Each week, we round up the latest news, views, and rumours from City Hall.
HEADLINES
PFLAG Psnubbed
Rob Ford’s maddening refusal to do anything that might lead Toronto’s queer citizens to believe he doesn’t loathe being near them continued this week when, for the second year in a row, the mayor declined an invitation to attend a flag-raising ceremony hosted by PFLAG to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. Hockey tough guy and Ford hero Brian Burke will be there. Non-threatening parents of gay kids will be there. Several councillors will be there. It’s happening roughly 40 metres from Ford’s office. But Ford won’t be there.
Ford has already said he won’t be marching in the Pride Parade and there’s no sign he’ll attend any other Pride events. It gets increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that the mayor is trying to send a message with his repeated snubs of all things queer.
Menzies mouths off
In a related story, the Ford brothers took some heat for sitting silent while Sun News Network’s David Menzies’s let loose on their radio show with a bizarre rant about whether it would have been appropriate to ask former mayoral candidate and “practicing homosexual” George Smitherman about the possibility of him dying of AIDS while in office. Menzies also made fun of Mary Wash’s struggles with alcoholism, and called Karen Stintz a “liar who would spit in your face and tell you it’s raining.” Asked about Menzies’s comments later in the week, Doug Ford said he would never have made the statements himself. But letting them go unchallenged at the time did not give much comfort to anyone concerned about the Fords’ attitudes towards their gay constituents.
BULLETINS
- A report from transportation services revealed that the Wellesley St. separated bike lanes have been delayed a year, and will now (fingers crossed) be completed in 2013
- Police announced Wednesday they would not be pressing charges against Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale, having found no evidence that he trespassed on the mayor’s property or peered into his yard while covering a story about nearby parkland Ford is attempting to buy
- After heated debate (Councillor Gord Perks told Councillor Josh Colle to “fuck off” on the council floor), councillors voted to allow the Canadian National Sportsmen’s Show back at Exhibition Place, from which the previous council had banned it in a symbolic stance against guns being sold on city property
#TOPOLI DOCS
Yonge St. was in the news this week, with Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre – Rosedale) announcing plans to temporarily narrow a stretch of the road down to two lanes this summer to test the effects making the thoroughfare pedestrian friendly, and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East) offering a counterproposal to convert Yonge and Bay into one-way streets. Both suggestions reflect the near-universal opinion that Toronto’s main drag has yet to live up to its potential.
With big changes possibly in the works for Yonge, the Yonge Street Planning Framework (above) is worth a read. Commissioned by Wong-Tam in 2011, the document presents ideas on how to make the street work better for businesses, pedestrians and cyclists. As a bonus it has some great visuals documenting Yonge’s evolution over the years, from seedy strip to slightly less-seedy shopping district.
MEETINGS, MOTIONS, AND MINUTES
Torontonians should sleep a little easier after the budget committee voted unanimously on Monday to take $180,000 from the 2011 surplus and put it towards fighting severe bed bug infestations affecting vulnerable individuals. The city spent only $87,000 last year on bed bug prevention, and some councillors are warning that unless evasive action is taken, it’s only a matter of time before our theatres, streetcars, and hotels are overrun with the bloodsucking beasts.
COUNCILLOR OF THE WEEK
Mild-mannered Councillor James Pasternak (York Centre) made waves this week by attempting to reverse a series of cuts in the 2012 budget. He failed and was voted down, but he did succeed in annoying budget chair Councillor Mike Del Grande. Then, in an unusual and possibly related story, Del Grande and other Ford allies refused to support Pasternak’s request to reschedule a meeting that the councillor couldn’t attend because it fell on the Jewish holiday of Shavuots.
Although Del Grande said staff had told him the meeting couldn’t be rescheduled, late Friday someone did just that, pushing it back one day and making a happy end to an eventful week for Pasternak.
CITY SOUND BITE
“If he wants to come over again, maybe make a phone call, and we’ll leave him some biscuits outside the fence every night.”
– Councillor Doug Ford (Etobicoke North) says he has nothing against Daniel Dale, but couldn’t resist a crack at his expense Tuesday after learning that police wouldn’t be pressing charges. .
NEXT WEEK’S AGENDA
The executive committee meets on Monday, and juicy items on the agenda include the larger-than-expected 2011 surplus, a casino referendum, repealing Toronto’s 5-cent plastic bag fee, and taking Ontario Place off the lists of potential sites for a gambling complex.
On Wednesday, the public works committee meets, and will consider a plan to build 30 km of off-road bike trails over the next five years, the delay of the Wellesley bike lanes, and a $30-million proposal to widen St. Clair Ave. under the bridge at Weston Rd. in order to alleviate the street’s much ballyhooed traffic problem.
