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Those crafty activists with the Toronto public space committee plastered cryptic posters yesterday around city hall. Under the banner of "Lost Person," the posters feature the smiling mugs of certain councillors.
Most of those targeted are members of the planning and transportation committee, which this week issued a confusing hodge-podge list of rules (still to be approved by council) to crack down on "postering." With city beautification the new mantra, some councillors want to limit the covering of every pole, hoarding and mailbox on downtown streets with a gummy paper residue and the odd ad for Spanish lessons.
Among those singled out are Cliff Jenkins (Don Valley West), John Filion (Willowdale) and Bill Saundercook (Parkdale-High Park). The "Lost Person" gag is meant to exploit the loophole in the new rules that would exempt posters to advertise for missing people and pets or yard sales.
Mr. Saundercook says he is confident that council will come up with a workable compromise when the postering issue is debated next month.
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City bureaucrats: Going, going, almost gone
The long goodbyes began this week for the handful of top city bureaucrats felled last fall by Mayor David Miller's "reorganization" broom.
On Tuesday, commissioner of corporate services Joan Anderton made her final -- and briefly teary -- appearance before council's administration committee, receiving a giant bouquet, plaudits and a prolonged ovation from the politicians.
Ditto (save for the flowers and tears) for Eric Gam, commissioner of community and neighbourhood services, who made his swan song at the community services committee on Wednesday.
The post of commissioner (six in all) disappears April 15, meaning the top bureaucrats still have to show up for one more council session that week -- no doubt a chance for another round of crocodile tears from the politicians.
With the exception of Mr. Gam, who makes no bones about his intention to retire, the other commissioners are cagey about their plans.
"I want to pursue a new dream," Ms. Anderton said this week. Economic development commissioner Joe Halstead said he's not retiring. "I'm going to do a different kind of work, work I live to do," he laughed.
Mr. Gam, asked for his best memories of city hall, was characteristically diplomatic. He praised staff, but lamented the free-for-all quality of council debates (no names mentioned, Councillor Rob Ford) where questions about city-paid cigarettes and wine to lure homeless men off the streets get more air time than how to build new housing.
Councillor has a nose
for city hall's pot of gold
To the envy of her colleagues, first-term councillor Sylvia Watson (Parkdale-High Park) has earned a reputation for ferreting out funds for her projects in her community. Last year, she scrounged cash from a little-known pot of money in the former city of Toronto (where she worked as a city solicitor), enabling her to push ahead for a community centre on Wabash Avenue.
Yesterday, the economic development committee was asked to approve a special reserve fund to receive charitable donations for the project, still some years away from completion.
Whoa, said deputy mayor and committee member Mike Feldman, who wondered how he's been unable to do the same for recreation centres in his ward.
It's complicated, mostly explained as the difference between donating to a specific project and a rec centre in general. Still the confusion was enough for the politicians to ask for a clear set of rules.
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