Hi folks. I’m back with another post which could be a repeat, but is more detailed than a previous post. This is about what I want out of our new mayor and this goes into even more detail, down to how they speak and other requests, demands, whatever, that I may have for our yet to be leader of the city of Toronto.
First of all, I should preface this by saying that I want common sense to be involved, with whom ever is chosen to be our mayor. No, I’m not one who supports the right and in fact, I am quite liberal. However, in this case I want to mayor who will do things out of common sense and will also have other requirements which I will ask for below. I have no racist intent here, I’m not against anybody of a different culture, but this is a job which requires full understandability and someone who will get things done, not just by experience, but also by speaking well to the media and all crowds of people they encounter as mayor.
I want a mayor who speaks beautifully and does not have a dialect getting in the way of their speech. Basically, I wanna mayor whose first language is English and for me, this would disqualify Olivia chow, who was born in British Hong Kong. She may be a Canadian citizen, but she was not born in Canada. I will even do the same for anyone who is English, who is trying to run for mayor, as I don’t want a British, or any cockney slang in City Hall. I want my mayor to be Canadian and to sound Canadian and to be understandable to everybody, like John Tory, like Rob Ford, like David Miller, like the late Mel Lassman, etc. basically, if you were born in Canada you qualified to be our next mayor. I don’t want a leader who gets attention from comedy shows on TV, or from Youtubers, or even from something as toxic as Tik Tok, because of the way they speak and any accent they may have. In other words, I don’t want a mayor who could be a distraction from the real issues, or a potential clown getting notoriety from late night talk shows in the US.
They must also answer questions they have been asked, rather than the question they wish they had been asked, by the media. John Tory always answered questions to the best of his ability and did not dodge or evade them, by giving an answer to something, that he wish he had been asked. Other politicians have done the exact opposite of Mr. Tory, in order to push their talking points and in some cases, they repeat the same answer over and over and over again, which frustrates the interviewer and the listeners alike. So, I want our mayor to answer questions as they were asked and not ones they wish had been asked. People want to hear answers to questions from the media and dodging or evading questions should be something which voters take a look at before casting their ballot, along with speech and dialect issues.
Also, I don’t want a gangster, a pimp, sex worker or any corruptible soul making decisions, which will point The City Of Toronto in the next direction. I want someone with a clean record and no criminals or potential criminals. This includes conspiracy theorists, who do not think like we do and can stir up trouble whenever they want. So, as you can probably tell I want someone who is spotless and who will just do it, without drawing attention to themselves.
So far you know that I want a mayor who is clean and speaks eloquently in English, along with experience. However, language and dialect are only an issue, because I am making it an issue. Nobody in the media has gone down that road, for fear of upsetting certain groups. Which reminds me, why do we have so many interest groups anyway? They are only a pain in our asses and add nothing to society. So anyway… … if you’re born in Canada, great and if you’re not, you’re disqualified as far as I’m concerned.
Now, let’s review some of what I had written in a previous post, just as Olivia chow was throwing her hat into the ring. By the way, I hope that nobody refers to her as a chow dog. That is totally below the belt and despite that I don’t think she should be our mayor, I like her.
To review, here are some basic things I am requesting our new mayor to do for me and for the rest of us. I hope that the bike lanes are ripped out, especially ones which interfere with the TTC, in that bus stops were removed. I have talked about that before in past posts and if I don’t get my stop back, I will settle for the bike lanes being gone from Avenue Rd and Davenport (West Side). Those who ride bikes will just have to find somewhere else to play and be more adroit add riding on the streets, in order to get where they are going.
Also, the issue of Accessibility is another thing which should be looked at, particularly for those of us who are blind and visually impaired and I have talked about some of that in an earlier post. There may have been work done, but it’s not good enough, as I will state below. Even if Olivia Chow shouldn’t be our new mayor (according to my way of thinking) she may take what I am saying to heart, as she fights for the underdog and sometimes, the underdogs are those of us who are disabled, in one way or another. No matter who gets in, my guess is that this may not be an election issue, but it should be a part of a platform at least.
Some of us live in community housing and any and all pieces of paper dropped in our doors has print on them. I don’t expect brail, but what I do expect is that all building Supers be required to notify any and all residents by email. They should have access to our email addresses on our rental lease, along with our phone numbers and this should go for everyone, no matter whether you are blind or sighted.
I’m going to go back to the issue of speech and dialect again, as those who have a job in an office in a TCHC building should be born Canadian, speak English well and speak with a north American accent. A review of everyone who works in TCHC management should also be conducted, as to performance and question such as whether people have been misled (intentionally or otherwise) or Weather they had conducted inspections properly or not should be raised. Also, do they depend on the tenants more than they depend on their own paperwork in order to know whether things should be done around a building. Yes, everyone in management should be under review and every building should be under review, as to all things. It should be accessible (both inside and outside), it should be obviously clean in all main areas such as the lobby and in general, the hallways outside of apartment dwelling units. Also, on the outside it should be safe for everyone to get around, including those of us who are blind. Some of us are independent and do not wish to be dependent on either mommy, or others in order to get around and unfortunately, both the city and the pandemic has created a situation where accessibility is in jeopardy. My building is not as safe to get around outside as it once was in the same is true with the street I live on, because of bike lanes and the change in space.
Another issue is that any machines we use to do laundry should be more accessible to everyone, especially the blind. Currently, there is no accessible way for anyone who can not see, to use their debit card to load money, onto their laundry card and this can be done, like ATMs have, with a headphone jack and a voice coming out of it as the input, to a persons earbuds or headphones. If it requires Bluetooth, that might be a different issue altogether and I’m not sure that’s possible. However, if Bank machines have the headphone jack why doesn’t machines which load our laundry cards have the same? It would be better for everyone and the only person who will hear the voice is the one doing the transaction. Plus, if there is an option to blank the screen, that’s all the better for me. As for crime and cell phone service in the subways, some headway is being made on some of those fronts and hopefully, even more with the new mayor
To review, our new mayor should be Canadian at birth, should speak English well and should have a clean record. I also hope that any and all city services are under review, including Toronto Housing and its management. Some organizations had done better jobs than others and this had resulted in the last management company being fired from our building, so I have been told. Either way, management does need a look and we need to sort out the wheat from the chaff, by giving those who speak English as their second language a job which does not require them to handle sensitive information, or to be in a higher position. Superintendent comes to mind and as much as I like our current Super, he is being short-changed by living off the property and that is another thing. Super’s should be allowed to live on the premises if there is room, as situations may arise where they may be needed immediately and if they are living outside the building, how can they nip something in the bud in a timely manner? They may live farther away and it could take a while, for them to get to their building and if it is an urgent matter, things can potentially spin out of control before they get there. For example: a fire, a problem resident going around threatening people and maybe injuring others, part of the building potentially falling on people, leaky roof during rain or a thunderstorm, or any number of things which could potentially go wrong in buildings which house many people, of all different ages, backgrounds and abilities. So, maybe our next mayor should give that a look and consider changing some laws, requirements, whatever, in order to ensure the safety of all residents of Toronto.
I hope that important people who can pull strings can and will see this and will consider everything I had mentioned and more, including other issues which have dominated the new cycle in the city. The TTC should be safe for all and not free for all. There are allowances, but only for those who have CNIB cards and presto cards, which were given to those who are CNIB clients which function as a TTC pass. In the case of the old pass, you show it to the driver or subway station attendant, then you can go sit down or go through to get your next train. With the presto cards, we tap them like everyone else does against the machines on the buses, street cars and at subway stations. The difference being, we don’t have to load money because we ride for free, as long as we show and tap our cards. I don’t believe that Blake Acton would have that in his plan and would just let everyone ride the TTC without showing anything and let the chips fall where they may. Let’s hope that whom ever our next mayor is, will make things better and that they are understandable to everyone.
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