Should City Take Over Public Schools?

We know that the city has money problems attributable to covering costs that are provincial responsibilities. We know that the public school boards have funding model concerns with the province related to both operations and building renovation/maintenance and face shifting & declining student populations.

We hear about school closures and the "monetization" of public assets In short, sell them to raise money. In Toronto, the TDSB has many properties either on the market or going to the market within a couple of years. They expect to receive "market" prices.

But will selling off assets without public scrutiny and transparency be in the public good? Here's a story that you might like to read from the Mirror : Toronto and Region Conservation Authority steps up to purchase Heathercrest Park and from the Toronto Sun Endangered park saved by a swale

Since the province is far removed from the city is there a fundamental question that needs to be asked, especially in an election year: Should the City Take Over Public Schools?

Such a takeover would insure that city planning would encompass public assets that penetrate all neighbourhoods but whose misplaced sale could misdirect good urban design, that city schools receive more enlightened funding for capital needs, that a lot of green space now TDSB land would become City of Toronto green space and become under the city Parks and Forest management and maybe most important that compensation for our elected school trustees brings forth the fulltime talent and skills needed for public education.

Ideas - Naturalized Areas in City Parks

In one of the towns above above Steeles you can start to see that all city parks need not be acres of cut grass and weeds. If you drive up Don Mills past Steeles into Markham, on your left you can see how this town's Simonston Park (in German Mills) has combined natural growth areas along the park periphery with the main activity areas of cut grass.

The naturalized areas not only break the monotony of short grass but add an attractive and ecologically useful dimension to the park. Adding native species plants and grasses might be part of the plan. Going wild with nature seems a worthwhile idea.

Cutting back of grass cutting should reduce both maintenance costs and air pollution. It should improve the air quality. And improve park enjoyment.

In Ward 33 there are many areas where going more natural seems a natural fit. Stretches on slopes behind residential lots such as Dallington or Lescon Park look like good places to start.

Coupled with community gardens we could see our parks becoming more multi-dimensional.

What Should Toronto Be?

Last week the discussion of what Toronto should be was raised indirectly by a Conservative MPP from a rural constituency. He felt the rest of Ontario would be better off it became the 11th province. If you remember the pre-amalgamation debate, many in Toronto thought that this Harris imposed integration, combined with social cost downloading and school underfunding models reflected a need to see Toronto as a standalone government worthy to be a province.

This week's Star editorial opinion concluded "Rather than seeking provincial status for Toronto, or even the GTA, it would make more sense to expand the city's powers and give it access to new revenue sources, like road tolls. Efforts to foster more economic co-operation across the GTA would also be beneficial. The best way forward lies in wisely building on what we already have."

The City of Toronto Act 2007 did somewhat enhance the city's powers but only so far. The Star's road tolls idea might make more sense if it was a added to a consumptive tax.

Yes, maybe pragmatic reality says Toronto can't become a part of the Canadian confederation as province but it needs to be further uncoupled from the maternal strings of Ontario. Toronto cannot continue to treated as a child of the province: it must become more peer like.

Of course, we will hear none of this from the McQuinty folks. But hopefully, a 2010 city candidate or two will keep the idea going that the 2007 Act was just one step in an evolution of Toronto to another position of governance and freedom within Ontario . We need to hear about the next step.

Is it time to add "city states" within provinces to the confederation table_ add Montreal, Vancouver, ... ?

Pragmatism and Cost-Benefit Analysis Enter the City Election

In today's Star we find out that candidate for mayor Rocco Rossi is neither left or right but pragmatic. Hopefully, more elected politicians can adhere to the philosophy of pragmatism. Liberal Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau was an admitted adherent. Whether Rossi is a practicing pragmatist or just a practical man, time will tell if he is elected although we might suspect based on education, work as a business consultant and charity/political fundraiser he should be more the former than the latter.

He proclaims to be an environmentalist, cyclist and progressive who knows that the financial house must be in order. He sees the city needing to stick to its "core business" but sees the value of Toronto Hydro (selling it off) only in debt reduction opportunity?

As Rossi tries to escape a "right" side of the political spectrum voter perception, we can also see in the Star a report of the burgeoning 6-figure, $100K police force: many of whom say they must live outside the city_Toronto's too expensive for them. It raises doubts about police cost effectiveness or deficient cost containment.

According to this story Toronto's previous budget chief David Soknacki is currently putting together a study for the Toronto Board of Trade on police service financial matters. We should expect it to be a big news item_especially, if he can find a situation with news legs.

The story gives examples of police pay procedure for court appearances_ not the stuff of heavy crime but everyday ticketing for driving or car use offenses. There does not seem much "cost-benefit" analysis or even a concern that the city deserves a greater share of the ticketing revenue stream rather than the ticketing officer making the court appearance. (That is to say, the "overtime" pay for the officer or cost seems high_ 4 pay hours versus say a $200 ticket or less or city benefit.) Broadly, speaking it seems the C-B analysis needs to find some adherents in the TPS.

Pragmaticism and cost-benefit analysis should be engrained in both elected political office holders and public servants. They should be words found in a worthy candidate's election platform and form part of a city political party's reason for being. Rossi might be on to something_ it's time to drop the "left and right" hat thing, especially in city politics.

Do you wonder what the plan is?

If you drive around this city, one of the first things that sticks out is the deteriorating road conditions. You wonder how long it will be before the city gets around to go from fixing the potholes to putting in a new road surface.

If you go to the city website, you can find out about current and planned road closures but even after looking at city budget documents you cannot find out when work in scheduled on that third world roadway you just drove over in TO - without reading an 8 page PDF file and then you aren't sure one way or the other: there is no simple lookup such as entering Leslie, Finch, Lawrence, Wilson and getting a fast response. With a 5 year capital budget, maybe we should be expecting more detailed and specific planning. Doesn't the city have a simple project database that allows workers, councillors and citizens to find out what is going on? (How is 311 going to work around this?)

Yesterday, the Star initiated a federal "stimulus" tracker program project by citizens to see if what is planned is being done_ are the shovels in the ground? They provided a list of Toronto projects. Some cover some roadways and parks.

(By the way, there doesn't seem to be much money allocated for any stimulus project on roads or parks in our ward_except for Victoria Park road work and Shawnee Park tennis.)

Many residents in our ward might be interested to know about work related to "basement flooding program". Yes, it's a chore to go to the city website and find anything unless you are a trained researcher or librarian.

Would you have tried looking under Get Involved then select Projects then scroll down to Basement Flooding then scrolled down and clicked Ward 33?

Bottom Line: the city doesn't make it easy to find out what's going on in. You must wonder how city staff get to know what those are planning to do or are working on in the room next door. You can understand why a road like Leith Hill gets prepped in late 2009 for road re-surfacing before the planned early 2010 sewer work! We live in the information age_ why is it so difficult for our council and city management to get their act together.