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Oct. 4, 2003, Toronto Star

 Rich city, poor city, Toronto may be Canada's economic engine but it's
badly in need of  a tune-up

 We're not making the most of our talent pool

 LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN FEATURE WRITER

 This is a tale of two cities.

 It's about an economic powerhouse that in the past 10 years has posted the
third-strongest rate of population growth and job creation in North America
?  behind only Atlanta and Dallas and nearly double that of Chicago and
Boston.

 It's about a highly attractive business environment that's at least 12 per
cent more  cost-competitive than American cities such as New York and
Philadelphia.

 It's about a place renowned for its ethnic and racial diversity, its parks
and green  spaces, its safe streets and social harmony.

 But it's also about a local economy where the gap between the rich and
poor is  growing and where the face of poverty is increasingly young and
ethnic.

 It's about a housing market where affordable rents are disappearing while
tenant  incomes are dropping, and where the number of families waiting for
subsidized  housing has jumped by more than one-third in the past five
years.

 It's about a city government saddled with so many new responsibilities
that it can  no longer afford to keep the parks clean, potholes filled and
public transit  affordable to the people who need it the most.

 Welcome to Toronto in 2003.

 The Toronto Star has joined forces with the Toronto Community Foundation
to  conduct a comprehensive checkup on the city by looking at how our
income,  health, education, transportation and culture measure up to other
cities our size.  The goal is to produce a report called Vital Signs to be
published each fall,  identifying trends and providing insights to help
make Toronto the best place to
 live, work, learn and grow. Over time, it will show where we're getting
better or  worse.

 Bobby Rotenberg steps over an empty vodka bottle and points to the trash
caught  in the underbrush of the "naturalized" area of Riverdale's Withrow
Park.

 "Just look at this. It's so sad," says the 50-year-old criminal lawyer as
he takes a  reporter on a tour of his neighbourhood's beloved swath of
rolling green space that  has become choked with weeds and strewn with
garbage.

 Rotenberg lives across the street and has become a local celebrity for
speaking out  about the sorry state of basic city services.

 "In theory, it sounds nice to naturalize parts of the park. And ? let's
face it ? it  costs less money.

 "But it doesn't work. It's become a haven for drug dealers and a backstop
for  garbage," he says.

 "The fact that this goes on across the street from my 4-year-old daughter
just  makes me sick."

 Rotenberg has lived in the area for 15 years and notes that in the past,
the park  had its own dedicated city staff who took pride in their work and
knew the  community. City budget pressures in recent years have meant less
money for park  maintenance, and now the city is experimenting with private
cleaning crews that  visit every seven to 10 days.

 "I could understand it if this were 1934 and it was the Depression and
people were starving in the street," he says. "But we're
 living in this incredibly prosperous era. What are we doing?"

 Earlier, over tea in his family's comfortable semi, he explains his
frustration at the "death of a thousand cuts" the city is facing
 and worries about the long-term future of Toronto.

 The season for the neighbourhood ice rink starts later and ends earlier.
Recreation programs that used to be free now come
 with fees. And community groups that used the local school after hours at
no cost are now scrambling because they can't afford
 to pay rent.

 "I see the elites retreating into their enclaves. They have their big
backyards, their sports club memberships, their cottages, their
 private schools," he says.

 "But if you are poor in this city, you don't have options. And that
troubles me. I don't want to live in a city that is divided
 between the rich and the poor."

 Harvey Schwartz is worried, too. "Toronto is bankrupt. It doesn't have
enough money to fund its activity," says the York
 University economics professor, who has been gathering data on the impact
of amalgamation and the province's decision to
 download services such as housing, welfare and transit.

 "I've been tracking this for six or seven years, and it's completely
unsustainable," he says.

 The latest city budget figures say Queen's Park is shortchanging Toronto
by about $200 million per year.

 Since the city can't legally run an operating deficit, it has had to
borrow from the province, cut or privatize services, raise taxes
 or user fees.

 On the capital side, the city's debt has climbed to $1.9 billion, which
will cost taxpayers $243 million in principal and interest
 this year. Debt servicing is now the fourth-largest budget item behind
police, fire and housing.

 Schwartz notes that the annual capital spending shortfall for
transportation and transit in Greater Toronto is about $800 million
 per year. At least $500 million more should be spent annually on the
operating side to accommodate the area's growth, he says.
 If the money isn't found to address these urgent transportation needs,
traffic congestion will increase and quality of life in the
 region will drop, he predicts.

 Schwartz is not alone in his analysis. Leading Canadian institutions, from
the TD Bank and the Toronto Board of Trade to the
 United Way and the Toronto City Summit Alliance, have been making the case
for more cash for several years.

 "There simply has to be some way to fund day care, keep the schools open
after hours and maintain our crumbling roads and
 transit system," Schwartz says.

 The challenge is to come up with the best funding model.

 Schwartz is encouraged that the provincial Liberals and prime
minister-in-waiting Paul Martin are promising to address
 Toronto's cash crisis. But he doesn't think the ideas currently on the
table are bold enough.

 Giving Toronto a portion of the provincial gas tax to pay for transit ? an
option favoured by the city and promised by the
 provincial Liberals ? won't bring in enough money, Schwartz says.

 And he is opposed to adding a sales or municipal income tax, like some
American cities do, because he thinks city residents
 and businesses are probably already taxed enough.

 Schwartz believes the only effective and fair way for the city to raise
revenue is for Ottawa and Queen's Park to give up some
 of their existing income tax room to Toronto.

 And he's hoping his next research efforts will prove it.

 As the morning sun peeks through the high-rise apartment blocks in
Leaside's Thorncliffe Park, Shireen Ahmed guides her two
 small children across the shopping mall parking lot to the community's new
parent-child drop-in centre.

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