Thirty-two year-old TTC Chairman and Ward 18 councillor Adam Giambrone.
Okay, so i don’t need to go into detail about what exactly has happened to Toronto’s former political goldenboy Adam Giambrone (or as the critics are now calling him “Giamboner”) in the past few weeks, you already know. But what strikes me as insane is how somehow the blame for a struggling TTC is all of the sudden shifted solely onto his shoulders.
Sure, the TTC has been the subject of a lot of criticism for a while now, after all, the aging system is far from perfect, but it was always labelled more of a systematic failure rather than a matter of personal neglect. Here is a guy whose made some strides in improving the system and done mildly well with the cards he’s been dealt. Back in December I wrote an investigative story on how the TTC fails to come even close to having buses come to campus on time, or in regular intervals. Giambrone did well to diagnose the problem and explain exactly what needed to happen in order to fix it. Was he personally responsible? No. Could he have done better? Sure, but so can everyone at City Hall, Queen’s Park and especially in Ottawa.
I’m not sure whether its the media’s problem or simply a human instinct to build people up, only to tear them down. Even though the TTC Chair made some mistakes and did horrible things on a couch in his office (which I unknowingly sat on by the way), but that doesn’t mean that all of the sudden Giambrone should be a skapegoat for all the transit problems in Toronto. The TTC’s issues are far greater than one man, and he shouldn’t have to shoulder all of the blame just because of his choice to disobey the seventh commandment.
5 responses so far ↓
Alexandra B. // February 22, 2010 at 12:41 am |
Deep down people are jealous that he is young and successful, and it makes some of us feel good that he has a flaw. Whoever Giambrone is sleeping with should be his own business, not Canada’s.
Sarah Millar // February 22, 2010 at 12:44 am |
Scott,
I don’t know if you actually read the Sun’s article, or just assumed what it was about, because from what I could see Strobel did not blame Giambrone for the TTC’s woes on customer service. His column wasn’t even about the current state of the TTC.
Instead, Strobel was criticizing the Transit City — which Giambrone is one of the pioneers and biggest backers of. It wasn’t blaming him for anything, but just pointing out how unrealistic Transit City is (in his opinion).
scottmclean // February 22, 2010 at 12:55 am |
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/02/20/12963396.html
Also, check the front page, it’s a bit over-the-top.
Sarah Millar // February 22, 2010 at 1:08 am |
You made it seem like the media was calling for it, which is why I assumed you were talking about the Strobel column. The news story is quoting Giambrone’s critics, who of course want him to step down and, of course, are going to talk to the media. And of course, the media is going to report it. You could make the same argument that Excal is always reporting on the CFS, whether it be good or bad, or articles that blame the university or province for high tuition costs (from the CFS).
As for the front page, I didn’t see it, but the Sun is well known for their tab fronts.
scottmclean // February 22, 2010 at 1:11 am |
I think the front page reads: “Boy Blunder”