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Old Rich White Dude Rides a Subway
Sep. 8th, 2016 07:39 pmSo a funny thing happened in Toronto.
Our sensible, centrist mayor, committed to balancing the budget and reducing traffic congestion and being oh-so-different from his crack-smoking predecessor, declared that all city agencies and departments shall cutteth exactly 2.6% from their budget, regardless of how cash-strapped and desperate they are or how much people rely on their service. This is all part and parcel of the magical thinking of the Austerity Acolytes, wherein politicians and their media lapdogs expect public services to wave some kind of wand and miraculously find "efficiencies," just lying around to be cut. As if the cuts aren't into the human flesh and bone of the city's most vulnerable.
(Don't blame me, I voted for Chow.)
Among these agencies is, of course, the TTC, which already sucks. Most of the time when I took the subway this summer, it was shut down between where I was and where I needed to go. Almost every subway car on the east-west line is without air conditioning, and I quickly learned the lifehack of getting on the first or last car, which tend to be air-conditioning. Inside the cars, it could hit 40°C. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of rides I took without some sort of ridiculous delay. And it's not like our archaic subway system, already suffering the Death of a Thousand Cuts under the Honourable Wife-Beater, was all that great to begin with.
Still. 2.6%. Find efficiencies.
Amidst all of this, a local heroine named Bianca Spence challenged Mr. Tory to a subway ride across the Bloor-Danforth line in an air conditioning-free car. On Wednesday, he did it. He arrived late for work, sweaty, and dishevelled, and described "considerable discomfort."
Poor baby. That must be so hard. As one of my friends pointed out elsewhere, the lack of professional consequences he received for showing up late and rumpled are radically different from those faced by you or I. Weirdly, he has still managed to stay employed, and is still demanding that the TTC cut its budget, although he's not sure if he's going to actually make them. As the article linked suggests, this may be showmanship to prove that nothing more can be cut, but even if it is, it's acting like the various bureaucrats and bean-counters at the TTC have nothing better to do than to indulge his whims to make a political point. The budget needs to be increased.
By complete coincidence, the Toronto Police budget is $1 billion despite dropping crime rates, so maybe their $260 million in efficiencies can be used to fix up the TTC a bit.
Also, WTF is happening with the Scarborough Stubway? That still on? Remember when we had a fully funded LRT plan that Ford scrapped on his first day in office and Tory refused to revive? Don't worry, me neither. Toronto's memory is just an election cycle.
Our sensible, centrist mayor, committed to balancing the budget and reducing traffic congestion and being oh-so-different from his crack-smoking predecessor, declared that all city agencies and departments shall cutteth exactly 2.6% from their budget, regardless of how cash-strapped and desperate they are or how much people rely on their service. This is all part and parcel of the magical thinking of the Austerity Acolytes, wherein politicians and their media lapdogs expect public services to wave some kind of wand and miraculously find "efficiencies," just lying around to be cut. As if the cuts aren't into the human flesh and bone of the city's most vulnerable.
(Don't blame me, I voted for Chow.)
Among these agencies is, of course, the TTC, which already sucks. Most of the time when I took the subway this summer, it was shut down between where I was and where I needed to go. Almost every subway car on the east-west line is without air conditioning, and I quickly learned the lifehack of getting on the first or last car, which tend to be air-conditioning. Inside the cars, it could hit 40°C. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of rides I took without some sort of ridiculous delay. And it's not like our archaic subway system, already suffering the Death of a Thousand Cuts under the Honourable Wife-Beater, was all that great to begin with.
Still. 2.6%. Find efficiencies.
Amidst all of this, a local heroine named Bianca Spence challenged Mr. Tory to a subway ride across the Bloor-Danforth line in an air conditioning-free car. On Wednesday, he did it. He arrived late for work, sweaty, and dishevelled, and described "considerable discomfort."
Poor baby. That must be so hard. As one of my friends pointed out elsewhere, the lack of professional consequences he received for showing up late and rumpled are radically different from those faced by you or I. Weirdly, he has still managed to stay employed, and is still demanding that the TTC cut its budget, although he's not sure if he's going to actually make them. As the article linked suggests, this may be showmanship to prove that nothing more can be cut, but even if it is, it's acting like the various bureaucrats and bean-counters at the TTC have nothing better to do than to indulge his whims to make a political point. The budget needs to be increased.
By complete coincidence, the Toronto Police budget is $1 billion despite dropping crime rates, so maybe their $260 million in efficiencies can be used to fix up the TTC a bit.
Also, WTF is happening with the Scarborough Stubway? That still on? Remember when we had a fully funded LRT plan that Ford scrapped on his first day in office and Tory refused to revive? Don't worry, me neither. Toronto's memory is just an election cycle.
