Alan Gertner

I think we disagree on the premise. I don’t think public figures owe us a rememption arc. We (I) want competence. Mulaney didn’t do anything save for his job. I’d hope Tory woulda done the same. Maybe the conditions in Canada make this harder ? Meanwhile, if you want to argue Mulaney had better PR…agreed.

@timeonproject If Tory had, say, emerged with members of his family on side, his new relationship public, and three media-friendly policy planks framed as “during this time of reflection and learning, thee things are why I don’t think my job is over/what they’re fucking up w/o me”

my brother in christ, an attack that might embarrass your family is just a sequential retelling of the events that led to your resignation.

@anotherglassbox Hmmm I musta missed where Mulaney did penance for the relationship stuff plz share

@timeonproject Not a perfect 1:1 PR arc, but makes me think of John Mulaney remerging with a new fam. A subset of people were icked out but majority normie opinion seems ok w/ it. Just can’t see how he would’ve eked by in public imagination being like, “Ok time to pick up where we left off.”

@anotherglassbox Putting Rofo and Tory in the same bucket feels like a stretch

@timeonproject My point re: penance is more about vibes. If you're going to resign in shame, imo you need to be public about a genuine redemption, or you entrench cynical attitudes about politicians. Municipal engagement is already super low, and we had two shameless mayors in a row.

@anotherglassbox Fair point on engagement being low. On the fix, I don't think penance from ex-mayors moves the needle. What moves it is an inspiring candidate worth voting for. Isn't that the actual problem, not insufficient public redemption arcs?

@timeonproject So I don't think he necessarily owes it, but IMO would've been good for the vibes and for voter engagement to see something a bit more human and selfless than dropping a smoke bomb and peacing out. But that might just be a personal take.

@anotherglassbox TOs structural deficit is 20yrs old / belongs partially to ON / not any one mayor...Tory wasn't perfect fiscally (Chow is worse?) - both have been painfully slow on efficiency + tech. Alternative timeline he is probably winning another term?

@anotherglassbox Not endorsing what he did — but I dont think he ran in shame...saw what was coming and stepped down before it hurt the people around him more. Also not sure John as +20yr public servant owes us pennance?

@ChrisSpoke Agreed and also six seconds

@timeonproject Yes. Zoning review takes ~six weeks today. We could build a tool that gets it done in six minutes, with an error rate much lower than human reviewers.

The Province employs ~68,000 people at a cost of ~$28.7 billion per year. I bet it could cut those numbers by 20% with no loss of service through greater use of advanced AI tools. That’s ~$5.74 billion in annual savings. You could eliminate all municipal development charges in Ontario and backfill lost revenues for ~$3.5 billion per year.

@anotherglassbox Should he have stepped down in the first place ?

Sorry for harshness but Tory had three years to commit himself to some sort of public admission/repentance for squandering not only measurable dollars it took to run a byelection, but the immeasurable costs of abandoned projects, institutional change between mayoral cabinets, etc

@ElectionDigest @ddebow You called it fake. I showed you 70% fewer murders. Now you're explaining how the theory actually works. (incorrectly) That's not a rebuttal — that's a concession. ✌️

@timeonproject @ddebow Broken windows theory is EXPLICITLY a theory that you can use non-police resources to maintain property to reduce crime. What you're describing as actually reducing crime, is not that. You are describing the implementation of aggressive enforcement against minor offenses.

broken windows is a thing

The theory was published in 1982. NYC tested it in 1994. The bodies stopped piling up. Then academics showed up in 2019 to explain why it shouldn't have worked. • 1982: Wilson & Kelling publish the theory • 1994: Bratton implements it — CompStat, fare evasion enforcement, quality-of-life policing • 2001: Murders down 70% (2,245→629). Violent crime down 56%. Robbery down 67%. NYC = 25% of the nation's entire crime decline • 2019: Northeastern meta-analysis says graffiti doesn't cause crime I can see you’ve posted excerpts, a study about graffiti, and the word 'spurious.' I've posted the largest crime decline in American history.

@timeonproject @ddebow It was always a spurious argument, as you can tell from the excerpts I provided.

@ElectionDigest @ddebow That study asked if graffiti causes crime. Nobody claimed it did. Meanwhile NYC policed fare evasion and minor offenses — murders fell 70%. You debunked a straw man while policy prevented 1,616 people a year from being murdered.

@timeonproject @ddebow Broken windows theory is that if you clean up graffiti and fix broken windows it will lead to less crime. That was the whole idea.

@ElectionDigest I did. That's what 'we know how to fix this' means

@timeonproject If you want the King St transit priority approach on all streetcar lines, then say so.

Toronto has let transit deteriorate to the point where your feet are the faster mode. In the core, streetcars crawl at 10 km/h and arrive every 10-ish minutes. Miss one and walking is factually faster. The city deserves better — and we know how to fix this.

@ElectionDigest Quote where I blamed the current council. I'll wait. I literally said 'every council that didn't vote for dedicated ROW owns a piece of it.' That's 20-30 years of councils.

@timeonproject Okay, great. So say that. Like I said, your comment suggests this is a new problem and therefore the fault of the current council.

@ElectionDigest 20-30 years of choosing not to fix it is the definition of letting it deteriorate. Every council that didn't vote for dedicated ROW owns a piece of it. That's not dishonest — that's the whole point.

@timeonproject You're right, but saying "Toronto not has let transit deteriorate to the point where it's faster to walk" is dishonest and puts the blame on current politicians. It's been faster to walk for 20-30 years.

@ElectionDigest @ddebow The study found graffiti doesn't cause crime. Nobody said it did. Meanwhile, enforcing the law works. Murders: 2,245 → 629. And the development followed the safety — nobody was building condos in the South Bronx in 1994. Capital goes where crime drops, not the other way around.

@timeonproject @ddebow From 1993-2001 NYC saw massive reinvestment in development. There was significant gentrification and the vacant lots and derelict buildings in the city were replaced by new condos and office buildings. Poor people were replaced by yuppies and finance bros.

@ElectionDigest That's the point. It's a policy choice, not a law of physics. Other cities fixed this with dedicated ROW and signal priority. Toronto chose not to.

@timeonproject Where have you been? The streetcars have always been notoriously slow because if the cars in their way.

@ElectionDigest @ddebow NYC 1993→2001: Murders down 70%. Violent crime down 56%. Robbery down 67%. NYC accounted for 25% of the entire nation’s crime decline. Sweat the small stuff and the big stuff follows

@ddebow It's a fake thing. Debunked and disproven.

For sure. Ownership dynamics can tilt a place long before the neighbourhood even notices. Families have their own timelines and incentives, and sometimes the business gets caught in the middle. I wonder if the policy environment shapes the whole backdrop too. Tax structures that reward holding or cashing out land rather than running a thin-margin cultural business push these decisions in one direction. If the system keeps making the property more valuable than the place, it is easy to see why beloved venues disappear.

@timeonproject There’s generational behaviour and then there’s ownership too. As I’ve heard it this family biz had an ownership split that saw a minority want to keep their viable business open and a majority that wanted to cash out. Not up to us how families squabble over assets.

There’s something missing when it comes to private community spaces (think Imperial Pub, Sam the Record Man, Honest Ed’s). Ultimately I’m not sure what, if any, policy intervention is necessary but while some losses feel like the natural end, others feel arbitrary.