News: November 2009 Archives

The Edgewater Hotel sign is gone. City officials ordered that the Parkdale landmark be removed on November 3, after nearly three years of working to convince the owner of the building to which it was attached to make necessary repairs. According to a Municipal Licensing and Standards manager, the sign had finally become so derelict that city inspectors deemed it unsafe.

Everyone needs love, even people who aren't, in fact, people, but over-designed alien glassworks stuck to the sides of historic buildings. They need love, too. We are pretty sure of this. So we wonder whether calling the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal one of the ten ugliest buildings in the world is really necessary. For reference, here's last year's "winner." Sure, the crystalline ROMniplex may have a shoddy interior, but it's nice on the outside if you stand in the right place, plus it makes a sweet lightsaber-fight venue. Besides, obviously no one told the selection committee about Toronto's dirty little secret at the corner of Jarvis and Dundas. Go ahead and trash the crystal, but remember, we'd still love you—even if you'd been designed by Daniel Libeskind.

In September 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Education will introduce a new course titled Gender Studies, designed to help teenagers get a better grasp of all these perplexing issues. The course will be available as an elective for grade eleven students province-wide, creating a safe place where gender in our society, and in others, can be discussed.

You'd probably think you were on the wrong site if you pulled up today's Newsstand and didn't see anything about yesterday's TTC...um...what rhymes with "blusterduck"? Perhaps the Toronto Star delivered the most effective hat trick of coverage of yesterday's debacle: After Tuesday's Trudeau Poll results named transportation Toronto's biggest source of emo woe, the Star then regaled the reader with tales of how super pissed people are about the fare hike, culminating in last night's complete shutdown of subway service between Bloor and Eglinton. Despite all that has happened, is it terrible to be concerned about what all this worry is doing to poor Adam's pretty face? Then again, grey hair is rather sexy...

One diplomat and three journalists convened at Innis Town Hall at the University of Toronto last night, for a discussion called "News Blackouts Save Lives." Organized by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the question up for debate was an ethical one: should news outlets report on international kidnapping cases, knowing that such reports could potentially put the prisoner in more danger? In other words, is a story worth a life?

It's not unfair to call it a "shoebox multiplex from the Reagan era," and we'd have to agree that the theatre itself is not exactly a cinema treasure—but dammit, they didn't have to go and shut down The Carlton!

As of January 3, 2010, TTC fares will rise across the board. Well, almost. Here's what the Commission approved at their meeting this afternoon, all effective on the first Sunday of the new year:

Hey, remember when we mentioned that Toronto bylaw enforcement officers were gearing up to crack down on motorists who leave their cars idling for more than three minutes every hour? Well, Toronto's board of health is attempting to lobby a reduction of that amount of time from three minutes to one minute. And, shocker of shockers, someone on council isn't happy about it. "It's totally unreasonable," fumed Ward 29 Councillor Case Ootes (likely stamping his foot petulantly). "The public is tired of all this meddling and I am not sure what it achieves." Well, perhaps if he reads the Globe (or our September 22 edition of Newsstand, for chissakes), he would see that "it will better protect air quality and it reduces the amount of fuel wasted," according to Monica Campbell, manager of the environmental protection office of Toronto Public Health. "It has direct health benefits." Wait a second...he's not one of those d-bags who parks his Hummer outside the Food Depot at Dupont and Davenport and blocks the right-turn lane with the engine gunning, is he? Hm.

The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak in intensity tonight and tomorrow night. This year's show promises to be an exceptionally spectacular one, by recent standards—but only for those who know how to hide from Toronto's countless jiggawatts of light pollution. Do you know where in the GTA to go in order to ensure that your night of neck-craning is not spent in vain? Torontoist does.

With one very clever piece of spin, the TTC has managed to lose money it doesn't even have! A lot of money! To reach their estimated one million dollars of revenue lost to token hoarding, the TTC would need Torontonians to stash away four million tokens by January 3. Here's hoping that a single person will step up and do all the work for us, just so they can literally bathe in tokens. In all seriousness, the TTC's estimate is plausible, if your definition of "token hoarding" is "anyone having any tokens they purchased before the fare hike." With 1,485,000 rides per day, even when you eliminate metropass users and cash fares, it only takes single-digit tokens per rider to reach the TTC's sensational number. The real question is, does having four or five tokens in your wallet at 11:59 p.m. on January 2 really count as "hoarding"?

The farmland of Dufferin County looks exactly the way you'd imagine: softly rolling hillsides, the landscape dotted with old clapboard barns and quaint country houses, wooden fences neatly marking off the lots. Nestled in this terrain, about an hour and half northwest of Toronto, is the township of Melancthon (population 2,895), a small community that has been an agricultural centre for many generations' worth of farmers. The soil in this region—Honeywood silt loam—is said by local farmers to be unique in southern Ontario, and is, particularly, ideally well-suited for growing potatoes.

We understand why you'd be confused about that, "lguy." Fred Armisen is in fact offensive, but that is mostly because he sucks so very, very badly.

What do you get when you cross a gunman with a couple of veterans? An open can of whoop ass, that's what! According to the Star, "on Thursday afternoon...a gunman stormed into a Royal Canadian Legion in Scarborough, demanding thousands in poppy donations...When the gunman lunged for the cash, [John] Dietsch grabbed his arm, pushing away the gun. They struggled and Dietsch fell to the floor. The startled attacker, who looked to be in his 20s, ran to the door empty-handed." Unfortunately, names weren't taken but, rest assured, ass was indeed kicked. And that's what those two minutes are for every year, you whippersnappers.

We're sure they thought it was a good idea at the time.

Does the city's equity policy for public skating rinks mean that girls' hockey leagues should actually get equal access to the ice when that would require "kicking little boys out of arenas so they can't play hockey?" Did that sound like a slanted question? Welcome to the debate.

It's been two months since Mariam Makhniashvili disappeared without a trace, and Toronto police are attempting a new tactic in their search for clues: peeking into thousands of homes around the Bathurst and Eglinton area. Sixty officers began knocking on doors this week, asking for residents to let them in to root around, scouting for possible evidence. They hope to cover about six-thousand houses and apartments, and although homeowners are not legally obligated to let officers inside without a warrant, denying the request is bound to make some people feel like automatic suspects, possibly subjecting themselves to further scrutiny. As for the motivation of the Toronto Police Service, some would say that canvassing neighbourhoods has worked before, while the more cynical might wonder if the force is attempting to improve the optics of the case, given that any leads seem to have run dry. However, by knocking on doors and asking to be invited in, the police are asking the community to waive its right to privacy, albeit for an important reason. "The innocent have nothing to fear," goes the mantra, yet one of the cornerstones of human rights is the protection of privacy and prevention of arbitrary interference and intimidation. Keep calm and carry on?

Bright and early this past Monday morning, Mayor David Miller launched the third Toronto Forum for Global Cities conference, dedicated to harnessing the economic power of large urban centres. Put on by the International Economic Forum of the Americas, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (or OECD, whose scope encompasses thirty of the world's wealthiest nations), the two-day conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre welcomed some of the world’s leading economists, city planners, CEOs, politicians, and economic policy makers to discuss how to restore growth in the post-bailout era. The overarching message was clear: cities have a huge role to play in leading the economic recovery, and the best way to do so is through innovation.

Hipster artbags looking for more variety in their late-night omnomnoms may be in for a nasty surprise: Six months after council slapped a temporary kibosh on all restaurant developments on Ossington, it appears as though there are more restrictions to come. "If resolutions passed at a community council meeting Tuesday go ahead when city council meets at the end of the month," reports the Globe, "second-floor restaurants are a no-go on the street. Same for rear patios; side patios more than half the size of the restaurant; large, open doors and windows; and any restaurant larger than 175 square metres."

What is the noise of two thousand angry TTC commuters? Silence, if Nicole Winchester gets her way. This Friday the thirteenth, she is organizing a commuters' strike in protest of planned fare hikes, and people—2,321 at last count—are flocking to a Facebook event, saying they will not board a subway, streetcar, or bus that day.

Before Newsstand today, the TTC would like us to take a moment to remind you that token-hoarding is inconsiderate, un-environmental, non-okay, and makes baby trees die screaming in their nursery pots. So, to be safe, even if it prompts a "riders strike," they're imposing a five-token-per-person limit at ticket booths, and a one-per-person limit at ticket machines. Because the ten-token cap they handed down on Friday was just asking for trouble. Why would anyone need so many tokens at once? Unless...unless they were melting them down to make SUVs to drive in streetcar lanes while sharing discount Metropasses! Still, it'll be kind of nice when the fare hike kicks in and we can all buy up tokens 'til we're practically broke!

              

The Santa Claus Parade was started by the now-defunct Eaton’s department store in 1905 with just one attraction: Santa. This year, on Sunday, November 15, the parade will feature twenty-six floats, twenty-one bands, and more than a million pieces of candy. To get a sneak peak at this year's edition of the one-hundred-and-five-year-old parade, Torontoist visited its Weston-area workshop last Thursday and talked to the people behind the magic—including the big man himself.

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before (but if you haven't, that joke isn't funny anymore): George Smitherman is running for mayor. Yes, that George Smitherman. “Anybody can come up with a platform,” said the furious little monkey, “but who has a track record of determination to actually see things through? I think that is a strength of my candidacy—I'm a person who has a track record of transformational action.” And yes, we know that running this story first and then expecting you to read the rest of today's Newsstand is like holding down a Jack Russell terrier's butt when all he wants to do is run the steeplechase (*cough* eHealth *cough*). Patience, my puppies...

Earlier this week the Toronto Star announced, among other changes, that it was planning to outsource some one hundred in-house, union editing jobs. In the press release issued by the union in the wake of the announcement, union chief Maureen Dawson explained that "Journalism is a collaborative effort, the product of a team of reporters, photographers and editors working in concert to produce the kind of activist agenda that has served Star readers and our community so well for so long...To remove a critical element of that work is to shortchange everyone who depends on it."

Last week, Live Green Toronto, the City of Toronto’s website for eco-friendly living, launched a new transit shelter advertising campaign with a unique twist: passersby can flip a giant switch that turns the ad on or off. The ad’s text encourages readers to "switch this poster off," and to switch on Live Green’s website for information about saving energy and living green. The ad was designed by Agency59, a Toronto-based advertising agency, and installed by Astral Media, the company behind Toronto's street furniture. While it’s undeniably clever, the execution is a little flawed.

Kensington Market will soon be designated a BIA (that is, a business improvement area), pending near-certain approval by City Council this winter, according to a city staff report, released on Monday. A few area business owners have mixed feelings about the impending designation, but many see it as the best way of ensuring the future of the chaotic little neighbourhood in the heart of Toronto.

Enduring bouts of rain and hail, about a thousand students, workers, and community members marched through downtown Toronto yesterday as part of the Drop Fees for a Poverty Free Ontario campaign. At 4 p.m., they arrived at Queen’s Park to demand that the provincial government start "investing in the people, 'cause we are the solution," as the chant went.

Our pets are catching the swine flu! And not just our pet swine! Confirmed cases of housepets gettin' sick with H1N1 are giving us some kibble for thought today. Maybe it's time to make some new flu-naming rules, though, because this is pretty complicated. While humans can't get equine flu from a horse, apparently we might be able to catch swine flu from a parrot and then give it to our cat. Dogs are virtually people-flu proof, but humans deliberately infect ferrets with our influenza germs. Rabbits are just a total wild card. And don't even get us started on the iguanas. People are being cautioned to take steps to protect their pets from the Pig, but the vaccine is still for humans only—felix no can haz.

As anticipated by transit watchers, the TTC is proposing an across-the-board fare hike, effective January 3, 2010. That hike, to be decided on at the commission's November 17 meeting, would see adult cash fares rise from $2.75 to $3.00, tokens rise from $2.25 to $2.50, and adult Metropasses jump from $109 to $126. A full list of the proposed changes are here; the immediate reasons for them are—as they always are—myriad. (The Star and Globe both take a look at some of them.)

Late last night the City's proposed new billboard bylaw and tax [PDF] cleared a major hurdle, unanimously passing through the Planning and Growth Management Committee on its way to a hearing before the full City Council. The meeting ran 'til about 11 p.m. and had to be moved from one of the regular committee meeting rooms to the main Council Chamber in order to accommodate fifty-plus deputants and scores of other observers. It was a pitched battle, one that has lasted through several years of debate, consultation, and resistance leading up to this moment. A tremendous victory for public space advocates, progressive councillors, and Mayor Miller, the bylaw will provide harmonized regulation of the billboard industry (the rules haven't been updated since amalgamation) and the tax will create the revenue needed to enforce those regulations.

You read about the possibility yesterday and, besides, you knew it was going to happen anyway, so here it is: the TTC is planning to propose a fare increase on November 17, which they hope to implement by January. According to the National Post, this would be the first fare increase since 2007, and "the adult fare will increase to $3 from $2.75, while tokens will cost $2.50, up from $2.25. Seniors and student rates will rise to $2 from $1.85, while children's fares will climb to 75¢ from 70¢. The cost of a monthly Metropass will rise to $126 from $109."

People tend to do a lot of shouting around budget time. They feel, by turns overtaxed, under-serviced, that the City is spending too much, and that the City isn't delivering everything it should. Usually lost in the shuffle are some basic facts about how the budget process actually works and what options are open to the City should it wish to effect any serious changes to its books.

On Monday, Torontoist spent the day at the Toronto Innovation Showcase at City Hall, learning about data sets, queues, and civic engagement. At the top of the agenda was the unveiling of toronto.ca/open, Toronto’s new open catalogue of city data, ranging from—as Mayor Miller explained in a press release on Monday morning—"apartment inspection data to child care availability to dozens of GIS mapping data that will enable a broad range of location-based applications. And yes," he added, "our initial data offering also includes the TTC’s scheduling data."

Just in case the National Post's miraculous financial rescue made you think that times really aren't so tough for newspapers, the Toronto Star may lay off a third of its newsroom. And, did we mention that this was announced to staff yesterday afternoon, on the paper's 117th birthday? We hope this cheery letter from HR [PDF] didn't put too much of a damper on the festivities when it informed staff that they have until November 30 to apply for voluntary severance packages of three weeks' pay per year of service. Hey, remember how the National Post called everyone who said they were going out of business an uninformed, reactionary, communist? Surely their editorial pages will now be crammed with pleas urging readers to give the Star the benefit of the doubt.

Shall we begin today's Newsstand in the gutter? (Were you expecting anything less?) Yesterday, the Executive Committee approved the application of the savings gleaned from this summer's city strike to offset a 2% rate hike in our garbage fees. Sounds good, right? Well, the mayor doesn't think so. "I thought they were taking a short-term gain for long-term pain," he lamented. "I thought cancelling the rate increase this year means that the increase next year will have to be over 4%." Councillor Pam McConnell, on the other hand, is lamenting the fact that the green-bin program will now take longer to implement, citing "pent up desire on behalf of residents...to be able to participate." And with that quote, you know in what direction today's news is going to go...

Enza Anderson waits at a bus stop on the west side of Bay Street by City Hall with a tall shovel in her hand. The bus to Queen's Quay pulls up and all eyes fixate on her as she boards. Walking towards the back, an elderly passenger comments, "A bit early for shovelling the snow off your driveway, isn't it?"