The Cheat Sheet: July 2017 City Council

It’s the last Council meeting till October, and as you’d expect, the agenda is packed. There’s a ton of shelter- and housing-related items, the aftermath of this spring’s floods, banning penguins, terrible motions from Cllrs Ford and Mammoliti, and more. Watch the livestream or follow my tweets.

The Big Ticket

• With so much on the agenda, it’s hard to say which item is the most important or most contentious. TCHC? Winter shelter services? The King St. pilot project?

  I’m going to go with the ambitious low-carbon TransformTO strategy, which is before Council after being deferred last month. As I wrote,

  [The plan] lays out what Toronto has to do to meet its greenhouse gas emission goals by 2050, because “business as usual” won’t get us there. The proposed goals are dramatic, but environmentalists are skeptical that Council will actually fund it.

• However, for my money the most entertaining and quintessentially Torontonian item is the Auditor General’s report on a matter involving a sketchy land deal, digital billboard consultants, a North York city councillor-turned-lobbyist, and Cllr Giorgio Mammoliti’s not-at-all-overcompensating plans for the tallest flagpole in North America. Check out the Star story for more.

Getting Around

• The King Street Transit Pilot comes to City Council for final approval. While falling short of a dedicated streetcar-right-of-way and banning cars (BAN CARS), the project aims to speed up travel time by restricting car traffic and redesigning streetcar stops. For a preview of what to expect, scroll way the heck down for my tweets from when Executive Committee discussed this.

• Cllr James Pasternak is very concerned about the commuter parking crisis in Toronto. This is what public transit wonks call the “last mile” problem, and seek to solve by decreasing commuters’ reliance on cars. But this is Toronto!

Environment

• Staff estimate this spring’s floods, which swamped the Toronto Islands and damaged waterfront infrastructure and shorelines, will have cost the city about $5 million by the end of July. This motion requests full reports on the total operating and capital costs, due back this November and the third quarter of next year respectively. It also temporarily puts Islanders’ rent and licence fees on hold.

• The Planning and Growth Management Committee, in agreement with staff, want to amend the green roof bylaw so Metrolinx can build a few big green roofs instead of having to build a bunch of small ones. Staff explain this would make it more efficient while keeping the spirit of the bylaw.

• No more new parking pads! Staff recommend ending the parking pad program because the parking pads contribute to stormwater runoff and the by-law is “inconsistent and frequently modified”.

• With this motion in support of making the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve (alongside other Ontario sites like Georgian Bay and the Niagara Escarpment), we may have hit Peak Well-Intentioned But Ultimately Non-Binding and Ineffectual Member Motion:

Urban Planning

• Two age-related planning items before Council this month: “Growing Up” guidelines for child-friendly “vertical communities” (apartment and condo buildings) and a request from Cllr Josh Matlow on senior-friendly planning policies.

• Check out the Official Plan Amendments for the Distillery District and West Don Lands and the Port Lands.

• Remember that pesky concrete batching plant in the Mimico-Judson rezoning decision? Well, now it’s moving to the Port Lands, creating less of an obstacle for the Etobicoke developers.

• The latest batch of giant billboard applications: the Spadina and Bloor JCC; Etobicoke’s Trillium Health Centre; Dufferin and the Gardiner; Lawrence Square; Yonge and Eg; Exhibition Place.

Housing

• Sweeping reforms are coming to Toronto Community Housing. The first phase of the “Tenants First” plan includes splitting seniors’ housing and services into its own entity (which will work better than the last time the City tried this, for…reasons?), decentralizing property management services, and asking the provincial and federal governments for money, because that’s worked so well so far. Do see the Tenant Advisory Panel report.

• The City is looking into looking into a vacant home tax along the lines of Vancouver’s.

• The new Mirvish Village development will include 60 affordable rental units. (Keep in mind “affordable” here means 80% or less of average market rent, whereas the social housing sector defines it as 30% of household income.)

• These Cabbagetown rooming houses are set to be renovated to become rental apartments for women on ODSP, run by Margaret’s.

• Cllr Kristyn Wong-Tam sees an opportunity to preserve a long-standing hospice for people with HIV/AIDS.

• Affordable housing developments are exempt from planning application fees, but shelter developments are not. Cllr James Pasternak wants Council to change the policy so—lol that would make too much sense, he actually wants an exception for this one application.

• The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal already slapped down NIMBYs trying to restrict group homes and rooming houses, but Cllr Ainslie is taking another run at the football.

• Cllrs Ana Bailão and Mary-Margaret McMahon are gung-ho about making laneway housing a thing. On one hand, I am deeply skeptical this will mitigate the housing crisis. On the other, I find tiny houses comforting on, like, a visceral level, like some ASMR shit idk.

Shelter

• In a mildly surprising move, Mayor Tory rebuked several of his allies on Council by declaring his support for this new men’s shelter on Runnymede. It will be interesting to see how the vote goes.

• Council may approve a 51-bed youth shelter in Scarborough, operated by YouthLink. Before you get too excited, making it permanent will count as a “new and enhanced” budget request next year—when, as you know, the administration is insisting on a budget freeze.

• It’s already time for Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) to start preparing for winter. This motion recommends increasing emergency warming centre and shelter system “flex bed” capacity and expanding the volunteer-run Out of the Cold program; prominent anti-poverty advocates say it’s just a band-aid for a systemically inadequate system. (Related.)

Animals

• The aging cabin that houses the High Park Zoo’s llamas and capybaras is getting an overdue upgrade.

• Flamingos, cranes, and penguins are now prohibited from being kept in Toronto.

Diversity and Inclusion

• It’s not often that I say this, but “Towards an Action Plan for Transgender Youth” is a really, really good City report. Not a knock against our public service, you understand—there’s nothing wrong with City reports, generally—but this is just a stand-out report. It’s an excellent introduction to transgender social issues that manages to be accessible while not sacrificing nuance or intersectional analysis, as many “trans 101”-type things tend to do. Focused, obviously, on Toronto youth, but I think it’s valuable to a wider audience as well, if only to see how it should be done. (Related.)

• Cllr Kristyn Wong-Tam wants to establish an Intersectionality Awareness Week where it would be legal to punch anyone who asks “Why isn’t there a White Entertainment Television?” the City would raise public awareness of the concept, rooted in Black feminist thought, that social identities and power dynamics based on race, gender, class, etc., overlap in unique and complicated ways.

• The Aboriginal Affairs Committee recommends looking into establishing an Aboriginal Office at the City. Currently there is only a consultant who reports to the Equity, Diversity and Human Rights Office. Winnipeg, for example, has an Indigenous Relations Division; Vancouver has been designated a City of Reconciliation. (Related.)

Breweries

A number of local breweries are getting “by the glass” licences—craft beer aficionados may want to check these out:

• People’s Pint Brewing Co., just north of the Junction.

• Halo Brewery, in the Junction Triangle.

• Saulter Street Brewery, Leslieville.

• Godspeed Brewery, Little India.

Oh, For Christ’s Sake

• It’s well-established that replacing streetcars with buses is more expensive, less efficient, requires vehicles and facilities the TTC doesn’t have and wastes the vehicles and facilities it does, but darned if Cllr Michael Ford doesn’t want to study it anyway. (Is “shenaniganry” even a word?)

• Whether you think raising the minimum wage hurts or helps the job market, there are definitely a metric fuckton of studies already out there. But darned if Cllr Ford doesn’t want to study it anyway. I’m sensing a theme.

• This motion from Cllrs Giorgio Mammoliti and Jim Karygiannis is less pro-police than anti-Black Lives Matter.

Things of the Month

• Tree removal permit application of the month: this black walnut tree in the East End, whose falling fruit is causing “property damage, vehicle damage, and tension between neighbours”. Guys, why are you fighting each other when it’s obviously the fucking tree’s fault?

• Green roof of the month: 2 Fraser Avenue.

• Section 37 benefit of the month: About $30,000 for a floating garden.

Probably Just Interesting To Me

• There’s a new report on the changing Ontario Works caseload. (While the money itself comes from the province, the City administers the program.) The overall caseload is down 11% since 2010. However, the increasingly precarious job market, systemic discrimination, and other barriers mean that people are on social assistance longer (3 years on average), face steeper barriers to employment, and have more complex needs.

• The 2018 meeting schedule is out, which means I get to update my Google Calendar.

• Oh boy, final 2016 operating budget variance report!

Miscellaneous

• Cllr Paul Ainslie notes that Toronto Fire Services and Paramedic Services have yet to release open data sets as promised last year.

• The Toronto Film, Television and Digital Media Board’s new industry action plan recommends, among many other things, a “concierge service model” for industry clients planning local productions, and dynamic…branding…collaborating…something. (Related.)

• Last year, the cancellation of Toronto Fashion Week left the industry reeling. What’s next?

• Free permits for neighbourhood movie nights!

• Seems like the new “raccoon-proof” green bins have passed the test, as the provider’s contract is being renewed. (Related.)http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2017.MM31.4

• The future of recreation funding.

• Just over a year after Council voted to approve three supervised injection sites and a month after the provincial government confirmed the funding, it’s time to make it official. (Related: Mammoliti being an asshole.)

• An interesting update on the continuing project to create an archaeological collection repository.

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Questions, comments, additions, suggestions? Let me know in the comments!