The Maple Leafs have staved off elimination and this city will live to see another day of streets flooded with blue and white fans and oh so very much yelling. The Leafs beat the Bruins 2-1 in Friday night’s Game 5. The next game is Sunday night in Toronto.

If you’re one of those people who can’t ride in an elevator without thinking of that horrific scene from Mission Impossible, stop reading. An elevator maintenance worker has been charged with mischief after tampering with the controls of the elevators in a high-rise near Kipling and Finch avenues. Due to his tampering, the elevators stopped working. Okay, so this isn’t really anywhere near as bad as getting your face squished by an elevator. But still.

City Hall will be getting a shower station for cyclists, even though the mayor thinks it’s a weird idea. The showers come along with change rooms and 380 bike parking spaces. Mayor Rob Ford was no fan of the plan, proposing instead that the City look into building a splash pad in Nathan Phillips Square, you know, for the kids.

And here’s a shocker: Mayor Ford’s boasting is not always entirely factually accurate. The mayor proudly proclaimed that by rejecting tolls or taxes to pay for transit, council had saved each household $1,000. But it turns out that math is pretty wrong. The actual number, if one were to try to estimate, is closer to $450.

And the subway is closed Saturday between Bloor and Union stations due to signal maintenance.

High Park. Photo by chhoy from the Torontoist Flickr pool.

City council’s latest meeting hasn’t exactly been a showcase of thoughtful and productive governance, but amidst the bickering, exasperation, and saying “no” to things, politicians did agree on something: a new parks plan [PDF].

The new plan attempts to chart out a five-year course of action for the City’s Parks, Forestry, and Recreation division. It’s like a wish list for improving the City’s parks system. Even though council adopted the plan, the millions of dollars in capital and operating expenses that the plan proposes will have to be approved over time through the budget process.

“There’s lots there in the plan, and we’ve seen strategic plans in the past. But now let’s get some action,” says Dave Harvey, director of Toronto Park People, an advocacy group. He’s optimistic this plan will fare better than others, like 2004′s Common Grounds, because of the dedication of City parks staff, political help from pro-park city councillors, and pressure from organizations like his.

So, what sorts of changes are we looking at? Here are some highlights, with commentary from Richard Ubbens, director of Parks, Forestry, and Recreation for the City:

Urban Park Rangers

Though Ubbens stresses the rangers program is a small part of a large plan, the concept is attention-grabbing. In keeping with the model used by similar programs in New York City and Edmonton, the rangers would be a point of human contact. They’d help park users get information about parks, whether that be about the plants in a particular flower bed, or how to get a permit for a large barbecue. There would be two rangers per district, totalling 12 by the time the program is fully phased in. Rangers could also attend community and volunteer meetings, to maintain human contact between the City and park users.

Improved Online Services

From trail guides to permit services, more parks information will be put online and made accessible. Ubbens hopes to see more guides and information for tourists, or city-dwellers visiting new parts of town. The City also plans to put the parks permitting system online, to cut down on confusion.

More Cooperation With Volunteers

When park users are engaged with the planning and maintenance of horticulture, they’re more likely to talk to fellow park users about it and to keep an eye on its condition, says Ubbens. That’s something the Parks department has already seen during the redevelopment of some trails, especially in environmentally sensitive areas.

“We’re not trying to replace staff, we’re just trying to do this work in cooperation with those who are really interested, really love their community, and really want to participate with making the parks beautiful,” says Ubbens.

And with the growing popularity of park-focused advocacy and community groups, like the many “Friends of…” groups or the Toronto Trees and Parks Foundation, the City wants to harness that effort. There are also plans to make donating cash and in-kind contributions simpler.

Better Amenities

As the city has grown, the parks system hasn’t always been able to keep up, says Ubbens. From the over 14,000 responses the department received during the consultation process leading up to the release of the new parks plan, he says most people were happy with Toronto’s parks overall, but they noticed the little things. Some little things the plan calls for include adding more water fountains, improving washrooms, adding shade structures and seating, and making parks infrastructure more accessible.

Talks are underway to revive the Scarborough subway plan and confound Mayor Rob Ford. TTC Chair Karen Stintz and Scarborough councillors are planning to introduce the idea at the next council meeting. Stintz says she’s already met with the province’s deputy minister of transportation to discuss replacing the Scarborough RT with subway instead of light rail, which is the current plan. The change would cost an estimated $500 million. Funding for the Scarborough subway, a thing the mayor supports, would likely come from the taxes, tolls, and other revenue tools, things the mayor does not support. Drama.

You say unpaid intern, we say volunteer. Experts say it’s pretty much illegal whatever it’s called. Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport) is facing criticism over a posting for an unpaid position in her constituency office. The job would involve tasks like drafting letters and researching, in other words, things essential to the operation of the office and things that should be compensated. Bailao’s not the only person offering a gig like this; there are an estimated 100,000 illegal unpaid positions in Ontario. No word on whether the Bailão one is still available.

Former Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke is taking legal action against trolls and suing online commenters for defamation. Burke is targeting 18 commenters who suggested his dismissal from the Leafs had something to do with an extramarital affair. So watch out, Sir Psycho Sexy—an actual name that appears on court documents—Burke is coming for you. And Mowerman too.

Bust out the fascinators, there’s a royal in town. That is, if you find Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, fascinating. He’s here for a quick trip that includes receiving the Order of Canada, eating breakfast, and a military parade from Queen’s Park to Fort York to commemorate the 200-year anniversary of the Battle of York.

And a grim day in Scarborough as two Toronto Police officers shot and killed a man wielding a machete. The SIU has been called in to investigate. The incident happened at a bank, but it’s not clear if the man was attempting to rob the bank.

Looks like almost half of Torontonians can’t wait to get out of Toronto, and get even farther away, according to a new poll gauging support for Porter’s proposed expansion. Support for the plan to add jets to their fleet is around 47 per cent, says the poll. And it will be Ford Nation that faces the highest population drain, as 61 per cent of the people who support the jets also voted for Rob Ford. And in what has to be one of the least surprising things ever revealed in a poll: rich people tend to prefer the island airport over Pearson for their short jaunts. Sorry, that’s “high income earners,” or “frequent jaunter.”

Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion testified Friday that yes, she does know how taxes work, and no, she doesn’t keep track of her son’s job. The mayor is facing conflict of interest charges over a vote at Peel Regional Council that benefitted her son, a developer. McCallion couldn’t come up with a reason why she voted to delay raising developer fees, potentially costing taxpayers millions. But she did acknowledge it was a “good question.”

Police are investigating a potential sexual assault after being alerted by staff and students at Humber College who read about the incident on Facebook. Police are trying to track down the idiot who made the post. Facebook refused to remove the post, saying it wasn’t inappropriate enough, which is gross.

Do you feel like you haven’t been annoyed enough about transit lately? Well how’s this for a frustrating poll result: two-thirds of commuters say they’re tired of congestion, but only half believe new funding is needed to tackle the problem. Half of respondents think it’s “unfair” to have to pay for the Big Move. Unfair is the word they used. It’s somehow unfair to them.

And the Don Valley Parkway will be closed from 2 a.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Monday for cleaning and maintenance.

Legal scholar Don Cherry is sounding off about the verdict in Robert Kachkar’s case. This week, Kachkar was found to be not criminally responsible for killing police officer Ryan Russell in 2011. Cherry, ever the nuanced and empathetic thinker, took to Twitter to tell the world he thought the verdict was wrong, and blamed the outcome on the left-wing media. Because the world needs to know what Don Cherry thinks.

Despite having “park” in its name, Regent Park doesn’t have any actual parks. Until now. A 2.4-hectare patch of land at Gerrard and Parliament streets will become the park, complete with a community garden, a bake oven, and a green house. The City is funding the construction of the new park, but a community group will keep the place running.

Got stuck in traffic behind a man in a robe and some Roman soldiers on Friday? You must have been in Little Italy, where the annual Good Friday procession wound through the streets to the delight and holy contemplation of thousands of spectators. The procession reenacts Jesus’ last moments before he was crucified on the cross, and scares the crap out of unassuming non-Catholic people who wander into Little Italy.

Byford and Upfold face the people. Photo courtesy of Ken Tang/TTC Riders.

People who ride the TTC regularly during rush hour might sometimes look around at their frowny, presumably gassy, generally beleaguered fellow passengers, pressed into each other’s armpit crevices, and wonder why there aren’t more emotional outbursts.

Town hall–style meetings, on the other hand, are usually not devoid of emotional outbursts, especially when they try to tackle issues as contentious as transit. But a town hall hosted by advocacy group TTCriders on Wednesday night was congenial, as two head honchos of the TTC—CEO Andy Byford and Chris Upfold, chief customer service officer—fielded questions from the approximately 50 people gathered in a Metro Hall meeting room, as well as from Twitter and email.

Before Upfold and Byford sat down for the 90-minute question-and-answer session, they circulated through the crowd, shaking hands and chatting with attendees. Throughout the evening they expressed their desire to overhaul the culture of Toronto’s transit in order to make it friendlier and more customer-service oriented. It was apparent that they’re serious.

Byford said this culture change is one of three main policy planks the TTC is focusing on, along with updating equipment and updating processes. He admitted that the commission has a long way to go.

This is where TTCriders comes in. The advocacy group wants passengers to have more say in transit decisions. As member and event organizer Luca De Franco told us, “These are the conversations that need to happen with the TTC brass so that they’re accountable to the public. And the public can feel like their opinion has a tangible influence.”

Upfold mentioned groups similar to TTCriders, like the Straphangers in New York City, which have helped transit agencies focus on customer needs. Both he and Byford touted the benefits of having more voices involved when it comes to changing how things are done, whether that means broader public consultation before rearranging streetcar stops to accommodate the TTC’s next-generation vehicles, or louder advocacy for federal transit funding.

Byford said more than once that he’d like to put the TTC in order so he can spend more time lobbying at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa for long-term, stable funding to improve transit.

Accessibility was another popular topic. There were questions about adding occasional buses to streetcar lines to accommodate users with accessibility needs (this is something the TTC won’t do, Upfold said, since that bus would better serve the system elsewhere). Another attendee asked what progress has been made in making stations more accessible (answer: Byford hopes the entire system will be fully accessible by 2025, with at least Pape Station ready this year).

On most issues, Byford and Upfold were direct and sympathetic. Byford agreed with an attendee who commented that any problems with front line staff being rude originate with management, something the CEO says he’s working hard to change. “The default message to staff should be to cherish them, believe them, and develop them. If you do the right thing, we’ll defend you the hilt. But if you’re reckless—we’re all adults here—we have to put you out.” Byford says this approach is something the unions agree with, too.

Almost every question got a nod or a thank you from the TTC bosses, and after the event Byford told the gathered press that he would take all the night’s questions and concerns back to his staff, so they could draw up an action plan.

TTCriders hopes to host three more town halls in Scarborough, Etobicoke, and North York.

Other Ontario cities are finally being upfront about disliking Toronto. Mayors from other cities competing to land a new casino are pissed to find out that the OLG is offering Toronto a better deal. If a casino does come to Toronto, the OLG is willing to double the cut of gambling revenue it shares with the host city. Not so in other places like Ottawa and Niagara Falls, where the mayors and councils definitively want a casino.

Look who’s lobbying now: John Nunziata, the former Liberal MP and brother of councillor Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston). Mr. Nunziata is registered to lobby on the casino issue on behalf of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association. It’s a good thing Councillor Nunziata doesn’t need any more lobbying, since she’s already come out in favour of a casino. Her brother wasn’t planning to lobby her anyway. (Also, isn’t lobby a weird verb?)

Refinancing Toronto Community Housing mortgages could save the housing agency almost $100 million, says Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport). She’s the head of a working group that’s trying to find ways to drum up the $751 million needed to fix the TCHC’s crumbling housing stock. Bailão says the move to refinance 18 mortgages would free up $93.5 million that could be put towards repairs, and she doesn’t want anyone to vote against that plan.

Looking for something to do on this last weekend of winter? How about heading to the waterfront? Come on, two-thirds of the city’s doing it. A new poll by Forum Research says that 66 per cent of Torontonians visited the waterfront in the past year, with most of them going to people watch. So everyone’s getting together in one spot to watch each other, which is helpful, really.

And if you’re friends with this kid, that must be awesome. Twelve-year-old Jorel Hoffert made an incredibly elaborate and well-produced musical invitation to his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. But after the video went viral, as the kids say, Hoffert’s parents are slightly worried about party crashers. So go and have fun if you’re supposed to; stay home and just wish you were there if you’re not.

Photo courtesy of Durham Emmets Gaelic Football Club

Tired of the same old St. Patrick’s Day routine of drinking green beer, wearing silly hats, and falling asleep before 10 p.m.? This year, try something a little more traditionally Irish: a round of Gaelic football.

The sport is sort of like soccer, but with basketball, volleyball, and rugby thrown in for good measure. Teams of seven to 15 players square off on a rectangular field and try to score on each other by putting a ball between a pair of uprights or into a net. The ball moves down the field through a combination of carries, kicks, bounces, hand-passes, and a neat move called a solo, which is a mid-run kick pass to yourself.

Gaelic football is hugely popular in Ireland. Dublin’s Croke Park, the 82,000-seat arena where the sport’s finals are held each year, is the fourth-largest stadium in Europe—and the largest not primarily used for soccer.

And since 1947, Toronto has had its very own branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the sport’s governing body, to foster the game for the local Irish expat community.

Now, with a new wave of Irish immigrants coming to find work in Canada, the sport has taken on a special role.

“The Toronto GAA has taken it on to make our best efforts to take care of people coming over,” spokesperson John Creery told us. “When you come over, the most important thing is to find work and a home. The Irish community in general is good, and they’re realy helpful, but the GAA community in particular is great for that.”

That’s how Creery got settled when he moved to Canada in 2001 from Lugan, a small town in County Armagh. Creery had been playing Gaelic football all his life. Soon after moving to Toronto, he met a team coach. “When he heard my accent he wanted me to come play for him,” said Creery.

Most of Creery’s friends are people he met through the Gaelic football community. And he said people involved in the sport look out for one another, helping new recruits find out about job prospects, apartments, and the Canadian way of life.

The support is helpful not only to the players, but also to their families in Ireland. “This way,” Creery said, “families back home know their loved one is being welcomed and taken care of, and has someone here to look in on them.”

Creery said the league is bigger than he’s ever seen it. Since most players are from Ireland or have some sort of Irish background, that’s no surprise. Canada is desperate to attract people from the Emerald Isle. This year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada ramped up a program to give temporary work permits to young Irish citizens. The agency plans to almost double the program’s quota—currently 6,350—by 2014. And, last fall, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made a pitch on Irish TV for workers to consider Canada.

With the influx bolstering men’s teams, Yvonne Morley wanted the ladies to get in on the action. She recently started a ladies squad under the aegis of the St. Pats club. The team played its first game last weekend in a tournament.

“Men’s teams were growing with this influx of young Irish, and I thought, ‘There must be women coming over too,’” said Morley. “It’s a chance for the ladies to get together, make some new friends, and meet people in their new country.”

Morley said about 60 per cent of the team’s players are from Ireland, while most of the other 40 per cent have some Irish background, like herself. (Both her parents emigrated from County Mayo in 1977.) The team is open to beginners of any nationality.

According to Creery, the Toronto GAA board is trying to start more youth teams, to promote the sport in schools and bring in a more diverse set of players.

The outdoor season officially gets underway in May and runs until September.

The storefront at 255 Augusta Avenue. Screencap from Google Street View.

Until recently, 225 Augusta Avenue, in Kensington Market, had a banner outside its storefront that said, simply: “What Would You Like to See in This Space?” Also on the sign was an email address where passers-by could send their responses.

The banner was an unconventional attempt by landlords Dwayne Evens and James Moyer to decide on a new tenant for their building’s ground-floor commercial space that would suit the mood of the market.

In the end, as it turned out, the call for suggestions was answered from the inside. In a last-minute deal, the former tenant—a Colombian restaurant called Los Perros that Evens and Moyer had decided to evict for falling behind on rent—sold its business, including the lease, to another Colombian eatery.

The new tenant, Columbus Bakery, hopes to be open by April 1. It will continue to serve some of the Colombian fare Los Perros offered alongside its own signature empanadas, pastries, and baked goods.

This will be the bakery’s third location, in addition to its shops at near the corners of Jane Street and Wilson Avenue, and Dufferin Street and Glencairn Avenue. Owner Stewart Muriel told us he has been eyeing Kensington Market for a long time.

“It’s hard to get in there. But we wanted to be in Kensington. It has great people, great atmosphere,” he said.

“It didn’t go the way we planned, but in the end it’s a win-win for everyone,” Evens told us. The decision to evict Los Perros was difficult for him and Moyer, since both they and the restaurant owners had invested a lot of time and money in the space. This way all parties can recover some of their costs, and the fabric of the neighbourhood will be fairly untouched.

That’s a bit of good news for those worried about recent changes to the market, like the looming Loblaws and the potential closure of Casa Acoreana after 50 years at Augusta Avenue and Baldwin Street.

But it’s not such good news for Seema Pabari, owner of Tiffinday. She was close to a deal to move her small vegan lunch delivery business, which has been operating out of a restaurant kitchen for almost three years, into 225 Augusta. Pabari got in touch after hearing Evens and Moyer on the radio. She thought the market’s existing collection of vegan, organic restaurants would have been the perfect fit for her business. But in the end she couldn’t match the offer from Columbus Bakery.

Evens admits he was sad to turn down Tiffinday’s offer, which he thought would have been a “really, really good fit.”

Pabari wasn’t the only vegan, locally-sourced food company that wanted to set up shop. Evens says the majority of the offers the banner attracted were for similar restaurants.

Then there were the unique suggestions: a chess club, an art gallery, and even a strip club. The experiment has helped Evens land a few new clients. He recently got his real estate licence and he hopes to help some of the business owners he met find spaces.

Evens has lived in the market for 12 years and he’s on the board of the Kensington Market BIA. Though he says he hopes he doesn’t have to repeat this process any time soon, he thinks it’s a good approach for the market.

“Kensington is a special place and we want what’s best for the community. It’s going to change, change is inevitable, but we’d like to be part of that change.”

CORRECTION: March 15, 2013, 11:45 AM Because of an editing error, this post originally quoted a banner that had been affixed to the outside of 225 Augusta as saying, “What Would You Like to See in This Store.” In fact, rather than “store,” the banner used the word “space.”

Isn’t the bus such a lovely change of pace? The street life and the faces one normally whizzes by when travelling underground are showcased once again and suddenly all the city comes to life. Right, guys? Right? Keep telling yourself that, as there is no subway service between St. George and Union stations this weekend. The TTC is deploying a fleet of shuttle buses while they make repairs to signals and other things subways need.

Police have arrested a man in connection with Wednesday’s subway stabbing. Twenty-year-old Cassim Celani Cummings is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder. The man who was attacked was treated for stab wounds in the neck.

A teacher who seems to think the mind of a grade 10 student is the paragon of comedy is being investigated by the Toronto District School Board for distributing dead baby jokes to his class. The teacher gave students a list of one-liners that covered other inane joke territory so revered by the undeveloped minds of teenagers, including blonde jokes and jokes about sexual assault. The board sent the teacher home with pay while they investigate.

Think about the two giant pandas that China is lending the Toronto Zoo. Because it’s fun to imagine, think about them walking out of the arrivals gate at Pearson with Hawaiian t-shirts and flip flops on, cornrows in their fur, pulling their suitcases full of bamboo along behind them. And imagine how much cooler that would be then what’s actually happening. The pandas will be shipped by FedEx in special containers on a charter flight. They arrive in the spring.

Izms is being taken off the convenience store menu as police start to crackdown on the stuff. It’s billed as a legal alternative the pot, but police are starting to seize it from stores. They’ve also searched the home of The Izms company’s dad, who lives in Yorkville. The company owner, 28-year-old Adam Wookey, has not been charged with anything yet.

And the first Toronto police officer ever to be charged with murder in connection with an on-the-job incident will not face trial. The judge dismissed the charge, saying there was not enough evidence to proceed.

The protestors who camped out at City Hall Friday afternoon were arrested on Friday night. The group of about 40 demonstrators were demanding more funding for homeless shelters after a budget cut has caused a shortage of shelter beds. But when City Hall closed at 10 p.m. the group refused to leave. Police were called in and arrested the protestors for trespassing.

A new TTC report confirms that babies are slightly more important than luggage or backpacks. The report addresses the recent stroller controversy (dun dun dunnn) that resulted when a passenger complained about baby-carting behemoths clogging up the transit system. But the TTC has concluded that since strollers tend to carry humans and humans often pay a fare to ride (unless they’re under two years old), then strollers are a boon to the system. So they will not be banned.

In “not a boon to the system” transit news: December saw higher wait times for streetcar service because so many streetcar drivers were on holidays. Some service had to be cancelled due to the shortage of drivers. And usage patterns tend to change in December with all the other non-streetcar drivers also taking vacations. Apparently this won’t happen again next year, says the TTC. Even though it probably happens every year.

You know those DineSafe signs restaurants have to post in the window, and you look at the green ones sometimes and think, “Really?” Well get ready to start feeling uneasy in tattoo parlours and hair salons. City council is expected to pass a new by-law this week requiring any business that breaks the skin to pay for a license and post public health inspection results. Of course those places are already inspected, if the City knows they exist. The City claims this new fee ($319 to begin with, and an additional $210 a year) will help them keep track of businesses. The businesses say it will help the City make money.

In a piece of news that feels silly to even report on but hey that’s the world we live in, Mayor Rob Ford is opposed to road tolls, and he told Premiere Kathleen Wynne so. Duly noted, sir.

And the Star has a chart showing the average age of homicide victims over the years. We think it’s supposed to make people feel better or something? But it’s still just a bummer.

Mary Poppins once taught it us it cost a tuppence to feed the birds. A judge rules today how much one company should pay for maiming the birds. A decision is expected in the case against Cadillac Fairview and their big glass building that was responsible for more than 800 bird deaths in 2010. Birds get confused by reflections of sky and trees and accidentally fly smack into the buildings. If the company is found liable, they could owe millions of dollars under various environmental laws.

Mayor Rob Ford told everyone out there in radio land that he’s ready to do away with the land transfer tax. During his weekly talk show the mayor said he’d start scaling back the tax a wee bit at a time; 10 per cent here, 10 per cent there, until it and all the revenue it generates for the city are gone.

When snow piles up at the end of driveways in councillor Mike Del Grande’s (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt) neighbourhood, councillor Mike Del Grande is on it. The councillor is so adamant that those pesky walls of snow left behind by ploughs should be cleared (by someone other than the driveway owner) that he personally went out this weekend and cleared a few himself. Del Grande fought to keep “windrow cleaning,” that is the technical term for making a clearing in the snow wall so that a car can access its driveway, in the City’s budget. Well at least for people who live in suburban areas. For all you downtowners, don’t expect Mike Del Grande’s help digging out from your street parking spot.

Speaking of downtowners, a groups of concerned transit users met at Metro Hall over the weekend as part of Metrolinx’s ongoing public consultations. And they have an idea: just raise taxes already. The group expressed support for raising sales tax to dedicate some revenue to transit projects. Because just like the groups that gathered for consultations elsewhere in the region, the people seem interested in something, anything that will make it easier to get around.