But he is not one of the Miller's chosen people; unions, social in-activists, enivironuts, panhandlers, etc., but he is one of those picking up the tab for Miller's refusal to trim costs NOT SERVICES.
How city’s budget crisis hits home
By SUE-ANN LEVY
Scarborough-area resident Melvin Scott first signed up to play volleyball through a city-operated program 12 years ago.
At the time, the now 43-year-old father of one daughter had gone back to school and he needed something to do that “didn’t cost much money.”
Back then, he’d play in a variety of Scarborough school gyms for about $26 for a semester lasting 12 weeks. His games — mostly pickup — would last three hours each week.
“It didn’t cost much at all,” the technical writer for a computer firm told me last week.
After amalgamation, he said the old city of Scarborough adopted the Toronto model — compressing the semester to nine weeks of two-hour nightly sessions each and jacking up the fees bit by bit to the current $46.
The service declined as well, he says.
“Before it was very organized ... Scarborough seemed to do everything right,” he recalled, adding the games were “very competitive” and players actually learned new skills.
The enrolment went from being at capacity to a roster, last year, of barely enough people to “play one game,” he said. “Now you’re paying twice as much and getting half the people out,” he noted, adding the increased cost and lack of organization “absolutely” resulted in the waning enrolment.
I spoke to Scott just after he e-mailed me to register his dissatisfaction with Toronto Mayor David Miller’s plan to hike user fees again this year to balance the city’s $7.8-billion operating budget.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment