Mayor Rob Ford has been sitting on a TTC report that shows job growth projections are so far off target in North York and Scarborough that it’s not advisable to build a subway linking the two centres.
Sources say Ford was given the analysis almost a year ago, after he demanded to know why the TTC wanted to build a light rail transit line along Sheppard, and not the subway it favoured 25 years ago.
The 11-page report, obtained by the Toronto Star, concludes it is ill-advised to build subways when job numbers, office development and transit ridership are so low.
“The world changed,” a source told the Star. “The mayor got the report,” but it has not gone public because “they don’t like the answer they got. The information is important because it explains why the TTC’s opinion is different today than in 1986.”
For example, planners projected 64,000 added jobs would come to the North York Centre, near Yonge and Sheppard, between 1986 and 2011. In fact, as of 2006, employment had grown by only 800 jobs over the two decades, the report says.
Scarborough Centre, at McCowan and Highway 401, was forecast to grow by 50,000 jobs. Figures for 2006 reveal a net loss of 700 jobs and a total of 13,700.
The job picture reflects a less than stellar performance all across the city. The 1986 forecast estimated that by 2011 Toronto’s job numbers would increase by 670,000. Not so. Job figures from 2006 show a city-wide growth of just 70,000 jobs over the 20 years.
Latest figures (2010) show that instead of topping 1.9 million jobs, Toronto barely crept up to 1.3 million. Figures for 2010 show North York Centre numbers at 38,800 and Scarborough Centre at 14,700 total.
The numbers are a warning sign for those who would build a large-capacity subway to link the North York and Scarborough centres when the ridership is not there, the report concludes.
But the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, would have none of it when contacted by the Star.
“Build a subway and people will come,” he said, refusing to consider TTC figures that show the opposite has happened along Sheppard.
“The TTC? Please, give me a break. They are just justifying union jobs. LRTs destroy neighbourhoods,” he said.
One transit planner, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation from the mayor, said:
“The world has changed. It’s not the way people thought it would evolve back in 1986. Employment — the biggest generator of transit riders — has not materialized in a big way. There are more than 30 per cent fewer jobs than envisioned.”
Ford has said he will continue to push for subway construction on Sheppard and elsewhere. He says the public want subways, not light rail, which he derisively dismisses as trolleys.
And subway supporters like Gordon Chong, whose pro-subway report is being debated at city hall, says the TTC was strongly in favour of subways when it approved the environmental assessment on the Sheppard subway in 1986.
But the secret TTC report, dated just after Ford convinced the province to give him time to find money for the Sheppard subway extension, says that 25 years ago the subway was the “dominant form of rapid transit. Only four modern light rail lines existed in North America. Light rail was not fully understood and vehicle design was not fully evolved.”
Since then, new light-rail lines have opened in more than 115 cities around the world; it has emerged as the transit mode of choice for routes too busy for a bus but not near the 15,000 per hour needed to warrant a subway.
A sweeping report on the financial health of Canada's largest province calls for a major rethink of an economy long regarded as the engine of the country's growth.
The highly anticipated report delivered Wednesday by economist Don Drummond warns that Ontario is in the midst of a sea change driven by the decline of its manufacturing sector and shifting demographics.
The prescription is a massive cost-cutting plan, a laundry list of austerity measures delivered in a 532-page report, "a brick," in Drummond's estimation. Its 362 recommendations range from broad reforms such as a culture shift in health care to focus on health promotion from the existing "after-the-problem treatment" model to nitty-gritty details, such as a call for commuters to pay for parking at GO Transit stations.
In total, the work of the four-person panel amounts to a wake-up call to the province and the politicians who govern it -- one it concedes could take some time to sink in.
"Our message will strike many as profoundly gloomy. It is one that Ontarians have not heard," the report cautions at the onset.
The days of relying on economic growth to solve the province's fiscal problems are over, Drummond warns. "We don't think the previous growth rates, unfortunately, will come back," he told reporters.
If left unchecked, Ontario's deficit will swell to $30.2 billion by 2018, or more than double last year's figure. In order to correct that course, the report says annual spending growth must be held at 0.8 percent over seven years -- a target that given population growth and inflation actually will require a 16.2-percent cut in program spending over that period for every man, woman and child in the province.
As well as its list of prescriptive measures, the report raises two key themes, the need to make policy decisions based on evidence and the need to integrate public services -- everything from social assistance to provincial real estate holdings.
This is not the first time a Canadian government has embarked on such a belt-tightening endeavor, Drummond said. But this time around the province has told indicated raising taxes is off the table and the report recommends that no cuts be made to social assistance rates, as they were under the Mike Harris government.
With those caveats, Drummond said his report would sent the province into largely uncharted waters. "I think it would be fair to say it would be unprecedented in the post war period in Canada," he said.
A group of investors announced Feb 8 that they will unite to rescue the Yonge St bookstore from closure – a fate that seemed imminent after owner John Scythes said he was selling the shop earlier this year.
“I really didn’t want to see Glad Day close its doors – it has been, and continues to be, so important to so many people,” Scythes said in a press release. “I’m very happy. I’m trying to hand over the store in good condition, and I'm very busy,” he said in a brief phone call with Xtra.
The sale has not yet been finalized, but the new owners expect to take over in early March. Michael Erickson, a high school English and creative writing teacher, was instrumental in bringing the group together.
“We firmly believe that Glad Day provides a service and books that are not available anywhere else in the world. We hope that with a large group of people willing to put their energy and passion behind the business, we can keep it not only alive, but also growing,” Erickson says. “There’s an opportunity to make it something that it’s never been before.”
[. . .]
Kim Crosby, the co-director of the People Project, an organization that works with queer and trans young people, got involved after Erickson approached her.
“It was very easy to say yes and to figure out whatever I could do to be supportive,” Crosby says.
Crosby says the group intentionally created a shared model in which people in different income brackets could come together as equals. She also says the diversity of the group will be an asset.
“As a queer woman myself, and coming out in Toronto, it was really hard for me to believe it was possible to be queer because I didn’t see anybody that looked like me. There’s an incredible importance in changing what the face of the queer community looks like. Our investors are all very different. There are trans folks, there are queer folks, there are younger ones, there are elders. We very much want to see the population of people coming to the bookstore to really reflect the diversity of Toronto’s population and community, and as well as that of the people who are investing and creating the space,” Crosby says.
A group of local Torontonians faithful to the history of the iconic store have banded together to buy the business.
“As individuals, none of us are rich. But collectively, there will be over 20 of us in the end, and we can pull it off,” said Michael Erickson, who spearheaded the purchase, which has yet to be finalized. He wouldn’t disclose the value of the deal.
Erickson is by profession a high-school teacher at Harbord Collegiate, where he specializes in English and Creative Writing, but the rest of the buyers are an eclectic mix of lawyers, government workers, playwrights, musicians, community activists, even former Glad Day employees. Charles Smith, 23, is the group’s youngest investor.
“What unites us is that everyone cares about the preservation and growth of the LGBTQ community, and books and stories are important to us in doing that,” Erickson said, in an interview.
Erickson himself had been a Glad Day patron in the past, but fell out of touch with the store over the years. Like many of his fellow collaborators, just “didn’t get around to it,” but sees this as a second chance to show his loyalty.
“Our task as new owners is to give people a reason to come in and support the future of the bookstore,” he said. The group expects to make a series of announcements in early March. “We’ve got some exciting changes and expansions…that we hope will bring back the golden days of the bookstore as a hub of culture and creativity for the LGBTQ community.”
Canada set the seal on improving ties with China on Saturday by agreeing to a 10-year loan for two giant pandas, traditionally an indication of official approval from Beijing.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper witnessed the signing ceremony on the last day of a visit designed to sell Canadian oil and other resources to China. The pandas are the first to travel to Canada in more than two decades.
"The pandas' visit to Canada represents an important step forward in the blossoming relationship between our two peoples," he told a formal ceremony at Chongqing Zoo.
The two pandas - the male Er Shun, "Double Smoothness," and female Ji Li, "Successful and Pretty," - are expected to arrive in Canada early next year. They will split their 10-year sojourn between zoos in Calgary in western Canada and Toronto in the east.
Er Shun and Ji Li, perhaps the furriest embodiment of international exchange of late, are set to arrive at the Toronto Zoo in the spring of 2013. While their visitation is officially considered a "loan" (*snort*) the zoo will be making a $1 million "donation" to conservation efforts in China for each of the five years Er Shun and Ji Li will be chewing bamboo in our pens. Speaking of which, the cost just to feed them is expected to run upwards of $200,000 annually, on top of another $800,000 to renovate the home of the Siberian tiger to make it panda-friendly. On top of all that, there are additional costs for maintenance, specialized training for vets, zookeepers, and that salary for whatever poor PR person is charged with the task of reinforcing that this actually is a good idea.
Officials have said that they don't expect taxpayers to be on the hook for any of the cost, adding that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus have both expressed interest in visiting the new panda exhibit. It should be noted that the City already contributes more than $11 million annually to keep the zoo up and running, all the while it continues to see decreases in visitor attendance. There was a five per cent in decline in attendance from 2010 to 2011, which, granted, was an improvement on the 12 per cent decline from 2009 to 2010.
The zoo, however, is banking on the attendance spike that tends to come with special exhibits, as was the case in 1985 when two giant pandas came to Toronto for a 100-day visit. Attendance broke all previous records during those 100 days, and the zoo saw approximately $13.7 million in revenue. But will it happen this time? Repeat spectacles don't do as well the second time around as a general rule, and this time — more than 25 years later — people are far more sensitive to issues of keeping wildlife in captivity. As well, with a five-year window to gawk at the pandas (as opposed to just 100 days like last time) I don't expect visitors will be knocking down the doors on opening day.
Then there are a series of ethical questions, so just let me affix my bleeding heart for a moment. I, personally, have a few qualms with shipping animals across the world so we can allow our loose jaws to gawk, nevermind keeping them in captivity with no intention of natural re-integration and forcing them to mate so we can send China back a gift. There are plenty of endangered species in Canada that could use some zoo-sponsored attention, but of course, the Long-billed Curlew isn't quite as cute and cuddly as one of China's million-dollar pandas.
In the first days of the spring time
made you a prince with a thousand enemies
made a trail of, a thousand tears
made you prisoner inside your own frequency
There's a ghost in me
who wants to say "I'm sorry"
Doesn't mean I'm sorry
At the first hour of the springtime
made you up and split from one thousand enemies
now I see you from the corner
clock strikes
and I know you will be drinking alone
There's a ghost in me
who wants to say "I'm sorry"
Doesn't mean I'm sorry.
AL: In the book you write, "Marx alone sought to combine a politics of revolt with the "poetry of the future" and applied himself to demonstrate that socialism was more modern than capitalism and more productive. To recover that futurism and that excitement is surely the fundamental task of any left 'discursive struggle' today." Could you talk more about this, and how one might begin to conceive a futuristic socialism?
FJ: Marx himself was always quite excited about new discoveries -- things like chemical fertilizers (which don't seem so good today, but lead to a green revolution in their time), undersea cable, and other discoveries of the day. It is very clear that he thought of socialism as more advanced technologically and in every other way. Raymond Williams wrote about how people think that socialism is a nostalgic return to a simpler society. Williams challenged that saying socialism won't be simpler, it will be much more complicated.
There is a tendency among the Left today -- and I mean all varieties of the Left -- of being reduced to protecting things. It is a kind of conservatism; saving all the things that capitalism destroys which range from nature to communities, cities, culture and so on. The Left is placed in a very self-defeating nostalgic position, just trying to slow down the movement of history. There is a line by Walter Benjamin that epitomizes that -- though I don't know how he thought of that himself -- revolutions are "pulling the emergency chord," stopping the onrush of the train. I don't think Marx thought about it like that at all. It seems to me that Marx thought that productivity would increase by getting rid of capitalism. On the level of organization, technology and production, Marx did not want a return to handicraft labour, but to go on into all kinds of complex forms of automation and computerization [as it would emerge] and so.
The historical accident of something like socialism or communism taking place in a place what was essentially a third world country, Russia, an underdeveloped country, that's made us think of socialism in a way that was not Marx's way of imagining it. The socialist movement has to itself be inspired by this other type of vision.
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