Yoga teacher Emma O’Neill wanted to organize an event aimed at raising funds to combat human trafficking in India.

“I was really hoping to bring Yoga Stops Traffick here. But I quickly learned the city makes it very difficult to hold events like these,” she said.

There would be portable washroom requirements. She would need a noise exemption. Street permits. There would be special insurance issues. And expensive paid duty police obligations.

“By the time we finished paying the city, there’d be no money left for the charity.”

Toronto: The Town of No Fun. The City of Rules.

Well, that might be changing thanks to Rob Ford, “Mayor of Fun,” as Councillor Michael Thompson jokingly dubbed him during a recent interview.

Before Ford came to office in December, this was the city that sent you a bill for $60 on your birthday.

Since repealing that vehicle registration fee, the mayor has talked about scrapping numerous regulations, which critics of the previous city hall regime would claim represent a nanny-state mentality.

“We’ve come off seven years of ‘father knows best’ government in David Miller,” said right-wing Councillor John Parker. “Rob Ford has a different approach.”

A blog post about Toronto’s dismal fun factor recently made the rounds on Twitter and online news sites.

“Every once in a while, Torontonians start talking about how Toronto is too uptight and everyone here needs to have more fun. So they form fun militias to enforce policies like always dancing at shows,” local writer Alex Molotkow wrote.

“Toronto has bylaws against eye contact,” she joked.

It’s not quite that bad. But there are rules against: playing ball hockey in the street, cutting down trees in your own backyard, having yard sales on the sidewalk and selling bottled water in civic buildings.

Toronto is the city that tried to liven up its street food offerings by writing a textbook of new rules in the failed A La Cart program.

Fact: Helium balloons, including the releasing of said balloons, are not permitted on City of Toronto property. Read it for yourself on page 19 of the Special Events Planning Guide; it’s the same document that scared O’Neill away.

But the new sheriff and his deputies have a different philosophy about the (by)laws of the land.

In March, the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, led the charge against a proposal to ban the sale of sugary beverages in city rinks, parks and recreation facilities.

“Once you get rid of all the sodas and the (bottled) water, are you going to go after my butter tarts downstairs, too?” he declared in a rant against these types of “socialism at its best” policies.

The Ford administration is also expected to ditch a controversial private tree bylaw, which mandates homeowners buy a $100 to $300 permit before cutting down mature trees on their property.

“Rob Ford is changing everything and I support him 100 per cent,” said 46-year-old John Peat.

Peat is a downtown Toronto dog walker who can’t wait until the mayor turns his attention to the city’s pet licensing policy. He might not have to wait long.

In 2007, when the city got into the cat licensing business, then-councillor Rob Ford seethed at the idea. “Are they gonna tax gerbils? Are they going to tax your goldfish? What else are they gonna tax?”

Earlier this year, city staff revealed they might do away with pet licensing. Well under half of pet owners don’t bother and Municipal Code Chapter 349 generates about as much as it costs to enforce.

And Miller’s 5-cent plastic bag tax? It will be gone by the end of the year, Ford said recently.

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Even the contentious ban on street hockey, which has been an issue for years, might soon be iced.

For progressive Councillor Janet Davis, saying let’s “get rid of all the rules” may be a crowd-pleasing catchphrase to some, but bylaws exist for a reason.

“They’re done in the public interest. The city has an obligation to develop policies to protect the interests of the majority,” she said. “That is the purpose of government.”

The tree bylaw, for instance, is about health. A single mature tree can absorb the carbon equivalent of a 41,000-kilometre road trip. Two trees provide enough oxygen for a family of four.

There are regulations concerning sidewalks so that pedestrians with disabilities can move freely around the city. And, she continued, city council should have banned pop in city-owned recreation centres to take a stand against child obesity.

Councillor Thompson said it’s about balance.

“On one hand, people always say ‘there ought to be a rule about this!’ but then at the same time they say ‘there’s too much government,’” he said. “I do think there are too many regulations. Too many rules. We need to give people the chance to use common sense.”

Rules in other cities

• NEW YORK

Right-wing commentators have taken to calling Mayor Michael Bloomberg the nanny mayor over his “war on sugar.”

Bloomberg has gone after New Yorkers’ salt intake and sugary drinks. He banned trans fat. And made it mandatory for restaurant chains and outlets to post calorie counts for each item along with the price.

• PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia city council is currently debating a 2-cent tax on pop, to generate $60 million in revenue, which will be put toward schools.

• WEST HOLLYWOOD

A proposed ban on the sale of fur clothing has significant support and is making its way through various legislative channels. The home of the Sunset Strip is poised to become the United States’ first fur-free city.

"West Hollywood is poised to position itself as a humane, thoughtful place and to extend that invitation to people from around the world who visit here as well as those who do business here," Councillor John D'Amico said. "This is about who we are and the way we live now.”