle, guys! (That puts out thousands of people.)
Our mayor can tick off another transit victory, as Queen’s Park passed legislation removing TTC workers’ right to strike. Transit has now been deemed an essential service, just two days ahead of the union’s contract expiring. TTC officials say contract negotiations are progressing nicely. And though union president Bob Kinnear says they’re not looking for conflict, the union “will come out swinging in defence of our members” if they have to. Without the option to strike, we’ll have to wait and see what that means.
The freedom of information request that unleashed the mayor’s day planner is still paying journalism dividends. Now the mayor is being questioned about a dubious dining mate in early February. The press says: The man you had lunch with because he won the privilege in a campaign fundraiser is actually a fraudster and knows where to get money laundered and pays off cops. The mayor says: So what?
If you’re bummed about the new mayor undoing all of the old mayor’s policies, take heart. The twenty-minute makeover has survived. The initiative asks citizens to take twenty minutes on April 15 to pick up some litter. Presumably Ford is into this plan because it’s free and displaces union employees.
And before you say anything bad about our mayor, consider his more Jane Jacobsian qualities. The over-regulated “Toronto a la Cart” program is set to die by his hand while saving independent operators like Reg Hartt and his Cineforum. Could it be that the current mayor, who has probably never read Death and Life of Great American Cities, is out-Jane Jacobsing all the Jane Jacobsers? Aghast!
Of course you read all about the provincial budget, but did you pick up on this obscure tidbit: the Queen’s Park pages handed out the thwack of paper to MPPs in only 20.6 seconds. Every year the “high-achieving grades 7 and 8 students” who get to intern at the provincial legislature hustle, but don’t run, to get the fastest hand-out time. The record set in 2009 is 20.35, so this year’s crop missed out by a quarter of a second. In the immortal words of James Franco, congrats nerds.
And here’s that naked Rob Ford picture you’ve been waiting for.