You should have stayed at City TV where you could have been considered a big fish but when it comes to put forward hare brained schemes and making idiotic statements you are a minnow in the stagnant water of Toronto City Council.
Councillor wants to tax this sidewalk
Lining up outside clubs and theatres could cost the owners -- so how about charging panhandlers?
By SUE-ANN LEVY
Let's all drink to downtown councillor Adam Vaughan.
After just five months at City Hall, the former journalist turned politician has managed to find the most inane way to do his part for the socialist war effort -- that is, raising tax money to fill those near-empty city coffers and reserves.
If Vaughan gets his way -- and trust me with Mayor David Miller and his money-hungry minions at the helm he will -- bar, theatre and movie patrons could soon be taxed for lining up on public sidewalks.
Vaughan's request is on the agenda of Wednesday's public works committee meeting. In his letter to the committee, he asks that licensing staff prepare a report on a new permit scheme, er, tax, for "licensed entertainment facilities" that regularly use public sidewalks for queuing.
That regime, he notes, should includes rules for how the line is formed and where it is located, the number of people allowed into it, crowd control and the need for pay duty police to maintain orderly conduct.
Here's the kicker. Vaughan proposes the permit fee be based on "full cost recovery" for the administration and enforcement of the bylaw, as well as rent for the use of a public sidewalk!
I think I need a drink. For as sure as today is Sunday, I smell another City Hall fiefdom in the making.
When reached last week, Vaughan unabashedly contended the regime would be expensive but didn't really care "if it is."
He said the new permit scheme is meant mainly to deal with "out-of-control" crowds at the some 70 clubs in the Entertainment District, but added it would be a "useful tool" for other trouble spots across the city.
"The line-ups are really loud ... a bunch of 20-year-olds who don't worry about forcing an old lady or child out onto the street," he said. "They have a sense of entitlement."
While he insisted the permit would be targeted to nightclubs or large entertainment facilities, his request to the public works committee leaves the door open to apply the same law to the Toronto Film Festival and other movie, retail and cultural facilities -- in fact any events that require a lineup on public sidewalks.
When I asked Vaughan whether he plans to make aggressive panhandlers -- who also regularly line up for their take on public sidewalks downtown -- get a permit as well.
He laughed at first. When he realized I was serious, he argued panhandling is "very difficult thing to ban" and you can't "arrest people for asking for help."
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