Mammoliti declares intention to run for mayor.
Ward 7 (York West) Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti.
City councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has become the first member of council to declare his intentions to run for the job of mayor in 2010."It looks that way, buddy," said the outspoken York-West councillor when asked Thursday, Oct. 15, if reports that he had made up his mind to attempt the leap from councillor to mayor were true.
He said he would be running - and the only thing that would stop him would be a failure to raise the $1.5 million it would take to run a credible campaign. He said he'll be exploring those possibilities before filing his papers when nominations open in January 2010.
"You can't technically fundraise until then but we can have discussions now," said Mammoliti.
Mammoliti had given notice that he was considering a run just days after Mayor David Miller announced he'd throw in the towel after 2010. Then, he described in an interview with Toronto Community News some details of what he called his "No nonsense campaign:" a tough-on-crime administration that would boost services to the suburbs, start building subways again and keep a lid on - but not freeze - property taxes.
Now that Mammoliti's made up his mind, he revealed some additional planks in his platform.
He said that Toronto should explore setting up a casino within city limits - possibly on a man-made island on Lake Ontario that would be made with fill from new subway projects. The city would get an official red light district - particularly if laws around prostitution are shot down by the Superior Court this year.
"It's a good possibility that the courts will rule in favour of the applicants," he said. "If they do, we'd better think long and hard - short and hard - on how to deal with that problem. And we do need to take a look at that scenario and better be serious about it. (As for a red light district) I don't think we'll have a choice. The other scenario is to increase the amount of activities going on in residential communities."
He would cut and reconfigure the Land Transfer Tax so as to make homeowners who bought and sold their homes within city limits exempt, using money from a casino to make up the difference.
"If you're buying a house in Toronto and selling in Toronto you shouldn't be charged - if you're buying a house in Toronto and live in Vaughan and are speculating, they're the ones that should be slapped with the tax," he said.
He said that he'd work to develop the main corridors, and force developers to "pitch in and pay for subways."
And as to crime? He said he'd follow the kind of work he's been doing in his ward, singling out gang members and drug dealers for public scorn to drive them out of the community, and getting tough with problem night clubs.
"The approach that I've taken in every aspect of Ward 7 should be brought into the whole city," he said. "I'm thinking out loud when I say that the approach to liquor licenses in nightclubs has to have conditions attached to it. That means walk-through metal detectors. It means security guards on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It means (regulating) the type of music they're playing. You can't play music offensive to women, to police officers, and that is advocating for guns in the city."
He said that gang members in particular would be put on notice.
"Absolutely, the gang members in this city will know that we're after them, the mayor will be after them too. There's no room for the young punks that will terrorize communities. That message has to be sent live and clear."
He also reiterated his promise to prevent more labour disruptions such as the one that shut down city services this past summer.
"One of the things I know first hand is the residents of the city do not want to endure the same thing that happened this summer, they will not, and any new mayor has to assure them they're not going to," he said. "If it means the union wants to work with the city and not run the city then we can talk. If the union wants to run the city we may run them out of town."
Despite those words, Mammoliti says he expects to have strong union support in his bid for the mayor's top job - at least in the construction and trades unions.
"I think based on the amount of construction that I would like to see in my term of office, I'll ride in with the hard hats from the laborers union and the carpenters union, with a bulldozer or something, on the front steps of city hall," he said. "I want people to know that we're open for business and that jobs will be created in construction with me at the helm."