DoFo the tone deaf asshat

[jimidean2011]

This guy has to be one of the most tone deaf politicians currently in office. Imagine expecting someone living in a tent to get up and go to a 9-5 job? https://www.cp24.com/news/we-need-t...mments-on-encampments-amid-backlash-1.7050054

 

[dvous11]

He’s 100% correct.
Also hoping his legislation passes so we can stop removing valuable car lanes in favour of bike lanes that are used by a small handful during favourable weather conditions.

 

[Goodoer]

I don’t think he’s tone deaf. He knows who the voters are. He’s standing on a construction site where that company is probably dying for a labourer. An able-bodied man can do that job if they stay off the drugs and booze.

I am a bike lane fan, but I think he’s correct on removing them…. Bike lanes have to be independent and decoupled with car traffic. Transit needs to be invested in. Go to Europe and you’ll see.

 

[Frankfooter]

How about he raise minimum wage so you can afford housing when you have a job.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1838381586892341380

 

[jimidean2011]

He’s 100% correct.
Also hoping his legislation passes so we can stop removing valuable car lanes in favour of bike lanes that are used by a small handful during favourable weather conditions.

So you think you can juggle living in a tent and holding down a job?

 

[Skoob]

Is there a reason why someone who is healthy and living in an encampment can't apply for & get a job?
I mean there are new immigrants who come to Canada and don't even speak the language and have nothing when they get here that still manage to get a job.

 

[Frankfooter]

So you think you can juggle living in a tent and holding down a job?

Google the difference between minimum wage and rent in Ontario.
Then define 'living wage'.

 

[jimidean2011]

Is there a reason why someone who is healthy and living in an encampment can't apply for & get a job?
I mean there are new immigrants who come to Canada and don't even speak the language and have nothing when they get here that still manage to get a job.

Have you tried living in a tent? Have you tried living in a tent in the dead of winter? And then tried to wake up, get yourself together, hoped on public transit, traveled across the city, tried to focus on the task at hand while you are wondering what percentage of your belongings will still be there when your shift is over? Please tell me you've done this already before saying that. Let me guess, you haven't done it but you're just imagining how easy it would be in your head and it seems really easy?

 

[jimidean2011]

I mean there are new immigrants who come to Canada and don't even speak the language and have nothing when they get here that still manage to get a job.

But are they living in a tent while they're doing it or a cushy hotel provided by the government?

 

[Butler1000]

Is there a reason why someone who is healthy and living in an encampment can't apply for & get a job?
I mean there are new immigrants who come to Canada and don't even speak the language and have nothing when they get here that still manage to get a job.

I.D. an Address, A telephone #. Stigma.

How many employers will hire a homeless person?

The immigrants coming in get hired by people of similar ethnic background. Usually cheaper. Sometimes on a cash basis. When you don't have those connections It's much more difficult. Hell even if you have the top sentence it can can still be tough to get a job.

 

[jimidean2011]

I.D. an Address, A telephone #. Stigma.

How many employers will hire a homeless person?

The immigrants coming in get hired by people of similar ethnic background. Usually cheaper. Sometimes on a cash basis. When you don't have those connections It's much more difficult. Hell even if you have the top sentence it can can still be tough to get a job.

Those factors as well as many more. People don't realize just how challenging it is to live in a tent and struggle round the clock. It's pretty fucking horrible the way people view the homeless population. They need help, not judgement.

Another thing is that employers are motivated to hire immigrants because the government will cover 70% of their wages so there is a huge incentive to do so. There is no such incentive to hire a homeless person.

 

[Anbarandy]

I don’t think he’s tone deaf. He knows who the voters are. He’s standing on a construction site where that company is probably dying for a labourer. An able-bodied man can do that job if they stay off the drugs and booze.

I agree, he is not tone deaf.

He knows WHO his voters are.

He is the puppet of developers and private interests who is a "yeah Thug, we see right thru your folksy, common sense bullshit" populist.

It's "we don't need an early election that will once again throw hundreds of millions of dollars in the garbage" time folks!

 

[Anbarandy]

I am a bike lane fan, but I think he’s correct on removing them…. Bike lanes have to be independent and decoupled with car traffic. Transit needs to be invested in. Go to Europe and you’ll see.

He is not proposing to remove them.

He also has no real intention nor real plan to mitigate congestion.

If he did, he:

1) Would be fine with road tolls on the DVP and Gardiner.

2) He would actively be engaging with the owners of the 407 and transport companies to off load transport vehicles from the 401 to the 407.

3) He would be fine with congestion charges to the central core.

4) He would be fine with not meddling in any cities plans for separated bike lanes.

5) He would be fine with automated 'blocking the box' enforcement. Cameras mounted on TTC streetcars, more traffic wardens

6) Increase fines for illegal parking. Increased parking fees on Green P parking property, street parking.

7) And more .... as the problem is not bike lanes, the problem is too many vehicles, too many vehicles believing they can do whatever the fuck they wanna do without consequences

 

[Anbarandy]

Everywhere Thug goes he sees homeless people, homeless people who don't want to work.

Everywhere Thug goes people always come up to him and say, "bike lanes bad, cars good. we want carways, carways, carways!"

 

[dvous11]

So you think you can juggle living in a tent and holding down a job?

If you want to make a change then yes, there’s nothing you can’t do.
If you’re mentally defeated and lazy then it’s much easier to remain in your rut.

 

[Anbarandy]

Doug Ford is slapping Toronto in the face, again. But this time he’s also shooting himself in the foot

Sept. 24, 2024



By Scott Stinson, Contributor
Scott Stinson is a journalist based in suburban Toronto.

The Doug Ford government is reportedly planning to introduce legislation that would ban municipalities from building new bicycle lanes that reduce the space for motor vehicles.

To which one must say: Sigh. It’s a shame the Premier doesn’t have some developer friends who engaged in a bit of bike lane speculation.

In truth, even that probably wouldn’t have mattered. If there is one north star that has guided the Premier in his policy-making, it is an absolute devotion to the automobile. Road tolls removed. Licence-plate fees waived. Highways widened.

Four wheels good, two wheels bad.

And yet, even amid Ford’s relentlessly pro-car agenda, this is something else. Leaving aside the heavy-handedness of Queen’s Park dictating to municipalities what they are allowed to do with their own road infrastructure, as though the Premier’s Office knows better than the elected officials of towns and cities that each have unique travel and commuting patterns, a ban on new bike lanes will literally have the opposite of the desired effect.

Bike lanes do not increase traffic congestion, they reduce it. Full stop. That is, and it feels kind of obvious to say it, the point.

It’s not as though there isn’t real-word evidence of this. Major cities that have committed to bike-lane expansion — Paris, London, Madrid, Seoul — have reduced vehicular traffic over time, for the dead simple reason that more humans can fit on a bike lane than in a lane of traffic while in their cars. Some studies estimate that 10 times as many people can commute on a protected bike lane as compared to a typical lane of motor-vehicle traffic, since the majority of those vehicles will have a single occupant — the least efficient mode of travel in terms of sharing the road.

That’s not to say there won’t be complaints, as it takes time for commuting behaviours to change after bike lanes are implemented. Motorists grumble about the reduced space for their unnecessarily large vehicles, bringing negative headlines. This seems to be basically what the Premier is responding to: traffic congestion in Toronto is bad, and also some bike lanes were implemented, so therefore bike lanes must be to blame.

But just because a certain segment of the Tory base thinks bikes are too woke doesn’t mean they are the problem. This is government by vibes.

Ford could look, for example, to the east, where Montreal has been expanding dedicated bike lanes for years now in an effort to reduce vehicular traffic on the island. It has worked as designed. In one example, the installation of protected bike lanes along historic Saint-Denis Street has helped transform it from a thoroughfare for commuting motorists into something closer to its original purpose as a commercial centre. Vehicular traffic is down, bike trips have skyrocketed, pedestrian traffic is up and the commercial occupancy rate has steadily increased.

And again, this isn’t some kind of weird one-off. Studies around the world have shown that cyclists and pedestrians are more likely to stop and shop than just-passing-through drivers. This seems like a pretty good outcome for Premier Open for Business.

Achieving those kinds of results, by transforming cities away from car dependency, of course takes time and patience. It’s much easier to grouse about bikes taking away space from those precious cars, and politically expedient because more people drive than cycle.

But you know what encourages people to switch from car to bike? Better bicycle lanes, especially those that are protected from vehicular traffic. Having to hug the shoulder of a road or threading the space between moving vehicles on one side and parked cars on the other, can be uncomfortable and dangerous. Separating riders from cars has had a transformative effect wherever it is tried: it’s much safer, it moves people out of cars and on to bikes, which is better for public health and the environment.

Despite all that, this feels like one of those Ford initiatives that is impervious to facts. He’s heard people complain about bike lanes, so he has concerns about bike lanes. The motorists are unhappy? Can’t have that. And so the blame for congestion will fall on the bike lanes that haven’t even been built yet.

Passing a law to prohibit them, after all, won’t cost a thing. Except in the long run.

 

[Anbarandy]

‘Put them on secondary roads:’ Doug Ford shoots down criticism of controversial plan to limit bike lanes
Ford is defending his government’s push to limit bike lanes, saying cars and trucks should have full priority on major streets.

Sept. 23, 2024

By Rob FergusonQueen’s Park Bureau, and Kristin RushowyQueen’s Park Bureau

Premier Doug Ford is defending his government’s push to limit bike lanes in Ontario municipalities, saying cars and trucks should have full priority on major roads like Bloor Street and University Avenue.

“We just want to get traffic moving … that’s what it comes down to, making sure you aren’t putting bike lanes in the middle of some of the busiest streets in the country,” Ford told reporters Monday.

“Put them on secondary roads.”

The controversial plan — which government sources have confirmed is in upcoming legislation titled the “Reducing Gridlock and Saving You Time Act” — would block construction of new bike lanes if they result in the loss of other lanes to cars, buses, trucks and other traffic.


It quickly sparked concern when details leaked last week. Six cyclists have been killed on Toronto streets this year.

“This is politics that plays with people’s lives,” said New Democrat MPP Joel Harden (Ottawa Centre), his party’s transportation critic.

“This is putting wedge politics over real solutions.”

University of Toronto geography and planning professor Matti Siemiatycki called the plan to limit bike lanes “ineffective and dangerous” as people increasingly take to bicycles to get around.

Toronto city council recently voted in favour of adding 100 kilometres of bike lanes to major routes within three years to reduce vehicle emissions and combat climate change.

But Ford was not backing down during a water and sewer funding announcement for a new housing development in Cobourg, an hour’s drive east of Toronto.

He bristled at notions that removing motor vehicle lanes in favour of bike lanes doesn’t increase congestion.

“That’s a bunch of hogwash,” Ford said, insisting the reduction of lanes on University Avenue’s “hospital row” south of College Street to make way for bike lanes has made that stretch “jammed like crazy.”

He also cited Bloor Street, claiming bike lanes have “disrupted all the businesses there.”

“We need to focus on transportation routes. They get people … from point A to point B.”

Ford evaded a question about why he repeatedly says municipalities “know best” where housing is needed as the province battles a shortage of affordable new homes, but now wants to override municipal powers on where bike lanes should be located.

Critics said there is an inconsistency there as the premier apparently looks to court support from motorists and suburbanites as he mulls whether to call an early election next spring instead of waiting until the next slated provincewide vote in June 2026.

“Nobody asked for the government to dictate people’s transportation choices or get in the way of local communities doing what works best for them,” said Harden.

Ford was criticized for meddling in municipal affairs shortly after he was elected premier in 2018 and passed legislation cutting the size of Toronto city council nearly in half during the city’s election campaign.

An Etobicoke resident, he has frequently slammed the expansion of bike lanes in Toronto. City staff have found bike ridership increases when new protected bike lanes are installed.

The premier also sounded off Monday about environmental assessments for Highway 413, which would link Highway 401 at Milton to Highway 400 in Vaughan.

“Let’s build the damn highway. There’s hundreds of thousands of people stuck in our cars backed up from here to Timbuktu, and you’re worried about a grasshopper jumping across the highway.”

 

[Anbarandy]

If you want to make a change then yes, there’s nothing you can’t do.
If you’re mentally defeated and lazy then it’s much easier to remain in your rut.

"Just say no to drugs. Just say no to mental illness. Just say no physical disabilities. Just say no disease, infirmities, plague, infestation .... "

The common sense guide to getting a job.

 

[mandrill]

He is not proposing to remove them.

He also has no real intention nor real plan to mitigate congestion.

If he did, he:

1) Would be fine with road tolls on the DVP and Gardiner.

2) He would actively be engaging with the owners of the 407 and transport companies to off load transport vehicles from the 401 to the 407.7

3) He would be fine with congestion charges to the central core.

4) He would be fine with not meddling in any cities plans for separated bike lanes.

5) He would be fine with automated 'blocking the box' enforcement, cameras mounted on TTC streetcars, more traffic wardens

6) Increase fines for illegal parking

7) And more .... as the problem is not bike lanes, the problem is too many vehicles, too many vehicles believing they can do whatever the fuck they wanna do without consequences

Except all of these penalize drivers who need cars to get to work and back. Most of the GTA is suburb and you need a car to get there - unlike European cities.

Everything you suggest is based on your notion that cars have no place in Toronto and should be taxed, fined, tolled and forced off the roads. That way, electricians can bicycle to 6 AM jobs in Brampton with their tools apparently strapped to their bikes.

"Congestion charges to the central core" hits every tradesman in Little Portugal who needs to drive to a job site. Your fantasy world involves people like yourself who bicycle from their luxury coop units to their consultants offices 5 minutes away. It doesn't take into account anyone who needs to exit downtown Toronto to do a job, run an errand or take the kids to a soccer practice or check up on a sick grandma in Rexdale.

My next-door neighbour needs to run her kids to hockey league games in Oshawa. What's she supposed to do? Pay "congestion fees" for living at Dundas and Ossington when she's a single mom with kids and a clerical job?

I look at the bike lanes as I head off to the DVP each morning and I see 2 or 3% road users are bicyclists. The rest drive cars. It's ass-backwards politics from people whose vision is so elitist and extreme that they block out the real needs of their constituency.

So Duggo's going to crush the nuts of the NDP and Grits in the next election. Mathematically it's going to be an almost 100% seat grab in the Legislature. And that's because the Libs and the NDP cannot regain the trust of the common voter - exactly because of the shit I describe above.



Duggo is corrupt. IDGAF. He can sell the Greenbelt to developers and take a billion $$ payoff to a Panamanian bank a/c for all I give a shit. Because the Greenbelt is 50 miles away and selling it doesn't affect whether I make a 9:00 appearance in Newmarket. The fucking bike lanes and the artificial congestion that assholes on city council have caused do affect whether I get to Newmarket. So fuck city council.

So I am going to cheer for every fucking bike lane that gets torn up at the City's expense from now on and I'm going to have a golden-framed portrait of Duggo on my mantle and jerk off to it.

 

[Anbarandy]

Except all of these penalize drivers who need cars to get to work and back. Most of the GTA is suburb and you need a car to get there - unlike European cities.

Everything you suggest is based on your notion that cars have no place in Toronto and should be taxed, fined, tolled and forced off the roads. That way, electricians can bicycle to 6 AM jobs in Brampton with their tools apparently strapped to their bikes.

"Congestion charges to the central core" hits every tradesman in Little Portugal who needs to drive to a job site. Your fantasy world involves people like yourself who bicycle from their luxury coop units to their consultants offices 5 minutes away. It doesn't take into account anyone who needs to exit downtown Toronto to do a job, run an errand or take the kids to a soccer practice or check up on a sick grandma in Rexdale.

My next-door neighbour needs to run her kids to hockey league games in Oshawa. What's she supposed to do? Pay "congestion fees" for living at Dundas and Ossington when she's a single mom with kids and a clerical job?

I look at the bike lanes as I head off to the DVP each morning and I see 2 or 3% road users are bicyclists. The rest drive cars. It's ass-backwards politics from people whose vision is so elitist and extreme that they block out the real needs of their constituency.

So Duggo's going to crush the nuts of the NDP and Grits in the next election. Mathematically it's going to be an almost 100% seat grab in the Legislature. And that's because the Libs and the NDP cannot regain the trust of the common voter - exactly because of the shit I describe above.

View attachment 362201

Duggo is corrupt. IDGAF. He can sell the Greenbelt to developers and take a billion $$ payoff to a Panamanian bank a/c for all I give a shit. Because the Greenbelt is 50 miles away and selling it doesn't affect whether I make a 9:00 appearance in Newmarket. The fucking bike lanes and the artificial congestion that assholes on city council have caused do affect whether I get to Newmarket. So fuck city council.

So I am going to cheer for every fucking bike lane that gets torn up at the City's expense from now on and I'm going to have a golden-framed portrait of Duggo on my mantle and jerk off to it.

So, how's the car is king culture and politics that is the cause of congestion working out for you?

This is what you see when you're driving:

Cars, cars, cars, trucks, trucks, trucks, motorized single occupant vehicles taking up every square centimeter of pavement, all vying and fighting with each other for every square millimeter pavement ahead and to the sides of ech other.

This is not going to change unless the culture and politics that created, sustained and maintains it does.

And the thing is, you damn well know it.