Let the Green Party Party

This isn’t quite a Toronto issue (although Green Party leader Jim Harris is speaking at the Empire Club on Jan. 12.) but the Green Party has a petition so it can participate in the two remaining televised debates. With 600,000 votes in the last election - and I suspect more in this year’s thrilling campaign - the Green Party is becoming a legitimate choice for many voters across the country. It makes little sense that the fifth-largest political party in Canada is excluded from the debates while a regional party - the Bloc - is included. You can sign the petition here.

Now What?

A 15-year-old girl - Jane Creba - is shot in broad daylight after being in the wrong place at the wrong time on Boxing Day. So where are the police raids? Where are the arrests? I mean, there were dozens of witnesses and video cameras so it’s not like these killers were stealth-like. For the most part, we’ve closed our eyes to the reality there are some very nasty gangs thriving in Toronto. Now’s the time, we got serious about what’s happening in our city. It’s time the police and the criminal system (provincial and federal) came down hard on these people. It’s time to enforce our gun laws, it’s time for the legal system to stop giving criminals a slap on the wrist. If it means locking people in prisons, then so be it. But something’s got to be done, and it has to be dramatic and effective.

Toronto Needs More

To deal with the growing amount of gun-related violence, Toronto needs to adopt a mutli-pronged “more” strategy. This includes:

 

1. More police on the streets

2. More social and counselling services that have sustainable funding

3. More job-training

4. More community and recreational centres

5. More political will to use the current laws to come down hard on people who use guns to commit crimes

6. More strikes directly against gangs involved in any kind of criminal activity.

 

 

 

 

The New New Toronto?

In the wake of the terrifying and troubling gunfire on Yonge St. yesterday, how long do you think it’s going to take before the police carry out a massive raid on Toronto’s most notorious gangs? There is so much public pressure now to do something dramatic, the ball’s really in the court of the police. They can act and make a make effort to turn the tide or they can stand on the sidelines.

Boxing Day Animals

I was looking through some of the Boxing Day flyers from Saturday’s newspaper. Many of them advertised these great deals but what really struck me was the fact Future Shop, Best Buy, etc. were opening at 6 a.m. today. Who’s willing to shop at 6 a.m., especially since it probably means getting up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.? Are the deals that good? Is it worth the time and effort? I think it’s the ultimate sign on consumer-ism as people look at satisfy their urge to buy stuff. All early-morning Boxing Sales offer is an escape from the everyday shopping experience so you can tell your family and friends a good story. It’s baffling…..

Housing Market Booming

According to the National Post, there were record home sales in Toronto in 2005 - fueled by low interest rates and a good economy. While analysts expect sales could reach the same levels in 2006, you do have to wonder how much steam this housing boom has left given it has been going on for the last eight or nine years. At some point, it would seem that whoever wants to buy has done so. In our downtown neighbourhood, there are a few signs of heat but so far only a modest amount of sales. While it helps to hold down property taxes, we aren’t getting the gentifying impact many areas get when new owners move in. Maybe 2006 will be the year it happens.

Christmas Shopping: It’s Done

I purchased my last Christmas presents today - not that I did much shopping anyway. It is such a relief to step out of the “traffic” and watch everyone else killing themselves and their credit cards. If we all started shopping in September for Xmas, can you imagine how much less stress we’d all feel at this time of year? Happy Holidays!

Drowning in Garbage

I heard PC leader John Tory on the radio this morning talking about the garbage crisis facing Ontario - particularly Toronto - if the U.S. border is closed to our trash. While not the sexiest of issues, Tory makes a lot of good points when he wonders why Ontario doesn’t appear to have a long-term plan in place to deal with our garbage - be it through recycling, composting and disposal. Even though a lot of progress has been in diverting a lot of garbage, there’s a lot more that could be done. A good example is many apartment buildings in Toronto do no recycling or composting at all. That’s unacceptable given home owners are pretty much compelled to diligently sort through our trash to make sure the green and blue boxes are filled. Tory makes a good point when he says that while garbage isn’t a compelling issue now, it will be if our parks become dumps because the U.S. stops us from shipping garbage to Michigan.

High-Tech Parking Meters

Whatever you do, don’t tell the parking hornets in Toronto about new technology called the PhotoViolationMeter that apparently uses a combination of sensors, photography and wireless technology to create a parking metre that self-enforces itself. According to Photo Violation Technologies Corp., this new-fangled meter can generate more than five times as much revenue as current on-street meters. Given how enthusiastic the army of parking hornets are in Toronto, the last thing they need is new technology that sucks in more of my cash. Photo Violation’s corporate slogan is “Perfecting How People Park” but it really should be “Perfecting How City Issue Parking Tickets”. Bad technology, bad!

 

 

 

More Police on the Streets

Toronto Police chief Bill Blair says the way to deal with crime in “troubled” neighbourhoods is a good old-fashioned police presence. So he intends to put more officers on the street to establish relationships with people in the community. I think it’s a great idea but only part of the solution. It’s fine to have police to deter criminals or wanna-be criminals from doing what they do but what about everyone else, particularly those on the fence. For whatever reason, I can’t understand why no politician has come out and made a commitment to provide solid and sustainable financial support in these neighbourhoods for community and social programs. To really help a troubled community, you need places for people - young and old - to play, social, learn and receive help/counselling. That way you address problems before they start. All I hear about is more police and new guns laws but they attack the symptoms, not the cause.