"St. Clair Fiasco" Joe Mihevc and other sleazeball responses to the Ford situation

The sleaziness and hypocrisy would be astounding if it weren't so predicable. 

Today I received emails from Toronto City Councillors Joe Mihevic and Josh Matlow dripping with sanctimony and reeking of self-promoting hypocrisy.

The one from Mihevc, the bumbler whose vastly overpriced St. Clair Streetcar fiasco is still used as an example throughout Ontario of how not do to a civics project, is particularly cretinous. As he has before, while professing sympathy and concern for Rob Ford, Mihevc takes every opportunity to insult the mayor while putting on the proverbial hairshirt of " pain for our City and the shame and embarrassment that Mayor Ford has brought upon us."

No sane person who isn't Rob Ford or an immediate family member of the embattled mayor is walking around feeling shame or embarrassment for anything Rob Ford has done. Only one of the notoriously asinine Toronto leftists whose personal self-esteem is tied to municipal politics would be stupid enough to profess anything like that. But that doesn't mean that sleazy municipal politicians can't sink so low as to try to milk as much advantage as they can from another person's personal tragedy.

The tone of these releases from the likes of Mihevic and Matlow is that character matters. Indeed it does. In their current statements, the hypocrites Mihevc and Matlow are demonstrating how their own character is far more reprehensible than Rob Ford's.

When City Councillor Ana Bailao was charged with (and later plead guilty) to drunk driving, Rob Ford didn't call for her head, but said "everybody makes mistakes" and offered her support.

Ironically, now with the tables turned Bailao, who is a convicted criminal, is calling for Rob Ford, who is not, to step down.

Clearly Ana Bailao is not the sort of person you want standing behind you if you don't want to find a knife in your back.

It's also worth mentioning that Matlow himself is somewhat dodgy about his own history of impaired driving.

There are a pack of braying hyenas on Toronto's City Council. While Ford has done a good job of pushing his agenda through and righting the course of the economic disaster upon which David Miller had set Toronto, some on Council think Ford's current perceived vulnerability is a chance to advance their own ambitions or those of their special interest friends.Those would include the union CUPE, which is still resentful about the last agreement that Ford managed to force them to accept and which has a number of Ford's more outspoken opponents in its pocket.

The public will have a choice a year from now. They can choose a flawed but devoted public servant trying to do his best for Toronto's citizens. Or they can choose one of the detestable hypocrites who aren't even trying to hide their glee that Ford's personal issues are hurting him.

When that choice is made, it won't be a choice to decide who is running their personal life best. It's a choice about whom the citizens of Toronto trust most to take care of the public interest. And with politicians like "St. Clair fiasco" Joe, whose ineptness wasted tens of millions of tax dollars leading the charge against Ford, that choice will be an easy one.

From Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow's email today

Rob Ford on crack is still better for Toronto than his "sober" spendthrift opponents

Property taxes skyrocketing, unions dominating city spending, introductions of new taxes disguised as user fees, like a new garbage-pick up fee, complete capitulation to a civic union after a lengthy garbage strike, imposition of dictates on how neighbourhoods should be from city bureaucrats and politicians, inept wast of city funds, like the St. Clair streetcar fiasco, and total incompetence characterized the tenure of David Miller, Rob Ford's predecessor as mayor of Toronto.

In complete contrast, since becoming mayor, Rob Ford kept his promise of eliminating the Vehicle Transfer Tax, he reduced the amount of money individual City Councillors are allowed to spend on office expenses, he saved the city millions by outsourcing garbage pick up west of Yonge Street and knowing he would stand up to them, negotiated fair and reasonable contracts with civic unions.

And under Ford's stewardship, for the first time ever, the city's spending has flatlined.

His commitment to put taxpayers above special interests who rely on public-funded entitlements has made Ford plenty of enemies. The Toronto Star has been relentless in attacking the mayor, devoted unprecedented resources to defaming him and actually libeled Ford by falsely accusing him, based on hearsay,  of assaulting a high school football player. A charge that the student, once located, refuted himself. There hasn't been a week when the Star hasn't found some petty grievance that it tried to magnify into a mountain of disdain against Rob Ford.

And now it emerges that Rob Ford may have smoked crack cocaine.

Even if the charges are true, while expecting the mayor to seek help and conduct himself with more decorum in the future, the city is still far better off with Ford as mayor than it would be under any of his spendthrift opponents.

When Grover Cleveland, the former mayor of Buffalo and a man considered to be a thoroughly honest politician, was running against James G. Blaine for the US Presidency in the 19th Century, it was considered a scandal that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child. The Republican Blaine was a good family man who was widely believed to have accepted bribes while Speaker of the House of Representatives.

A newspaper editorial at the time said in effect that Cleveland was a disappointment as a family man while staying honorable in his role as a public servant, while Blaine was immaculate in his private dealings but thoroughly corrupt as a politician. The right thing to do therefore, was that the two should be consigned by the voters to the lives they led best - Cleveland to public life and Blaine back to private life. Grover Cleveland defeated won the election.

The analogy holds true of Ford. The man has never taken a cent in public funds in any way that could be deemed inappropriate. He is even famous for paying his office expenses from his own pocket rather than charging them to the taxpayers.

Lucia Corbella noted in The Calgary Herald that the hypocrisy exhibited by Ford's enemies regarding his alleged substance abuse is astounding:

"Funny how quickly, though, lefties who use that excuse for beautiful losers they admire, or for the downtrodden on their city streets, have abandoned their hackneyed mantra when a person they despise is a user."

The Toronto Star lavished praise on the unbalanced kleptomaniac MP Svend Robinson. But he had, in their eyes, the benefit of of being a member of the socialist New Democratic Party.

In the last municipal election, The Toronto Star endorsed George Smitherman, a drug-addict who was responsible for a billion dollars worth of wasted taxpayer funds. But he was a Liberal, so as far as the Star was concerned, he was just great.

Ford's Council opponents are incompetents who lavish public money on their special interest friends. To put them back in charge of the city's coffers would be disastrous for the taxpayers of Toronto.

While we want to get Ford to get of his crack, he spends other people's money responsibly. Whether sober or on drugs, leftist city councilors like Adam Vauhgan, Joe Mihevc, Janet Davis and Gord Perks spend tax dollars like crackheads who have just pulled off a successful home invasion.

And that's a type of addiction Toronto really can't afford.

The St. Clair West fiasco should be a lesson for Toronto Council

A looming battle at Toronto's City Hall over the future of the municipality's public transportation is going to settle less about that issue than it is a stage for the mayor's opponents to flex some muscle where they see an opportunity. City Council is a continual conflict between the committed socialist and conservative factions, with the outcome decided by a few non-aligned politicians who vote, depending on who were talking about, either on the basis of their assessment of a proposal or on what they see as the most personally advantageous position to take.

The Transit City battle pits the mayor and his allies who want a subway against the Millerite  socialists who are pushing for an above-ground light rail system that was the legacy of the so-called Transit City proposal.

But what is actually best for the city? 

The mayor argues that the above ground system's requirement to have exclusive use of two traffic lanes would increase congestion on an already gridlocked road, while providing only slightly better travel time than a streetcar.

The light rail supporters claim the subway's expense is unfeasible despite a recently commissioned study which reported a contrary conclusion.

If recent history is a guide,it appears the real motive of the light rail advocates seems to be more a disdain for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford than the best transit proposal for the city.

A few years ago, a similar proposal to the light rail was put into place on St. Clair Avenue West. A pair of dedicated streetcar lanes was supposed to streamline transit, speed up travel times and revitalize the area at a relatively minor cost. The project was shepherded by the Toronto Transit Commission Vice Chair and Ward 21 Councillor Joe Mihevc, one of the main backers of the current light rail proposal.

The St. Clair line was handled devastatingly badly. It ran three times the cost estimate, it did irreparable damage to a number of local businesses as traffic was disrupted over the years of construction that went far beyond the time it was supposed to have been completed.

As someone remarked to me at the time, "Why couldn't the city just paint two yellow lines around the inside lanes, put up 'streetcar only' signs, and save 5 years and $100 million?" At the time, the answer seemed to be because politicians love spending other people's money and the power and influence that comes along with it.

Now, years later, traffic on St Clair, which has two more lanes than the relatively narrow Eglinton Avenue, is bottle-necked for cars at major intersections and the streetcars continue their old practice of moving in packs, meaning sometimes three will show up within two minutes leaving riders an up to 20 minute wait at times. Once you're on the streetcar, the ravel time between Christie and Yonge Streets, which is about half the length of the St. Clair line, has only improved by about three to four minutes from the days before dedicated lanes dominated the street.

The above ground dedicated lanes have also created a new barrier between the north and south sides of St.Clair which makes it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the street, leading to an unusual north/south divide that hadn't existed.

None of this has happened on Bloor/Danforth of University where the city's current subway lines speed people to their destination efficiently and at faster speeds than cars could take them through the city's crowded roads.

Bruce McCuaig, the head of Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency responsible for transportation coordination, has just chimed into the debate on the mayor's side, saying Mr. Ford’s preferred plan for underground light rail on Eglinton Avenue “delivers greater benefit” than the Transit City version a coalition of councillors want to revive.

For those of us who have seen what that coalition of councilors achieved in the past, Mr. McCuaig's assessment sounds like a 'no-brainer'. Unfortunately, when talking about City Council and a few of its members who are oppositional because of ideology and grudges, sometimes a no-brainer requires more brains than they seem to have.

Fisking Ward 21 Councillor Joe Mihevc: "The St. Clair Streetcar fiasco wasn't my fault" (or words to that effect)

Joe Mihevc issued an 11th hour press release before tomorrow's election. Now for the Fisking of Joe:

Also, it is important to remind everyone about St. Clair’s cost and construction timeframe because misinformation is being spread about this too. The streetcar line’s original budget ($64 million) [ The Toronto Sun reported, " In 2004, the 6.8 km of dedicated streetcar track, between Yonge St. and the Gunn’s loop, was to cost $48 million and take three years.] did not substantially increase; the fact is that the scope of the project increased. [The Toronto Star: The report, which will be presented to the TTC on Wednesday, notes it was never clear whether the transit company or the city was in charge of the project, with both making design changes almost as "an afterthought" after the work had started, escalating both the cost and period of time the street was in upheaval.]  Two major additions to the scope were burying the Hydro lines (because the businesses asked for it [The cited Sun article reports, " the city decided to put hydro wires underground along St. Clair"]  and the lines were due to be replaced in five years anyway) and replacing the water pipes (because of the higher standards demanded by the Walkerton water report). This cost about $40 million and increased the timeframe of construction. Further, the start of construction was delayed 18 months because of a failed lawsuit against the city and the city allowed Enbridge to take the opportunity to replace its cast iron pipes with PVC. The construction of the streetcar line and the new streets and sidewalks in Ward 21 only took about 8 months! 

[Toronto Sun: "The St. Clair streetcar right-of-way was a disaster because of changes to the plan, a lack of leadership, too many small-time contractors, a lengthy legal battle, and an overly sympathetic province, according to a report by transportation experts Len Kelman and Richard Soberman."]

Anyone who has been to St. Clair knows the street is more vibrant than it has ever been, with many of our old favourite shops and restaurants and many new businesses and patios. Both Business Improvement Associations (BIAs) in Ward 21 are supportive of the streetcar, and have worked closely with me on many shop local initiatives over the years.  ["We told them all that – there was no clear manager; it was like renovating a house without a general contractor," said Connie Lamanna, owner of the Ontario Fashion shop on St. Clair W. and chair of the Corso Italia Business Improvement Area, which opposed the project.]

TTC statistics show that peak time ridership on the 512 St. Clair streetcar route today is up about 50 per cent from 2009 before the new line opened (it is up 25 per cent from 2005 pre-construction). Further, during peak periods, travel time has been reduce by 14 per cent and during off-peak times the service is up to 25 per cent faster. The route is providing much-improved service and people are responding positively by using the route more often.

[The Toronto Star: "With no clear boss, constantly changing plans and too many small contractors crowding the job site, Toronto's controversial St. Clair streetcar line cost more time, money and local anguish than necessary, says an independent review requested by the TTC."]


This is from the TTC Commissioned Report:

“Getting it Right”



Lessons from the St. Clair Streetcar for the Implementation of Transit City


Les Kelman and Richard M. Soberman


7 January 2010
 
 
Reconstruction of the St. Clair streetcar route is intended to improve service reliability and enhance urban design features of the local streetscape. In September 2004, City Council approved a capital investment of about $48 million to proceed with the project, subsequently amended to $65 million as a result of a more through analysis of estimated completion costs.



According to the 2010-2014 TTC and City budgets, the estimated total expenditure for St. Clair is now $106 million. The most recent estimate of project completion (June 2010) results in a total implementation period of more than five years, considerably longer than anticipated.


These additional costs and delays have raised concerns about the ability of the City and the TTC to deliver projects, on budget, in a timely manner. Delay in project completion is also one of the reasons why this project has generated a general perception that unnecessary hardships were created for residents and businesses.

More from Joe here 
 
What was that about misinformation???