Five things you should know about city politics today

TORONTO — Mayor John Tory covered a lot of ground at a news conference today, touching on topics like the Muzik night club shooting to the temporary relocation of the ‘TORONTO’ sign.

Muzik nightclub shooting

Tory is calling on anyone with information on the shooting at Muzik nightclub to come forward to police and Crimestoppers.

Tory says the family of Ariela Navarro Fenoy, the 26-year-old woman killed at OVO after party, is still looking for answers.

“We like to pride ourselves on something we are, which is a good community, and good hearted community where we care about each other,” Tory said.

“Now it’s time for us to step up again. Anyone who can.”

Olympic bid

It’s a debate that has come up many times in the last month and Tory is still standing strong on his answer.

“I have not changed my posture on this one iota,” he said. “I’m going to undertake with the help of a lot of people, a careful assessment of this issue in the time that’s available to us.”

Tory held a closed door meeting with Canadian Olympic Committee President Marcel Aubut on Tuesday but stayed tight-lipped on the specifics of the discussions.

“Please be clear that the meeting was a meeting — Mr. Aubut happened to be in town — and I had some things I wanted from him,” Tory said.

“When Mr. Aubut is here, I asked him — and he was able to give me some clarification now — on the bidding rules because it’s important to understand those and what’s involved in that before we decided to do it or not do it.”

The Olympic bid deadline is Sept. 15.

Illegal parking blitz

Drivers beware. The mayor issued this warning to people who park illegally on the streets of Toronto: You will be towed.

“I was elected to try and get the city moving better,” Tory said. “The first thing I will tell you is that I’ve spoken the Chief Saunders and he has agreed … to a blitz to remind people that they are not to be parking on busy streets in rush hours.”

Tory says these are zero tolerance measures.

“To have a blitz where to draw some attention to it just because peoples’ behaviour will sometimes slip back a little bit.”

The illegal parking blitz will begin in the fall.

‘TORONTO’ sign

Tory was quick to mention the social media storm that erupted today over the removal of the iconic ‘TORONTO’ sign. But don’t worry — it’s not gone forever.

The sign has been relocated to the east side of the site and will be returned to its original position once the ceremonies close.

“It’s amazing how moving that around created a flurry of activity this morning on social media,” Tory said.

The mayor said he received many telephone calls and emails from people expressing concern over its removal.

“It was always intended the sign would be removed to accommodate the closing ceremonies for the Parapan Games. The closing ceremonies will be here in Nathan Philips Square,” he said.

“It will be temporarily moved to provide room for those ceremonies.”

As for the famous sign’s permanent location, Tory says that is still in discussions.

Uber vs. The City

There has been an increase in charges against UberX drivers operating without a license.

“I’ve indicated very clearly when we left off that we were spending the summer … to find some legal provisions that can capture the existence of both of these in satisfactory and equitable manner that protects public safety and provides convenience and affordability for the public,” Tory said.

Tory said no one should be surprised of the charges laid against the drivers.

“I did say the last time we talked about this that this service seemed to be operating outside of the law and the regulatory officials have made decisions with respect to laying charges and they’ve done that,” the mayor said.

Tory says the newly laid charges do not have any bearing on the modernized regulatory solution that could be developed.

“It takes account of the reality of new technology that I have said all along is here to stay.”

With files from Adam Miller, David Shum and The Canadian Press