Everyone is well aware of Rob's faults and achievements.
Your view is just one. Did you actually live in 416?.
Gravy train.....he took it off the rails even if it is back on..
People are respecting what he accomplished and not what were his failures. We all have faults.
He accomplished very little. I live in 416 and have had to deal with the fall out of his poor decisions.
Please list his actual accomplishments? Other than contracting out half the cities garbage he hasn't accomplished anything. The gravy train was a small drop in the cities budget. The gravy train is a fraction of the amount of money Ford cost cancelling existing funded transit plans. Ford rarely demonstrated any knowledge about the subjects he talked about on council floor. Voting against everyone else might work as a councillor but it sure as hell didn't work as a mayor.
I didn't live in TO during his tenure but viewing it from 3000 miles away it seemed to me that he tried to do the right things related to budgets, spending and even infrastructure development, although regardless of what he proposed it seemed that there was those on council that were determined not to listen - R.I.P. Rob.
I think his stance on Subways was great. It's Canada. Light rail and street cars just don't cut it in our climate. I was thinking about this yesterday when I waited 30 minutes for a street car at King and Dufferin. Then just gave up an took Uber.
Adrath. Just Curious. What was the fallout you had to deal with?
I didn't live in TO during his tenure but viewing it from 3000 miles away it seemed to me that he tried to do the right things related to budgets, spending and even infrastructure development, although regardless of what he proposed it seemed that there was those on council that were determined not to listen - R.I.P. Rob.
I think his stance on Subways was great. It's Canada. Light rail and street cars just don't cut it in our climate. I was thinking about this yesterday when I waited 30 minutes for a street car at King and Dufferin. Then just gave up an took Uber.
Adrath. Just Curious. What was the fallout you had to deal with?
are you on drugs? both edmonton and calgary have had light rail systems for 35+ years. they have more severe weather than we do here. BC has something like the scarborough lrt. denver, philadephia, minneapolis, jersey city and boston have similar weather to toronto, they have LRT. technically the street car system is considered a LRT and thats been in operation for over a century!
are you on drugs? both edmonton and calgary have had light rail systems for 35+ years. they have more severe weather than we do here. BC has something like the scarborough lrt. denver, philadephia, minneapolis, jersey city and boston have similar weather to toronto, they have LRT. technically the street car system is considered a LRT and thats been in operation for over a century!
Street cars are a relic & belong in the museum. When they are stopped to drop off passengers both lanes are stopped. Plus fast moving vehicles can't pass them easily. Their street tracks are a hazard to motorcycles also
That's an understatement. Anachronistic vehicles with 19th century technology. A few weeks ago I was several car lengths behind one on Dundas W when suddenly huge sparks burst overhead. Something shorted out and the streetcar started catching fire. As I drove closer, the overhead live wire was severed and lying on the ground. What a clusterfudge. The reason why streetcars are still in Toronto is because the union loves them. Countless hours of OT for emergencies while the system requires constant upkeep and maintenance. Oh, and they don't work when it gets too cold. Last year the streetcars were shut down more than once due to cold temps.
Chill man. A hater's going to hate, but you did mention the U* word
I do agree though that street cars are well past their prime. Freezing rain or deep snow just clobbers everything.
I think the problem is that there has been so little infrastructure investment over the last 50 years that its almost impossible to catch up. Had there been a modicum of investment in subways during that time we could have had a decent infrastructure today
Street cars are a relic & belong in the museum. When they are stopped to drop off passengers both lanes are stopped. Plus fast moving vehicles can't pass them easily. Their street tracks are a hazard to motorcycles also
I like streetcars because they are relics and they slow the cars down so I can get by on my bike. This place is full of grumpy haters. Go ride somewhere and stop crying people.
That's an understatement. Anachronistic vehicles with 19th century technology. A few weeks ago I was several car lengths behind one on Dundas W when suddenly huge sparks burst overhead. Something shorted out and the streetcar started catching fire. As I drove closer, the overhead live wire was severed and lying on the ground. What a clusterfudge. The reason why streetcars are still in Toronto is because the union loves them. Countless hours of OT for emergencies while the system requires constant upkeep and maintenance. Oh, and they don't work when it gets too cold. Last year the streetcars were shut down more than once due to cold temps.
That's an understatement. Anachronistic vehicles with 19th century technology. A few weeks ago I was several car lengths behind one on Dundas W when suddenly huge sparks burst overhead. Something shorted out and the streetcar started catching fire. As I drove closer, the overhead live wire was severed and lying on the ground. What a clusterfudge. The reason why streetcars are still in Toronto is because the union loves them. Countless hours of OT for emergencies while the system requires constant upkeep and maintenance. Oh, and they don't work when it gets too cold. Last year the streetcars were shut down more than once due to cold temps.
Subways, orders of magnitude more expensive and time-consuming to build, and much more difficult to place even when there is sufficient funding available to build them.
Streetcar or tram infrastructure is fairly fast and inexpensive to build, and is extremely flexible as far as routing and extendibility goes. If Toronto would change from trolley-poles and wires to the catenary systems in use on European trams (and for which the new TTC streetcars are actually designed to use), connection reliability in even bad weather would go way up.
The old streetcars didn't do well in cold weather because of their air lines and the effect of freezing weather on cracked air lines and moisture in the air within the lines. The new streetcars use a different technology.
If you look to Europe, tram technology and usage is doing quite well. A number of American cities are bring back streetcars, ans are some Canadian cities. The technology isn't obsolete by any means, and they are a very cost effective and efficient way to expand transit in an already-built city environment both on dedicated right of ways and in existing road networks. They just happen to displace cars, which is not welcome by certain people who are inseparable from their cars.
Now none of this is Rob Ford except that he didn't like them.
I must say that Rob Ford has lately taken on a far more dignified poise worthy of a respectable politician than I have ever seen before. Pity he had to die before being able to adopt that poise.
That's an understatement. Anachronistic vehicles with 19th century technology. A few weeks ago I was several car lengths behind one on Dundas W when suddenly huge sparks burst overhead. Something shorted out and the streetcar started catching fire. As I drove closer, the overhead live wire was severed and lying on the ground. What a clusterfudge. The reason why streetcars are still in Toronto is because the union loves them. Countless hours of OT for emergencies while the system requires constant upkeep and maintenance. Oh, and they don't work when it gets too cold. Last year the streetcars were shut down more than once due to cold temps.
I travel a lot and really struggle with how bad the public transit infrastructure really is in TO when compared to other cities across the globe. Its really through systemic lack of investment over the past 60 years with everything being done on the cheap with band-aid solutions.
Will streetcars and LRT work probably, are the the best solution in the Canadian climate, clearly not.
20 years ago I was working at Rogers on Bloor and took the LRT and Subway from Scarborough Town. In the winter it was just a constant parade of shuttle buses between STC and Kennedy Station.
LRT has its place and works great in areas like the Bay Area or Portland. It very rarely gets below freezing there.
I'd vote for him again. Unfortunately, even dead, he'd contribute more than some of the Councillors.
Can anyone explain why LRT?
It has never made sense to me, and after witnessing Scarborough LRT and the St. Clair Street car right of way, it makes even less.
Why tear down the Gardiner?
Why promise green space, and then throw up Condos?
Why throw up a Streetcar right of way, right along a "bike route", and force bikes and cars to share a single lane?
Why remove entire lanes from roadways?
Why place speed bumps everywhere?
Why threaten to close down swimming pools every year?
This is some of the stuff that Rob was up against.
We really need to take back City Hall, and turn things to a more positive direction.
One perfect example how Rob Ford was penny rich but sense poor. Rob Ford cut much of the tree trimming budget for the city. I don't have exact quotes but I remember watching city council and he just didn't understand why trees should cost so much. It was a waste to him. Gravy. That small percentage of the cities budget was essential for him to cut because it was 'waste'. Fast forward a few months and Toronto gets hit with an ice storm (which is common in Canada after all). All of those trees which should have been trimmed and managed ended up taking out all of the powerlines in my neighbourhood. It cost Toronto hydro a small fortune (which the city covers) to get power restored and to cut back the trees which hadn't been properly maintained by the city.
So the question is did Rob Ford save the city money? He counts the small budget savings as a yes towards his mythical billion dollars of savings but the reality is that Toronto would have been far better and saved a lot more money maintaining the trees than having to pay massive amounts on OT pay to restore the damage his choices caused. The man had little foresight and acted on feelings not facts.
One perfect example how Rob Ford was penny rich but sense poor. Rob Ford cut much of the tree trimming budget for the city. I don't have exact quotes but I remember watching city council and he just didn't understand why trees should cost so much. It was a waste to him. Gravy. That small percentage of the cities budget was essential for him to cut because it was 'waste'. Fast forward a few months and Toronto gets hit with an ice storm (which is common in Canada after all). All of those trees which should have been trimmed and managed ended up taking out all of the powerlines in my neighbourhood. It cost Toronto hydro a small fortune (which the city covers) to get power restored and to cut back the trees which hadn't been properly maintained by the city.
So the question is did Rob Ford save the city money? He counts the small budget savings as a yes towards his mythical billion dollars of savings but the reality is that Toronto would have been far better and saved a lot more money maintaining the trees than having to pay massive amounts on OT pay to restore the damage his choices caused. The man had little foresight and acted on feelings not facts.
Meh, I was in David Miller's old riding, and the powers that be decided that they should reroute the underground electrical overhead to make it easier to work on. Why take underground cables and run them past 100 year old trees that had a habit of falling over in a medium breeze?
None of Council seems to get things sometimes, and the bureaucrats aren't always willing or eager to let them in on the secrets.
Besides, wouldn't someone have to motion, another second, and the full Council vote on something like that?
Not to mention, that the Mayor's powers were stripped from him, not long after he was in office, so pretty much any mess up was Council and not Rob.
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