Ex-mayor John Sewell on why mediocre development projects get city hall’s approval:

“Councillors don’t debate the rezonings happening in someone else’s ward. They simply defer to whatever the local councillor wants. There’s an unspoken rule that you don’t stick your nose into someone else’s ward and they won’t stick their noses into yours.” In other words, Sewell (writing for Post City) believes one reason Toronto has so many tiny condos with crappy layouts is that local politicians have some kind of code of honour that prevents them from meddling in often-lucrative development deals beyond the borders of their own districts. City councillors themselves, meanwhile, remain content to blame the OMB.