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Toronto-Age |OT4| Molested by a Burger Priest
- Thread starter EvilMario
- Start date
Ugh, now you have to update your credit card information on PSN, Amazon, Netflix, Utilities, Paypal.
You know you're going to forget one and get a email saying "HEY PAY UP!"
For the SECOND time in 4 months too. I need to make a list of everything.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
I thought there was only a 100 dollar limit?! 0_o
You forgot to add another 0. $1000 is the limit
All the homeless people go to downtown east side cause it's so warm there
Okay let's take a look at the three biggest "quality of life" ratings for cities published:
Economist (most liveable):
Melbourne
Vienna
Vancouver
Toronto
Calgary
Adelaide
Perth
Auckland
Helsinki
Hamburg
and that's the average score among multiple categories. So not sure what you're arguing here. Are you saying all other cities score much worse in other rankings and that's why Toronto is the world's best? Because they're not. Comparing subcategories amongst the top10 cities, Toronto ranks T1st (with 3 others), T1st (with8 others), 2nd (behind Vancouver) T1st (with 8 others) and 10th (behind 9everyone else)
so by what logic is Toronto the clear ranked 1st? even if you just completely ignore one of the categories (that conveniently Toronto scores worst in), Toronto and Vancouver still tie with 2-1-1-1 ranks)
How about comparing it to other big studies?
Monocle's Quality of Life Survey:
Tokyo
Berlin
Vienna
Copenhagen
Munich
Melbourne
Fukuoka
Sydney
Kyoto
Stockholm
Vancouver
Helsinki
the top12, with Toronto not in the top25. I've bolded the ones that also appeared in the Economist's.
Don't like Monocle's? Okay, then by far the other biggest one next to Economist is Mercer's:
Vienna
Zurich
Auckland
Munich
Vancouver
Dusseldorf
Frankfurt
Geneva
Copenhagen
Sydney
(Toronto comes in at 15th here)
Just looking at these lists, a few obvious cities come in higher than Toronto routinely. The stand-out candidate being Vienna, but so do Vancouver, Auckland, Munich, and Sydney.
Overall? I'd say Toronto is a solid top10 in the world city when you compare them among all categories and multiple rankings. Do they lead in some categories? Sure.
But saying "the best overall city to live across the major index categories." makes no sense when the economist's ranking you quote has them at 4th and no other ranking even has them in the top10. which also invalidates "we are the only city in the world that consistently ranks within the Top 5-10 range of major standard of life quality indexes."
so.... be happy it's a top10 city but don't make up statistics.
I pulled all these numbers from the 2016 reports but you can also check out this link for an easy quick overview: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities where Vienna is the only city in the top5 in all three rankings and Vancouver and Melbourne are the only cities to appear twice in the top5.
It was done on different days.
So, Wynne is going to strike down any thought of tolls on Gardiner/DVP.
And Tory isn't too happy. Telling Wynne she actually has to start funding transit (among othr things) in Toronto.
I love seeing two politicians I can't stand fight. Hopefully we get something good out of it. Eventually. Maybe. Aww, who am I kidding.
And Tory isn't too happy. Telling Wynne she actually has to start funding transit (among othr things) in Toronto.
I love seeing two politicians I can't stand fight. Hopefully we get something good out of it. Eventually. Maybe. Aww, who am I kidding.
ProfessorMoran
Member
It was bullshit that Tory is charging tolls to fund transit anyway, the tolls is supposed to go to the highways, but the fact is the municipal budget already includes the repairs, the tolls is only going to transit which shouldn't be what it's for, it's like you ask your wife to give you money to pay the mortgage but there's already money in the account so you spend it on a new riding mower, which is borderline dishonest. If he had the balls he would levy a transit tax and see whether he'll get reelected in 4 years.
Wynne is just trying to buy votes by doing a 180 on the tolls, shameless.
Tory was in favour of keeping it strictly for transit, but council wanted to use the revenue as a 'as need' basis. I actually agreed with Tory on this and it should have been strictly transit. It's not that we don't need more funds for child care, housing and other services, but transit is fucking starving and should have dedicated funding.
I don't mind tolls at all though, provided people below a certain income threshold are spared, or can obtain rebates. It wouldn't even be an issue if Toronto received a proportional share of the pie from higher levels of government, but it certainly will never see that.
It's interesting to see the TTC start squirming more and more each year as their ridership growth flatlines. It's poorly managed as fuck, but also it receives no help. Literally a chicken and egg scenario with 'We'd do better if we were funded' vs 'You already fuck up everything, why should we give you more money'
All in all a smart political move by Wynne has a lot of places have been stating. Liberals are nearly certain to take Toronto, no more how much they screw the city and I've already seen a few posts on my Facebook from 905ers stating they hated Wynne until now, but this changes everything. It's working like a charm.
edit: I almost forgot to touch on a transit tax. Are you just blowing smoke out your ass, or do you actually believe that would be a good thing at this point?
That would lead me to think something you do regularly is compromised. ATM/debit machine you use regularly, your PC, something.
chaobreaker
Member
Sister's birthday is coming soon. What should I get her? She's a bit of a tea and health nut so I'm thinking of something related to either of those two. Budget is 25 dollars at most.
David's Tea has some pretty awesome Tea gift packs/sets. I got one for a Christmas White Elephant thingy, and it's great!
chaobreaker
Member
She does go to David's Tea a lot. I was thinking of getting something from there.
BigJonsson
Member
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
...Let them fight...?
#truthfact
I don't trust them with anymore money but I agree they need funding to get better. Part of the problem is politicians getting involved and fucking everything up. Part of the problem is the absolutely ridiculous concessions the very powerful union have gained and their penchant for striking if they don't get what they want (I know this was taken away but don't deny EVERY time there was a contract negotiation coming up, they'd more or less strike). Part of the problem is the terrible allocation of resources and the focus on the wrong areas for improvement.
Toronto needs to have politicians, like Ford, stick to the goddamn plan and not change shit. We also don't need other politicians, like Lastman, building a fucking line very few people use to help his buddies fund developments along that route.
The Bombardier new streetcar fuck up and the Presto fuck up among other things really make me question their leadership, and ironically, I think Byford is doing a fine job though that's compared to previous leaders which is a fucking low bar set.
John Blade
Member
I know people here don't care too much but Winterlicious 2017 just starting today and will go on to Feb 9. I am going to try two place this time and will try out Horizons Restaurant and Miku Restaurants for lunch. Was wondering what people here expectation of this two place.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Huh, is it weird that I side with Tory thinking that Toronto go screwed by Wynne's decision on the highway tolls?
N° 2048
Member
No, as much as people hate tolls they were going to help alot.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Listened to 1010 in the morning and everybody who called in basically called Wynne out on her blatant attempt at vote grab. She's not going to be very popular unless she kills the carbon tax which obviously she won't.
A transit tax would be the honest thing to do, voters can decide what they want to do with Tory, if you're going to tax people in the city, don't tax them in the guise of "we need to fix the fucking roads" because you're not spending that money on roads, that money was already earmarked in the budget for highway repairs and will be spent this year, the tolls money won't happen for at least a couple of years. 407 tolls go back to the 407, it doesn't go to transit because it shouldn't, that's not what people paid for, same thing with 404 & QEW.
Transit is starving because the TTC fucking sucks, it sucks because it's poorly run, it's not smartly priced, I paid the same whether I go from Kipling to Kennedy or Eglinton to Davisville, now you can't even force people to pay when they get on, kids ride free when they've always paid, a km of subway costs a billion dollars, it's much cheaper to run buses or even spend money on building and improving roads. Even if you build tracks, they're too stupid to provide parking for people who want to park their cars to take the subway. Throwing more money at them doesn't solve the problem.
Tory complained how now he would need to raise property tax by double digits and Torontonians aren't going to like it, of course we won't, because we'll fucking vote him out of office, as a voter I didn't ask him to build more transit, the people who use transit should be the ones paying for transit, I drive everyday, I have no interest in paying for something I'm not going to use and have no interest in using.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Tory is crying about how are we going to pay for transit now that he can't fleece commuters to pay for transit that they don't use? The answer is you're not, if you don't have the money, you don't spend it, so if you don't have money to spend on transit then you don't spend, stop trying to find another way to fleece Torontonians. Property tax is already going up from the influx of foreign money resulting in bidding wars, my house in mid town went up about $300k in the last 5 years and it's not even like I can move to Sharon and find something cheap, now you're find to raise my property tax even further because "WE MUST BUILD MORE TRANSIT!"? No thanks.
I don't want my tax dollars going to things like the Pan-American games, the transit is fine the way it is, I don't need to be able to take the subway to Mississauga or Ajax or new market when there's the 401, qew and the DVP.
BigJonsson
Member
Traffic is going to keep getting worse, are you still going to only use your car when there isn't adequate transit and a lot more cars on the road?
Who has proposed a subway to Sauga? lol
Who has proposed a subway to Sauga? lol
ProfessorMoran
Member
But there is adequate transit, I can get from Eglinton to Scarborough town centre within the hour, it's not world class but that's not what their goal should be. Rush hour always sucks but I'm driving from the city in the morning and back to the city in the evening. More cars on the road? Widen the road and put in more lanes!
BigJonsson
Member
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Honestly, as someone who doesn't drive, I wouldn't mind higher toll fees and more gas taxes. lol
To be serious for a moment, I still wish Toronto had the ambition to do something like London and just tax drivers who decide they need to bring their car into the city during peak hours.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Parking at Finch is shit, just walking from the back of the parking lot to the entrance takes like 15 minutes, miserable during winter. As the father of an 18 month old boy (too much shit to carry) and a daily commuter to Markham, the TTC is not a viable option for me, so why am I being punished?
ProfessorMoran
Member
Whatif I live in the city and drive my car out of the city during the morning rush?
London is shit, everything is more expensive, why would you want that? Should we just tax people for shits and giggles? Transit isn't going to disappear just because drivers don't pay out of their nose on ridiculous tolls and gas taxes, TTC is going to suck regardless, what's going to happen is drivers are not going to go to the city and spend on weekends because now there's less to spend, retail businesses in the city are going to suffer more, the economy is going to the shitter, it doesn't help anyone.
They need to stop running the TTC like a crown corporation and subsidizing it with tax dollars, HK has one of the best subway systems in the world and MTR is a publicly traded company, highly profitable and their octopus card system puts the presto system to shame.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
I'm not making excuses for the TTC but HK has a LOT more people, less space to cover, and the transit there owns the land, which is extremely valuable and lets them lease or rent it out which helps with their funding.
Or you can do what Vancouver is planning on doing to reduce traffic downtown by demolishing the major connector between downtown and the rest of the city LOL.
Kinda hope it does since their store is really small right now.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
I doubt it. Comics isn't exactly big business and the rent on that is going to definitely outstrip any sales they're going to make from the increased space.
Unless they put a coffee shop in it and charge crazy prices...nothing seems to make money anymore except for coffee places because people are willing to pay that crazy huge mark up for it.
Edit: jeez...first human trafficker and now today I was sitting with my wife on the streetcar and these two dudes in front of me have a problem with me for some reason and start swearing at me. I don't respond and then "he" says, "you got a problem with me?" He seemed kind of high and likely paranoid so I asked, "did I do something?" He replies, "no...sorry..." then apologizes again. He's probably a Hanzo main...
BigJonsson
Member
Not sure what because I haven't really done anything different. It's freaking annoying. I had my original card number since university with zero issues.
Haha, I saw your streetpass and starting looking around for you, having a vague idea of what you looked like from a couple of photos.
Did get to see Renewed there and we hang out for a few minutes before lines separated us. Fun event, although I didn't even bother trying to get a ticket for Zelda.
Tomorrow is going to be nuts with the open doors.
That's probably one of the reasons I'm going. Kinda want to see the public's reaction to the switch in person.
Sorry, but you don't seem to know what you're talking about.
First, Rob Ford helped set the city back a decade as far as transit is concerned. You mention he "stuck to plans." No, he did not. On his first day he cancelled the existing transit city plan, which led to political infighting for years and lines which should have been open by now, like Finch, are still awaiting a start date. He also led the flip flop on the Scarborough subways and tried to flip flop on Eglinton too.
Second, you deride your taxes going to transit because you don't use it. Sorry, but that's not how taxes work. Once the money is in the government's hands, it's not your money. We regularly pay taxes on things we won't ever use, that's how how society works.
Third, the downtown releif line is the single most important peice of infrastructure on the books right now, aside from maybe the Gardiner, but only since it is literally falling apart. The Yonge subway is very close to capacity. That is the definition of "not enough transit" and you are factually incorrect to say or imply otherwise.
Also, as easy as it is to blame Toronto for the streetcar mess, they have had success with bombardier before. The new subway trains are great.
Finally widening roads does not reduce congestion. Google "induced demand." This is the reason why want to spend more on transit. Automobiles will never efficiently transport all the people in our society, especially not during rush hour.
You may not have voted him in to build transit, but the voters sure did. Smart track, as flawed and bs as it was, helped Tory a lot, and many voters in the city list transit as a top priority.
I will however agree with you on the York Spadina extension, at least past York u.
Widening the roads downtown Toronto would also be a nightmare. Even a minor construction project somewhere causes huge lines on the road. Imagine this every single day for the next few years (with the speed people work here).
I laughed about Vancouver demolishing the major connections into downtown a few posts above, but I've always had a feeling that this was their strategy for the past several years. Besides the above, Vancouver has actually been making downtown roads narrower by adding huge grade-separated bike lanes on the sides of the road. I think they have somehow succeeded in reducing the traffic. Although the roads downtown are super narrow, the traffic is actually not so terrible.
Also, Vancouver had recently achieved 50% of trips being by bike, transit, or walking so that has reduced the traffic burden. Granted, their transit system is much better but the city is also quite small in area, so planning might be somehow easier. There has always been opposition from people about spending so much on transit, but I think it's paying off now. But despite everything, a ride on any bus in Metro Vancouver or a train within Vancouver only costs $2.15. On top of that, Translink, the transit company is also majorly responsible for road maintenance.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Vancouver is run by idiots, seriously. The TTC was amazing compared to what they have there.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Not sure whom you're responding to.
We're not talking about taxes, we're talking about tolls, tolls are fees not taxes, if you're charging tolls for highways, the tolls go back towards the highways, not to transit, an example would be the 407, they can spend property tax however they like at their peril, if we don't like it we'll vote him out.
No the Yonge line is not at full capacity. They're still not really running enough trains during rush hour. That's what's frustrating about the TTC, if you're going from Finch to Union, you're not going to build another line somewhere else that those very people aren't going to use.
ProfessorMoran
Member
The TTC does own some real estate, like their parking lots which they're selling so people can't even park to use their subway.
God, I'm exhausted. Definitely got full value for my 3.5 hours though!
Managed to play Snipperclips, Sonic Mania, Bomberman R, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (battle mode), ARMS, Splatoon 2, 1 2 Switch, Puyo Puyo Tetris, FAST RMX, and a bit of Zelda
I didn't know you had to get a ticket for Zelda so I had to sneak it at the very end and only got to play for about 5 minutes. I basically just got through the intro and climbed up the cliff behind me and kamikaze'd some Bokoblins. :lol
my friend and I went to St Lawrence market after for lunch which was fun. First time I've ever been there amazingly even though I've lived here my whole life.
Managed to play Snipperclips, Sonic Mania, Bomberman R, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (battle mode), ARMS, Splatoon 2, 1 2 Switch, Puyo Puyo Tetris, FAST RMX, and a bit of Zelda
I didn't know you had to get a ticket for Zelda so I had to sneak it at the very end and only got to play for about 5 minutes. I basically just got through the intro and climbed up the cliff behind me and kamikaze'd some Bokoblins. :lol
my friend and I went to St Lawrence market after for lunch which was fun. First time I've ever been there amazingly even though I've lived here my whole life.