Friends forgive this political email as some of you are not used to receiving such from me. I believe it is warranted and hope you will consider my words and those of Ken Greenberg’s enclosed (at his kind permission).

Ken Greenberg’s letter below has been circulated today in response to the sobering story in the Globe & Mail: Toronto mayoral race is Rob Ford’s to lose, poll of decided voters says

Ken has encouraged this letter to be shared widely.

As many if not all of you know, I strongly concur with Ken’s views that George Smitherman is not only the best choice for Mayor but also the only who can realistically lead a coalition to challenge and defeat Ford. That is why I am volunteering my time to support George’s campaign.

I am convinced it’s time stop criticizing mayoral campaign styles and start evaluating polices and track records. Even more urgently it’s time to evaluate the cold hard facts on the ground. I believe George is best suited to be Toronto’s Mayor and best positioned to lead a pragmatic, inclusive, and creative administration: one that truly gets our complexity, diversity and potential to be even better than we already are.

If you are supporting George I urge you to get active. If you were undecided I urge to come on board. If you were supporting Joe Panatalone, Rocco Rossi or Sarah Thompson, I ask you to think very carefully about that choice now.

Many thanks for your kind consideration.

Edward Nixon

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From: Ken Greenberg
Sent: September 19, 2010 5:26 PM
To: . . .
Subject: The future of our City

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow you will see a poll that shows 46% support for Rob Ford and predictions that he will be the next Mayor of Toronto. And this will no doubt be the case unless the people who care about this city come together to support the one candidate from among the other four who can defeat Rob Ford and that is George Smitherman.

We have been working for George and believe that he has the qualities to be an excellent Mayor. Although the campaign has been extremely negative and has painted a picture of a city on the verge of collapse, George’s starting point is that this is a great city which has the potential to be even greater.  He knows that we face severe challenges but it is by building on our successes not slashing and burning that we will succeed. He understands that we have some serious problems in Municipal government and in the effective delivery of services and will seek creative solutions that curb waste and more effectively use scarce resources not draconian one liners that seek to destroy not improve. He understands that you can’t fix what is wrong at City Hall by just attacking the budget but need to engage people in decision-making for their communities and look outside City Hall to grow the pie not shrink it.

George is committed to picking up David Pecaut’s challenge to form partnerships to tap the extraordinary resources in civil society, our major institutions and in the business community. He understands that we are “one city” and can only succeed by coming together not driving wedges of suspicion and rancor between “city” and. “suburb”, “drivers”, “pedestrians” and “cyclists”.  He is committed to finding solutions that work for all parts of our city from transit, to housing, to planning. He doesn’t pretend to have all the answers but rather will help us to find them together. He knows that in our system building effective alliances on Council and with the Feds and the Province is the key. Most importantly he has the ability and experience to make this work.

But even if you don’t agree with every one of his policy positions that is no longer the point. In order to not have Rob Ford as Mayor there needs to a convergence on one other candidate who stands a chance of winning this election and that is George Smitherman. We need to keep investing intelligently in our common future as a city.  This is not the time to shut down and pull back; not the time to withdraw and retreat; not the time to stop communicating with the world; not the time to stop immigration. It cannot be done, makes no sense and is our greatest strength; it is profoundly who we are. This is not the time to sell off streetcars and revert to totally relying on cars and buses – already tested to failure world wide.

At stake is not just four years of bitter strife and division at City Hall but a reversal of progress we have made on housing, on our waterfront, in the arts, social services and on rebalancing our transportation networks and a message that the open and tolerant society we have been building in Toronto is in jeopardy. Our city is far from the incompetent basket case that this campaign has portrayed; we need to move forward at this crucial time not backwards and the outcome is in our collective hands.

We urge you to join us in getting involved now by showing your support and by writing to all of your own contacts throughout the city and asking them to do likewise. Every vote counts.

Sincerely,

Ken & Eti Greenberg

But sir you have too often grabbed a PR defeat from what ought to have been a policy victory. You too often promised too much and delivered explanations instead of the elegant solution. I support transit expansion. I support green roofs. I support using the powers of the City of Toronto Act (thank you Premier McGuinty) to creatively benefit the city. So we should have little argument. Still if the new taxing powers were indeed necessary you ought to have gone from ward to ward to make the case. You ought to have worked with developers to sell the green roof program (yes photo ops and sector-friendly announcements do matter).

And where are the things we could do but have not done: our own appeals board for Committee of Adjustment matters (one less round of OMB appeals). Where is our push for inclusive zoning, tax increment financing et al to engage the private sector comprehensively in city-building. Vancouver has created schools, parks, and cultural facilities on its downtown waterfront through the application of clear and consistent rules and incentives. Of course the planning act is different here, and yes the lament of the OMB, but indeed much more could be done.

Union Station is finally getting it’s re-do. But 6 years. Six years went by as marble crumbled.

If things on the Waterfront are indeed moving (and they are) they could have used a focused consistent nudging that it seems you have not provided; instead there has been micro-management and duplication of effort that has too often slowed things down.

Green bins that are filled with toxic mysteries that cannot make good compost; a problem one things could have been solved with attention to the file and an unequivocal directive to staff to fix it.

Yes TEDCO has been replaced by Invest Toronto and Build Toronto but surely that was a first-term item.

I’ll be more charitable in another post. But in thinking ahead to the 2010 contest I’d say to all contenders remember that buses need to run on time, the potholes need to be fixed, the parks need to be safe, and the fountains need to work. We need innovative programs and policies. We need transit expansion However, it must be built on a solid, sustainable plan that rolls out measurable achievements in every year. We need to have a mayor who commits to equal opportunity for all but also one who will be strategically deft and tactically flexible.

We need to be once again the City That Works and be a City That Shines.