Toronto mayor John Tory willing to move races out of downtown

John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, is willing to take the possible backlash for his refusal to allow special events, such as marathons to take place if they involve traffic disruptions.

Mayor Tory “prepared to take the heat” for saying no to event organizers if it means minimizing congestion: http://t.co/luTV4ZMcA5

— Ann Hui (@annhui) December 19, 2014

Tory met with his staff to discuss road closures and construction on Friday morning, as better traffic flow and scheduling of closures were promised during his campaign. The result of the meeting was the mayor’s statement that he would encourage event organizers to move their events outside of the downtown core.

Want to ease traffic? Hold fewer events in downtown core, John Tory says http://t.co/HH4a73gl9u pic.twitter.com/qScjEn2rOV — CBC Toronto (@CBCToronto) December 19, 2014

This could pose a problem for some of Toronto’s biggest events, such as the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the Heart & Stroke Ride from Heart. These races already have their dates set in place for 2015, but Tory is already looking ahead to 2016.

John Tory’s final statement on the issue was that: “It is time, in a big city like this, that the public was placed first.” Last time we checked, race participants, especially in races such as Scotiabank, where the vast majority of runners are citizens of Toronto and the GTA, are part of the public.