By Ian Bailey-Leung

A morning crash has closed off a Gardiner exit ramp and yesterday’s burst water main repairs continue to block motorists. Workers will be reconstructing Lake Shore Boulevard over the next 24 hours. Burst water mains will be around for awhile: Toronto has one of the highest failure rates for water mains in Canada. Toronto’s backlog of repairs to the system will take about 8 years to flush out.
The number of Asian tourists in Toronto rose this year, especially from China. There were 58% more Chinese visitors this year in Ontario, a total of 37,576. Japanese visitors also grew by 5% to 109,470, and Korean visitors rose by 6%. This despite an overall decline in visitors nationwide.
Robbers have been wearing police uniforms and burqas in a recent spike in jewelry heists at stores run by South Asians, including those in the India Bazaar on Gerrard Street.
Burnt Area with Ragged Rocks, painted by Tom Thomson was subject to a bidding war and sold for just under 1 million at a art auction yesterday.
The University of Toronto has been fighting bike theft with their Bike Bait program, similar to the BaitCar program introduced in Vancouver a few years ago. The Bike Bait program, introduced on September 29th, has lead to a significant reduction in bike thefts.
The city will be installing more than 250 countdown clocks at busy pedestrian crossings across the city. These clocks are being added as part of the new LED signals that will reduce energy costs for the city.
Images courtesy of bennylin0724 and lore.