Is Toronto living up to its potential?
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Toronto → live → potential
Looking at the achievements of cities around the world and even statistics here at home, the answer, to a gathering of political experts and journalists Tuesday, was plainly no.
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answer → look → experts
But, they said to a crowd including two leading candidates for mayor in next month’s election, Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander, hope is alive and well, so long as the people at the helm of the city steer it in the right direction.
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people → say → direction
Toronto’s virtues are obvious, said Star publisher Jordan Bitove on stage at an Empire Club of Canada luncheon Tuesday.
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Bitove → say → luncheon
It’s a font of artistic innovation and a culinary destination, but polling data and expert observation still show a city that is becoming inhospitable.
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that → ’ → city
“More than one third of Torontonians are considering leaving,” said Bitove, quoting a statistic that has remained consistent for several years and is even higher among younger people.
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that → consider → people
“We tell young people they can build their future here while three in four renters believe they will never own a home.”
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they → tell → home
Toronto is expensive, slow to traverse and, although it is quite safe relative to other global cities — with major crime incidents trending downward, year over year — high-profile violent crimes such as the Salsa on St. Clair shooting have set people on edge, Bitove said.
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Bitove → traverse → edge
“Despite all these challenges, the majority of Torontonians believe Toronto is a great place to be, a great place to raise a family, and that the city’s best days are still ahead,” he said.
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he → believe → family
“Toronto’s greatest advantage may be that people have not given up on it.”
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people → give → it
Veteran Star columnist Ed Keenan followed Bitove’s speech with a panel discussion on helping the city realize its potential.
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city → follow → potential
His guests represented a cross-section of political belief with experience in municipal and federal governments.
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guests → represent → governments
Look to other cities for inspiration
Courtney Glen, former chief of staff to John Tory when he was mayor, said it hurts her to take the famous riverboat architecture tour in Chicago, which features up-close views of the city’s many architectural eras, all of which are impressive in their own right.
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all → look → right
“You go to Chicago, you look at that waterfront, then you look at ours,” she said.
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she → go → ours
“We struggle with what happens down there.
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what → struggle → ?
It gets very politicized, with Ontario Place, Therme.”
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It → get → Place
This, she said can make Toronto politicians and candidates skittish around making grand plans, in the waterfront and elsewhere, because issues like these can become very partisan, which can make it difficult and politically costly to execute on their vision.
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it → say → vision
It is safer to, as the two leading candidates for mayor have, opt instead to develop platforms around “adding more cops or school lunches.”
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candidates → lead → cops
Glen said the pandemic proved that it is possible and beneficial to “put some of that silly political stuff aside” to tackle big issues, like she said her old boss did when he and progressive health board chair Joe Cressy “became like brothers” fighting COVID-19.
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he → say → COVID-19
‘In a great city, you don’t sit in traffic’
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you → sit → traffic
Former Toronto chief planner and mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat said London has solved one of the problems that bedevils Toronto the most: traffic.
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that → say → Toronto
“In a great city you don’t sit in traffic,” she said, citing London’s Congestion Charge introduced in 2003 as having “transformed” the city.
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she → sit → city
“They’ve also completely redesigned streets, transforming the number of people who move by bike in the city.
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who → redesign → city
And they added a ton of busses.
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they → add → busses
There are an astronomical number of people who take the bus in London.
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who → be → London
To Marco Mendicino, the final panelist, a former Liberal MP and immigration minister, said Toronto is a proud city of immigrants, including his parents, that boast boundless talent and curiosity.
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that → say → talent
The city needs to champion these luminaries, he said, the people working on the bleeding edge of possibility.
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he → need → possibility
At the same time, he said, a culture of “scaremongering” around new technology threatens to hold the city back.
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culture → say → city
“We have 1.6 million jobs right here, focused on the frontier of where the economy is going, in fintech, in AI,” he said.
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he → have → AI
I think you all know that AI is going to be a dominant, destructive force, but it can be a positive and a constructive one.
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it → think → ?
Mendicino, who is a lifelong Torontonian, minus some studies abroad and work on the Hill, said these discussions Tuesday should encourage any future mayor to work harder to address the issues facing the city.
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discussions → say → city
(Mendicino, who was reportedly considering a run for mayor of Toronto pledged on stage Tuesday in front of his family that he would not seek political office again.)
“The message to our candidates is we’ve all got to pull up our socks here and do better, do right by the people that make up this great city.”
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that → consider → city
The Aporia
