to move up and down
T.O. Incognito
TTC chairwoman Karen Stintz learned a little bit about being a transit worker recently by going undercover as one for the TV show Undercover Boss. Will this start a trend at City Hall? Could that police officer ticketing you be Adam Vaughan? Steve Murray highlights signs that your city employees may not be who they say they are.
Better know your Margarets: A visual guide for the Ford brothers
Earlier this year, Doug Ford admitted he wouldn’t know Margaret Atwood if she were standing beside him on a street corner. Earlier this week, his brother said the TV character Marg Delahunty didn’t identify herself during an ambush at his home for an episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Clearly, the Fords are having difficulty recognizing famous Margarets. With that in mind, Emily Innes provides a cheat sheet on five others they might want to keep an eye on.
Mayor Rob Ford’s approval rating has taken a nosedive, according to a new poll that reveals major opposition to a batch of proposed budget cuts.
Four in ten surveyed Torontonians, or 42%, told Forum Research they approve of the job Mayor Ford is doing, compared to 57% in June and 60% at the end of February.
The Mayor’s tact is more popular among older residents (47% of those over 55) and in Etobicoke-York, where half of the people endorse his work. Toronto East York residents were the least impressed (30% approval), followed by North York (43% approval) and Scarborough (49%). Forum Research surveyed 1,046 randomly selected residents on Monday, the day city manager Joe Pennachetti released his list of preferred cuts to help balance the books.
Doug Ford, the Idea Man
Love him or loathe him, Mayor Rob Ford’s older brother has become an idea machine, someone who isn’t afraid to toss out unorthodox concepts in the hopes that they create jobs and boost Toronto’s profile.
He has championed scoring the city an NFL team, and at one point suggested dropping a stadium on the Port Lands. He has raised the possibility of tunnelling three levels under the Gardiner Expressway — one level for trains, one for a toll road and another road that is free — and developing above it.
In a sit-down interview with the National Post this week, he prefaced an unheard-of scheme with “now, this is way out there.”
“If we have the privilege of getting a football team, we need a stadium,” the Etobicoke city councillor began, while sitting in City Hall’s cafeteria. Forget about putting it in the Port Lands. Why not take the infill from tunneling a transit line under Eglinton Avenue and “pull a Dubai,” he says, building a lollipop-shape land mass from the mainland into Lake Ontario, precise location undetermined, on which a new football stadium could sit.
He sketches it out on a reporter’s notepad, marking lines around the circular island stadium to illustrate lakeside bars. “So you have tailgating on the boats, and a massive dock all the way around. And a big parking lot here,” he says, drawing a rectangle on the mainland.
“Anyone who scanned Toronto and saw this magnificent stadium in the middle of the lake — well, not really in the middle but a quarter-mile out — they would look out and say, that’s Toronto,” he says. “It would be a big dream… but what a sight.” (Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post)
Ground broken in Underpass Park despite criticism of the project
The plot of land stretching east from St. Lawrence St. and south of King St. is not much to look at today, with highway ramps above and a sprawling construction site below. But Thursday morning it offered a hint of something more as politicians and planners gathered to break ground for Underpass Park, a key element in the Toronto waterfront revitalization project.
The accompanying news conference also offered a chance for the most noteworthy of the dignitaries, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, to reaffirm his commitment to the project — despite criticism that has been voiced by two of his longtime family friends, Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug.
“Toronto is the economic engine of the country, and it’s important for Canada that Toronto’s waterfront reflects the transition from its industrial past to the modern age,” he said. “The long-term commitment to the waterfront is there.”
