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Newsstand: October 19, 2012
Come on Toronto, push through the pain, just one more day until the weekend. In the news: booze so expensive you’d need to be drunk to buy it; the Bloor–Danforth line’s bad vibrations; reviewing the reviewer; money for a downtown park; the City sucks at finding cracks in the Gardiner; and weekend road closures, nope they’re not over.
Some very fancy hooch is going to auction tonight at the Trump International Hotel and Tower as part of an LCBO fundraiser for Wounded Warriors, an organization that helps injured Canadian soldiers. As part of the auction lot valued at $2.3 million, a bottle of the rare Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve is expected to bring in between $50,000 and $70,000. Seriously, that’s just one bottle. Or, as we measure it, somewhere between 21,467 and 30,054 bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
Concerned Bloor residents and the TTC came together last night to discuss the massive increases to sound and vibrations near the Keele and Jane subway stations. Since 2000, vibrations at Jane Station have quadrupled and at Keele they have tripled. The neglected tracks and broken wheels that are apparently to blame can and will be fixed, according to the TTC. However, when that will be done is still open-ended.
Some say, “don’t bite the hand that feeds,” but definitely don’t bite the hand that reviews your office budget, even if you’re trying to protect the hand that feeds. Toronto’s ombudsman, Fiona Crean, is asking the City for more resources to deal with the over 1,500 complaints and resulting investigations her office handles each year. Specifically, she would like $80,000 to $95,000 to hire a fourth investigator for the office. That’s all well and good, but the Ford Fest budget committee has a few key members that were vocally opposed to Crean’s most recent report—the one that stated the mayor’s office’s inappropriately interfered in the appointment process for municipal boards and agencies. Councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre) thinks that less complete investigations is the solution, not more money. Welcome to Toronto, folks.
An empty lot at 11 Wellesley St. W., which was once intended for a ballet and opera house that never materialized, is set to go up for sale soon as well. However, in this case, the City of Toronto hopes to put in some money and turn the unused rectangle into a park. Local Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), is leading the way towards purchasing the land, which is currently owned by the province and could have pre-existing bids (probably from condo developers) that are beyond what the City can offer. Come on Ontario, you’ve already downloaded a bunch of other stuff to municipalities, can’t you just download us the park too? Considering the site is only about an eight-minute walk away from Queen’s Park, you won’t have troubling coming to visit anytime you want. We promise.
An external group of engineers, IBI Group, is raising issue with the work of City engineers in identifying problems with our deteriorating Gardiner Expressway. IBI found six areas of the structure that are falling apart, but had been marked as having “no signs of surface deterioration” by their public counterparts.
If you want to relive all the magic that was this year’s marathon road closures, this weekend has something sweet to offer you. The Gardiner Expressway will have its eastbound collector lanes closed from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow and the westbound side of Bloor Street between Prince Edward Drive and Royal York Road will be closed on Sunday from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m.
