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Team Ford to city staff: Keep your expertise to yourself, or else | #TOpoli

The mayor, a champion of car travel, went further on his Sunday Newstalk 1010 radio show, calling McKeown’s $290,000 salary “an embarrassment,” and promising to “look into it.” His brother, Councillor Doug Ford, calling in from Florida, asked: “Why does (McKeown) still have a job?”
via thestar.com

Goddamn those smart people with their facts and evidence and experience, anyway.

So Toronto’s medical officer of health floats an idea about reducing speed limits in order to make the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Can’t have that, of course. Silly doctor — streets are for buses, cars, and trucks.

Forget all that facty, evidency, history stuff that Cityslikr’s citing about carcentrism being a relatively recent thing. (And what kind of condescending, elitist-type word is that, anyway?)

What’s Team Ford’s reaction? Can’t have a discussion about it, it’s just nuts nuts nuts. How much are we paying this guy, anyway? Let’s look into that. It’s an embarrassment. Why does this guy still have a job?

Got that, city staff? Zip it, or … well, shame about Gary Webster, innit. 

Perhaps council should take the board of health away from the FoBros. It’s pretty clear that they can’t be trusted not to break things.

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Toronto’s transit future: avoiding the Team Ford Disaster | #TOpoli

Next Wednesday, city council will meet to debate the shape public transit will take for the next several decades.

We’ve seen a fair amount of sound and fury regarding the subway / LRT debate. We’ve seen a public servant fired for nothing but spite. We’ve seen public meetings where the facts and evidence have been presented, and we’ve seen public meetings whipped up to lynch-mob levels of anger. We’ve seen lobbying, misinformation, astroturfing and truly mind-boggling levels of bullshit. We’ve listened as the mayor and his brother have taken to the airwaves to push their version of things unchecked by any opposing viewpoints. 

But this isn’t just about subways versus LRT, and it’s not about downtowners versus suburban residents. It’s not about pampered elitists versus second-class citizens. What it comes down to, in essence, is: do you trust Team Ford to get things right on anything, never mind the most important and expensive file in the entire municipal-governance arena? This is going to have financial and infrastructural implications that reverberate for decades. As John Lorinc put it last November, this could be 

the single most expensive infrastructure mistake in Toronto history.

We’ve seen the reports. We’ve heard the evidence. We’ve talked about the recommendations. I’m not going to go through them all here. The state of the debate is neatly summed up, though, by one of the panelists appointed to report on transit options for Sheppard East. Not surprisingly, the panel favours LRT over subways for a variety of reasons: ridership, population growth, density, employment projections, and so on. You know, the kind of things I like to refer to on Twitter as #FactyEvidencyTransitStuff.

And what’s Rob Ford’s reaction? He calls the report “hogwash” and says the panelists are “biased.” I’m sorry, I need to shake my head for a minute. And then borrow a comparison from his brother: how is it that we trust this guy with anything more complicated than a kids’ lemonade stand? 

As the University of Toronto’s Eric Miller told the Globe:

The mayor has taken a position that he genuinely believes in, but it’s not fact-based. … Anybody is entitled to their own beliefs. They’re not entitled to their own facts.

It’s not exactly a revelation that some of the subway fetishists have a somewhat, um, elastic relationship to the truth. My favourite example is the continued flogging of the “St. Clair Disaster” meme. Much as I hate to reduce things to sound bites and lapel-button slogans, perhaps it’s time to coin a counter-meme: let’s avoid the Team Ford Disaster.

I guess the more fundamental question here is, how do you reach people for whom facts, evidence and logic aren’t part of the discussion? I don’t have an answer for that. Over to you, intertoobz.

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City Council is Supreme | politics | via @Torontoist and @hamutaldotan

… we are optimistic. We have a government that is working. It is making decisions based on evidence, and it is defending those decisions over time. It is a government that has set a direction on the most fraught and most important policy file we have. It is a government that is doing its job even though Rob Ford isn’t doing his, and if it keeps on doing so Toronto may come out of this mayoralty in better shape than many of us had feared.
via torontoist.com

Hamutal Dotan puts the events of the last few weeks in a calm and well-reasoned perspective. What follows is, for the most part, from a comment over at the Torontoist site.

Really, it’s got nothing to do with Karen Stintz and where she falls on the left / right spectrum. The most important thing about Hamutal’s analysis is the counterpoint it provides to the narrative being pushed by more than one corporate media outlet, which is one portraying Toronto’s city government as being chaotically adrift. Any comment or suggestion that describes council as akin to a bunch of kids squabbling in a sandbox just helps to reinforce that narrative, and let’s not have any illusions about whose interests THAT serves.

Just think about who benefits from that perception. Who do you think wants everyone to dismiss government, civil servants and the public sphere in general as dysfunctional, ineffective and corrupt? Just listen to the radio on Sunday afternoon sometime as Brother Doug tells his listeners that he wouldn’t trust any of his fellow councillors to run a kid’s lemonade stand. Not hard to see where he’s going with that. Once again, if you haven’t read what J.M. McGrath and Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler have written in this regard, take a few minutes and go through it.

So no, what we’re seeing now isn’t the ideal situation, but council is showing that for all its disparate elements and conflicting interests and personalities, it is capable of conducting the city’s business in a mature and responsible manner. Sure, it would be nice if the mayor would play ball and show leadership, but what the last few weeks have shown is that council can function, albeit untidily, even if he doesn’t. That’s a good thing.

Ultimately, what it’s demonstrating is that just because something is “political,” it isn’t inherently icky and sordid. As Shelley Carroll pointed out on Monday, governing is an inherently political process. Setting budgets, allocating resources, balancing interests, determining civic priorities … all of these are political acts, properly situated in the public realm. Pretending that they’re conducted in some rarefied space that’s only recently been soiled by politics is the height of hypocrisy. In order to believe that, you’d have to believe that the firing of Gary Webster had nothing to do with politics. 

We may or may not get a rational and well-thought-out transit plan out of this. And god knows we’re nowhere near out of danger in terms of the damage that Team Ford can still do, both to the institutions and processes of governance in this city and to civil public discourse. But at least we know council can function cooperatively and democratically, with or without the mayor, and that government isn’t something to be viewed with contempt. 

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From Grover Norquist to Gary Webster: putting #TeamFord’s #TTC jihad in context | #TOpoli #Toronto

2012217-gary-webster-ttc

By now, the initial shock and outrage occasioned by the firing of Gary Webster has probably subsided. Most of the observers whose work I follow have had their say and given their analyses, and in truth, I can’t really add much to it. Yes, it’s vindictive, childish and grossly unfair, and based on a fundamental misconception of the role of an impartial and professional public service. And yes, it sends a terrible message, and yes, it’s going to have lasting and damaging effects upon the future of public transit and upon municipal governance.

So? Really, did we honestly expect anything different from Team Ford? We’ve seen the way they conduct public affairs. 

No. Once again, it’s time to take a longer view. We may be too late to help Gary Webster (although I suspect he’ll be fine), and we may not be able to save Team Ford from themselves, but if we are to save our city from their depredations, it’s important to understand the historical and intellectual foundations (such as they are) for their approach to governance.

Remember Grover Norquist? During the Reagan years in the 1980s, he was head of Americans for Tax Reform, a pressure group instrumental in helping the Gipper get government off the backs of the downtrodden rich. If you’re ever curious about how the tax-policy goalposts got shoved so far off-centre, and why we can’t have an adult conversation about raising taxes without provoking mass hysteria, Grover’s a big part of the reason. 

I’m citing him because of his motivations. Nothing encapsulates them better than my favourite Groverism:

I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

It’s not hard to draw the connections between that and more recent currents in governance and public policy. The common theme running through all of them is a hatred of government and the public sphere per se, expressed in pseudo-populist soundbites like “red tape” and “stop the gravy train” and “get government off our backs” and “more freedom through less government.” Always, there’s a carefully cultivated undertone of resentment, and a sense that the public sector is inherently wasteful, inefficient, and corrupt, if not actually evil.

And how does it play out in practice? Well, we’re seeing it now. Perhaps Team Ford, through its unique combination of clumsiness and tone-deafness, takes it to clownish extremes, but you don’t have to look too far for more illustrations. The Harper government’s hostility to inconvenient facts and impartial advice is revealed in its muzzling of scientists on the federal payroll and its approach to the long-form census. And we’re still dealing with the damage remaining from the Harris era. 

Invariably, there’s an impulse to make government as feckless, dysfunctional, and ineffectual as possible. Forget about advancing the public good. Norquist’s bathtub analogy may seem a little over the top, but when you see governments reducing their capacity to act for the common good, surrendering control over a huge range of issues and voluntarily forswearing a whole range of policy tools, it’s easy to see how things like Walkerton can happen.

Again, it helps to view things through the lens of class analysis. The discussion needn’t be academic or theoretical; there’s plenty of real-world evidence that kneecapping government and crippling its ability to act hurts everyone except the 1 per cent. (That’s why the Occupy phenomenon’s had the impact it’s had, and why it’s not going away.)

Just take a look around. Who benefits from this? Whose interests are served by a crippled government and a hollowed-out public sphere? By a frayed and disintegrating civil society? Who can afford to buy their own social infrastructure? Privileged enclaves? Private security? A captivated mass-media complex that drums it into our heads, over and over, that this is the way it’s supposed to be, it’s just the magic of the market at work, and if it’s not working yet, the only answer is more austerity, more free trade, more tax cuts for corporations and “job creators?” Ringing a bell yet?

Democratic and responsible governance is supposed to be the counterbalance to all that. A healthy and vigorous middle class doesn’t arise from the benevolence of society’s overlords, so it’s no surprise that the policies, social conventions, and progressive legislation underpinning it  - the products of decades, even centuries of struggle - are under attack. And we’re not going to be able to fight back effectively unless we recognize it for what it is.

The scandalous treatment of Gary Webster, and by extension, any other public servant with integrity, doesn’t have to be viewed as one of the front lines in class struggle. All I’m suggesting is that we consider it in context: a cumulative gutting of one of our most crucial public services, coupled with mindless repetition of discredited mantras about the efficiency of the private sector. All we need to ask ourselves is: cui bono? Because it ain’t us.

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This is the most disgusting example of political manipulation, of abuse of power, that I have seen in 40 years of TTC and Council-watching. Toronto is soiled by this action.

“So are they all, all honorable men” | Steve Munro

And only yesterday, @DavidHains was lamenting the shortage of Julius Caesar references.

Source: stevemunro.ca

Another Rob Ford gem, and its bearing on the #TTC | #TOpoli #saveGaryWebster

No regard for process. No understanding of how things are done. No input at all, except for the voices in his head. Nothing new here.

Really, I could sit here and post YouTube clips that show Rob Ford for what he is all day (oh, how I wish I could say that in the voice Alan Rickman used in Die Hard), but I’m afraid there is a point to this beyond sardonic fatalism.

And that is: a direct question to Councillors Frank Di Giorgio, Norm Kelly, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Vincent Crisanti, and Cesar Palacio.

Is this really the mast you want to tie your flag to? Is this really the ship you want to go down with?

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Di Giorgio said the responsibility of the city’s bureaucracy is to follow the will of the mayor and achieve the objectives set out by his mandate, which TTC managers have failed to do.

Toronto News: TTC transit chief Gary Webster may not be only one to lose job: Di Giorgio - thestar.com

You know, it may very well be that they want to fire Gary Webster and however many other TTC officials for not “respecting the office of the mayor.” But that anyone could be arrogant and stupid enough to say so publicly just boggles the mind.

Source: thestar.com

One of five city councillors behind the expected firing of the city’s transit chief suggested Sunday that more senior transit managers may lose their jobs for not “respecting the office of the mayor.” “We will discuss whether removing some managers — and it may in fact be three, four, five — we may discuss whether that’s the way to go,” said Frank Di Giorgio, a TTC commissioner allied with Mayor Rob Ford …

Toronto News: TTC transit chief Gary Webster may not be only one to lose job: Di Giorgio - thestar.com

Just how much shit do these people have for brains?

Source: thestar.com

How the aforementioned councillors can even pretend to be representing the best interests of their constituents instead of their own venal political ambitions is beyond me, but like another man of integrity, Munir Sheik, I suspect people will remember Gary Webster long after the people acting like fascist thugs are political dust.

Politics and its Discontents: Fascism Spreads To Toronto

The councillors he’s referring to, in case anyone’s wondering: Norm Kelly, Vince Crisanti, Frank Di Giorgio, Denzil Minnan-Wong and Cesar Palacio.

Source: politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com

Time for a #TransitCity happy dance? | #TOpoli #TeamFord

Last summer I wrote a short post about Jack Layton’s legacy of generosity. 

There are many elements to citizenship — respect, engagement, critical thinking — but of all those elements, it’s hard to top generosity of spirit. It’s something we can all aspire to, even if we fall short. I’m going to give props, yet again, to Hamutal Dotan’s marvellous piece in that regard on Torontoist.

Just so my own biases are clear, I’ll set out my definition once again: Generosity of spirit does not look for external validation or reward. It is extended without any expectation of a quid pro quo. And it is extended to those who do not deserve it precisely because they do not deserve it. That is what makes it what it is.

It’s a high bar to clear, and I’ll admit right now that I don’t often meet it. I wish I could. I’d be a better person if I did, but today I just can’t.

We’ve seen the results of today’s vote at City Council. Whether it means we can truly move forward with the development of public transit remains to be seen, but if it does nothing else, at least it will serve as an unambiguous repudiation of Team Ford’s approach to government and to the conduct of public affairs.

It’s hard to pick the three stars of Team Ford from today, but perhaps we might start with Doug’s hectoring of Gary Webster. (Whatever we’re paying Mr. Webster, he more than earned it today.) Add to that his bullshit about the St. Clair ROW being a disaster, and his coarse, vulgar talk about the TTC needing an enema, and you have to wonder — just what does this guy add to public life in Toronto? What good is he accomplishing? 

And then there’s Giorgio Mammoliti’s idiotic posturing about a Finch subway and unmoral (h/t Ivor Tossell) attempts to torque the downtown-suburban divide yet again. (I know, I know, I’m breaking my own rule by talking about him.) 

And then there’s this classy bit:

If anyone wants to nominate a third star, I’m all ears.

In the larger picture, perhaps it’s time to start fashioning a definitive rejection of the entire Fordist philosophy. I can’t give a comprehensive list of what that will entail, but we can start, I’d submit, by affirming support for well-paying unionized public-sector jobs, both as a critical element of our community’s economic base and as an example for private-sector employers to follow. We can flesh that out in the days to come.

In sum, maybe — just maybe — we’ve finally come to see the limits of resentment as a governing philosophy. It’s what put Team Ford in control, but take it away and they’ve really got nothing else. And as we learn more about the gulf between campaigning and governing, its shortcomings become more and more apparent. It’s the easy path — it requires no critical thinking, no empathy and no engagement beyond the predictable hissy-fits of tabloid screed-writers — but it diminishes us all.

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