July #TOcouncil links:
- Agenda (no-JS text version)
- Meeting monitor (for current item)
- Livestream: July 23, July 24, July 25
See @GraphicMatt for live updates; my occasional observations & reactions in thread 🧵
Discussion
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FUCK YEAH the TERF head librarian is retiring I can stop boycotting the Toronto Public Library (it's been like 8 years. I hold grudges) https://mastodon.social/@GraphicMatt/114902859587107990
Okay I gotta step away from nightmare rectangle, seriously need coffee for to endure RapidTO Bathurst debate
Aaaand the carve-outs begin. Cllr Saxe wants an exception for a stretch near Dupont where small business owners have no other access to parking (same as it ever was eyerolls).
Everyone wants the bus to go faster, no one wants to deprioritize cars
(Item: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX25.4)
"I knocked on all the doors from Eglinton down to Queen," says Cllr Bravo.
Holyday comes out swinging: "More like CongestionTO. I think it's rubbish!" He is very scornful of the idea of dedicated bus lanes and is a staunch induced demand denier.
(He says it doesn't save enough time—"it only saves three minutes!" An enterprising person could look up if he's said anything about the Gardiner East, which many councillors campaigned to keep up because it would slow down drivers by, like, 5-8 minutes? I can't remember. Was he even on Council then? Look, it's all kind of a blur.)
Holyday thinks the City is just doing it to look "progressive" to FIFA tourists, but most visitors, who presumably will be driving cars in Holyday's imagination, will see "the worst congestion" ever. And with that, lunch break!
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I feel like I should livestream the Council feed with my face in the corner so you can all see me just generally being in agony. I feel that is the kind of thing people find entertaining
watching & livetooting City Council the way it was meant to be: from the command line
Cllr Carroll reminds us all that it's two years since the SRT (prematurely) went offline. "There's [temporary RapidTO-like lanes] in Scarborough and they lived to tell the tale."
She says that personally, she felt it less aggravating to drive after the priority bus lanes were added because drivers don't have to deal with changing lanes to pass stopped buses, etc.
"We cannot side with those people who are constantly saying Toronto must do something about this congestion and traffic, but stand up here and say 'but we can't change anything'."
Cllr Perks, talking about the opportunity to expand a surface transit network: "And then along comes a moment—FIFA—which I won't share my opinions on today…"
Cites the figure of 21,000 new daily riders estimated as a result of the changes on Bathurst & Dufferin.
Cllr Thompson (who, I must add, was just on trial for sexual assault) accuses some fellow councillors of "moonlighting" in other wards, councillors who don't even have red lanes (priority bus lanes) in their own wards. With biting sarcasm: "Wait for a report to come in—what report? The one that's already written" and before them?
They're now voting. See status of votes here (not updated in real-time, but eventually): https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX25.4
Voting on the Bathurst-specific bits separately; passes 18-5. On the rest of the motion, 20-3. Bradford, Holyday, Pasternak against.
"Okay, we've completed one item," Speaker Nunziata says a little wearily. There's applause from the gallery (probably because they like public transit and not to congratulate Council on its efficiency).
Current item: "Audit of Transportation Services: Improving Utility Cut Permit and Inspection Processes". https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.AU9.7 Gripping stuff but I need to not be in a computer chair right now.
(Seriously though, often it's the driest and most boring-sounding stuff that is actually quite important, so somebody should be paying attention to this.)
Pro tip: in TMMIS, on each meeting's page (e. g. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/#/committees/2462/25767) you can "Filter by" item statuses to quickly display, e. g., only remaining items.
Oh wow, they're wrapping it up for today. I thought for sure they'd agree to run later. Oh well. Till tomorrow!
"Hopefully we'll all be in a better mood tomorrow," concludes Nunziata.
Odds are not looking great.
Aaand we're back to City Council day 2!
I have Work so will be only intermittently watching, but follow @GraphicMatt for live updates.
Stay classy, Pasternak https://mastodon.social/@GraphicMatt/114908563958335821
The shelter item: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH23.3
Staff report, including links to the shelter designs, etc. (PDF): https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-257007.pdf
The 6 new sites have already been approved, gone through public consultations, etc.; they just need to be re-zoned.
Creating the shelters is part of the broader HSCIS (Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy) to replace the temporary shelter hotels opened during the first years of COVID and to add more permanent spaces to the perennially at-capacity shelter system, which turns away people every night—~100/night, now; hundreds a couple years ago.
Stats: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/research-reports/housing-and-homelessness-research-and-reports/shelter-system-requests-for-referrals/
Data set: https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/central-intake-calls/
Here's a quick janky LibreOffice Calc visualization. I could improve this if I were not using LibreOffice Calc. Can do something better later if people want. Anyway, the point is: there are constantly people being turned away and there is a need for emergency shelter space.
Fondly remembering a consultation many years ago for a temporary shelter in #parkdale. Planners are often nervous because of angry backlash from residents opposed to shelters. In this case Perks warned the planner that locals were going to be like, harm reduction practices had BETTER be permitted in this shelter, can people bring pets, why so few spaces, why is it only temporary…
Anyway, gtg coffee and so on, hopefully back before lunch.
I have had my almond croissant and coffee and am now ensconced in my room with thick curtains drawn except for the tiny bit of window with screen, the fan going, a spray bottle of cool water and a glass of ice cubes, BRING IT
We're back! City Clerk John Elvidge is getting the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) Prestige Award: https://www.amcto.com/about/awards/prestige-award
Back to the shelter item. Cllr Carroll is bringing up the concepts of dog-whistles and poison pills (both of which some suburban councillors are employing to try to keep shelters out of their wards).
Lee Atwater famously described dog-whistles:
You start out in 1954 by saying, “N—, n—, n—.” By 1968 you can’t say “n—”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N—, n—.”
Cllr Malik recounting how residents literally brought their children to consultations (which Cllr Bradford, raising concerns about "not enough consultation", was at, she notes) to "what about the children" her in person.
Cllr Bravo mentions Lorenzo Berardinetti (whom Cllr Carroll was obliquely referring to before), former city councillor and MPP, who opposed a shelter in Scarborough and years later wound up homeless. He now publicly regrets his decision, she says.
"Most people in Toronto are just a couple of paycheques away from losing your house," Cllr Perks, the last speaker, says. "…Saying a shelter brings problems to a neighbourhood is like saying a doctor makes people sick…The people who live in shelters in my ward are every bit as much my constituents as the people who live next to me."
Now, voting.
- Bradford's motion removing recommendation to re-zone the Third Street shelter (IT'S NOT EVEN HIS WARD. IT'S MORLEY'S) fails 5-20.
- Cllr Cheng's motion adding numerous stipulations to North York shelter site (including parking and "to, as a part of the site plan process, consider locating the main entrance to the building so that it is not visible from Sheppard Avenue West") carries by show of hands.
- Holyday's motion to revamp shelter site selection process fails 7-18.
- Recommendations 1 & 2 (68 Sheppard West site) carry 23-2
- Recommendation 3 (1615 Dufferin) carries 23-2
- Recommendation 4 (Eglinton West, Caledonia) carries 23-2
- Recommendation 5 (2535 Gerrard) carries 20-5
- Recommendation 6 (66 Third Street) carries 21-4
- Recommendation 7 (1220-1222 Wilson Ave) carries 19-6.
- Recs 8 & 9 (technical things, closure of part of road for Third St. site) carry 21-4.
- Rec 10, for more consultations (Nunziata: "This should be unanimous, because it's all we talked about today…I want a recorded vote, because that was my motion") carries unanimously.
- And the entire item as amended carries 22-3 (Bradford, Holyday, Pasternak against).
Great! One item down, uhhh…82 items to go.
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