politics
What’s On City Council’s Agenda: March 2012
In which we highlight key items from the month’s city council meeting. You can also watch it live.
City council is meeting today (March 5) and tomorrow (March 6). Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.
City council will weigh whether or not to:
This is the big one, and the early contender for story of the week. Live on the floor of council, 45 municipal politicians (assuming none of them are absent, but we’re hearing Ron Moeser is over his surgery, so fingers crossed!) will attempt to dissolve and then reconstitute the board of the TTC with new members. Left-leaning councillors will be trying to hand the balance of power to their LRT-supporting buds, while Ford-allied councillors will be pushing for an outcome that nudges Toronto in the direction of underground transit. The debate will by all indications be a crazy shitshow, so if you like council drama, make sure to watch.
The Toronto Community Housing Corporation has a massive repair backlog. To address that, their board is pushing council to sell off 675 stand-alone homes, most of them occupied. In a rare show of patience, Mayor Ford’s executive committee agreed to sell off only 56 vacant properties for the time being, and hold off on selling most of the rest pending further study. Council will decide whether or not to go along with that plan.
Tighten up press protocol at City Hall.
Some media organizations rent office space at City Hall, and the reporters who work out of those offices are known as “the City Hall press gallery.” A lot of smaller organizations—like, for instance, Torontoist—cover City Hall, but don’t rent office space. These smaller players have historically found it easy enough to get the access they need, because the rules that govern who can and can’t participate in press availabilities are informal. (You can pretty much carry around a notebook and people will assume you write for someone or other.) But now the city manager’s office is recommending that the City formalize its accreditation practices so that everyone who rents office space will have special security badges that won’t be available to other members of the media. There’s already a less-formal badge system that isn’t much of a hinderance, so it’s unclear what the long-term ramifications of the new policy would be, but we expect things to get more difficult for us somehow if city council adopts this measure.
Take the next step in giving John Street a pedestrian-friendly makeover.
The City has been looking at remodelling John Street between Queen and Front Streets in order to make it more walkable, and now the environmental assessment of the proposal is done. City council will decide whether or not to issue a “notice of completion,” which is a type of bureaucratic proclamation. It would tick off the next checkbox on the way to eventually putting shovels in the ground.
Create a $60 fine for stopping within 15 metres of pedestrian crossovers on smaller streets.
Right now you don’t have to do this on smaller roads unless there’s a sign that says “No Stopping Anytime” or something to that effect. (You do, however, need to do it on main streets even if there is no sign.) If council gives the nod, the signage requirement would be completely eliminated. The idea here is to promote safety by preserving clear sight lines.
Debate the merits of asking the province to ignore council’s vote of confidence in light rail.
A bunch of Etobicoke councillors signed a letter urging the province to hold its own vote on the light-rail-versus-subway issue, and now they want an open debate on the matter. The debate might happen, but it’s doubtful that it would lead anywhere. Dalton McGuinty and pals have given no indication that they’ll intercede.
Try to designate the Paradise Theatre a heritage property.
The Paradise Theatre, long a Bloor Street West institution, is now in real-estate limbo, and facing an applicaton for demolition. City council will decide whether to halt demolition (for the time being) by starting the process of designating the building a heritage property.
Clean up the mess at City Hall. But, um, literally.
If this member motion gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, city council will decide whether or not to ask staff to look at ways of keeping things at City Hall in spiffier condition, because Vincent Crisanti (Ward 1, Etobicoke North) thinks things are in deplorable shape. This from a councillor who, out of fealty to the mayor, would almost definitely vote against allocating new money to upkeep.
Delay eliminating email services at 311.
One thing that was cut during this year’s budget process was 311’s ability to handle questions by email. If this member motion gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether to ask 311’s director to hold off on any service changes until funding can be reassessed.
This post originally said that city council would be considering eliminating a signage requirement for “no stopping” violations at all pedestrian crossovers, whereas the actual proposal was to eliminate the requirement only on smaller roadways. (The requirement was eliminated for main streets in 2010.) The post has been amended accordingly.