the reeves report
City of Toronto
Parking taxes and road tolls: the politics of misdirection
I have an important announcement for all political parties – not every comment made by every individual opposition candidate can or should be used as a stand-in for opposition policy as a whole. Because people are not dumb, they see through it, and you end up looking silly. Case in point: a press release came … Continue reading
Toronto mulls deep service cuts to begin meeting $774M budget shortfall
In the effort to reduce a budget shortfall of $774M in the City of Toronto, we may find that the city our forebears worked so hard to create will be drained of its essence. After promising in the 2010 mayoral election that taxes would be cut and services would be left alone – that tired … Continue reading
Torontonians beginning to realize you get what you pay For(d)
Running through the public and media discourse during and immediately after the ‘Historic Toronto Council Sleepover,’ as it will be etched forever in city lore, were two dominant threads that reinforced each other while speaking to separate issues. The first: elections matter. The second: you get what you pay for. Mayor Rob Ford’s challenge to … Continue reading
Riding to ‘Save Jarvis’
At last count before the event started, the RSVP on Facebook claimed that about 900+ people would be attending the ride to ‘Save Jarvis.’ But like anyone who has thrown a party and relied on Facebook to count the attendees, I figured that number would drop by at least a third as things came up … Continue reading
Compromising on Bike Lanes at Toronto City Hall: Pt. II
Yesterday afternoon, when onlookers in the crowd spotted Ford staffers handing out voting sheets to ‘Fordnation,’ as the right wing of Council is known, we who were there to support bike lanes should have guessed the issue was dead in the water. The slim chance that cyclists and their advocates on Council had in retaining … Continue reading
Fighting for Bike Lanes at Toronto City Hall: Pt. I
“Dammit. My phone died.” “You can use mine.” “That’s okay. I kinda knew it would happen. I didn’t have time to charge my phone today on my morning off. ‘Cause I spent it here.” Andrea Garcia, Advocacy Director with the Toronto Cyclists Union, had already had a long day when I left Council at 7:00 … Continue reading
Licensing cyclists is not the answer
Listen up, my broke and miserly city: licensing cyclists is not the answer. Licensing cyclists will not prevent the highly unfortunate accident that took place yesterday, in which a pedestrian was hit in Kensington Market and is now in critical condition. Why? Because the problem with that cyclist, among thousands and thousands of others, is … Continue reading
