How The Street Furniture Bids Stacked Up

How The Street Furniture Bids Stacked Up

via Torontoist by Jonathan Goldsbie on 4/30/08

One year ago today, City Council's Executive Committee approved [PDF] the awarding of the street furniture contract—for the purposes of designing, building, owning, and maintaining bus shelters, garbage bins, ad pillars, and more for a period of twenty years in exchange for advertising rights—to Astral Media Outdoor, despite the fact that the company had absolutely no experienceillegal billboards in defiance of City Council. with "street furniture" and maintains dozens of

Here's what the public portion of the staff report [PDF] said: "It is noted that [Astral's] proposal scored highest in all four evaluation categories. For the information of Committee and Council, the scores ranged from 47.75 to 85.54. In accordance with Council approved policy, proponents' scores, financial comparison and staff analysis of the evaluation results can be provided to Councillors in an in-camera presentation if requested by Committee members."

The Toronto Public Space Committee filed an Access to Information request for the scoring and, after an appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, just this week obtained the above document, being published in its full version for the first time. (The heavily-redacted, pre-appeal version previously appeared in mid-January on IllegalSigns.ca [PDF].)

Most interesting is the evaluation of the Financial Element, based entirely on the "Net Present Value of the Financial Proposal to the City." Astral offered an NPV of $252.2 million (meaning that's how much the money is worth in terms of 2007 dollars), earning itself a perfect 30 out of 30. CBS Outdoor, the incumbent for the bus shelters (which provide the bulk of the ad revenue) scored a paltry 3.50 out of 30.

This confirms what had been whispered around the outdoor advertising industry and what had been implied by Clear Channel Outdoor's deputation to the Executive: Astral won the contract, in large part, by wildly outbidding its competitors. Perhaps because they'd never done this before and overestimated how much the contract would be worth, they seem to have outbid CBS (experienced in the Toronto shelter market) by a factor of almost ten.

Some will certainly argue that this means the City got a great deal, and that may be true to a point: that point being the assumption that Astral will actually be able to pay what it's promised. There is a good chance that sometime within the first ten years of the contract, Astral will attempt to renegotiate for more advertising or less money; it's unlikely that the financial model with which they obtained the contract is a sustainable one.

That's exactly what happened with the OMG/Eucan/EcoMedia garbage bin contract. When Eucan found they couldn't pay the City what they owed, they tried to foist on us the MegaBins—seven-and-a-half-foot tall illuminated street-level billboards with trash receptacles on the sides. When Council eventually rejected those, the company was forced to admit that they couldn't pay the $2 million they were supposed to have given the City each year from 1999–2009. According to John Spears in the Star, the total amount paid to the City from 1999–2006 was $3.218 million, or about a half a million a year. The City had no choice but to agree to the renegotiated amount; it had absolutely no leverage in the deal. From that same Star article:

"We're being held over a garbage bin," [Councillor Minnan-Wong] said. Because the city no longer owns its street bins, it couldn't afford to have EcoMedia walk away with them. The street furniture deal's winning bidder will have to provide more than $100 million worth of items, but that means financial risk to the city, he said. "Companies can make all sorts of promises, and if they fall short of those promises the city can lose millions of dollars."

Jonathan Goldsbie is a campaigner with the Toronto Public Space Committee. Photo courtesy of Astral Media Outdoor.

Get Outta Town, GO By Bike

interesting idea

Get Outta Town, GO By Bike

via Torontoist by Val Dodge on 4/30/08

Have you ever cycled along the Pickering and Ajax waterfronts? You should. It's one of the best recreational bike rides in the GTA with beautiful scenery and mostly-flat trails, but presents Toronto cyclists with a big problem: how to get there. Because the Waterfront Trail all but disappears through most of Scarborough, you're stuck with either riding the long, miserable route along Kingston Road and Lawrence Avenue to get to Pickering or driving your car to Rouge Beach and riding into Pickering from there.

There is another option: GO Transit. Most cyclists are unaware that they can take their bikes on any GO train (except during weekday rush hours). That's where GO-by-Bike comes in. It's a project conceived by Donald Wiedman that encourages cyclists to take a Sunday GO train to Ajax and ride a leisurely 15 km back along the Waterfront Trail to the Rouge Hill station, where they can catch another train back into the city. Not only do you get to avoid the nasty ride along Kingston Road, but you get to leave the car at home too. And best of all, because GO-by-Bike is promoting an existing capability on all GO trains along the Lakeshore line, you aren't limited to travelling to or from any particular station, or on any particular train, or at any particular time. You're completely free to go at your own pace and can even roll your own custom tour instead of taking one of the pre-surveyed routes covering the waterfront, Highland Creek, Petticoat Creek, Duffins Creek, and more.

Wiedman saw an opportunity to promote both transit and cycling in the spaces around Toronto and approached GO Transit with "a handshake and a smile. I told them right up front that I wasn't looking for help, I was looking to help." Wiedman also says that he wants cyclists to have "do-it-themselves" experiences rather than provide guided or structured tours. "Trails are ultimately self-serve." In the end, it's up to cyclists to set their itineraries, buy their GO tickets, and make the journey. GO-by-Bike plants the seed and provides suggestions, but the form, structure, and timing of the trips are entirely up to the individual cyclists.

By raising awareness of bike-transit connections, Wiedman and GO are hoping that more people will take advantage of eco-friendly local tourism opportunities around Toronto. Taking the GO train provides cyclists with access to dozens of new routes without having to drive for an hour to get to them. Whether you want a simple ride along the waterfront, a more challenging pedal north through the Oak Ridges Moraine, or a new setting for a family picnic, be sure to go by bike and leave the car at home.

GO-by-Bike to Ajax runs on Sundays from June 1 through the end of August. RSVP to the GO-by-Bike Facebook group, get yourself to a Lakeshore GO station, buy your tickets, and hop on an eastbound train. A representative will be at the Ajax GO station on Sundays in the summer to direct cyclists to water, washrooms, food, and the sights of Ajax.

Photo courtesy of the Town of Ajax

The River Rises. Again.

Let's hope they moved the kayaks first...

notes

Hey,
I was cleaning up some of the paperwork that was threatening to bury me under a landslide at the office and came across something that you may, or may not want to keep around.

"Rules:
1. no smoking, please use the patio.
2. you can reach the washrooms through the main restaurant
3. In lieu of clinking glasses, and thereby breaking them, anyone wishing to make the new couple kiss need to use this hula hoop. I understand their kiss will last roughly as long as you perform...

As a sibling, you get tremendous insights into the personality of your brother. The only issue is that you always take the worst possible inference from those observations.
Now that I'm old and have the benefit of time and 2000 kilometres of distance, I see that there might be space for multiple interpretations.

One. We always thought he was stubborn. A typical anecdote about Kevin might relate how mom and dad told him that he was to stay at the kitchen table until he had finished some much-loathed meal, possibly involving Brussels sprouts. Hours later, as Roger and Margaret prepared to turn the lights out and lock up the doors, Kevin was still sitting on the yellow metal chairs Dad had 'borrowed' from work. My brother was not going to be the one to give in. He was stubborn.
That said, another way of looking at it is that Kevin's stubbornness is actually Persistence. Sylvia - you can look at this way - you know your husband won't give up or give in.

Two. We always thought Kevin was a pessimist. You'll often hear some grumbling around him. For instance, just recently we put thirty beers into his backpack before hiking up into the Bugaboo Mountains. Put into perspective, that's 30 beers at 350 milliliters or ten and a half litres of beer in his pack. Roughly an extra twenty-five pounds of beer, plus kahlua, plus rum, for five of us. For two days and one night. On top of his normal backpacking load of tent, sleeping bag, clothes and the like.
While he whined at the prospect, once the pack was in place, Kevin just got on with the job and moved uphill faster than the rest of us slowpokes.
My advice to Sylvia - just keep him busy and the pessimism turns into realism.

Three. Taciturn. Kevin, for years, has said little to us. Very little. In fact, we had years without many words between us. But, over time, we became better and better at interpreting the various intonations of Kevin's grunts, headshakes, nods, eyerolls and sighs.
We used to think that Kevin was, well, introverted. But what it really meant is that he was just waiting for the right person to share his thoughts with.

Sylvia, I would like to welcome not just you but your entire family to our side - the Wallis family. Hopefully, in time, you can add to the rules on how to interact with your newly acquired Kevin."

Cheers
Nigel

Tories' "In and Out" Scam in a Nutshell

CalgaryGrit: A Letter From The Nigerian Prince explains better than any Globe editorial...

Bisphenol A: We hardly knew you ...

Bisphenol A: We hardly knew you ...

via David Akin's On the Hill by DavidAkin on 4/27/08

The Washington Post today looks back at more than a 100 years of Bisphenol A, the chemical recently labelled as a a possible problem by Health Canada (a big victory for environmental activists; a bitter defeat for industry types).... My government, which, above all else seems to want to be prudent, says: "The scientists concluded in this assessment that bisphenol A exposure to newborns and infants is below levels that may pose a risk, however, the gap between exposure and effect is not large enough."

So You Wanna Be An Olympian, Part 10

Damn. Why didn't we all think of this? I have to think that in my prime I might have been the best badminton player in Turks & Caicos! Craig is clearly the best cross-country skier in Vanuatu, Sylvia & Kevin must be the top bikers in Bermuda, etc...

High Speed Pix

Some great high-speed frames here. The water balloon, etc.

Prosthetics and Sports

All sorts of examples and ethical quandaries here.

School closings

Well, this ought to change some electoral races next time around...

I started a map on it as well. That said, not having any kids, it's more a property tax issue for me, so I didn't finish it

About Dam Time

Seriously. It's a public good, but not treated as one. Same goes for a variety of resources, from timber onwards. If Ontario capped the total volume of spring/groundwater that could be withdrawn per year, and then auctioned it off - I suspect that the per million liter cost might exceed $3.71. In fact, if we just treated it as tap water, my bills inform me that it's higher (i know, not apples to apples - but I'm not profiting off my tap).
In fact, somewhere there's a really good article on hunting for groundwater sources...
tick, tick, tick. Here! Businessweek has a great report on McCloud, CA's struggle with itself and Nestle.

The Future of the West Donlands

Which used to be the "Future of Ataratiri" back when I cared more about urban planning.

Isiah was just a Psychological Test

"Ousted Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas, who presided over the team during one of the least successful and most shameful periods in its history, held a press conference Wednesday to announce that his four-year legacy of abysmal team chemistry, bloated payrolls, sex scandals, and simple losing was actually a vast psychological experiment carried out on New York City as a whole."
"Thomas worked alongside behavioral psychologists with an extensive knowledge of domestic-abuse patterning, aversion dynamics, the works of B. F. Skinner, and long-term mass hysteria to assemble a comprehensive testing program. An experiment consisting of a regimen of slowly increasing stress levels and traumatic events was designed, refined, and eventually performed upon New York City and Knicks fans everywhere."

Jane's Walk in Toronto

http://www.janeswalk.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=50&Itemid=94

The (Ugly) Future of Etobicoke's Waterfront

The motels were kind of seedy, but the condos are too-tall, too tacky and too unfriendly to the passerbys. It's fascinating how Toronto can continue to butcher its waterfront. We manage to squander every opportunity from Huang and Danczkay onwards....

PS - why the beatdown on Huang and Danczkay?

Algonquin - Not Melted Yet

Ice from the air

via Algonquin Outfitters web log by Gordon Baker on 4/23/08

Current conditions, based on info from park staff:

• Streams and rivers are open. Water levels are very high and still rising.
• In general, all interior lakes are frozen solid up to the shore.
• Several access roads are impassable due to washouts and/or snow.
• Check the Algonquin Park spring ice update for more details and safety messages.
• Check the NOAA satellite images for big lake conditions

The good news?

• Conditions are changing VERY quickly and the warm weather is continuing. Many smaller lakes will open in the next few days. Mew and Brewer Lakes, for example, are almost ice-free and we expect Costello to open today. There is open water in front of the Opeongo Store.
• Park staff are planning another flight on Friday morning and will report on conditions by early afternoon that day.

Here are some images from yesterday's helicopter fight over Algonquin Park:

The East Arm of Opeongo Lake, looking west

The north end of Lake Lavielle

Happy Isle Lake, looking towards Merchant
(the dark area is cloud shadow, not black ice)

Pathfinder Island, on Source Lake

Crooked Chute, on the Petawawa River (yikes!)

The Natch. Nice place, if you could get there.

Duncan face

Bwahahahah

How Valid Are T.V. Weather Forecasts?

And this confirms what we were already pretty sure of.

I'd hate to think of doing the same in our line of work :)

Why Credit Agencies Are Responsible for the Crisis

I should create a tag cloud for this...

The not-so-hidden minefields of the TTC deal

And one day, someone really will find some cost savings from amalgamation. Of course, not in this electoral cycle.

The not-so-hidden minefields of the TTC deal

via Posted Toronto by Rob Roberts on 4/21/08

Councillor Michael Thompson of Scarborough, who sits on the Toronto Transit Commission, calls the deal the TTC struck with its unions yesterday "quicksand." He calls it "madness." He calls it "Pandora's box." And yet at a TTC meeting Wednesday he will ratify it, because "We have labour peace and the city is running."
Lost amid the relief as Toronto avoided a transit strike is a little clause in the tentative contract called the "GTA clause," which could end up costing the City of Toronto a lot of money. The clause ensures that, throughout the contract, TTC workers will be the highest-paid in greater Toronto.
Which means that as of now, the TTC has handed authority over its budget to Carolyn Parrish and other municipal politicians in Mississauga, Brampton and elsewhere in the 905, possibly creating a unfunded liability of an unknown size.
Mississauga bus drivers at the top of the scale earn $26.63 per hour, whereas Toronto drivers earn $26.58. That 5¢ difference offended the TTC drivers, who believe that, as our police and firefighters, they have the toughest job and should get the best pay.
With this new TTC deal, TTC drivers are tops, but when will this all end? Mississauga Transit is a small shop, with 900 unionized mechanics and drivers and 393 buses (a tenth the size of the TTC) but it could cause us big headaches. Mississauga drivers, grouped in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1572, begin negotiation this summer ahead of their contract's expiry on Sept. 30.
What if Mississauga wins a 3.5% raise? The TTC apparently then has to top up its drivers, so they stay ahead. Today, Geoff Marinoff, director of Mississauga Transit, said, "We need to be competitive in the job market."
"The TTC is hiring 700 to 900 drivers, we're hiring 100 drivers, Brampton is hiring, GO is hiring," he said. Brampton drivers have a four-year deal that gives them a 3.5% raise in 2010.
Other councillors asked yesterday how this could affect the city's bargaining with other unions. Next up for a contract are Toronto's police.
"Is triple-three [3% per year over the three-year TTC deal] the benchmark or the plateau?" asked Councillor Brian Ashton.
"Part of the madness is that the city has set a precedent," Mr. Thompson said. "It's simply a case of, 'Me too! Me too!' If other organizations say 'We want to be the highest paid,' there's no end to it, unfortunately."
Mr. Thompson and fellow commissioners Peter Milczyn and Anthony Perruzza described conference calls on Saturday night and yesterday morning between the nine commissioners and the TTC negotiation team. All three said the deal was better than a strike.
"As much as we might like to hold the line and be tougher," said Mr. Milczyn, "if there was a strike and they got ordered back to work and there was binding arbitration, it would end up costing us more. At least today the residents of Toronto were spared a major inconvenience."
Mr. Perruzza said, "To some degree I don't think anybody is happy today. It's a very expensive deal for the city, and the union probably wishes it got more."
The union leader, Bob Kinnear, had suggested yesterday that Mayor David Miller intervened personally to cut this deal, but the three commissioners said that was not so.
Brad Ross, a TTC spokesman, said, "that's Mr. Kinnear's speculation." He refused to discuss details of the negotiation or the deal. Union spokespeople in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton did not return calls. Mayor David Miller is resting up after a week in China and has no public events until Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ashton said comparing public sector salaries across the GTA opens another interesting possibility.
"I wish councillors could get that," he said. "If I could get parity with Mississauga councillors, then I could afford to go to Mississauga."
Right now, Toronto councillors earn $95,000, compared to $104,800 for Brampton councillors and $115,000 for councillors in Mississauga.