The Globe and Mail has some good-ish news this morning for the city's library lovers and parents of young children. Possibly chastened by the political meltdown in Mayor Rob Ford's fortunes, it looks like council's cut-minded folks are looking to compromise. From the Globe:

Talk of closing branches and cutting services and hours has been met with widespread public opposition, most notably from author Margaret Atwood who got into a verbal sparring match with the mayor’s brother, also a city councillor, after he said he would shut a branch in his ward “in a heartbeat.”

About 2,000 subsidized daycare spaces that do not receive provincial funding also will be preserved for as long as the current users are in them, Mr. Minnan-Wong said. “Anybody who has a spot will maintain that spot,” he said, adding that the city will continue to press the province for additional funding and will look for greater involvement from the private sector.

So libraries and daycare might be safer than they would be if the city followed the recommendations of the City Manager Joe Pennachetti. As Globe columnist Tabatha Southey pointed out on Twitter, as far as daycare is concerned this isn't a staggering climb-down: it amounts to phasing out city daycare spots over two years, instead of immediately. And not cutting library branches doesn't mean hours won't be cut, either.

That said, it's worth pointing out just how far the goalposts have been moved on the issue of the city's budget cuts. We've gone from a panicky, $774 million-driven push to cut everything that isn't required by law to councillors compromising over whether and when to cut sensitive items. This isn't surprising. Despite KPMG and the city manager's report, council was always going to be in the driver's seat on this. Given that the KPMG process didn't really discover anything new, it's hard for me to think of the entire summer as a waste of time.