The name “Mesopotamia” derives from a Greek term meaning “land between the rivers.” The Royal Ontario Museum’s latest major exhibit, which opens on June 22, takes this literally, as visitors flow between painted representations of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the floor.

Presented by the British Museum and rounded out with pieces from institutions in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World covers 3,000 years of human development in the cradle of urban civilization. Most of the 170 artifacts on display have never been shown in Canada.

There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen for the Canadian premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a triptych set in three time periods that tells the stories of amateur actors (played by real actors) involved in staging performances of the story of Christ. Three different Toronto independent theatre companies, all with reputations for innovative staging and creation in their past work, each tackle one of the three acts. Ordinarily, such a complicated arrangement would be to a show’s detriment, but not in this case. While you need to be prepared for a marathon of theatre (the show runs four hours, incluing two intermissions), you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth.

“A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word.

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival descends on the city this Friday with a huge “free for all” event. That means all of Friday’s programming at every Jazz Festival venue is, yes, completely free of charge. There will be concerts from local favourites Molly Johnson and Mary Margaret O’Hara, plus a show by Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves, who will be launching the fest from its epicentre, Nathan Phillips Square.

Here’s a rundown of some of the shows worth checking out on Friday—and during the rest of the festival, when you’ll actually have to pay.

Folks who are planning on having a swim in the pool at Scadding Court Community Centre over the next few days may find themselves a little disappointed. Those who want to go fishing, however, will probably be ecstatic.

For the rest of the week, the Community Centre will be holding its annual Gone Fishin’ event, meaning its indoor pool will be an indoor fish pond. The pool has been drained, dechlorinated, and refilled with 2,000 rainbow trout, to be caught by local children and families.

In which we highlight key items from the month’s city council meeting. You can also watch it live.

City council is meeting on June 11 and 12. Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that are in the news, or should be.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Make all sorts of voting reforms.
An issue that has been brewing for a long time, largely due to activist work spearheaded by the groups RaBIT (Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto), Fair Vote Toronto, and I Vote Toronto. Council will debate whether to learn more about several changes to the electoral system, all designed to increase participation rates—to get more people out to the ballot boxes. The measures they may decide to explore further: holding elections on weekends; extending voting rights to permanent residents; switching to a ranked ballot (rather than the current first past the post system); and allowing voters with disabilities to cast ballots online.

Appoint a new CEO to Build Toronto, in defiance of Doug Ford.
Build Toronto is an arm’s-length agency created by the City to manage its extensive real estate assets; its purpose is to manage the ongoing sale of those assets in a way that helps the municipal government meet urban planning needs while also generating substantial revenue. Build’s board is in turmoil—half its seats are vacant—and council will decide at this meeting who they are choosing to fill those seats. The list of recommended candidates is confidential, but the Star obtained a leaked copy; conspicuously absent from it: Michael Kraljevic. Kraljevic is currently chair of the Toronto Port Lands Co., which Doug Ford had wanted to take over development of the Port Lands with a new plan for that neighbourhood. (Remember the Ferris wheel and monorail? That plan.) Essentially, Kraljevic is the administration’s preferred candidate, and his absence from the list of recommended new Build board members means there will be a fight over whether they can get him appointed. That fight will be behind-the-scenes though: debates about all board appointments are confidential.

Let Astral Media put electronic ads on transit shelters.
Right now, only non-electronic advertisements (that is, printed posters) are allowed on the sides of transit shelters, but Astral Media, the company that pays for those shelters, in exchange for the right to profit off the ad space on them, wants to change that. Council will decide whether to allow Astral to install digital screens on transit shelters. These screens would display several different digital ads, one by one—sort of like a slideshow. Astral is also seeking permission to do something it already does from time to time: “creative advertising enhancements” (meaning, they want to be able to glue three-dimensional elements to shelters to make ads more eye-catching). If this item sounds familiar, that’s because it was on the agenda of last month’s meeting: council didn’t get to it in time, and deferred it until now.

Revamp the City’s anti-discrimination policies to target Pride.
In what is becoming an annual tradition, two councillors—James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre) and David Shiner (Ward 24, Willowdale)—are upset about the appearance of a small protest group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, at the Pride parade. Their concern is with the term “Israeli apartheid” and their strategy has been to try and make Pride’s funding contingent on them keeping this group out of their events. There is, however, no current basis on which they could do so: City staff has examined the issue at length, and have concluded that the term does not violate any human rights or other policy—it’s a bit of language people find uncomfortable, but it isn’t hate speech. To try and get around that, Pasternak and Shiner are trying to rewrite those policies to target “Israeli apartheid” specifically. They also want to limit the City’s funding of Pride so that it specifically does not go to the parade. That last thing is an empty move—the City doesn’t currently fund the parade at all—but expect a major debate about the optics of council declaring that Pride’s funding should be vulnerable.

Study the possibility of changing the boundaries of the City’s wards—and maybe even getting rid of a few.
Every few years the municipal government is required to review its ward boundaries. As the city develops and changes, populations don’t grow evenly—some parts of the city become more dense, and others less so. There’s a policy in place which states that different wards should have roughly equal numbers of residents; it’s a way to try and ensure a fair balance on council, and to give each city councillor a similar number of people to represent. The City will commence its regular review of the ward boundaries shortly, but at this meeting council will debate a particular direction: that they look not just at adjusting the boundaries but reducing the overall number of wards—a campaign promise made by Mayor Rob Ford.

Tell the Toronto Community Housing Corporation to handle evictions in a more reasonable way.
The Toronto Community Housing Corporation, a City-owned provider of social housing, has occasionally come under criticism for evicting vulnerable tenants. In a recent investigation, the City’s ombudsman found that TCHC is still sometimes making questionable evictions, despite earlier promises to reform its process. Council will decide whether to endorse the ombudsman’s recommendations for TCHC, which call for the corporation to be more sensitive to the needs of all its tenants—even those who don’t pay rent on time.

In which we highlight key items from the month’s city council meeting. You can also watch it live.

City council is meeting on May 7 and 8. Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that are in the news, or should be.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Consider expanding the Billy Bishop Toronto Island Airport.

Porter, the little airline that won over many Torontonians with cute raccoon logos and an endless supply of shortbread cookies, wants to grow. Specifically, they want to start flying to destinations that are further away (Las Vegas, Vancouver, Florida), which would require that they both be allowed to use jets—currently prohibited by law—and extend the island’s main runway into the lake in both directions. Council will decide today whether to conduct a study that would explore Porter’s proposal in detail, or instead to spike the whole idea right away.

Allow electronic ads on transit shelters.

Right now, only non-electronic advertisements (that is, printed posters) are allowed on the sides of transit shelters, but Astral Media, the company that pays for those shelters, in exchange for the right to profit off the ad space on them, wants to change that. Council will decide whether to allow Astral to install digital screens on transit shelters. These screens would display several different digital ads, one by one—sort of like a slideshow. Astral is also seeking permission to do something it already does from time to time: “creative advertising enhancements” (meaning, they want to be able to glue three-dimensional elements to shelters to make ads more eye-catching).

Adopt a new management plan for the City’s parks.

The City has, in the past, been reluctant to allow community groups to help run public parks. Dufferin Grove Park, in particular, has been a hotbed of friction between municipal officials and residents’ groups. Council will consider whether to adopt a new, five-year parks management plan that contains some hopeful-sounding language about increasing public engagement.

Build an underground bike station at Nathan Phillips Square.

Council will decide whether to resume its plan to convert a handful of parking spaces in Nathan Phillips Square’s underground garage into a full-service bike station, complete with lockups and showering facilities. Mayor Rob Ford has spent the past few weeks airing his opposition to this in the media. Despite (or because of) that, it will probably pass by a healthy margin. Also, because half the budget for this project has already been spent: the design work was completed after council first approved the project several years ago. City staff quietly stopped work on the project in 2011, for reasons that aren’t quite clear.

Ask the province to improve healthcare for people without OHIP.

Not everyone living in Toronto has access to OHIP. Some of these uninsured people are legal immigrants, who haven’t met the conditions necessary for their coverage to take effect, and others are immigrants without documentation, who simply don’t qualify. Council will decide whether to ask the province to enact some changes that would make it easier for members of these vulnerable groups to see doctors and get hospital treatment.

Develop complete streets guidelines.

A “complete street” is a bit of urban planning jargon that just means that a street has been designed with all users in mind: pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, transit users, people with mobility issues, and so on. The idea isn’t necessarily that every mode of transportation gets dedicated infrastructure—so not that every street should have a bike lane, say—but that a street is designed so that everyone who uses it can do so safely. On quiet streets, it can be as simple as a wider curb lane for cyclists; on busy roads, ii can be medians, where pedestrians can stop halfway through their crossing. A set of complete streets guidelines would provide direction for the City’s planners, so that when they redevelop streets from now on, it would be in keeping with these principles.

Ask the province to institute a three-metre passing rule for overtaking cyclists.

If this member motion by Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether to ask the province to add a few words to the Highway Traffic Act, so that cars are legally required to give cyclists one metre of space on the road. Whether this actually becomes law will be up to Queen’s Park—council can only make the request.

Not on the agenda, but may get added anyway—

New revenue tools for transit.
The big issue lurking offstage of the this council meeting is an item that the mayor’s executive committee discussed a couple of weeks ago, and then decided to defer: making recommendations to the province about which new taxes and levies we should consider to pay for transit. Rob Ford is adamantly opposed to any and all new measures, and so at his urging, the executive committee voted to delay their debate until May 28—exactly one day after Metrolinx (the regional agency in charge of transit planning) will issue its own report. In short, the mayor is declining to participate in the process, and rejecting Metrolinx’s request for input. The premier has said new revenue tools are coming whether or not the mayor likes them, and many councillors want to have a say, despite Ford. If two-thirds of them sign on, they can seize the item from the executive committee and add it directly to council’s agenda, in which case, they’d hold the debate immediately—in time to pass their thoughts along to Metrolinx.

A rescue mission for Bixi.

Bixi is having trouble meeting its operating costs, and since the City of Toronto guaranteed the bike-sharing program’s loan, council is in the midst of exploring whether they should restructure their relationship with the company. A staff report is expected in July, but some councillors want to completely rethink how the whole program works. Kristyn Wong-Tam wants to work with developers to create incentives for installing new bike stations, and has said she’ll move a motion to that effect at the council meeting. TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) wants to investigate making Bixi part of the TTC, though that’s more likely to come up at the next TTC meeting rather than at city council this week.

In which we highlight key items from the month’s city council meeting. You can also watch it live.

City council is meeting on April 3 and 4. Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Open more emergency shelter beds in light of persistent complaints that there currently aren’t enough.

In the wake of a series of protests this winter, in which both shelter clients and front-line workers said that there weren’t enough beds available to meet immediate needs, council will decide whether to open up 172 “flex beds” on an interim basis. The motion also calls for City officials to collect more data about residents’ needs, including people who go to one shelter and are directed to others in the city, and to develop a “client centred, outcome focused housing stability service plan” with a focus on getting people out of the shelter system entirely.

Develop a business incubation network.

City council recently passed an economic development plan that calls for, among other things, increasing support to small businesses. As part of that effort, there’s a proposal to develop an incubation network that would help new small businesses get off the ground. Since Toronto is a major centre for food processing, there’s also a call to substantially expand an already existing food business incubator.

Apply to make Toronto an official Fair Trade Town.

If passed, this motion would see council commit to having the City of Toronto purchase only Fairtrade-certified coffee, tea, and sugar, and support an application to have Toronto registered as a Fair Trade Town.

Pass a new zoning bylaw.

The City has been trying to revise and consolidate its zoning bylaws for years—not an easy task considering the fact that each former municipality had its own zoning bylaw prior to amalgamation. The City enacted a harmonized zoning bylaw in 2010, then repealed it the following year after complaints and OMB appeals starting rolling in. Now, at last, council will decide whether to take a crack at enacting a new, revised version. Let’s hope things turn out better this time.

Allow developers to build affordable housing units in exchange for increased density.

Right now, under existing planning law, developers can trade community benefits (think cool playground equipment, streetscape enhancements) for the right to build more densely than the City’s planning bylaws technically permit. These trades are authorized by Section 37 of the Planning Act, so the community-improvement funds are known as Section 37 money. Council now has a chance to decide whether to allow developers to designate certain condos in their buildings as “affordable housing” units, as a way of meeting their Section 37 obligations. This would theoretically help the City carve out space for low-income tenants in some of the trendy new towers going up around town.

Improve heritage preservation efforts across the city.

As part of a legally mandated five-year review of its Official Plan, the City held a wide-ranging consultation on its heritage preservation policies. The review yielded a bunch of suggestions for technical changes to the heritage parts of the OP, partly to bring them in line with changes to provincial legislation and partly to strengthen them. Council will decide whether to implement those changes.

Allow cyclists to ride side-by-side, instead of only single file.

In the process of consolidating the traffic bylaws of all the pre-amalgamation municipalities, Toronto somehow made it illegal for cyclists to ride in any formation other than single file, even though riding two-or-more abreast had previously been allowed on most streets. Council will decide whether to do away with the ban on side-by-side riding before it actually becomes enforceable.

Hold out for a better tenant for Nathan Phillips Square’s new year-round restaurant space.

The new skate rental building in Nathan Philips Square has two separate restaurant spaces squirreled away inside it: one seasonal, one year-round, and both, for the time being, vacant. The City put both spaces out to bids, and settled on Hero Certified Burgers as the best available year-round tenant. Some councillors want the City to find another tenant with a more “diverse” menu. Mayor Rob Ford, meanwhile, loves burgers and would like Hero to get the contract. Today, both factions will duke it out. It’s not clear why Ford is interceding on behalf of an individual business owner. Is it still “sticking up for the little guy” if the little guy owns a chain of restaurants?

City council is meeting today (February 20) and tomorrow (February 21). Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Do whatever it can to help curb human trafficking.

Human trafficking isn’t exclusively a Toronto problem, but it’s a problem that affects Toronto. Council has a few modest remedies at its disposal, mostly along the lines of requesting reports and asking other levels of government for help. It will consider whether to use them.

Build a library branch on the former site of Canada’s first parliament building.

Canada’s first parliament building used to be located on the property now known as 271 Front Street East. The plot was on the verge of becoming a condo when the City stepped in and negotiated a land swap with the developer. Council will decide whether to allow Toronto Public Library to build a new branch on the first parliament site, provided the land swap goes through.

Give Toronto’s undocumented workers a break.

The U.S. isn’t the only country with undocumented workers who have trouble accessing public amenities because of their lack of immigration status. Council will decide whether to authorize a report on the possibility of allowing workers without papers to access City services “without fear.”

Make some broad commitments to “accelerate economic growth.”

This is one of Mayor Rob Ford’s favourite items on today’s agenda. It calls for council to endorse a number of broad policy goals—along with some specific actions—aimed at making Toronto friendlier to business. It also recommends the creation of a new economic advisory committee, to be led by the mayor.

Save Far Enough Farm, on Centre Island, by leasing it to a private operator.

Far Enough Farm, the little zoo next to Centreville, was in danger of closing down after the City cut its funding in 2011. Now, council has the opportunity to lease the farm to William Beasley Enterprises, Centreville’s private operator, as part of a deal to extend Beasley’s lease on Centreville itself. Putting the farm in private care might be the only way to save it, so council should (and probably will) jump at the opportunity.

Reconsider the shark-fin ban.

City council banned the possession, sale, and consumption of shark fin in 2011. Politicians were motivated by compassion for the sharks, but the ban has turned out to be a bad idea, at least in the legal sense. In November, an Ontario Superior Court ruled that the fin ban was outside council’s jurisdiction. Now, council will consider some confidential legal advice about how to proceed. Councillors could decide to fight the court’s ruling, probably at some expense, or they could decide to repeal or amend the bylaw. So, option one: potentially costly, potentially unwinnable. Option two: free, easy. What do you think the City’s lawyers are telling council it should do?

Give Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug Ford each a slap on the wrist.

On an April edition of their weekly radio talk show, Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Doug (Ward 2, Etobicoke Centre), said some disparaging things about David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health. Councillor John Filion (Ward 23, Willowdale) filed a complaint with the integrity commissioner, who found that the Fords’ comments violated council’s code of conduct.

Councillors haven’t been able to consider the matter before now, for legal reasons related to Rob Ford’s conflict of interest lawsuit. (Because the suit hinged on the question of whether Ford was within his rights to speak and vote on an integrity investigation about himself, council put all integrity votes on hold until the courts could offer some clarity.)

Now that the lawsuit is over, council will decide whether or not to agree with the integrity commissioner’s finding that both Fords broke the rules. Because both Rob and Doug have since apologized to McKeown, the commissioner isn’t recommending any stiffer penalties.

Make sure it stays legal for cyclists to ride side-by-side.

Somehow, in its efforts to harmonize the traffic bylaws of all the former municipalities, Toronto made it illegal for cyclists to ride in any formation other than single file, even though this had previously been allowed on most Toronto streets. The prohibition on side-by-side riding has yet to go into effect, though, and this member motion by Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton Lawrence) aims to ensure that it never does. If the item gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether to repeal the single-file bylaw.

Start thinking about imposing term limits on councillors and mayors.

If this no-hope member motion by Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32, Beaches-East York) gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether to ask City staff to report on the possibility of implementing term limits for councillors and mayors. It’s hard to imagine a roomful of career politicians voting to harm their job security.

Explore ways to curb youth violence.

If this member motion by Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will revisit a major provincial study issued in 2008, called the Roots of Youth Violence. That report was a wide-ranging examination of the systemic and environmental factors that might contribute to youth violence, and included a number of recommendations for both the provincial and municipal governments. Matlow’s motion calls on staff to see how many of those recommendations have actually been implemented, and also to explore a range of other measures to help tackle the poverty, racism, and other contextual issues that play a role in youth violence.

Cap the Land Transfer Tax.

Mayor Rob Ford vowed to abolish the Municipal Land Transfer Tax during the 2010 election, but the tax makes so much money for the City, at the moment, that it’s virtually indispensable. If this member motion by Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will consider ordering a report on the possibility of capping revenue from the tax, possibly as way of weaning the City off it once and for all.

UPDATE: February 20, 2013, 11:35 AM We’ve added an item (the one about a plan to “accelerate economic growth” in Toronto) to the list.

City council is meeting today (November 27) and tomorrow (November 28). Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Let Toronto Zoo staff decide where to send their elephants.

It’s been about a year since city council decided to send the Toronto Zoo’s three elephants to an animal sanctuary called PAWS, in California. Animal rights people were happy, Bob Barker was happy. It seemed like a win-win. Except, as it turns out, Toronto Zoo staff don’t like PAWS. They say it’s kind of a tuberculosis-infested elephant flophouse. Council will decide whether to let zoo officials decide on a new destination for the pachyderms.

Give up on selling off the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Last year, Rob Ford’s administration was really interested in “getting the City out of the theatre business,” which meant selling off City-owned theatres, both to get them off the books and to raise a little quick cash. The City looked for companies willing to buy, but didn’t find any takers for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, or the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Council will decide whether to give up, essentially, on selling either of those theatres, and order an audit of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, a City-owned venue whose sale prospects are slightly better.

Allow all retail businesses to stay open on Victoria Day.

Retail stores, with some exceptions [PDF], need to close on Victoria Day under City bylaws. Council could decide to change that.

Budget a little more money for fixing up Nathan Phillips Square.

Nathan Phillips Square has been under renovation for a while, and now the whole project is late and over budget. Council will decide whether to allocate an additional $750,000 toward repairing the reflecting pool (which in winter turns into an ice rink).

Try to prevent Etobicoke’s Mr. Christie plant from shutting down.

There’s a Mr. Christie plant in south Etobicoke that has been cranking out baked goods for more than 60 years, but now its owner, Mondeléz Canada (a division of Kraft), is saying that it wants to shut the place down and get its zoning and Official Plan designation changed, apparently so the company can bulldoze everything and build condo towers. Council will decide whether to launch a transportation study of the area. Presumably, the idea is to use the study as evidence when the time comes for council to oppose the redevelopment.

Put the finishing touches on the bag ban.

Council already approved a ban on plastic shopping bags during a surprise vote in June, and now, at last, they have the opportunity to vote on the bylaw the would make it a reality. If they approve the bylaw—and it will be surprising if they don’t—the ban will go into effect on January 1.

Give the go-ahead to some separated bike lanes for Queen’s Park Crescent and Wellesley Street.

The City is in the process of building curb-separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street. Next up for this treatment, in 2013 and 2014, will be Queen’s Park Crescent and Wellesley Street, assuming council gives the the thumbs up. Harbord Street and Hoskin Avenue may also be getting separated lanes in 2014, but right now all of that is still in the consultation phase.

Streamline the City’s way of administering parking tickets.

The City’s ombudsman looked into complaints about Toronto’s parking ticket system and found it to be mostly okay. But, according to her report, there’s still room for improvement. Council will decide whether to make those improvements.

Ask Lansdowne Avenue’s resident uranium-processing facility to please stop processing uranium.

There is a GE-Hitachi plant on Lansdowne Avenue that makes uranium pellets for use in nuclear reactors. It’s been there for about 50 years without incident. Science types say it’s perfectly safe, but what do those smartasses know? The important thing is that a handful of nearby residents, who just found out about the plant like a month ago, are nervous about it. And so if this member motion by Cesar Palacio (Ward 17, Davenport) gets the two-thirds vote it needs to make the floor, council will have the opportunity to decide whether to ask GE-Hitachi to “establish a five-year plan to discontinue the production of uranium pellets.”

Look into instituting better signage for privately owned public spaces.

Sometimes when a developer wants to build something in Toronto, the City will get them to promise to set aside a patch of nearby land for the public’s use. Thing is, a lot of these places are underused. Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) thinks the reason for this is that people simply don’t know that these privately owned bits of land are for general use. He wants City staff to investigate the possibility of putting signs up, so that everybody knows where to unfurl their picnic blankets. If his member motion gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether to get City staff on the case.

City council is meeting today (October 30) and tomorrow (October 31). Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Punish the mayor and his brother for violations of council’s code of conduct, and let Michelle Berardinetti off the hook.

The Ford brothers have both been on the City integrity commissioner’s shitlist before, but this is the first time they’ve faced criticism from her for something they did together. In April, on their weekly radio show on Newstalk 1010, Mayor Rob and his councillor brother Doug (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) said some unkind things about Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown. The integrity commissioner asked the two men to apologize for their comments. In true Ford style, neither man has complied (at least, not to the commissioner’s satisfaction), and now council will decide whether or not to reprimand them, formally.

Councillor Michelle Berardinetti (Ward 25, Scarborough Southwest) is in trouble with the integrity commissioner for similar reasons. In November 2011, she called into “a radio program hosted by another member of council” (so, probably Councillor Josh Matlow’s show on Newstalk 1010, before it was cancelled and replaced with the Ford brothers’ show). While talking about council’s decision to send the Toronto Zoo’s elephants to a sancutary in California, she made disparaging comments about a Toronto Zoo staff member. Berardinetti apologized to the staff member, and so the integrity commissioner isn’t recommending a reprimand.

Sell some of Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s single-family homes, but commit to not selling the rest.

Selling off TCHC’s single-family housing stock has been a controversial issue for a good long time. Council created a working group, headed by Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport), to figure out what to do with the homes. Now, council will decide whether to heed the resulting recommendations. The working group is asking, among other things, that only 55 homes be sold, and that 564 of them be maintained as affordable housing.

Reappoint the ombudsman.

City ombudsman Fiona Crean has made plenty of headlines since her initial appointment in 2008—most recently with her investigation into some meddling with the City’s 2011 civic appointments process by Mayor Rob Ford’s office. She’s up for reappointment now, and she needs a two-thirds majority vote from council to get it. It’s hard to know whether she’s upset enough councillors to jeopardize that vote, but there are sure to be some Ford loyalists who will take the opportunity to excoriate her, in any case.

Hammer out an agreement with Metrolinx over Toronto’s planned LRT lines.

For all practical purposes, Metrolinx is going to own all of Toronto’s planned LRT lines. Council will decide whether to accept a “master agreement” that spells out exactly how the City will share real estate with the provincial transit agency.

Buy a piece of land from the province and turn it into a new park near Yonge and Wellesley streets.

This is a pet project of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam’s (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale). Basically, there’s a patch of land at 11 Wellesley Street West that’s owned by the province. Wong-Tam wants the City to buy it and turn it into a public park. Council will decide whether or not to try and do that.

Make it legal to touch a stripper.

Right now it’s illegal under City bylaws for dancers in strip clubs to have any contact with patrons. As part of a larger package of reforms to Toronto’s “Adult Entertainment Parlour” regulations, council could make it so that some kinds of innocuous contact are okay.

Help the Toronto Botanical Garden with its money problems, but not really.

The Toronto Botanical Garden is in such bad financial shape that it came to the City for a bailout earlier this month. Council will decide whether to offer the garden some non-monetary support. (There likely won’t be any City funding on the table, at least until budget season gets underway.)

Appoint some citizen members to the TTC board.

Right now, the TTC board is all politicians. Council decided to add four citizen spots in March. Now, finalists for those spots have been selected, and council will decide whether to appoint them.

Tell the TTC to be nicer to residents whose homes it’s planning on tearing down.

This report by the City ombudsman says the TTC did a poor job of consulting with residents whose homes were in the way of some planned second exits at Donlands and Greenwood subway stations. Council will decide whether to institute reforms that might prevent similar situations from arising in the future.

CORRECTION: October 20, 2012, 3:15 PM This post originally said that council is considering buying a provincially owned patch of land at 11 Wellesley Avenue. In fact, the land is located at 11 Wellesley Street West.

City council is meeting today (October 2) and tomorrow (October 3). Here are a few items from this month’s agenda that have been in the news, or should have been.

City council will weigh whether or not to:

Introduce new regulations for separated bike lanes, and maybe save the bike lanes on Jarvis Street.

The City is in the process of installing curb-separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street, but right now there are no bylaws to govern how people behave in and around this new (to Toronto) type of road layout. Council will decide whether or not to create some legal penalties to make sure drivers and cyclists use this infrastructure safely. Also, there’s a rumour that a councillor may try to amend this item so that it also prevents the Jarvis Street bike lanes from being removed. As things stand, those lanes are on borrowed time.

Acknowledge that Mayor Rob Ford’s office did a bad thing.

Toronto’s ombudsman released a report last week that blames the mayor’s office for harming the City’s public appointments process. Council will decide whether or not to accept that report.

Start talking about next year’s budget.

Councillors will likely use this preliminary report on how much the City spent this year (not as much as expected, apparently) as an opportunity to start bickering over spending in 2013.

Rescind the ban on plastic bags.

If this member motion from Peter Milczyn (Ward 5, Etobicoke-Lakeshore) gets the two-thirds vote it needs in order to make the floor, council will decide whether or not to reconsider its impulsive decision to ban plastic shopping bags.

Move ahead with Waterfront Toronto’s revised development plan for the Port Lands.

After a months-long detour caused by Doug Ford’s attempt to sell the area to developers, the Port Lands are back before council, now with a revised development plan. As it turns out, the extra deliberation may have been a good thing: Waterfront Toronto found some problems with their original designs. For instance, apparently there’s a giant concrete plant down there whose owners didn’t want a public park built on their land. Who knew? The new plan is a careful refinement of the old one. It deserves a go-ahead. Council will consider giving it one.

Find a new private operator for Casa Loma.

Casa Loma used to be run by Kiwanis Club, but that arrangement fell apart last year as a result of friction between the club and the City. Council will decide whether to look for a new private operator for Toronto’s favourite giant castle. Some have suggested turning part of the place into a city museum, and it’s likely that we’ll see an attempt at an amendment to that effect.

Insist that the TTC operate Toronto’s forthcoming light-rail lines.

Last month, Metrolinx announced that they would seek a private operator, rather than the TTC, to run the four light-rail lines the province will be building in Toronto over the course of the next decade. This member motion by Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s) would have city council declare a preference for letting the TTC operate the new lines. Mihevc told the Sun he’d be withdrawing this motion, which could mean Metrolinx is reconsidering its stance.