Is Rob Ford doing a good job?

[d_jedi]

My OAC English Lit teacher would love you for drawing the comparison- I agree. I wonder if the guy who wants to close libraries even knows who George Orwell is...

George Orwell? I don’t even know him, he could walk by me I wouldn’t have a clue who he is!

 

[red]

Rob Ford is so fat that he sits on both sides of the fence.

um did you know your handle is FatOne?

 

[LateComer]

There's plenty of fat to cut

Example: Toronto Public Library: $180 Million budget to serve 2.5 Million people. Compare this to the New York Public Library with a $50 Million budget to serve 3.5 Million people.

I'm not saying we should close the libraries but I am saying that it shouldn't cost anywhere near $180 Million to operate them

 

[james t kirk]

Example: Toronto Public Library: $180 Million budget to serve 2.5 Million people. Compare this to the New York Public Library with a $50 Million budget to serve 3.5 Million people.

Please post back-up to your claims.

 

[LateComer]

Please post back-up to your claims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Public_Library

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library

 

[red]

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-Public-Libary-Faces-Cuts-96080729.html

 

[LateComer]

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-Public-Libary-Faces-Cuts-96080729.html

This article said the current budget is $146 Million (which they want to cut by 25%). That is still a lot less than the $180 Million Toronto budget especially considering the NYPL serves a million more people than the TPL.

 

[red]

This article said the current budget is $146 Million (which they want to cut by 25%). That is still a lot less than the $180 Million Toronto budget especially considering the NYPL serves a million more people than the TPL.

yeah thats right.

is a library about buildings or books?

 

[LateComer]

yeah thats right.

is a library about buildings or books?

I was truly shocked that the Toronto Public Library has a bigger budget than the New York Public Library. New York has 53 Million items in its collection vs 12 million for Toronto.

 

[Blue-Spheroid]

I was truly shocked that the Toronto Public Library has a bigger budget than the New York Public Library.

It's a misleading statistic. The NY Public Library has major private endowments so they require far less from the city.

 

[jwmorrice]

You must not go there much.
To figure out how much is unused you take the area of the roadway used by cars, and the road way used by TTC and all the junk parts required by the TTC.
To figure out how under utilized the area is, take a look at the amount of transit trafic is in the allocated area.

Its really not that hard to see, theres a tonne of wasted laneways reserved for ttc.

Did you ever look at the number of accidents on St.Clair that involve TTC and pedestrian, car and pedestrian and car and ttc ? Its a dangerous road, and just as importantly, a waste of YOUR money.

I'm quite happy with the way St. Clair West is, but then, I use the streetcar. I don't drive a car. In terms of speed and reliability of service, I think it's a great improvement over the way it was before.

jwm

 

[fuji]

he's doing an awesome job too many government paid employees in toronto making too much and doing next to nothing.

He isn't doing anything about that at all. He should. He campaigned saying he would. But he isn't. In fact he had done the opposite in several cases, locking in several union contacts at exorbitant rates.

He doesn't seem to have a clue how to do any of the things he said he would.

Meanwhile he keeps coughing up hair balls like the ludicrous plan to hand over prime land to developers at fire sale prices.

 

[fuji]

It's a misleading statistic. The NY Public Library has major private endowments so they require far less from the city.

Point for blue. Late, your serve. Any other "examples" or do you concede?

 

[FatOne]

um did you know your handle is FatOne?

Yep, we know our own.

 

[biog]

Point for blue. Late, your serve. Any other "examples" or do you concede?

Seriously? It must be true because Blue said it?

According to NYC Public Library's financial statement prepared by KPMG (available here, not that I expect you to look http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/nypl_financials_2010.pdf)

Total operating revenue: $245,337,000
Private Contributions and Grants: $27,836,000

Now, I'm sure my math skills are not as top drawer as our good friends Fuji or Blue, but I come up with private funding being 11.3%. So no, they do not 'require far less from the city'.

For the record, that puts NYC's budget (exchange rate aside) at about $62 million more than Toronto.

 

[avxl1003]

You must not go there much.
To figure out how much is unused you take the area of the roadway used by cars, and the road way used by TTC and all the junk parts required by the TTC.
To figure out how under utilized the area is, take a look at the amount of transit trafic is in the allocated area.

Its really not that hard to see, theres a tonne of wasted laneways reserved for ttc.

Did you ever look at the number of accidents on St.Clair that involve TTC and pedestrian, car and pedestrian and car and ttc ? Its a dangerous road, and just as importantly, a waste of YOUR money.

This makes no sense whatsoever. St. Clair moves traffic along far better than it used to, and the streetcar moves more people than it used to.

So how is this a failure?

No, I haven't looked at the number of accidents on St. Clair that involve TTC and car.. I would be amazed if it's higher than elsewhere given the nature of the DEDICATED LINE (how do you hit a streetcar that you phsyically can't reach except at an intersection where you each have your own set of lights?)

 

[fuji]

Seriously? It must be true because Blue said it?

According to NYC Public Library's financial statement prepared by KPMG (available here, not that I expect you to look http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/nypl_financials_2010.pdf)

Total operating revenue: $245,337,000
Private Contributions and Grants: $27,836,000

Now, I'm sure my math skills are not as top drawer as our good friends Fuji or Blue, but I come up with private funding being 11.3%. So no, they do not 'require far less from the city'.

For the record, that puts NYC's budget (exchange rate aside) at about $62 million more than Toronto.

Your math skills aren't great, you missed "Investment Return appropriated for spending", $25400000, and "Net assets released from restrictions", $12263000, and just generally the $648 million endowment that the Library has. You'll see from that statement that the City of New York only kicks in $138 million towards the $248 million operating costs.

Looking back to post #70 we can see that LateComer claimed it only cost $50 million to run New York's Library system, versus $180 million for Toronto's. That was a complete fiction. It costs 36% more to run the New York system ($245 million) assuming that the $180 million number for Toronto is not as much of a fantasy as the $50 million claim for New York.

The point belongs to blue. LateComer needs to find a different example.

 

[avxl1003]

Seriously? It must be true because Blue said it?

According to NYC Public Library's financial statement prepared by KPMG (available here, not that I expect you to look http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/nypl_financials_2010.pdf)

Total operating revenue: $245,337,000
Private Contributions and Grants: $27,836,000

Now, I'm sure my math skills are not as top drawer as our good friends Fuji or Blue, but I come up with private funding being 11.3%. So no, they do not 'require far less from the city'.

For the record, that puts NYC's budget (exchange rate aside) at about $62 million more than Toronto.

According to this, the library also gets 19,565,000 from the state and federal government. Just curious if anybody knows what our library gets from the provincial and federal government?

It also begs the question where wikipedia is getting it's information from...

 

[fuji]

Looks like Toronto voters don't think Ford is doing a great job, his lurching from one fuckup to another, and especially his botched handling of the city budget, has caused his support to drop from 57% approval in June to 40% now.

Mayor Rob Ford’s handling of the 2012 budget has badly shaken Torontonians’ faith in him, according to a new opinion poll that finds his popular support dropping like a rock across the city.

The Forum Research survey of 1,046 Torontonians conducted Monday after the release of city manager Joe Pennachetti’s recommended budget cuts, pegs Ford’s support at 42 per cent — a big drop from 57 per cent on June 1, and 60 per cent in late February.

Lorne Bozinoff, the Forum president independently tracking Ford’s support each quarter, said the mayor’s “very low” numbers are only likely to sink.

“This drop in support has come without any cutbacks actually coming into effect, we’re only at the idea stage,” Bozinoff said. “This is a ceiling — I think it’s going to get a lot worse for him before it gets better.

“He campaigned on a gravy train, none was found and the reality of cuts to services that residents rely on, often daily, is setting in. That has shaken public confidence in his ability to handle the job of mayor.”

The poll also found no public appetite for the major KPMG-suggested cuts Pennachetti is forwarding to the executive committee Monday as part of Ford’s solution to fix Toronto’s finances.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘look at this, look at that,’” Bozinoff said. “Now, when people see cuts in black and white, all of these things are extremely unpopular.

“It’s also the process, I think — the mayor’s people haven’t been very good at building public support. It’s all, ‘My way or the highway.’”

Ford dismissed Pennachetti’s suggested cuts as “just scraping the surface.”

Half of Etobicoke-York respondents approve of “the job Ford is doing,” down from 58 per cent in June. In Scarborough, his support is 49 per cent (down from 59 per cent); 43 per cent in North York (down from 69 per cent) and only 30 per cent in Toronto-East York (down from 44).

...

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1053210--ford-support-plummeting-poll-suggests?bn=1

 

[biog]

Your math skills aren't great, you missed "Investment Return appropriated for spending", $25400000, and "Net assets released from restrictions", $12263000, and just generally the $648 million endowment that the Library has. You'll see from that statement that the City of New York only kicks in $138 million towards the $248 million operating costs.

Looking back to post #70 we can see that LateComer claimed it only cost $50 million to run New York's Library system, versus $180 million for Toronto's. That was a complete fiction. It costs 36% more to run the New York system ($245 million) assuming that the $180 million number for Toronto is not as much of a fantasy as the $50 million claim for New York.

The point belongs to blue. LateComer needs to find a different example.

I wasn't saying Latecomer was right, I was saying Blue's statement wasn't necessarily correct either. They don't say where the investments they hold originate from. Whether it was private money or accrued over the years of operation.