“There’s people knocking on my door all the time,” Rob Ford likes to tell his friends on radio.

They’re there because they want “to buy the zoo,” or “to buy a theatre,” that sort of thing.

When it came to buying the Port Lands, they went instead to the mayor’s brother, Doug Ford, peddling visions of megamalls, monorails and money.

At this point, serious players prefer Doug to Rob, who seems out of it much of the time. Regardless of which Ford they pitch, however, the point is that it’s done behind closed doors.

At times, business, civic or otherwise, must be confidential, of course. But what’s happening in Toronto goes beyond that. Not only do the Fords intend to put as much of the city up for sale as they can, they intend to be in charge of the sell-off.

The Port Lands fiasco showed a top-down approach to business that might be expected in a family-owned company such as the one started by the Fords’ late father, Doug, but not for a city. Indeed, this sort of backroom culture is a breeding ground for civic corruption.

And when Doug Jr. unveiled his Port Lands plan a couple of weeks ago, those who weren’t appalled by the secrecy of the process and banality of the project were amused by its familiarity.

The same hawkers have been flogging the same schemes for years.

But until the Fords came along, no one paid attention. Rube-like, the brothers fell for it hook, line and sinker. The bigger and shinier, the better they like it.

Waterfront veterans rolled their eyes. “Where have we heard this before?” they asked themselves knowingly.

Meanwhile there’s the issue of TPLC (Toronto Port Lands Co.), and its new-found prominence and coziness with Doug Ford. Why is a temporary agency created to manage property and remediate soil suddenly the city’s lead developer on the Port Lands?

“A lot of people are wondering whether TPLC is operating outside its legal parameters, hiring consultants to undertake waterfront redevelopment,” says Councillor Paula Fletcher, whose Ward 30 encompasses the Port Lands, “It was set up to maintain leases, get short-term leases and clean the soil. Now TPLC has positioned itself as the master developer for the Port Lands. I wonder how they got there.”

So do many others.

And like many others, Fletcher isn’t prepared to roll over and play dead just yet. She’s one of a growing number of councillors who won’t support a motion to undo the decade-old agreement with the federal and provincial governments — that created Waterfront Toronto — to cede the Port Lands to TPLC.

“I’m certainly not prepared to turn everything over to a property management company,” Fletcher fumes. “I’m disappointed with how low the bar has been set. It doesn’t meet the test of transparency and accountability that we’ve had on the waterfront. Waterfront Toronto should remain in control.”

Meanwhile, 144 prominent architects, academics and authors issued an open letter last week supporting Waterfront Toronto and calling for the Fords to back off.

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“It would be a mistake to make it a spectacle waterfront,” said Richard (Creative Class) Florida. “We need to stay the course.”

“I’ve never seen such profound disregard for council,” said Toronto’s former chief planner, Paul Bedford. “The waterfront is huge. It’s complex. It needs a strategy. We have a good plan. The process has been successful. Now’s not the time to change direction. We’ll be the laughing stock of the world.”

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