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Newsstand: July 31, 2012
It's Tuesday and July is thinking, "Maybe I ain't that young anymore." Well, show a little faith, July, there's magic in the news. See: Backlash to Kensington Market's new gates, some councillors still optimistic about hosting Olympics in 2024, another casino company shows interest in setting up shop here, Factory Theatre's ex-artistic director pursuing legal action, and the mayor meets movie stars.
Not everyone in Kensington Market is happy with the new gates stationed to block off car traffic. The National Post found two guys who are anti-gate. One is an employee at a cheese shop, the other is the owner of Casa Acoreana, a bulk-foods store. Cheese Guy is worried that the kind of people that tend to flow into a car-free Kensington are not always the kind that come in to buy cheese. While Bulk Food Guy is so riled up about the gates, he wants to grab local councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) “by the scuff of the neck and throw him off the property.” Okay.
Tired of watching men’s pommel horse on the screens set up in your office tower’s lobby, surrounded by co-workers, unable to show your true feelings for the majesty of the body in pendular motion? Do you long for a day when you can watch canoe slalom from the Toronto Island ferry? Then you must be excited for the staff report on the feasibility of hosting the 2024 games here. Even though some councillors are already doubting the idea, Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) is urging us all to wait and see the report before passing on the glory of table tennis in the streets of Toronto.
Though council has yet to debate the matter, casino makers are all up in Toronto, trying to build a casino. A fifth such casino maker, Las Vegas Sands are [gambling metaphor], hoping to be the ones that get to build a gambling emporium in Toronto the Good. They don’t have a site picked out or a proposal ready, but the Sands is “intrigued” by the prospect, so that’s something.
After being fired from the Factory Theatre, artistic director and founder Ken Gass is planning legal action against the theatre’s board. Gass said the termination process was irregular. The larger theatre community is getting behind Gass, with a boycott of the Factory Theatre gaining steam and petitions going around calling for Gass’ reinstatement.
A long, long time ago, in internet years, the Insane Clown Posse pondered, as we all have, “Fucking magnets, how do they work?” Well, Mayor Rob Ford will tell you how they work: they win elections is how they work. In a promotional appearance for a new Will Ferrell movie that the mayor was busying himself with yesterday afternoon (note: that last bit is, sadly, the most factually relevant part of this whole paragraph), that mayor revealed his strategy for mayoral victory: hand out magnets and business cards to everyone you meet, and return all phone calls. Then, bam. You’re the mayor. See a complete play-by-play (including jokes at the Toronto Star’s expense) here.
