Rob Ford (Toronto's Mayor) smoking crack cocaine

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by Rossman

Wild. I find it crazy that anyone would vote for a racist, drunk driving, wife beating, crack smoking mayor. Not to mention his marijuana possession arrest.

Fuckin' goof presents himself as some blue-collar "everyman" when in reality the Fords are so goddamn rich its not even funny...anyone who votes for this guy is an idiot, IMHO. He talks about the getting rid of the gravy train - he didn't get rid of shit, he just redirected the gravy train to his buddies!

There is absolutely no question that this video exists. I personally believe that it's also likely authentic.

There is no reason for two senior reporters at the star and another professional reporter at gawker to have made up this story. If they lied and made it up to be famous, they will never be employed in their chosen fields again. I can't imagine any of them would think that would be a good decision.

And now, lo and behold it looks like Ford knew where the video was the whole time, and someone *might* have already been killed over it.

Great mayor, thanks for voting!

HEY HEY HEY

MAN

not cool







don't knock marijuna

[daiheadjai]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Gawker broke the story first, the Star was just the first paper in TO to run anything. Other papers confirmed they were told about the video before the Star ran it too.



I don't see how anyone that looked at his past history could have voted for him. He has a history of idiotic behavior, barely shows up for meetings, etc. He made claims about how to cut costs, then tried to raise taxes this past year because he realized that there just isn't any way to cut what he said he could cut and worse realized he needs MORE money to balance the budget.

Don't get me wrong, he doesn't have an easy job at all, but at least he should've done homework to see what was actually feasible before making stupid claims.

IIRC, his attendance record was head and shoulders above David Miller's.
That plus people loved his reputation of getting to work for his constituents (apparently, he is one of the few/only councillors who would personally return phone calls to his constituents).

That plus he didn't bill taxpayers for frivolous things like bunny costumes, bus passes, French lessons, etc. (paging Sandra Bussin and Adam Giambrone).

David Miller was too busy jetting to Copenhagen to pick up climate change awards, and too busy folding to union demands to actually run the city properly - which is why we ended up with Ford.

[Sport-Tech]

I was very happy to wave bye-bye to Miller and his bicycle lanes, but the reality-distortion field around Ford is over the top. He belongs in a Fellini film.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by daiheadjai

That plus people loved his reputation of getting to work for his constituents (apparently, he is one of the few/only councillors who would personally return phone calls to his constituents).

Was that because he's hard working, or because they were his dealers

Seriously though, maybe he made a half decent councilor, but he's in WAY over his head as mayor.

Originally Posted by daiheadjai

That plus he didn't bill taxpayers for frivolous things like bunny costumes, bus passes, French lessons, etc. (paging Sandra Bussin and Adam Giambrone).

But he did order ridiculously expensive business cards from a family member's business.

Originally Posted by Sport-Tech

I was very happy to wave bye-bye to Miller and his bicycle lanes, but the reality-distortion field around Ford is over the top. He belongs in a Fellini film.

I'm sorry, but removing bike lines is one of the stupidest things Ford has done. There's no more space to build new roads, so encouraging people to bike and take transit is the only solution to traffic congestion.

[daiheadjai]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Was that because he's hard working, or because they were his dealers

Seriously though, maybe he made a half decent councilor, but he's in WAY over his head as mayor.



But he did order ridiculously expensive business cards from a family member's business.




I'm sorry, but removing bike lines is one of the stupidest things Ford has done. There's no more space to build new roads, so encouraging people to bike and take transit is the only solution to traffic congestion.

Honestly, I think your anti-Ford bias (while arguably justified) is blinding you to some of those dumb decisions taken by Toronto city council (led by Miller).
Bike lanes in an already-congested downtown core makes things worse.
Especially given how lousy the TTC is - for me, it's not a viable choice - I'd much rather drive to work (which I do), rather than support a poorly-planned, overpriced, perennially-unprofitable abomination like the TTC.
Not to mention that "not having space to build new roads" is no excuse;there are other methods to fix the gridlock (i.e. use of one-way arteries, synchronizing traffic light algorithms, etc.).

Public transit can be made into a viable alternative to driving your own car - make it clean, expansive, affordable/reasonably-priced, reliable and on-time, and people will voluntarily choose to stop driving (paying/looking for parking, being stuck in traffic, etc. don't make sense when you have a truly viable alternative). However, TTC is none of those.

Not to mention some people NEED to drive in to work because of where they live - During Millertime, council seemed content to punish those people for the sake of currying favour with their downtown core, rich, WASP* constituents.

*Generally, Ford (at least before these scandals) was viewed much more positively by minorities and immigrants, who appreciate his refusal to blow taxpayer dough on silly pet projects. I find the most virulent anti-Ford bias comes from people "not from visible minority backgrounds" (to use the PC verbiage)

[Sport-Tech]

The big problem with bike lanes is that they're often a zero-sum game - adding a bike lane=losing a car lane (see: Jarvis St, Annette St.) And then there's Miller's "Rapid" Transit line on St Clair - according to an internal study it took all of 3 minutes off the average streetcar trip from Yonge to end of line around Old Weston Rd, but made driving on St Clair W an effing nightmare with the right-of-ways interfering with left hand turns and the reduction to 1 lane of traffic each way.

[7thgear]

As a long time driver and someone that’s recently gotten into cycling, and having visited other metropoli (is that a word?) that have proper bike lanes and bike culture (Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona) I can say with certain certainty that bike-lanes as they exist or as they are proposed will do little to improve anything in Toronto



1. First of all, without actual bike lanes (separatedby barriers and their own light signals), cyclists are at the mercy of a driver’s attention span. This is simply a lack of education on the part of the province. Bike “culture” is as developed here in Toronto as the government is in Somalia. Painting white strips on what otherwise used to be a regular road isn’t going to teach drivers to be attentive. The most important part of road safety is awareness and understanding the mind-set of everyone around you, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and even pedestrians.

I myself have many times been fault to a possible accident whereby I was makinga right-hand turn without checking to see if a cyclist is fast approaching. Knock-on-wood I’ve yet to hit anyone but if I continue to absent-mindedly just turn my car one day I might. So every time I’m out I try to always think of the cyclists and whether they are there or not.



So the first problem for Toronto is not LANES but EDUCATION. People still cycle close to the curb, and that’s FINE, so long as the drivers pay attention



2. The cyclists them selves are not without fault. I myself have experienced that feeling of invincibility and a god-given-right toride how I please. But everyone must understand that a 160 pound sack of bonesand flesh will always lose to a 3000 pound box of metal, that’s just plainphysics.

I see it all the time: cyclists whodon’t bother making eye-contact or at least slowing down when approaching apossible “danger zone.”

It’s best to always assume that thecar drivers are fucking idiots and act accordingly.





So unless there are plans to knock over buildings to expandthe current roads, or build 2nd level roads on top of existing ones,the problem is unsolvable.



The only realistic solution, in my opinion, is:



a. Stop all future commercial zoning in thedowntown core.

b. Increase taxes for commercial property owned bycorporations/business with net assests over some predetermined amount. Ie, themore you own/make the more you pay. While at the same time give incentives to small business owners.

c. Why? To shift the big commercial properties to outside the downtown core. Why do our banks need to have their offices right inthe center? Create “business centers” in suburban areas and do whatever the fuck you want.

d. Convert or demolish existing commercial property to residential.

e. BUILD MORE MULTI-LEVEL PUBLIC PARKING, make it affordable, and eliminate on-street parking.





Basically, do anything to shift the demand for peopleto outside the downtown core, which aside from a few museums and the CN toweris void of anything worth seeing.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by daiheadjai

Honestly, I think your anti-Ford bias (while arguably justified) is blinding you to some of those dumb decisions taken by Toronto city council (led by Miller).
Bike lanes in an already-congested downtown core makes things worse.
Especially given how lousy the TTC is - for me, it's not a viable choice - I'd much rather drive to work (which I do), rather than support a poorly-planned, overpriced, perennially-unprofitable abomination like the TTC.
Not to mention that "not having space to build new roads" is no excuse;there are other methods to fix the gridlock (i.e. use of one-way arteries, synchronizing traffic light algorithms, etc.).

Public transit can be made into a viable alternative to driving your own car - make it clean, expansive, affordable/reasonably-priced, reliable and on-time, and people will voluntarily choose to stop driving (paying/looking for parking, being stuck in traffic, etc. don't make sense when you have a truly viable alternative). However, TTC is none of those.

Not to mention some people NEED to drive in to work because of where they live - During Millertime, council seemed content to punish those people for the sake of currying favour with their downtown core, rich, WASP* constituents.

So instead of fixing the TTC to make transit more attractive, the solution is to marginally improve traffic congestion for drivers? It's short sighted nonsense like this that has gotten Toronto into the situation it's in. Fixing transit and traffic isn't an overnight solution, but they have to take the right steps to make it work.

Full disclosure, I drive to midtown for work every day as well because it's quicker and cheaper than the TTC alternative (drive to finch station, pay for parking, pay for subway), but I used to live in midtown and there needs to be something to improve things for cyclists downtown. They NEED to fix transit, it's the only viable long term solution. People need to get into and out of the city, and since the transit system is laughable they're forced to drive.

Originally Posted by daiheadjai

*Generally, Ford (at least before these scandals) was viewed much more positively by minorities and immigrants, who appreciate his refusal to blow taxpayer dough on silly pet projects. I find the most virulent anti-Ford bias comes from people "not from visible minority backgrounds" (to use the PC verbiage)

It's a bit ironic that so much of his support is from minorities and immigrants and yet he's such a racist at times. I'm sure the chinese population loved his comments about how they work.

I'd like to see how any of his supporters would feel if they were on a bus and kicked off so the bust could be diverted to pick up his football team when it was raining

He might not spend cash quite the same, but he definitely uses city resources to his benefit. Like using city landscapers and road works to fix up his neighborhood before some big party his family was throwing.

[daiheadjai]

Originally Posted by wparsons

So instead of fixing the TTC to make transit more attractive, the solution is to marginally improve traffic congestion for drivers? It's short sighted nonsense like this that has gotten Toronto into the situation it's in. Fixing transit and traffic isn't an overnight solution, but they have to take the right steps to make it work.

Full disclosure, I drive to midtown for work every day as well because it's quicker and cheaper than the TTC alternative (drive to finch station, pay for parking, pay for subway), but I used to live in midtown and there needs to be something to improve things for cyclists downtown. They NEED to fix transit, it's the only viable long term solution. People need to get into and out of the city, and since the transit system is laughable they're forced to drive.



It's a bit ironic that so much of his support is from minorities and immigrants and yet he's such a racist at times. I'm sure the chinese population loved his comments about how they work.

I'd like to see how any of his supporters would feel if they were on a bus and kicked off so the bust could be diverted to pick up his football team when it was raining

He might not spend cash quite the same, but he definitely uses city resources to his benefit. Like using city landscapers and road works to fix up his neighborhood before some big party his family was throwing.

The TTC cost and efficiency issue won't be seriously resolved until we do something about the immense influence wielded by the unions in Toronto.

As for minorities, his comments about "Orientals" aren't considered racist by us - in fact, that's how most of us see it (so you might understand why many of us roll our eyes when Caucasians try to tell us how bad this guy is).

That being said, he still proves that power corrupts - his use of the TTC bus and city road works (although this is controversial, because apparently he filed paperwork for that repair ahead of time), is still at odds with the reason why people voted him in.