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Smoking Ban Now On, Strict Rules on Front Yard Parking, Bringing A Sword To School

By Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

The smoking ban came into effect at midnight. The ban means that all enclosed public spaces are now smoke-free. Bars and restaurants without outdoor patios are angry at the by-law.
A small part of the smoking ban will also affect signage in convenience store. The problem is the signs haven’t been distributed yet which worries many store owners.
The city wants to crack down on front-yard parking, the practice where homeowners convert large tracts of their front yard into parking spots. Front-yard parking is ugly, takes away from street parking and also contributes to run-off when it rains. Eep.
2006_5_31mapdanforth.jpgIn other parking woes, a church just off the Danforth is having issues with their neighbours because the church’s tenants make parking in the area hard to find. It also turns out the church is breaking a city by-law. We hope that the community can settle this nicely.
Gold magnate Peter Munk of Barrick Gold gave Toronto General $37 million, the single largest donation to a hospital ever in Canada. Most of the money will be going to his cardiac centre.
The Sun reports on how friends of the street racer who killed a couple over the weekend snuck through the police line and took pictures of the accident site. Uhm, isn’t sneaking through a police line a crime of some sort?
A sand and gravel pit near the Toronto Zoo is becoming an important wetland. Many of the species, everything from hawks to frogs and turtles are at risk.
We’re trying to figure out how a 16-year old boy got a three-foot long sword and snuck it into school. What’s worse, the boy then attacked a classmate

Comments

  • rek

    Thank goodness for more smoking restrictions.

  • hey

    What’s the big deal with front pad parking in the core? If we’re going to encourage intensification in any other form than condos (which are anathema to the same lefties that oppose front pad parking) we need to encourage narrow houses/semis. Which means front pad parking for those streets without laneways.
    I can see how it’s ugly in the suburbs, but this is a completely idiotic bylaw for the core, where it’s apparently most supported. I guess it’s all to ban cars and get back at the people that actually own homes downtown. One more reason to abolish the city and have direct, adult rule from Queen’s Park. It’s also further evidence why Council can’t be trusted with power over development and why we need the OMB to ensure rational, rather than emotional, decisionmaking.

  • Reader Rabbit

    The Sun’s story on the racing crash is entitled “Bad Taste” and is accompanied by rotating car ads (keep refreshing to get the full scope).
    Unintentional irony could be the Sun’s motto.

  • Michael

    Hey,
    I’m definitely not anti condo, and I’m definietly not anti car. But front-pad parking is not about being ugly. It is actually worse for cars and drivers.
    The Annex is a fantastic example of this. If you go up any street, you’ll find street parkers and driveway parkers. A typical driveway can hold one car and eliminates one car from the street. As you know, you can’t park in front of a driveway. So one car in the driveway prevents one car off the street. 1 for 1, so what?
    What is inefficient is that during the day when the car in the driveway is gone (to work or whatever), other cars cannot take their place. Not in the driveway (tresspassing), and not infront of the driveway. So that’s 2 potential spots not being used, or at least 1 street spot gone all day long.
    And, you’re right, a lot of the non-condo intensification will come from these neighbourhoods. It will come in the form of apartmentalisation, just like in the annex. This means more people in one house, and potentially more cars.
    We need as much street parking as possible, all day long, and that means less driveways.

  • Chris Thomas

    BTW adn FYI, the dude who gave the $37 mill to TGH is Peter MUNK, not Barrick….

  • Boy Reporter

    Fixed. I was reading the next sentence about how he was the chairman of Barrick Gold.

  • Michael

    I should say, fewer driveways. damn brain.

  • anon ymous

    churches are already exempt from federal child molestation laws, might as well make them exempt from pesky little city-bylaws.

  • Paul

    Sword attack in Brampton? Last time I heard about something like this in Canada was in BC during a dispute about tables or no tables in Sikh temples. The sword, and knife that was first pulled according to the story, probably didn’t need to be snuck into school as there was a court ruling earlier this year saying Sikhs could take these things to school. If you think knives need to be snuck into a school you obviously don’t know about tolerance for the Sikh religion

  • Boy Reporter

    Gee Paul, you’re presuming a lot. No where in the news report did it say the boy who had the sword was Sikh.

  • Paul

    Well, the report also didn’t say it was not a Sikh. And if it was a Sikh it would not be reported so one can make a pretty safe assumption I think. It is Brampton after all and not Willowdale.

  • http://www.jillmurray.com Jill

    Paul’s argument doesn’t sit well with me. A sword is not the same as a dagger, but more to the point, since he hasn’t stated that he’s not a racist, should we use his logic to assume that he is one and stop giving a voice to his comments on the matter?