Revitalising and refocusing Toronto.

George Smitherman has issued a statement on the revitalising and refocusing of Toronto, should he become Mayor. 


its2big sent the following comments to John Sewell.


1) We need to refocus City Hall so that local issues can be addressed more efficiently and effectively.


That sounds great but the last time this happened things got worse. Right now we have 4 Community Councils that bring motions that have been "debated". In our case, that's just not true. Decisions on agenda items are decided before the meetings start. It's how councillors have crafted a way of dealing with many issues they don't know anything about (a development) or which are remote from their constituency.


2) At the same time we need to ensure that our city is capable of addressing the regional issues and is able to focus on those issues.


This doesn't resonate with us at its2big.


3) We need more transparency in decision-making, budgeting and the spending of money.


Agreed, especially in decision-making. The budget thing gets all fired-up once a year and then gets forgotten for the rest of it. Let's hope spending isn't covered-off by reference to some bullshit rules either. For example, Karen Stintz spent $4,500 on private speech lessons to further her political ambitions and when challenged said, "it was approved", end of story.


4) We need to be more creative in using the tools available to us to facilitate development not only in our downtown but across the City, to ensure that all City neighbourhoods have equal access to good neighbourhood facilities and services, jobs and housing choices.


I'm sure Mr. Bedford is disappointed with the implementation of his New Official Plan. The last 2 councils have made a good job of punching holes it it already. So much so that we might need another "Newer Official Plan" soon. (And, we don't mean the 5 year review that is upon it next year.) Development is the area where the greatest corruption has occurred. As Adam Vaughan said about Karen Stintz's approach to development, “a corruption of planning principles. I’ve never seen anything more unprincipled.”


Let's hope the next Mayor of Toronto can finally get the job done and tell him to not bother with David Miller's broom. We have a better one here called - www.its2big.ca.

A Parcel of Rogues.

SUCH A PARCEL OF ROGUES T'WAS THAT ORGANIZATION!

Farewell to Ward 16 fame

Farewell our old glory

Farewell even to the name

So famed in municipal story

Now Stintz runs over the Official Plan

And Tall Buildings tower over the horizion

To mark where Miller’s province stands-

Such a parcel of rogues in an organization!

What force or guile could not subdue

Through many troubled stages

Is wrought now by an elected few

For parties, suits and speeches.

A councillor’s arrogance we disdained

Secure in honest condemnation;

But developer’s funds have been our bane-

Such a parcel of rogues in one organization!

If only we had seen the day

That blind ambition could sell us,

My cool head would remain

With Sewell and loyal Jacobs!

But with Mills in Ward 16, till the last hour

I will make this declaration :-

'We were bought and sold for developer’s gold'-

T'WAS SUCH A PARCEL OF ROGUES IN THAT ORGANIZATION!

What was Karen Stintz thinking?

The TTC subway doesn't work. Our sewers are bursting. The water supply is leaking. We're out of open space. Our roads are gridlocked. Summer smog, winter choke. Yet, willy-nilly we stuff more condos into our neighbourhoods. Where's that plan taking us?

There should be no plan but the Official Plan.

Some readers may see parallels in this poem to the Council of the past 7 years with it’s ‘Political Elites’ handing Toronto over to the greed of developers. Through a sense of entitlement, a corruption of planning principles, we've become a 'condo-nation'. All at the expense of the ideals in Toronto’s Official Plan.

The "corruption" at City Hall is best exemplified by the practice of "ward politics". It has to stop, we must raise the level of integrity in decision-making on Council. 

Development is good, over-sized development is not!