en-us http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/14515 2008/01/07 http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/14515 http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/14348 2008/01/03 http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/14348 Toronto Life — the one with the picture of city hall on the cover with a toilet bowl in place of the clam shell and the headline “Where your money goes”? Preville does a good job of revealing many of the things that could use fixing at city hall. The planning department is one: “[The city’s] planning department — more overworked and understaffed than any other — cannot meet its obligations to review developers’ proposals, consult stakeholders, conduct studies and make recommendations to council. The situation amounts to a form of planning insolvency, and the city is forever in the urbanist’s bankruptcy court know as the Ontario Municipal Board.” ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/13384 2007/12/19 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/13384 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/13261 2007/12/18 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/13261 transitional housing projects this morning, despite vocal opposition from NIMBY residents. Councillors from across the political spectrum agreed that despite fears over safety and property values expressed by some citizens, creating homes for those who need extra care and help to get their lives back in order was the right thing to do. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12938 2007/12/13 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12938 Toronto Star. "City to sink further into debt for new services,” proclaims The Globe and Mail. "City budget may add 2% to tax bill,” says the National Post. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12826 2007/12/12 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12826 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12663 2007/12/11 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12663 Frontier Centre for Public Policy, which found that Toronto spent too much on “niceties,” or as Del Grande described it “like-to-dos vs. have-to-dos.” Here’s how Miller responded: ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12713 2007/12/11 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12713 Metro reported that the City of Toronto would be using more road salt in order to cut back on plowing costs. This concerned me even more than CAA’s claims that the city’s new plowing practices would compromise motorists’ safety. I wrote an article on the dangers of road salt in Spacing’s winter/spring 2007 issue. Ever since then, whenever I come across piles of the stuff generously spread on walkways and roads, I can’t help but cringe, and not just because it leaves marks on my otherwise reasonably fashionable green winter boots. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12635 2007/12/10 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12635 Giorgio Mammoliti is taking cues from former mayor Mel Lastman: when in doubt, call in the army. Frustrated with gangs and gunfire in his ward, the Etobicoke councillor, says it may be time to call in the troops. Though he admits the idea is a bit “out there,” the way he sees it, "the army can come in here and deal with things the way they feel they need to be done and they got a whole new set of rules." ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12501 2007/12/07 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12501 Richard Florida, the author and academic responsible for popularizing the rise and flight of the creative class among urban thinkers, says the top 10 most walkable American cities pale in comparison to Toronto’s walkability. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12142 2007/12/05 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12142 media never tires of getting to the bottom of how much councillors spend of the $53,100 they’re each allotted for office expenses — and, of course, what, exactly, they spend it on. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12051 2007/12/04 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/12051 John Fillion said during the Planning and Growth Management committee meeting Nov. 29. To get a better understanding of how the planning department has been dealing with their workload as of late, the committee asked for a report outlining how the department is run.   ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11857 2007/12/03 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11857 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11805 2007/11/30 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11805 ROM doesn’t want to obstruct its flashy new front entrance. Food venders are being asked to move, but this, they argue, will cause their sales will drop. Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone even accuses the museum of attempting to put the vendors out of business. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11484 2007/11/28 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11484 Toronto Star. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11234 2007/11/27 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11234 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11102 2007/11/26 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/11102 downspouts is all the rage. Public Works and Infrastructure Committee Chair Glenn Debaeremaeker said this week that his office has gotten more calls about the city’s Downspout Disconnection Program than it did about the land transfer tax. Thousands of homeowners called in to get the free service before it was axed this Tuesday.
]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/10882 2007/11/23 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/10882 problem: thanks to an exceptionally warm summer and fall with very little rain, many trees still have their leaves. The sprawling mulberry in my back yard hasn’t even changed colour yet. The city’s leaf pickup program, however, is due to end in less than three weeks. If leaves haven’t fallen by then, what are residents going to do after they rake them from their lawns? ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/blogs/article/10100 2007/11/17 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/blogs/article/10100 that. Here in T.O., city-living animals and us humans often clash over issues such as bird poop (which blemishes our fine architecture and pollutes beaches where we might like to swim) and green bins (designing those suckers to be raccoon-proof has been a lot harder than first thought). ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/10075 2007/11/15 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/10075 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/9205 2007/11/12 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/9205 Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA). Yesterday, it reported that the TTC was building a public relations campaign in the event that the province tries to pull such a move, and Chair Adam Giambrone has publicly stated that the TTC belongs to Toronto. ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/7194 2007/10/26 http://eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/7194 cost containment measures. Why rehash this old debate? ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6855 2007/10/25 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6855 expropriate the Matador at their meeting this evening ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6866 2007/10/25 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6866 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6862 2007/10/25 http://eyeweekly.com/blogs/cityhall/article/6862