The conclusion of my series at The Local following the crucial first months of Olivia Chow’s mayoralty! What has she gotten done? What’s still on the to-do list? Read the full thing.
P. S. Thanks to WordPress’s integration with ActivityPub, this post will also appear at the account @nevillepark@nevillepark.ca, and if you reply to it with your fediverse account (Mastodon, etc.), it will show up as a comment! Neat, eh?
Last week I took a field trip to Scarborough Civic Centre for new chair Jamaal Myers’ first TTC board meeting! As winter approaches, the TTC proposes a new approach to homeless people on the TTC, but it sounds an awful lot like just pushing people out of sight. Read on for details.
In my latest for The Local, I interview budget chief Shelley Carroll about what the 2024 budget will be like. Spoiler: the David Miller years are back, baby.
Last week, Olivia Chow’s brand-new Executive Committee unanimously recommended new revenue tools to stave off financial catastrophe. But can she get it past City Council—and what happens if she doesn’t? Read my latest for The Local.
Last week, Mayor Olivia Chow revamped City Council committees with her own slate of progressives, dramatically shifting the balance of power. Plus, the by-election churn continues in the wake of Scarborough councillor Gary Crawford’s resignation. Read my latest column at The Local. (And check out the nice interactive data visualization they made for me, too!)
My latest column for The Local is out! I discuss how climate change is pushing Toronto weather to extremes, Council’s patchy track record on going low-carbon, and the large and small things Olivia Chow can do to change that. Plus, the literal train wreck in Scarborough and two special upcoming meetings at City Hall.
In Olivia Chow, Toronto has its first progressive mayor in 12 years. How will she tackle the city’s many critical issues? Will City Council’s power balance shift? My new column for The Local tracks Chow’s first 100 days. In the first installment, I look at how the mayor—and organizers on the ground—addressed the asylum seeker crisis that unfolded at 129 Peter St. Plus, a few key items from this week’s Council meeting.
How Toronto’s Mayoral Candidates Plan to Address the Housing Crisis
Yet another municipal election is nigh. In my new piece for The Local, I analyze six top mayoral candidates’ housing platforms, which range from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to an ambitious return to the days of government-built mixed-income social housing on a large scale.
Just the numbers (this table is in the article, too):
| Saunders | Bradford | Bailão | Chow | Hunter | Matlow | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost | Unspecified | Unspecified | $49M | $404M | $1B | $407M |
| Source | Not taxes | Not taxes | City Building Fund (existing) | City Building Fund increase | Property tax increase, reserve funds | Cancelling Gardiner East, freezing police bucget |
| Units | Unspecified | At least 16,000 (as in original Housing Now plan) | HousingTO targets, provincial mandate of 285,000 | 10,000–25,000 | 22,700 | 15,000 |
| Affordability | At least some units in developments on city-owned land | 33% of housing on under-utilized city-owned land, 20% in office conversions | 40,000 affordable rentals and 4,000 affordable ownership by 2030 | At least 7,500 at 80% AMR, 2,500 at 30% AMR | 5,660 at AMR, 3,468 at 80% AMR, 2,108 at 40% AMR, 6,135 affordable ownership | 45% affordable rental (30% at AMR, 10% at 80% AMR, 5% rent geared to income, or at 30-40% AMR); subject to consultations |
The municipal election is nigh. I’ve been working behind the scenes, contributing research for The Local’s Candidate Tracker. Check it out—you can read up on Council candidates’ backgrounds, see where they stand on issues like shelter, affordable housing, and police funding, and compare them to incumbent councillors’ voting records.
As City staff gear up for the 2017 budget process, the mayor has declared that an above-inflation property tax revenue increase is off the table. Council has also successfully pushed off introducing any new revenue tools until next year. What does that mean for the budget? We read the City Manager’s latest report so you don’t have to.
