Toronto Star "Can't We Do Better" series: Rampant Municipal Management Failure #3

--  "Public housing administration as a measure of government (in)competence"
--  "Rampant management failure #2: DC area Metrorail (Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority)"

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The Toronto Star is running a series of articles in advance of the Mayor and City Council election this,  Monday October 24th, called "Can't We Do Better?" on the various way that the city government's execution of basic services is failing.

The incumbent of the last 8 years, John Tory, is likely to win.  Maybe he wouldn't if Toronto had ranked choice voting.  He's presided over Toronto's decline in the quality of city services, building on the underfunding agenda of his predecessor Rob Ford, and touts the city's low tax rate and his ability "to get things done." 

In a Star article about a proposal by the Mayor to institute stricter metrics for park operations without adding funding, there is a great quote:

Matlow also took aim at the mayor’s approach to funding park amenities. “After he’s broken the toilet, he’s pretending to be the plumber,” he said.

It's more pathetic when your Deputy Mayor says "we have a problem" ("‘There’s a feeling that the city doesn’t care anymore’: Neighbourhoods, services slipping into ‘decline,’ warns Toronto’s deputy mayor").

Toronto deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a key member of Mayor John Tory’s administration for the past eight years, is warning of a “slow decline in the quality and maintenance and repair of our neighbourhoods” due to “neglect.”

“I think there’s a feeling that the city doesn’t care anymore and it’s not doing the core services that it used to provide but we’ve come to rely on,” Minnan-Wong said in an interview. “That slow decline is making neighbourhoods look rundown.”

Minnan-Wong, who is not seeking re-election, called to congratulate the Star on its “Can’t We Do Better?” series, saying he agrees with many concerns raised over deteriorating city services and a lack of action on them by city hall.

And typical, not taking responsibility for the problem. 

Minnan-Wong, considered one of the most conservative members of council, said funding to boost service levels and reverse the decline shouldn’t automatically come from a tax hike, arguing the city must first find “efficiencies” within.

“There needs to be a discussion about the general state of our neighbourhoods. There is a slow decline in the quality of maintenance and repair,” he said.

After awhile, getting less means you do less ("Tax Trouble: How Toronto’s low tax rate measures up against the rest of the province and what it means for city services").  Efficiencies only go so far ("It pains me to say it, but there’s a $1-billion hole in Toronto’s finances — and few options to fill it"). 

The thing about mediocrity is, after a while, you just come to accept it as the status quo. Which means the neighbourhoods that used to be well-kept and well taken care of are no longer kept and taken care of.

“People accept the garbage cans aren’t fixed, that graffiti won’t be painted over, that spaces are going to continue to be abandoned. That laneways in communities, weeds are growing everywhere and the asphalt is all cracked and heaving.