Promises, Promises, Promises...

...if the promises made by candidates for mayor and city council over the last decade were written on asphalt we could resurface miles of Toronto streets. How many potholes did you encounter today?

Making his case to be mayor: Rocco Rossi in his own words

By Rocco Rossi

Rocco Rossi made his first major speech as a candidate for mayor of Toronto to the Economic Club at the Royal York Hotel on Thursday. Here’s an excerpt.

Nothing captures our rising frustration more than how difficult it is to get from point A to point B in the city by bus, bike or car.

Gridlock is choking our streets, our economy and our quality of life.

Car commuting times are doubling, transit fares are rising and service is declining.

The TTC in particular seems deaf to the mounting frustration.

Its dogged determination to tear up our streets, sever neighbourhoods and interrupt established shopping patterns — as it is doing on St. Clair West — shows all the signs of too much political interference and too little discipline, accountability, business sense and respect for taxpayers’ money.

Torontonians are united in their belief — no more St. Clair’s.

We are beyond the time for after-the-fact blue ribbon panels to look at fiascos like St. Clair.

Ranking at the top of my proposals to get Toronto moving again will be a commitment to install a private sector board of directors at the TTC as has been successfully done at Metrolinx.

We don’t need more political oversight on the TTC board. That’s what City Council is for.

We do need technical excellence, business sense and a desire to build a first-class modern transit system that works in harmony with cars, bikes, pedestrians and the rest of the region.

For too many years City Hall has been stuck in the zero-sum game that transit and biking are good, and cars are bad.

Cars are neither good nor bad. And until we build the first-class transit system of the future — and we will — cars are simply a necessity for many people.

I love cycling. I once cycled 1,900 kms to raise funds for life-saving defibrillators.

I spend a lot of time on my bike in the city, but as mayor I’d call a truce in the war on the car by opposing any further bike lanes on arterial roads — including Jarvis St.

I’d couple this with fast tracking the completion of Toronto’s bike-lane network on quieter streets parallel to arterial roads.

Because common sense and safety tell me that bike lanes and arterial roads do not mix.

We have to get Toronto moving again or the world will vote with its feet and go elsewhere.

Economic prosperity

Which brings me to my third priority — ensuring Toronto’s future economic prosperity.

For too many of the last seven years we have been without an economic development manager.

No other major city in the world has taken business and economic development so for granted.

Invest Toronto is a strong first step, but what we really need is Invest GTA where we work and compete as a region, the way all strong regions do.

For too long, economic development has been about stealing business from one side of Steeles or the other.

We need to eat Chicago’s lunch, not Richmond Hill’s.

Boston’s lunch, not Vaughan’s.

And Dallas’s lunch, not Mississauga’s.

Toronto needs to show some leadership and put the T back in the centre of the GTA where it belongs.

I want a Greater Toronto in an even Greater Toronto Region.

The 2015 Pan Am games are a tremendous opportunity for the GTA and beyond to think, plan and act like a region with respect to transportation and infrastructure.

From Oshawa to Niagara, from Lake Ontario to Barrie, let’s seize the opportunity so we all benefit from this exciting hemispheric event and build better working relationships and models for the future.