Thread by @GraphicMatt

I’m here once again at the best municipal government event of the year: City Manager Chris Murray’s address at @imfgtoronto. This year’s is titled “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be” which sounds pretty cheery and optimistic to me.

City Manager Murray says he has fifteen slides in his presentation today. Hoping at least six of ‘em have iceberg infographics. #imfgtalks

In the last year, Toronto grew by 77K people — more than double the 29K average growth of recent years, says Murray. #imfgtalks

Lots of growth, yes, and city spending is less per resident than it was 10 years ago, says Murray. He’s got a chart.

2010: $4598 per person.

2019: $4,393 per person.

#imfgtalks

Citing the Vital Signs report, Murray notes big challenges in T.O.: worsening inequality, precarious work, congestion, housing affordability. #imfgtalks

Murray’s six priorities for Toronto:

1) Financial sustainability
2) A well-run city
3) Maintain and create housing that’s affordable
4) Keep Toronto moving
5) Invest in people and neighbourhoods
6) Tackle climate change and build resilience

#imfgtalks

Murray says it’s remarkable the city has maintained below-inflationary property tax increases while growing so rapidly. No kidding. He says a “revenue strategy” will be necessary going forward as growth continues. There have been many reports and Council debates about this.

“Just imagine for a second if Line 1 went down for a month,” says Murray, “How would we get around? You’d never be able to put enough buses on the road .. when your system is 60+ years old, how fragile is it? You don’t ever want to wait ’til you’re in that situation.” Cheery!

Murray is very careful with his words when asked about the idea of Charter City status from Toronto. He says he thinks staff probably have some thoughts on it. Kinda sounds like a councillor should ask for a report.