A visionary and a doer: a full glass

Gil Penalosa.

As we move forward towards a new municipal election across Ontario, we must think what is needed from the candidates, what characteristics would make a great mayor or councillor.

There are many useful qualities but two are absolutely necessary: to be visionary and a doer.

Visionary means to have the capacity to see where we should be in 20 or 30 years, as well as to know what needs to be done today, to get us there.

Nevertheless it is not enough to know where we need to aim; the politicians also need to have the managerial and political capacity to make the necessary decisions to get things done. A “doer”

Let’s see two examples of “successful politicians” in the GTA who each represents a half full glass: Hazel McCallion and David Miller.

Mayor McCallion has been very successful at doing things right, unfortunately not necessarily at doing the right things.

She took over Mississauga almost three decades ago, when it had a little over 200,000 residents, distributed over nice villages in Port Credit, Streetsville, Clarkson, Meadowvale, etc. Most of the land was empty, with beautiful creeks, woodlots, the Lake Ontario waterfront and the magnificent Credit River. Now it has over 700,000 residents.

What things were done right? Well, the city has no debt, home of many large businesses, and stability in the public sector.

At the same time, it seems impossible to find any area of the city where the new 500,000 people live which is quite as nice as the villages that existed long before the city was created.

It is not a pedestrian-friendly city, it's terrible for cyclists, has a poor transit system, and it has just developed as fast as the market wanted totally centered on the car. It is evident that the priority has been car mobility and not people’s happiness or healthy communities.

Another negative symptom is how it missed the opportunity when a few years ago all universities and colleges were building new facilities to satisfy the double cohort and it did not attract a single one, leaving just the UTM; no wonder so many parents complain that their kids want to move as soon as they can as “there is nothing to do in Mississauga.”

Another worrisome symptom is how although 51 of every 100 residents were born in another country and 41 per cent are visible minorities, amongst the councillors, city manager, commissioners, and directors (over 50 people) there is just one visible minority, which is not a proper representation of the city’s residents; no one is suggesting to have the same proportion of residents, but one is clearly not enough, and this is a time bomb.

On the other hand, Mayor David Miller represented a fresh change from the mediocre Mel Lastman, whose lack of education and world exposure made us look bad quite often. Toronto had the bad fortune of having had a mayor with neither the vision nor the capacity to get things done at a most critical time, which was the amalgamation, and excessive wrong decisions were taken with long term impact.

Miller represented a new politician: well-educated, visionary, with a great understanding of where Toronto was and what was needed to do to become a world class city.

Unfortunately, as he concludes the second and last term, it is evident that he did not fulfil the high expectations. He brought back the respectability and aura to the office and the city, but not much more; so many expectations and so little done.

This shows why it is important to elect mayors with both a clear vision and the capacity to get things done. Vision alone creates frustration, while action by itself results in chaos.

The democratic system provides us with the magnificent opportunity to choose our leaders. Let’s take full advantage of this privilege and over the next few months approach all candidates across Ontario to drill them on issues, knowledge and experience, in order to have the necessary elements to decide on who to vote for.

It would be an enormous privilege for any municipality to elect a mayor with Miller’s visionary capacity and McCallion’s ability to implement it. Those two half-full glasses would make one full with the real possibility of transforming any municipality in the next four years.

About Gil Penalosa

Comments

[Tim]

"He brought back the respectability and aura to the office and the city," Really? How can you even suggest that Miller brought respectability to the Mayor's office?
He jammed through a personal agenda that was completely at odds with the taxpayer needs. We're paying for an office in London, England that has nothing to do with city business.
He allowed an illegal TTC strike with no consequences to the union (oh $ 300,000 worth of O/T.big deal)
He allowed union thugs to intimidate taxpayers at transfer stations, during a legal strike and then caved completely to the unions.
Constant over-budget projects, a homeless INDUSTRY that has eaten millions and solved nothing.
Now entertaining the concept of a legal department for councilors to initiate legal action against critics.
Backing Giambrone even though Mr. G lied through his teeth.
Miller comes off as a pompous, smarmy "I'm better than you" person, with complete disdain for anyone who doesn't agree with him. Evidenced by the lack of any councilors of opposing view on any key committee.
He may have gone to Harvard, but he shows none of that education on a day to day basis.
Trying to shut down a thriving business (Porter Air-who had ordered new Bombardier Q400's) because of the noise of a small special interest group. Then has the nerve to ask Bombardier to build their aircraft in Toronto.
Granted Mel was no angel, his lack of tax increases helped us into the hole we're in now.
Miller a visionary? At least you provided a morning chuckle

[KHW]

Miller had vision?

What vision? The vision to tax. The vision to tax employers away from Toronto. The vision to destroy our waterfront. The vision to place unqualified councillors on high profile boards/committees, etc. All I saw was his inability to manage, his inability to control costs and his failure to act in the best interests of Torontonians.

[MIke webster]

Miller? He's been an unmitigated disaster and his "vision" was one of the primary reasons for that. McCallion on the other hand has been a huge success in Mississauga. She wins election after election with 90%+ of the vote because she gets things done but also because she does the things that people want. Miller would be unable to be elected dog catcher in Mississauga because he's so radically left-wing. I've worked on many elections in the city of Mississauga and I can tell you that the Natural Law Party candiate routinely receives more votes than the NDP candidate in some polls in provincial and federal elections.

[Denis McKee]

Mr Penelosa makes an interesting comparison between Mayors McCallion and Miller with a fairly detailed analysis of the former's successes and failures. Unfortunately, he presents a weak argument against Mayor Miller with "so many expectations and so little done". Perhaps he should have expanded on this meaningless comment and described the expectations and at least tried to indicate if the had or had not been accomplished. This is the trite type of comment frequently used in the media to decry the performance of Mayor Miller while completely ignoring the changes which have taken place in Toronto under his leadership. I believe that his major failure was in not employing a good communication person to inform the media and the citizens of what was being accomplished during the past seven years. Despite working with senior governments with a visceral hatred of Toronto or an appalling indifference to its needs, Mayor Miller seems to have articulated and put into motion many progressive and visionary actions in transportation, environment, public services, culture and social services. Despite having one of the lowest residential tax rates of any major world city, Toronto remains one of the most liveable cities on the planet.

[Kevin in Taxoronto]

I have to strongly disagree when somebody equates Miller with Vision. Miller had no vision. If he could see 20 or 30 years into the future, he would have seen a bankrupt city by his inability to implement fiscally sustainable policies (actually, the city will be broke long before that). Miller might have had an idea of what he wanted the city to look like, but that is far from being a visionary!

[Hugh Grant]

Only the Toronto Star would suggest Miller as a role model.

While Hazel would be great for Toronto, the City needs to free itself from the hackneyed and irresponsible leftwing drivel spouted by Miller.

Miller's vision was to create jobs for his trade union brothers, making sure we all paid his tab. The city under his reign has become rundown, dirtier than ever and a monument to inefficiency. Roads decay, garbage collection services have become costly and unreliable, the TTC has become an object of scorn and the City has suffered from badly thought out and poorly executed projects such as the St Clair reconstruction fiasco, which was rammed through council over the strong objections of merchants and residents alike.
It is embarrassing to have to make excuses to visitors to Toronto for the demise of "Toronto the clean."

Hopefully we will not have to see or hear about Miller after 2010

Hazel as role model? Yes!
Miller as role model? Not on your life!

[Dave Noseworthy]

Hazel as role model? Yes!
Miller as role model? Not on your life!
This I agree with?

Miller has a vision to make all Home Owners Pay.
Home owners are not rich People, some home owners are n on Pension Income, and thats their only income.
Is "Miller's Vision" to increase taxes on Pensioners too?

Miller as role model? Not on your life!

[Hugh Grant]

"Miller's vision" to increase taxes on pensioners? (Dave Noseworthy)

No, he does not discriminate...he just makes an art out of inventing taxes/"fees" and spending the proceeds on ideological pet projects (not on maintaining the City)

Your concern about treatment of pensioners has a point. I wonder if readers recall that pensioners used to ride TTC FREE. In the UK they still ride all bus services free. Unfortunately our tax hungry politicians have taken their hunt for money out on those who can least afford it. The only crumb of comfort is that these same people who treat pensioners badly will themselves age and be at the mercy of people like them. (Strange that those who present themselves as socially responsible do not seem to care about those getting by on the pittance of our state pensions. Perhaps the problem is that Miller and others in all levels of government have a generous pension awaiting them...paid for by us!)

[Lezah]

Mayor Miller's only problem in the past has been the fact that he hasn't been as strong a communicator as he should have been about his accomplishments. He may have increased some taxes and raised some user fees but there is no denying that people in Toronto pay less in terms of property taxes than people in Mississauga. This is a fact, the Toronto tax rate is lower. It is true that houses are worth more in Toronto but this is a function of the market. More people want to live in Toronto than Mississauga, hence the prices are higher. More sought after location, higher realty prices.

Comparing a world class city like Toronto to Mississauga, and their mayors is like comparing apples and oranges.

1. Toronto is a mature city with all of the benefits and problems of an older city. In infrastructure alone, cities like Mississauga haven't had to deal with any of the problems that older cities like Toronto do. Mississauga is barely 30 years old and most of it has been built out in the last 25 years. That means newer roads and services for all those built up areas. The real test for Mississauga will be when services need to be repaired.

2. Livability. Toronto benefits largely because it is an older City and also because of good decisions made by City visionaries (thankfully they seem to outweigh the bad ones). Over all no one can deny that Toronto isn't a good City to live in, if not a great one. To do so would be to deny the international listings which routinely rate Toronto near the top of the best cities to live in the world, not just Canada. Good urban planning is practiced in Toronto.

Anyone who has spent anytime in Mississauga will know that it doesn't compare to the vibrancy and livability of Toronto. One need only go to Mississauga City Centre to see the bustle of people no where in site. At any time of the day you can travel anywhere in Toronto's centre and see crowds of people walking around. It boils down to the fact that in Toronto the City's vibrancy always ensures that there is something to see or do as you walk around. In Mississauga, you have your choice of going to Square One, or walking outside in the City centre surrounded by vast parking lots and roads wider than most highways. I think most people would agree that walking along King or Queen Street is much more pleasant than walking along Hurontario or Burnhamthorpe. Mississauga's urban planning over the last 30 years has been completely driven by the developers who have built endless subdivsion after endless subdivision. Nothing to do and no where to go is not good urban planning. There are only a handful of livable communities in Mississauga and they are all that remain of the old former towns that became Mississauga. Small pockets of areas where you can walk somewhere, joined together by endless sprawl.

[Carl V]

I agree with this article having lived in Mississauga and now I reside in Toronto. I moved to Toronto to escape the boredom and poor city planning. How hard is it to meet a budget when developers are piling millions into the city's coffers not to mention higher property tax than Toronto? I think Mississauga had a great opportunity to make a name for itself and not to become another wasteland of the failed suburban dream. Mississauga even has its own example of a pedestrian friendly; thriving community known as Port Credit. They should have used that as a model for future development.

As for Miller, he inheritated a great city made this way many years ago. The public doesn't see big changes yet, only increased user fees and constant fighting between councillors. BUT, the vision he has started creating is excellent. The expanded Transit (via Transit City and the Spadina Extension) is forward thinking along with his Green initiatives. I would hate to see a disruptive gov't trying to make a name for itself scrap the Transit and Green plans that will make Toronto truly world class.

[MISSISSAUGAWATCH]

Here's all you need to know about Hazel McCallion's secret to success. No opinion. No BS. YouTube --and just two and a half minutes of your time. Featuring just two video clips. First, Hazel McCallion in her own words. Then a clip from the Judicial Inquiry. Here you go: http://tinyurl.com/yddu3w7