A day after Karen Stintz expressed doubts about mustering council approval to study her ambitious OneCity transit plan, the TTC chair has done an optimistic about-face following a meeting with the mayor’s office Thursday.

“I think we will be successful in having a study of OneCity approved,” said Stintz, after meeting with Mayor Rob Ford’s chief of staff Amir Remtulla and Earl Provost of councillor relations.

“We talked about how to get to consensus and agreed on a few things but the discussions are early and ongoing. I remain positive,” she said.

Stintz wouldn’t say, however, whether she and TTC vice-chair Glenn De Baeremaeker will continue to pursue a 2-per-cent property tax increase dedicated to transit that has drawn criticism from many councillors.

Councillor Peter Milczyn, who attended Thursday’s meeting, suggested Stintz and De Baeremaeker understood their original proposal won’t get the votes they need unless they drop the tax increase.

They know the city manager reports back to council in October on transit revenue options, including a tax based on higher property values, he said.

“At that point we should have the debate about what revenue tools and what level,” said Milczyn.

“There was also a discussion about how the mayor and many members of council aren’t prepared to endorse the transit plan that Karen and Glenn put forward but were open to having staff develop a transit plan,” he said.

It’s still up for debate, said Milczyn, whether Stintz’s transit priorities are the right ones: converting the Scarborough RT to a subway and building an East Bayfront LRT.

Meantime, another key left-wing councillor has distanced himself from OneCity. Calling it a “half-baked proposition” with “some really dangerous consequences around tax policy,” Adam Vaughan said he is particularly concerned his downtown ward could be taxed disproportionately because of dramatically rising property values.

“We need to figure out how we pay for city services, the TTC being one of them. If we do it in isolation, it leaves nothing on the table to fix some of the other pressing problems we have,” he said. “How do we finance the city’s needs over the next 20 years? Transit’s a big part of that but it’s not the only part of it.”

Eighty per cent of respondents to a Star poll of 800 residents last week said they supported the OneCity plan. It proposes 170 kilometres of new subways, LRTs and buses stretching to the city borders. The poll showed that support remained high even when respondents understood they would have to pay a tax to expand the TTC.

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Although he’s never spoken to her, respected urban designer and author Ken Greenberg agrees with Stintz’s priorities on the east waterfront and the SRT. He also praised her willingness to publicly endorse a transit tax — something only Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion has dared to do among regional politicians.

“Is it perfect, is it going to come out in one step and never be changed? Probably not,” said Greenberg of OneCity. “But it’s the beginning of a very important conversation.”

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