"Fascist" is not a word I throw around lightly. But it does tend to be the best one to describe Giorgio Mammoliti's brand of big-government conservatism, which involves arming the state to crack down on citizen expression. He loves billboards and hates posters and graffiti. Parts of our city look atrocious because of all the graffiti and signs, he told the Toronto Sun on Sunday. Ours is becoming a city filled with illegal posters....We have to expand the number of enforcement officers and give them some teeth. He suggested the penalty should be as high as $5000 per infraction because "people will stop painting graffiti or putting up posters if the fine is high enough. Both "young offenders" and their parents should be subject to community service, and fines should also be exacted from the "shows or events being listed on the illegal signs." Well.

Dave Meslin leading City Idol contestants on a tour of City Hall's second floor in May 2006.  Photo by HiMY SYeD. An A+ way to sheepishly admit something of which you're not proud is to put out a release at 4:16 on a Friday afternoon.  Hence, we can infer that the City is not terribly keen on the press picking up on the draconian new measures taking effect in just over a week's time that will fundamentally alter the way that the public — advocates, lobbyists, guests, friends, constituents, involved residents, and even some media — engages with City Hall. The issue regards the "outer ring" of the building's second floor, where councillors' offices are located.  Functioning with a kind of Sesame Street urbanism (the hallways are even named "A Street," "B Street," and "C Street"), the outer ring is where virtually all of this city's politics take place: literally, the corridors of power.  It is a welcoming environment that encourages casual wandering and is more than conducive to dropping by offices where you have a friendly relationship with a councillor and/or his or her staff.  As it is, only those with City Hall pass cards (councillors, staff, official members of the press gallery) can freely enter this area, but for anyone else it's just a matter of knowing one person on the inside who'll tell the receptionist that it's cool to let you in. Under the new rules set to take effect on May 3rd, however, all of this changes:

Rob Ford's climactic parade into the hall. As soon as I entered the Toronto Congress Centre, my friends pulled me into the lineup they were standing in. "What's this line for?" I asked. "We don't know.  We just got here and were told to stand in this line." I poked my head out to get a view of the front. "Oh my God," I exclaimed, "This is the line to shake Rob Ford's hand! He's shaking the hand of every person who goes in!" As a politically-engaged downtowner attending a massive Rob Ford shindig out of a healthy mix of curiosity and irony, this was a bit intimidating. (Also, that morning I had written something that questioned the legality of several aspects of his campaign.)  But Ford is, of course, a nice enough guy in person, and you have to respect his sincerity.  His attitude isn't restricted to quasi-libertarian populism, after all; he also has an evangelical belief in the power of personable customer service, and his introductory handshake was followed by several additional phalanxes of Walmart-like greeters along the way into the main room. (Plus, he didn't recognize me.)

First of all, please stop saying "very unique." There are no varying degrees of uniqueness; something is either one of a kind or it isn't.  This is a pet peeve of mine, but not something I usually bring up.  After hearing speaker after speaker utter this phrase at Thursday morning's One Bloor press conference, however, I thought it was worth mentioning. On the other hand, it means that the project's developers, architects, etc. appreciate the intense specialness of the Yonge and Bloor intersection where they will be building a 65-storey condo. "This is the most important corner in the GTA, and possibly in all of Canada," said Baker Real Estate president Barbara Lawlor. While one would expect a realtor to say that about any given location anywhere, in this case the hyperbole may very well be true.  Which is why the project is so disappointing. Certainly, it's pretty decent as far as condos go, and in a whole other league than the edifices on the other three corners.  But that doesn't mean that this is what Yonge and Bloor needs or deserves.

This page contained his City Hall contact information.  Then it was blank.  Now it has an email address. Rob Ford has been a candidate for mayor for just over 24 hours.  Here are his apparent transgressions thus far: • Commissioning a poll (from a mysterious firm even he hasn't heard of) to gauge support for his potential candidacy, prior to registering as a candidate. The Municipal Elections Act (MEA) states that "An expense shall not be incurred by or on behalf of a candidate outside his or her election campaign period," and that that campaign period "begins on the day he or she files a nomination for the office." As the poll is a service "on behalf of a person wholly or partly for use in his or her election campaign," it would almost certainly count as a campaign expense.  (If he hadn't run, then it likely wouldn't have mattered.)

It probably says something that Rob Ford is being more restrained and thoughtful than even the Toronto Star these days.  Pressed by the Post for comment on Adam Giambrone's taxi bill, he told Natalie Alcoba that "it's not fair to single anyone out." (The media similarly tried to extract a nutzoid soundbite from Ford following Giambrone's pulling-out press conference, but he refused to indulge them then, too.)  It's one thing for the Toronto Sun to gleefully slap together cover stories about meaningless things, but (let's be honest) we all hold the Star to a much higher standard. "Councillor expensed chipmunk costume" is a wonderful phrase, to be sure, but do you know what the proper medium for it is?  A tweet.  Not a headline on the front page of a daily newspaper.  Oh my goodness, Star, you came across something quirky on the City's website!  Good for you! *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*

A photo I took when we went through this ritual in mid-2008. Context! June 13, 2008.  A Friday.  I was covering City Hall for Eye Weekly at the time. At 2:24 in the afternoon, the City put out a press release.  Seventeen minutes later, my editor forwarded it to me, asking if I had any idea what it was about: Media Advisory: Mayor David Miller to make important announcement Media are advised that Mayor David Miller will make an important announcement today. Date: TODAY - Friday, June 13 Time: 5:30 p.m. Location: Mayor’s Protocol Lounge, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 100 Queen St. W. Reasoning that it was either really good/important news (something so urgent they were announcing it late on a Friday afternoon) or really bad/embarrassing news (something so unfortunate they were announcing it late on a Friday afternoon), I decided that it was worth my time to schlep down to City Hall.  So did the rest of the media, who — along with a whole whack of curious councillors and political staffers — enthusiastically stuffed into Miller's office much as they did today, to hear what course-altering proclamation the mayor had in store.

As we have seen, allowing politicians to adjudicate on new billboard applications can be, well, problematic.  That's why City Council is setting up a new citizen-led Sign Variance Committee to make sound decisions based on planning principles rather than personal preferences (or lobbying, or campaign contributions, or any of the other complicating factors of politics). On Thursday night, City staff held a voluntary information session for potential applicants, helpfully clarifying a lot of the details that aren't fully explained online.  Two dozen people came out (including me), which would have been more encouraging if all but one hadn't been men (including me). Applications are due at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 11, so there's still time to get your name in.  Committee members will get $250 per meeting attended, and it's expected that the committee will meet monthly, so if you're an urban policy wonk (and, for goodness sake, why are you reading this if you're not?), it should sound like a pretty sweet gig.  Read on for details.

"Keep it clean," says the advisory at the top of Trash Talk the TTC.  "Harassment or discrimination is not tolerated."  Well, good.  That's an important policy to have.  But we shall see how long a public message board called "Trash Talk the TTC" actually remains a locus of civil discussion. Because, despite the name, civil discussion does seem to be the intent.  Launched Sunday by John Loerchner, an art director at ad agency MacLaren McCann and coordinator of Labspace Studio in Leslieville, TTTTTC is marked by an unexpected earnestness. The introductory letter to Adam Giambrone on behalf of "Riders of the TTC" is stern but affectionate, irked yet hopeful. It promises the site will yield "honest and constructive feedback."

Just launched Monday, Toronto election news clearinghouse Toronto Election News is a splashy aggregator that aims to be the most comprehensive source of information on the titular topic.  When it comes to offering information about itself, however, TEN is a bit more coy. As Mondoville found, not only are all the posts anonymous but a WHOIS search for the domain registration reveals that its owner paid a bit extra for the privilege of being able to obscure his identity.  That said, it doesn't take much clicking (or taunting) to trace the site back to Tory strategist Brett Bell, who most recently served as "Social Media director" for Tim Hudak's leadership campaign.