Posted by John Michael McGrath | OpenFile Toronto
The second morning of Rob Ford’s conflict of interest case was not a comfortable one for Mayor Ford to sit through. In hours of argument, lawyer Clayton Ruby laid out his case that Ford had demonstrated a “pattern of behaviour” of not only failing to understand the importance of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, but deliberately going out of his way to not understand it.
“That’s not good faith,” Ruby told the court. “That’s willful blindness.”
At issue is whether …

Posted by Kelli Korducki | OpenFile Toronto

At long last, the City of Toronto will be announcing its new chief planner today, and it appears that Jennifer Keesmaat will be filling in for the vacancy left by longtime planner Gary Wright earlier this year.

Blog photo by Himy Syed, via Flickr.

Photo by Himy Syed via Flickr.

Perhaps the most remarkable detail to come out of the surprise unveiling of the OneCity Transit Plan is that it remained just that—a surprise.

The $30 billion proposal had been in development for three months, without anyone blabbing to reporters. Until the last few weeks, only four councillors even knew about the plan at all.

Posted by Steve Kupferman | OpenFile Toronto on Saturday, June 9, 2012
Here’s a fun Saturday distraction for municipal politics nerds: a report card by the Academy of the Impossible that grades every city councillor on his or her social media skills.
Shelley Carroll, the Ward 33 councillor who is never seen in public without a smartphone in hand, gets an A-. Mayor Ford gets a C, which is generous considering the fact that his Twitter feed is obviously written by staffers. Giorgio Mammoliti, councillor for Ward 7, gets …

Posted by Kelli Korducki, OpenFile Toronto
Friday’s Union Station flood disaster stalled Yonge-University-Spadina trains between Osgoode and Bloor stations for about 10 hours. It also lent itself a little too well to meme creation. Writes the Sun’s Ian Robertson:
As news spread of what TTC spokesman Jessica Martin on Saturday called the site’s worst recent flooding, photo funsters posted altered pictures on Twitter that seemed to show Ford surrounded by sharks.
One prankster inserted the famous Jaws movie poster showing a giant shark attacking a swimmer. Another computer whiz inserted …

Posted by Steve Kupferman on Saturday, May 12, 2012 | OpenFile Toronto
The Globe’s makes an intriguing (albeit satirical) suggestion: exploit Mayor Rob Ford’s sometimes-embarrassing antics as a tourist draw.
As Southey puts it:
We’re stuck with this mayor for over two years more. But it needn’t be all bad. I hereby invite the rest of Canada, and indeed the world, to visit Toronto, the City with the World’s Most Embarrassing Mayor! Forgo your drive to the Reversing Falls: Imagine the children’s wonder at the Reversing Council, a place …

Posted by Emily Burke on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | OpenFile Toronto
With only today and tomorrow remaining before city council’s big transit meeting, the mayor could be using these final hours to show council his funding strategy for underground transit along Sheppard. Instead, he’s handing out flyers with images of light-rail crashes that have caused fatalities.
Rather than sorting out his own numbers and committing to a concrete plan, he’s trying to sway the centrist councillors by scaring them out of voting for LRT. But the …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
Here’s an item from the weekend that shouldn’t be missed: the Toronto Star/Angus Reid survey on Rob Ford’s approval rating, subways, and who Torontonians trust on these issues. But before we dive in to the numbers, why does a poll like this matter three years before an election? Because the Mayor and his brother Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etoicoke North) think they’ve got re-election in the bag. From Marcus Gee’s Saturday column in the Globe and Mail:
Councillor Ford said …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
The Toronto Star has an important point in its latest article over the chaos that is Toronto’s transit planning, since yesterday’s TTC meeting torpedoed Karen Stintz’ (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) attempt to get some answers from staff. From the Star:
The vote prompted some city councillors to suggest it’s more important than ever to put the mayor’s transit plans before city council even if it means calling a special council meeting.
“It’s clear that a majority of council doesn’t think this administration and its few …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
One of the items that was supposed to be on the agenda at the City of Toronto Executive Committee meeting today was the potential sale of 740 units, most of which are single-family homes, from Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s stock, the plan being to use the money to spruce up the remaining apartments in TCHC’s inventory.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the committee. Ford unexpectedly, and almost at the last minute—the city clerk sent out a …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
The big news from city hall this week will be the multi-day meeting (with the over-under being at least three shoutfests across council chambers) over the city budget. While there have already been several changes, as the budget has made it through both the budget and Mayor’s executive committee, on neither of those committees do opponents to the Mayor’s cuts have serious weight. That’s going to change when the budget comes to full council, and the Globe and …

By John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto

People shouldn’t make too much of Rob Ford losing the occasional vote in a committee or even at council. That said, there’s a number of recent stories that suggest the mayor’s office might not have iron-clad control over the budget process already, and that the real fight hasn’t even started (the height of battle will come in January when the budget goes to city council).
First we’ve got news from the Toronto Public Library Board meeting last night, where …

View the story “After I went to bed, #StarWarsCouncil started trending” on Storify]

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
Apparently following on the success of #councildrinks, some of the tricksters who keep an eye on city council meetings started a new hashtag game on Twitter last night: Star Wars-themed jokes about city council. Some of the best ones from earlier this morning.
View the story “#starwarscouncil” on Storify]
 
Blog photo by phil g via Flickr.