Post by Mark Dewdney on Apr 9, 2010 14:58:38 GMT -5
Last night, I attended the TTC's public consultation - and was aggressively unimpressed.
The tone of the night, really, was set when "Chair" Adam Giambrone made a brief speech (no boos) and then left. He didn't return until 8:38pm (nearly 2 hours later), which would be prophetic; the TTC was not there last night to listen.
About halfway through the presentation, the shouting began; not just a few people were frustrated by quite a few issues.
Right away, I noted a young man, clad in a trenchcoat, with a cop-style crewcut, walk over to the agitated audience member and forcefully shush him by leaning into him and emphatically making his point.
Let's be clearly factual here; I didn't see what young Mister Bissonette said. I DO know that he repeated this dance three or four times, and, when I got annoyed enough to get his attention, he invited me out for a talk.
I'm not about to be suckered into the hallway, thereby missing the presentation or protests; I just scowled at him and shook my head. For the rest of the meeting, he sat at the back, playing with his BlackBerry. Toronto Police were there, but they played it absolutely properly, staying out of it unless the TTC was about to ask me to leave.
When you take the big issue into account, this doesn't seem like such a big deal (especially since I'm a big boy and not easily intimidated or derailed - I can take it).
So why am I whining about it?
Well, actually, I loved it. What? Yep. It's exactly indicative of the current City Hall (and, therefore, by extension, TTC) culture of entitlement; "Why should we explain it to you? If you don't like it, deal."
The coercive environment aside, there were a few odd procedural things; the moderator (from a 3rd party company, neither from TTC or City Of Toronto) answered a good deal of questions, which struck me as odd; if I ask a question, I'd like it answered by the person I asked, please.
The moderator also outright dismissed four comments; admittedly, those comments were outright angry, but the response was "Thank you for that comment. Next question."
There were, apparently, some incorrect facts; for example, one woman questioned why her residence wasn't counted as part of the TTC's statistics, even though she lives on that street (the TTC's stats reflected "zero" in terms of affected single dwellings) and, most telling, the seniors' residence at Leslie and Queen, arguably one of the most-affected buildings of the plan, was counted as one residence - even though 80 seniors live there.
The worst moment of the night came when (stealing my thunder) a very well-spoken man set the TTC up for a kill shot;
"Has anyone thought about what's going to happen when the large earthen berm at Lakeshore and Leslie is removed?"
(I'd warned one of the TTC's planners earlier that Toronto Fire and local residents were EXTREMELY, VOCALLY adamant that this EXPLOSION-RESISTANT berm not be altered in any way, and was politely ignored.)
The mods looked at each other and more or less shrugged, and their questioner POUNCED, something to the effect of;
"I assume then that you're not aware that, if that berm's taken down and the sewage-treatment plant explodes, that there will be a 35-foot-tall column of poison gas stretching from the lake to Rosedale?"
After some rather amusing consternation, TTC brass ducked, leaving a junior staffer to take the mike (as if IT was poisoned) and stammer, "We'll, um, uh, have to get the answer to that from Toronto Water..."
Wait a minute...So you're telling me that, however slight the possibility of an explosion, you didn't even ask the WATER COMPANY about it - never mind Toronto Fire?
Hey, I asked a senior firefighter who lived in Leslieville about this one, and his response was that the berm was a lifesaver; that he agreed - there would be MASSIVE casualties if the berm went bye and the plant went boom.
Of course, the obvious question went next; "Has an environmental assessment been done?"
TTC's answer; "Provincial regulations do not require one."
Holy hell. As one firefighter put it, "Over my dead body!"
Unfortunately, that might be a terrifyingly apt quote, as a bermless explosion might just kill him - and a few other hundred thousand citizens.
There MUST be an environmental assessment.
Then there MUST be a change at the head of the TTC; someone's head MUST roll for this one.
Then...well, you know the last change that must be done; those that not only allowed this - but supported it.
The tone of the night, really, was set when "Chair" Adam Giambrone made a brief speech (no boos) and then left. He didn't return until 8:38pm (nearly 2 hours later), which would be prophetic; the TTC was not there last night to listen.
About halfway through the presentation, the shouting began; not just a few people were frustrated by quite a few issues.
Right away, I noted a young man, clad in a trenchcoat, with a cop-style crewcut, walk over to the agitated audience member and forcefully shush him by leaning into him and emphatically making his point.
Let's be clearly factual here; I didn't see what young Mister Bissonette said. I DO know that he repeated this dance three or four times, and, when I got annoyed enough to get his attention, he invited me out for a talk.
I'm not about to be suckered into the hallway, thereby missing the presentation or protests; I just scowled at him and shook my head. For the rest of the meeting, he sat at the back, playing with his BlackBerry. Toronto Police were there, but they played it absolutely properly, staying out of it unless the TTC was about to ask me to leave.
When you take the big issue into account, this doesn't seem like such a big deal (especially since I'm a big boy and not easily intimidated or derailed - I can take it).
So why am I whining about it?
Well, actually, I loved it. What? Yep. It's exactly indicative of the current City Hall (and, therefore, by extension, TTC) culture of entitlement; "Why should we explain it to you? If you don't like it, deal."
The coercive environment aside, there were a few odd procedural things; the moderator (from a 3rd party company, neither from TTC or City Of Toronto) answered a good deal of questions, which struck me as odd; if I ask a question, I'd like it answered by the person I asked, please.
The moderator also outright dismissed four comments; admittedly, those comments were outright angry, but the response was "Thank you for that comment. Next question."
There were, apparently, some incorrect facts; for example, one woman questioned why her residence wasn't counted as part of the TTC's statistics, even though she lives on that street (the TTC's stats reflected "zero" in terms of affected single dwellings) and, most telling, the seniors' residence at Leslie and Queen, arguably one of the most-affected buildings of the plan, was counted as one residence - even though 80 seniors live there.
The worst moment of the night came when (stealing my thunder) a very well-spoken man set the TTC up for a kill shot;
"Has anyone thought about what's going to happen when the large earthen berm at Lakeshore and Leslie is removed?"
(I'd warned one of the TTC's planners earlier that Toronto Fire and local residents were EXTREMELY, VOCALLY adamant that this EXPLOSION-RESISTANT berm not be altered in any way, and was politely ignored.)
The mods looked at each other and more or less shrugged, and their questioner POUNCED, something to the effect of;
"I assume then that you're not aware that, if that berm's taken down and the sewage-treatment plant explodes, that there will be a 35-foot-tall column of poison gas stretching from the lake to Rosedale?"
After some rather amusing consternation, TTC brass ducked, leaving a junior staffer to take the mike (as if IT was poisoned) and stammer, "We'll, um, uh, have to get the answer to that from Toronto Water..."
Wait a minute...So you're telling me that, however slight the possibility of an explosion, you didn't even ask the WATER COMPANY about it - never mind Toronto Fire?
Hey, I asked a senior firefighter who lived in Leslieville about this one, and his response was that the berm was a lifesaver; that he agreed - there would be MASSIVE casualties if the berm went bye and the plant went boom.
Of course, the obvious question went next; "Has an environmental assessment been done?"
TTC's answer; "Provincial regulations do not require one."
Holy hell. As one firefighter put it, "Over my dead body!"
Unfortunately, that might be a terrifyingly apt quote, as a bermless explosion might just kill him - and a few other hundred thousand citizens.
There MUST be an environmental assessment.
Then there MUST be a change at the head of the TTC; someone's head MUST roll for this one.
Then...well, you know the last change that must be done; those that not only allowed this - but supported it.