Every Mayor Is Better Than Ours

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gets a running start and uses a fast fakeout to avoid talking to reporters before his first radio show.

Mayors Gregor Robertson ( Vancouver, BC) and Joe Fontana (London, ON) call on the Canadian government to support improving rental conditions in Canada’s large cities in its upcoming federal budget. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has spent the first years of his mandate stripping the city’s supports for low-income families and selling off city-owned affordable rental units, making the nation’s largest city even more hostile to renters.

Montréal, QC: Luc Ferrandez, mayor of Montréal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough, discusses street-level changes in his community designed to slow down and redirect suburban commuters cutting through the neighbourhood. Road space has been taken back from vehicle traffic, in exchange for widened boulevards, gardens, markets and pedestrian spaces, putting the needs of people above the wants of commuters. Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford blasts any such proposal in Canada’s largest city, labelling any idea to return precious urban space to the people as “the war on cars” and proposing to spend billions of dollars extra on infrastructure projects, just to prevent the loss of vehicle lanes.

Miami, FL: Miami hires expert consultants from the Dutch capital to improve cycling infrastructure to the city built for cars, and to better cycling education. Rob Ford fired a world-renowned transit expert when he dared disagree with the Toronto Mayor’s ill-advised billion-dollar suburban subway boondoggle.

New York, NY: Mayor Michael Bloomberg launches the young adult literacy program, the first in a series of programs aimed at supporting disadvantaged youth in gaining the skills for a better life. Facing the same budget pressures, Toronto’s city council is instead considering closing libraries and ending support programs, backed by Mayor Rob Ford’s belief that cities should only pay for roads and police.

Minneapolis, MN: the recent winner of Bicycling Magazine’s award for most bicyle friendly city in America shows off its famous Midtown Greenway, a dedicated bicycle route attracting new development and business in the city centre. In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford’s bike plan calls for removing bike lanes from many city streets, because as he says, “roads are for cars and trucks.”

Guangzhou, China: the city’s 22.5km bus rapid transit service, which opened just last year, has already improved travel times by more than 20% for transit users and drivers alike, carrying almost one million passengers daily. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford turned down funding from senior governments and has shut down several new large-scale transit projects in the city, and slashed the local transit authority’s operating budget, making it harder and more expensive than ever for residents to move around the large city.

Bangalore, India: Every month, the growing, congested Asian city offers a day of free rides on the city’s bus system to commuters, aiming to raise awareness of transit options ahead of subway and rapid transit projects under construction. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wants to raise transit fares to cover eliminating the city’s vehicle registration fees, forcing more residents into cars on the city’s already gridlocked streets.

Chicago, IL: Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to make the city the most bike-friendly city in North America, outdoing previous cycling mayors by installing more than 150km of separated cycle lanes and a bike sharing program starting with 3,000 bikes. Toronto’s mayor has started calling for cyclists to be licensed, even though he thinks bicycles shouldn’t be allowed on roads.

Detroit, MI: in response to sharply increasing use of bicycles by commuters, America’s Motor City plans to add to its network of almost 60km of on-street bicycle lanes. Despite sharply increasing demand in Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford will delete 7km of existing bicycle lanes this year, and vows to never install new lanes in the city.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: New Clean Cities Initiative program begins testing new electric and clean hybrid buses in mixed traffic and Bus Rapid Transit applications, aiming to develop a market for the environmentally-friendly vehicles in other Latin American cities & help reduce the significant greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. In Toronto, mayor Rob Ford wants to rid the city of electric streetcars and hybrid buses, and replace them with hundreds of dirty diesel vehicles.

New York, NY: Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces a new round of grants to several New York City businesses, enabling them to train workers, pay higher wages and expand to larger facilities. Toronto’s mayor Rob Ford has slammed thousands of Toronto’s downtown small businesses, saying there is not enough shopping in the core, and planning to bring a suburban mall with low quality McJobs to the city centre.

Curitiba, Brazil: Former mayors and transportation experts discuss the city’s pioneering BRT system, which includes fare prepayment and dedicated, grade-separated bus lanes, and operates at the capacity typical of subway lines for a fraction of the cost. In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford cancelled the city’s rapid transit plan, vowing to eliminate streetcars and promising no new surface transit ever again, focusing instead on one prohibitively expensive subway line.