In an unprecedented, mind-bending political reversal, Toronto City Council dismissed the Rob Ford administration’s planned takeover of the waterfront, leaving Waterfront Toronto in charge of the multi-billion-dollar revitalization.

So complete was the rebuff of the first-year administration that councillors and citizens stood and applauded one another in the council chamber following the unanimous vote Wednesday.

Just two weeks earlier, the mayor’s powerful executive committee unanimously backed the very opposite direction. They made it clear then they intended to grab waterfront land, sell it off, take the cash for the city’s coffers and replace the council-sanctioned planning regime with a new vision hatched in the mayor’s office.

And it all blew up in their faces with a ferocity that left its architect, Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, ashen-faced.

It was Brother Doug who spearheaded the takeover bid. He boasted about putting an NFL stadium on the Port Lands. Then he boosted a new vision of a Ferris wheel, shopping centre and monorail where Waterfront Toronto had planned riverfront communities and a streetcar line.

What the Fords didn’t anticipate was the torrent of criticism and the wave of opposition to what critics dismissed as an outdated, last-century vision concocted in secret without consultation with residents and city councillors. Protest groups sprang up. Architects and planners petitioned against the plan. And the Ford scheme sank in a river of controversy.

“This was just a fascinating process, a stunning reversal,” said Cindy Wilkey, one of the longtime waterfront advocates who fought the new vision and couldn’t have anticipated the turnaround.

“I had no idea that people felt so passionate about the waterfront,” she said. Neither did the Fords.

But there was more at play here than just an unexpected citizen revolt. In essence, the waterfront had all the ingredients for the Fords to meet their Waterloo.

First, the glitzy waterfront plan came out of nowhere. Which developers were behind the Ford plan? Who stood to benefit? What was to become of the years of work already done with the enthusiastic approval of residents and the planning community?

The Fords had unilaterally stopped Transit City. The mayor dismissed the entire social housing board following a controversial audit report. Mayor Ford seemed capable of overturning years of waterfront planning and consultation. Council seemed impotent to halt the Brothers Ford.

So, what did we learn from the near-fiasco on the waterfront — a backroom takeover torpedoed by angry citizens? At least three things:

One, Torontonians are embarrassed by their waterfront, but won’t settle for mediocre change.

“We already lost our waterfront once. Look at Harbourfront. The prospect of losing it again just woke people up,” said Ana Prodanou, an island resident.

Two, city councillors need public protest to put steel in their spine. When the cause is as righteous as waterfront revitalization, councillors will side with constituents over their political master.

Three, it’s easier to defend a municipal service or treasure when there is a built-in constituency. The waterfront has this in the urbanists, planners, architects, environmentalists, naturalists and waterfront residents.

Mayor Ford unilaterally killed Transit City on his first official day in office — because he didn’t like streetcars running in the way of automobiles on city streets. He didn’t seek city council approval. And he got away with it.

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If Ford were to attempt that today, he’d face vigorous push-back. It’s not that the mayor has any less authority or fewer powers; rather, the political landscape has changed. Councillors now know they can rally the votes to reject administration proposals injurious to the city.

This realization came too late to save Transit City. It came just in time to guide the difficult decisions councillors now face over service cuts in the 2012 budget.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

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