The rumour mill kicks into overdrive as media continues to speculate whether John Tory will, or won’t enter the mayoral race. Tell us what you think in today’s poll.

Also hear what Sarah Thomson and Joe Pantalone had to say this week on Metro Morning with Matt Galloway.

Tory could enter Toronto’s mayoral race late – and win
Marcus Gee, Globe

Five reasons why Tory won’t run
Rob Granatstein, Sun

A Tory family affair — on the Thomson campaign
Robyn Doolittle and Robert Benzie, Star

Tory a threat to Ford
Sun

Giambrone vows to push ahead with open-fare TTC concept
John Lorinc, Globe

John Tory rides again?
Tasha Kheiriddin, Post

Should John Tory run for Toronto Mayor? Maybe he should ask Sam Katz
Katherine Laidlaw, Post

Ford says no to debate, so Smitherman camp cries fowl
Cory Ruf, Post

Ford went face-to-face with former player
Robert Cribb, Star

Rossi vows to privatize garbage collection if mayor
John Lorinc, Globe

Rossi vows city will never be held hostage by garbage strike again
Mike Adler, Inside Toronto

Oshawa voters being led down dangerous path
Sandie Benitah, Sun

Toronto Hydro users may have to pay $8 million in class-action settlement
Peter Small, Star

Hydro utilities warn of price shock
John Spears, Star

City launches campaign to get BIXI riders
Joanna Wong, Star

Veteran bureaucrat to take reins at Metrolinx
Sarah Boesveld, Globe

Metrolinx orders tunneling machines
Tess Kalinowski, Star

Toronto to get new office tower and hotel near Union Station
Tony Wong, Star

Related posts:

1. The media scan for July 28
2. The media scan for July 15
3. The media scan for July 12

Who: Sarah Thomson

Her Idea: Design Review Panels

The mayoral race so far has featured a lot of talk about transit and governance. But one subject that hasn’t garnered a lot of attention is the built form of the city itself.

Sarah Thomson took aim at this subject last week in a package of proposals designed to improve the city’s architecture and building process. Two of her ideas dealt directly with architecture and design: a proposal to encourage more diverse architecture with a “Design for Excellence Program.”

Thomson’s program — while lightly sketched in her release — would “encourage developers to bring new international ideas to their designs, like adding various cultural features and styles — Chinese, Romanesque, Persian — to the designs they create.”

Her plan would convene a working group that would review “all projects” and promote the ones that met agreed-upon aesthetic standards. The proposal follows a trend towards installing design review panels, which more and more branches of government have been putting in place in recent years.

Toronto introduced a design review panel on a trial basis in 2007, based on its lauded counterpart in Vancouver; the Toronto panel was made permanent in 2009. Its panels of veteran architects and designers review buildings that fall within certain high-profile areas, voting on whether the project should be “refined” or “redesigned.”

The panel doesn’t have binding power, but instead feeds its findings into the existing decision-making process, in which City staff make recommendations to council. Still, the panel can be influential, and designs can be improved through the feedback process.

Not that the process is always harmonious: Back in 2007, Waterfront Toronto’s own design review panel famously gave a raspberry to Jack Diamond’s original design for Corus’ new headquarters. It was only after redesigns (and some acrimony) that the building — which just opened — went ahead.

More recently, the same panel threatened to quit en masse over a proposal to build a Portlands ice rink in a sprawling, suburban style. The uproar led the city to reconsider, and commission a more compact, urban design instead.

Whether a panel of architects will embrace the aesthetics Thomson has in mind, though, remains to be seen.

Related posts:

1. BIG IDEA: Thomson’s Blue Print to Cut Red Tape
2. BIG IDEA: Sarah Thomson wants to get the lead out
3. BIG IDEA: Thomson totes Transit City subways

Another council race has opened up with the announcement that Councillor Mike Feldman has decided not to run for his Ward 10 seat. That leaves Councillors David Shiner and Mark Grimes as the only two incumbents who have yet to make their intentions known.

Mayor Tory rumours heat up
Rob Granatstein, Sun

John Tory leaning toward run for mayor’s chair
David Rider and Robert Benzie, Star

Veteran North York councillor announces retirement
Jonathan Jenkins, Sun

More council turnover: Ward 10’s Feldman retires
Kelly Grant, Globe

‘Open-fare’ technology not embraced elsewhere
John Lorinc, Globe

Toronto mayoral candidates weigh in on fate of long-form census
John Lorinc, Globe

Naked ambition not welcome
Moira MacDonald, Sun

Former student football player says Rob Ford never hit him
Kelly Grant, Globe

Ford, Smitherman radio debate?
Don Peat, Sun

Jarvis dreams become a reality for cycling commuters
David Nickle, Inside Toronto

Smart car parked in dumb spot
Don Peat, Sun

Campaign signs go up outside candidates’ offices
Inside Toronto

Bixi bike sharing program needs 1,000 members
Robyn Doolittle, Star

Customers on hook for Hydro suit
Shannon Kari, Post

Americans flock to Toronto to buy coveted Pakistani mango
Noor Javed, Star

Related posts:

1. The media scan for July 29
2. The media scan for July 21
3. The media scan for July 9

By Peter Frampton, Learning Enrichment Foundation

Child care is a deeply integral part of our community that has direct effects on individuals and their families as well as local businesses. Child care needs to be an election issue. The City of Toronto is responsible for managing the child-care system in Toronto. Without proper supports from the province, the system is slipping quickly into chaos.

The average cost of infant care in the city is $70 per day. This cost is insurmountable for tens of thousands of parents in the GTA. Currently, there are 24,000 children who receive a subsidy, while another 17,800 are on the waiting list. Without active intervention, fees will increase dramatically and the availability of child care could be dramatically reduced for all.  There is a cost to business. There is a negative impact on families in all areas of the city.

The City is facing significant funding pressures. Costs for providing child care are rising, and the City is having difficulties keeping up. If the province does not provide more funding, the result will be the loss of over 5,000 subsidies by 2015. Subsidies will be cut beginning in September 2011. Those cuts will affect the viability of child-care centres, and that will also negatively affect parents who, currently, can afford to pay for licensed care.

At the same time, the provincial initiative of “all-day kindergarten” will mean that 4 and 5 year olds will no longer require child care. This puts further pressures on the child-care system. It is estimated that the fees for infants and toddlers will rise by as much as 25 per cent due to the fact that the rates for older children have traditionally subsidized the costs of care for the younger ones. Across the city, 403 childcare centres are at high risk of closure because of 4 and 5 year olds no longer needing care. This will make childcare even less affordable for parents. It also means significant job losses and fewer licensed, safe, educational, stable and enjoyable centres for children to attend.

For parents who do not receive subsidy, the increasing pressures on the system will make childcare unaffordable to most. With licensed childcare becoming less and less affordable, family options include leaving their children with a neighbour in an unlicensed home care situation. For those who live in impoverished neighbourhoods ridden with gangs and crime, this is no option at all. Many families choose to leave their children with extended family, but this is impossible for many newcomers to Canada without grandparents or aunts and uncles nearby. A final option is for a parent to stay at home with their children, leaving them unable to work. For many, that will mean relying on welfare to survive. For employers, it means that a significant number of qualified employees will no longer be able to work. A weak child-care system puts a strain on businesses, just as business is worried about having enough skilled employees.

There are economic advantages in creating a child-care system that is strong, cohesive, and inclusive. Toronto needs a municipal government that will be a champion for childcare. The costs are too high to do otherwise. The immediate future is too bleak to ignore.

Peter Frampton is the Executive Director of the Learning Enrichment Foundation

Related posts:

1. Guest Blog: Toronto’s Housing Shortage
2. GUEST BLOG: Eating Our Way to a Better Toronto
3. GUEST BLOG: It’s the Green, Manufacturing Economy, Stupid

You can also hear how George Smitherman plans to “de-congest” Toronto in a clip from Metro Morning with Matt Galloway.

Why Smitherman and Ford deserve some time alone
Jerry Agar, Sun

Transit man takes Brazil
Sue-Ann Levy, Sun

Our fare share: Comparing transit payment systems
Tess Kalinowski and David Rider, Star

Province-TTC spat hurts GTA transit users
Royson James, Star

A token effort to fix the TTC
Chris Selley, Anthony Furey and Jonathan Goldsbie, Post

Controversial Jarvis bike lanes open
Wendy Gillis, Star

Toronto won’t measure impact of Jarvis St. bike lanes until autumn
Don Peat, Sun

Big dreams for ‘Little Ethiopia’ dashed
Natalie Stechyson, Globe

Di Ianni searches for hole in incumbent’s defence in Hamilton mayoral contest
Kelly Grant, Globe

Related posts:

1. The media scan for July 16
2. The media scan for July 20
3. The media scan for July 19

Tell us what you think in our policy poll.

Not for lame ducks
Star Editorial

Man behind TTC’s push for “open payment” sticks to his guns
David Rider, Star

Mayoral candidates differ on need for Presto pay system on the TTC
Mike Adler, Inside Toronto

City Hall power shift?
Sue-Ann Levy, Sun

Crazy, sexy, cool
Star Editorial

Exploited immigrants
Star Editorial

Yonge St. losing its green streak
Noor Javed, Star

Woodbine’s biggest gamble
Michael Posner, Globe

City envisions Main Street-style for Stockyards community
Tim Foran, Inside Toronto

Caribana leaders losing sleep before the big parade
Elizabeth Church, Globe

Meet Toronto, new capital of cool
Raveena Aulakh, Star

Vaughan: Gridlocked in suburbia
Megan O’Toole, Post

Related posts:

1. The media scan for July 22
2. The media scan for July 23
3. The media scan for July 21

Who: Rocco Rossi

His Idea: Fully supporting the Presto smartcard system, PLUS!

Already, green Presto card readers are starting to appear in TTC subway stations. But if Rocco Rossi has his way, Torontonians might start to see them used for more than just transit.

Presto is a fare-payment system designed to let commuters use one prepaid smartcard across multiple transit systems across the GTA and Hamilton. So – for instance – commuters will be able to use Presto to board the GO Train in Burlington, then use it to transfer to the subway at Union Station and then transfer again onto the Queen streetcar, all by tapping their smartcards against readers. The readers are currently being deployed across the GTA, and in some TTC subway stations.

Enter Rocco Rossi’s plan, that would let Torontonians use Presto to pay for other municipal services, including swimming pools, Green P parking lots, and city licenses. (The campaign has even designed a sample “Presto Plus” card, this one Rossi Red instead of Presto Green.)

Perhaps more significant than the Presto Plus idea is Mr. Rossi’s full-throated support for Presto itself. The smartcard technology, developed by the Accenture consultancy, is backed by the province and Metrolinx, but has met with resistance from the TTC, which argues that Presto is too expensive, less convenient and already out-of-date.

Instead, the TTC would like to use what’s known as an “open payment” system, whereby users pay by tapping their own credit cards, debit cards, or cellphones against a reader, instead of a prepaid smart card.

The duelling proposals have led to concern from some quarters (including the Board of Trade) that the much-needed modernization of Toronto’s antique fare-collection system could get derailed.

Mr. Rossi insists that Presto is the answer, and lately has made it clear that he’d break the logjam and bring the City on-side with the province. And to make the point, he contrasted the new cards with the TTC’s much-maligned ticket takers, who have been caught napping, to general media outrage.

“The rest of the world was appalled to see that we here in Toronto still have a guy in a ticket collection booth in 2010,” said Mr. Rossi’s release. “They have moved on. We are stuck in the past.”

Related posts:

1. THE WEEK THAT WAS: July 17 – July 23
2. BIG IDEA: Deciding the future of the red rocket
3. BIG IDEA: Reforming the TTC’s board of directors

NIAGARA FOLLIES

George Smitherman set out to walk across Toronto this week, along Eglinton from Centennial Park in Etobicoke to Kennedy Station in Scarborough. With journalists in tow, the stunt did succeed in drumming up mostly-positive coverage from the papers. (Even if some of it was slightly wary. The Toronto Star, somewhat pointedly, referred to the walk as “George Smitherman’s long, scripted march.”)

All seemed to be going well, until the Niagara Parks Commission got involved.

The Niagara Parks Commission, it seems, released an ad campaign that poked fun at Toronto as an unpleasant, gridlocked nightmare that can be escaped by a quick jaunt down the QEW.

This was quickly picked up by the Toronto media, never ones to ignore a perceived slight. Nor, it seemed, was Mr. Smitherman, who interrupted his walk to drive to Niagara at 6 am on Wednesday and personally deliver an indignant letter to the Commission. (Their office was shut.) As it turned out, the campaign had already been cancelled by then.

Rocco Rossi wasn’t about to let it pass; a press release accusing Smitherman of overacting was out the door forthwith. “Well, I guess the ads worked,” it said. “They got one visitor to Niagara today.”

WHEN PUNDITS ATTACK

It’s not just the candidates who are sharpening their attacks on each other. Two of the city’s top municipal columnists took unusually blunt aim at the campaigns and tactics of three front-runners this week.

Marcus Gee of the Globe on Rob Ford’s campaign: “a deliberate and cynical misrepresentation of the facts.”

Peter Kuitenbrouwer of the Post on Rocco Rossi’s vehement opposition to bike lanes on Jarvis: “His wrong-headed opposition to bike lanes on Jarvis Street is making an otherwise-smart candidate look like a Neanderthal.”

Gee again, this time on George Smitherman (though in a slightly more positive context): “it’s often hard to know what he is about.”

NO FARE

Rocco Rossi inserted himself into a municipal-provincial dispute this week, throwing his support behind the Presto smartcard that the province wants to implement, but the city has little love for. Mr. Rossi, for his part, proposed a plan that would see the smartcards used not just for transit, but for parking, admission to city properties, and other municipal services.

The TTC is planning to put “open” payment readers into its busses and stations, readers that would scan debit cards, credit cards or even cellphones.

And holding the pennant for the TTC’s end of the fight? Former mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone, who found himself once again sucked into the campaign he exited months ago.

Related posts:

1. THE WEEK THAT WAS: July 10 – 16
2. THE WEEK THAT WAS: May 1 – 7
3. THE WEEK THAT WAS: June 12 – June 18

Stick with Presto smart card, Board of Trade tells TTC
David Rider, Star

Furious George jumps the gun
Sun Editorial

Hope gives way to malaise in mayoral race
Carol Goar, Star

Ford’s wrist slapped
Sue-Ann Levy, Sun

Furious George vs. Runaway Ford
Jonathan Jenkins, Sun

Court ruling signals need for policy review
Inside Toronto Editorial

G20 business losses adding up
Post

Few aware of labour rights in Toronto’s Chinatown
Nicholas Keung, Star

Spirit of Maple Leaf Gardens lives on in reno
Elizabeth Church, Globe

Judge may allow Black to return to Toronto
Mary Vallis, Post

Related posts:

1. The media scan for July 26
2. The media scan for July 21
3. The media scan for July 16

Smart cards vs. open payment
David Rider, Star

TTC to look at plans for credit, debit card fares
Natalie Alcoba, Post

Rossi vows smart card payment system for TTC
Mike Adler, Inside Toronto

Graduated fare structure only way to go for TTC
Chris Higgins, Post

For whom the road tolls
Edward Keenan, Eye Weekly

With ’simmering anger,’ Smitherman goes to Niagara
Kelly Grant. Globe

Thin-skinned Toronto lets Niagara get its goat
Marcus Gee, Globe

Constructive advice
Sue-Ann Levy, Sun

Transit lesson from NYC
Sue-Ann Levy, Sun

Jarvis a strait of confusion, cyclist says
Don Peat, Sun

The car is not an option, expert says
Tim Foran, Inside Toronto

Smitherman calls Niagara ads ‘immature’
Jonathan Jenkins, Sun

Subway exit fiasco latest example of TTC’s lack of leadership
Inside Toronto Editorial

Homeowners see red over taxes
Raveena Aulakh, Star

Regent Park swim program runs into the pool of hard knocks
Cigdem Iltan, Globe

Related posts:

1. THE WEEK THAT WAS: July 17 – July 23
2. The media scan for July 26
3. The media scan for July 21