Mayor Rob Ford isn’t Emperor Nero and Toronto’s not Rome, but it’s getting harder to avoid the impression that in this city the former is fiddling while the latter burns.

This week, the respected former general manager of the Toronto Transit Commission, David Gunn, delivered a devastating critique of the city’s public transportation plan. Though one could quibble over some of Gunn’s points, it would be hard to disagree with his overall conclusion that most of it is “nonsense.”

Clearly out of her depth, TTC Chair Karen Stintz offered a lame defense, but the mayor, where was he? The man uttered not a syllable on behalf of a scheme of which he is the primary author.

Perhaps he’s still at his family cottage, where he went to hide from Pride Week, yet another aspect of a city he barely seems to know – or possibly like.

Still, for a politician who rode to power by portraying himself as Mr. Transparency, Mr. I’m-Here-To-Protect-The Hard-Earned-Tax-Dollars-Of-All-You-Hard-Working-Taxpayers, it does seem odd that he contributes so little to Toronto emotionally, intellectually, and administratively.

People can’t help but think that Ford really doesn’t care much, not about the city at least. Certainly, he has scores to settle and ideological points to make, but it’s now painfully obvious that Rob Ford is either indifferent, lazy or both.

When Ford announced he wouldn’t attend the Gay Pride Parade, he used the cottage as an excuse. His defenders were quick to point out that the mayor, like any other citizen, has the right to participate or not as he sees fit. That’s true, but what few of them acknowledged is that as mayor, Ford has responsibilities as well as rights. Those responsibilities might occasionally conflict with the comings and goings of Family Ford, but people who hold important positions usually expect to make personal sacrifices from time to time.

Ford, however, seems barely able to muster the energy to string a sentence or two together on any issue, let alone articulate a coherent position on anything more complicated than stopping the “gravy train.”

The chief magistrate’s silence speaks volumes. Talk may be cheap, but in Ford’s case it is worthless.

And even as shock waves of Gunn’s broadside reverberated throughout the city, TTC commissioners carried on regardless, meeting on Wednesday to discuss — and approve — the sale of naming rights to the transit system.

If anyone was aware of the irony of the timing or the sheer inadequacy of the move, they weren’t letting on. The vacuum at City Hall has spread beyond the mayor’s office; the increasingly airless atmosphere of 100 Queen St. is now barely able to support intelligent life in any form.

After picking off such low-hanging fruit as councillors’ expenses, vehicle registration fees and the Toronto Community Housing Corp, Ford seems to have vanished. Perhaps we should count our lucky stars that he has become an absentee mayor — in his case, no news really is good news — but one can only wonder what lies ahead.

If Ford doesn’t get off his butt soon and down to work, he and the city will find themselves overwhelmed. Toronto faces a $774-million budget shortfall and still not a word from Ford, no strategy, no ideas, not even any discussion.

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If he cares, he sure isn’t letting it show.

Given Ford’s manifest dislike of the city that elected him mayor and his unwillingness to put his ample shoulders to the grindstone, one can’t help but wonder what made him run for the job in the first place.