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Five Years

January 31, 2006, a new blog crawled out into the world with the prosaic name Steve Munro’s Web Site, now simply Steve Munro.

Over those five years, we have wrestled with budgets, debated the merits of LRT vs Subways (not to mention Swan Boats), talked about service quality and system management, and pondered the future of our local part of the universe, naturally the most important one.  We have even gone to the movies occasionally — apologies to readers in 2010 when I was remiss in getting out all my reviews for Hotdocs and TIFF.

There are now 1,152 articles and 20,190 comments.  We, or rather you, the readers, passed the 20k line about two weeks ago.  That’s a lot of writing and editing for me, and a lot of thought — some cogent, some funny, some, well, the less said the better — from you.

Thank you for making this site work.  Its reputation comes from being a forum where people, within reason, can talk about many aspects of transit’s future in the GTA.  I know that the comments are appreciated by a large audience of “lurkers” among the professionals and the pols out there on the Internet because of the variety of viewpoints available in one place unpolluted by comment trolls and spam.

There are days — right after the last election was one of them — when I despair that we will ever see the kind of transit system Toronto’s reputation should have brought us over past decades.  If you could build and operate service simply on reputation, Toronto would be a transit nirvana, and we might not endure unkind comparisons to so many other cities.  We can and must do better, although in an environment where saving money takes precedence over even common sense, this is a challenge.

After that despair came a renewed sense of what must be done, of the importance of keeping the discussions going, the fight for better transit alive.  Over the past months, I was heartened to read so many comments on other sites and in the media generally that reflect a stronger sense of what transit could be, of what the options are.  We won’t agree, but at least the debate is starting from a much better-informed level than it would have 10 or more years ago when a former mega-mayor claimed that “real cities don’t use streetcars”.

There’s a lot brewing in the next year, and you can read about it all (as much as I have time to write, at least) here, in these pages.

23 thoughts on “Five Years”

  1. Congratulations, Steve, on five years of your timely, trenchant, transit blog (and all the other information that’s appeared here as well – any hope of the rest of the 2010 Film Festival reviews?)

    So glad you’re not despairing, because we need you to keep writing. You’re not just preaching to the choir here. As you indicated, there are some ‘lurkers’ in high places. With luck, they just may learn something from the discussions on your blog.

    All the best for another five years!

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  2. Happy Birthday! Thanks for providing this service to the people of Toronto – you’ve really helped elevate the knowledge and level of debate – as well as ‘commenter accountability’ through your replies.

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  3. Congratulations Steve! I’m generally a lurker, but felt a post was necessary to basically say thank you for all you do. We may not all agree on everything, but there’s a very high-level of informed debate on this site which I find welcoming and informing. I’ve learned a lot from you and your followers. Looking forward to another five!

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  5. Thanks Steve for this service that you do. It has helped me become more informed on the transit issues facing Toronto and to become a better transit advocate. Keep up the good work! Also, really enjoyed your talk at U of T.

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  6. A terrific achievement. If transit improves in this town, it will be in no small part due to your creation of a new generation of engaged and informed riders. If it doesn’t – well, historians will have a useful trove of information on just how those we entrusted with the system managed to screw it up.

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  8. Congratulations on five years of advancing transit! Your site provides one of the best places to get information on Toronto’s public transit scene. Although I am sure that it must get very frustrating, especially in view of the last municipal election, it is something that is necessary. Indeed, it should be a lesson to all of us to get involved and contact our local politicians to hold them accountable for the transit decisions that they will make in the next four dark years. I took some comfort in the fact that based on a poll that Michael Warren quoted yesterday in “The Star”, that some 65% supported Transit City. Maybe the message is getting through. Thanks Steve.

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  9. Congratulations, and a hearty thank you for this blog, and sharing your considerable knowledge on transit. with us.
    I thought I knew a lot about Transit, until I found this blog! Was I ever wrong! Do not give up the fight for good transit in our city. We need u, and every other transit advocate out there.

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  10. Just wanted to take a moment and let you know I appreciate all the time and effort you put into the site. It’s a great resource for those of us merely interested in transit.

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  11. Really Ian:-

    65% support Transit City? Our inscrutable mayor tho says 99% want subways! Where oh where is the math in that?

    Dennis

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  12. CONGRATS!! this is the most informative transit site out there and we owe it all to you for all that we know, or at least I do. keep up the advocacy!! this site means a lot to many people and we couldn’t be more grateful!

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  13. Has it been five years already? I remember being one of your earliest posters back in 2006. What’s even more remarkable is that next year will be your 40th anniversary of transit advocacy. So, here’s wishing you another 40 years of healthy transit advocacy [and light rail fundamentalist bigotry ;-)].

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  15. Steve, thank you for the time and dedication you put into not only your blog but your city. Reading your blog is what got me hooked on public transit, I cant help but think that if we could clone you and fill city hall with nothing but Munro’s Toronto would be a better place. (or we may end up getting to work on swan boats.)

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  16. I add my own most hearty “thank you, Steve!” to those of everyone else above who have expressed their appreciation for what you are doing. Congratulations indeed on completing the first five years of sharing with us this, your most thoughtful and informative site. I consider what you are doing here to be a hallmark of excellence in how to conduct public debate and structure a forum for it.

    I admire your spirit of resilience in the face of disappointment, and your determination to press onward to advocate for the best transit system possible for Toronto. You exemplify what good citizenship is about, and I wish you the best of success in your next five years.

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  17. I would like to add one further comment to the one I just posted, and that is that it is most evident that there are many others out there alongside you who care as deeply about the transit future of their Toronto as you do. You are helping to bring them all together to speak out individually and collectively and make a difference.

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  18. Lots of hard work over five years has made this site an authority unto itself. You have created a serious and coherent discussion, strong technically and politically. Well done and congratulations.

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  19. Steve

    I cannot believe that it has been 5 years already. Your blog was my lifeline to understand what was happening with public transit in Toronto in particular and Ontario in general. I think we have run the whole gamut of topics, issues & discussions from a to z – with more than a few stops at “‘p’ is for politics” – and I have definitely learned much more than I ever could about public transport and how truly complicated it is.

    I think you know that I became a public transport advocate while I was in Malaysia – inspired by you and the discussion on this blog. Our blog is about 2.5 years old, and our numbers are growing and we are helping to effect some positive change over there – again, thanks to your insights & inspiration.

    To echo the other posters, thank you very much and I wish you many more years to come with this blog. And from myself, I’m really looking forward to video powerpoint tutorials to help public transport users understand topics from public consultation to transit planning to line management.

    Regards,

    Moaz Yusuf Ahmad
    Mississauga

    ps. I’m looking forward to your next set of reviews too!

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  20. Steve – many many thanks for your tireless work in advocating better transit in the GTA area. I do hope you have many more years and their are positive results of yours (and others like you) work

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  21. Hi Steve:-

    There are a number of well stated positive comments above about you and your 5 years on the web. I would like to ditto those. Not as articulate as those previous posters I can add nothing word wise but do want to thank you wholeheartedly. Please don’t stop!

    And recognition needs to go to you too for the many previous years before the cyberworld existed and you were getting your teeth into transit advocacy and presenting such reasonable and balanced arguments in favour of us Torontonians. Thanks again!

    Dennis Rankin

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  22. Congratulations! You’ve done the TTC followers a real service with what you do. I haven’t agrees with you 100 per cent but I think I’ve agreed with you more than some. No one wants to see transit improve in Toronto more than I do. I’ve been thinking lately that the need might arise for the revival of the old Streetcars For Toronto now that a reactionary is the new Mayor. Perhaps those trying to save Transit City should start a similar group for that purpose. Best of luck in the coming years. Oh, by the way, is anyone imnterested in forming Swan Boats For Toronto?

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  23. Congratulations Steve – 5 years is quite remarkable. I took a quick look back in your “archives” and, somewhat unfortunately, note that some of the issues from your start are still unresolved (and in some cases have gotten much worse!). Keep up the good work! Although I haven’t agreed with you all the time (about 1 or 2 %), I give you 100% support for saying what must be said. As we move forward into the new era of public transit in Toronto under the Ford administration, I know that your advocating for transit will become more important than ever. I feel that WE (the transit users and providers) must present a stronger force to the Commission and the City Council or we will be faced with irreversible cuts and changes. Small cuts now will result in massive cuts later. As I have already stated – keep up the good work – we need advocates such as yourself more than ever before.

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