Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2008--the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months, with one hero and one villain selected by each participating staff member. On Christmas Day: the heroes. On Boxing Day: the villains. And next week, cast your vote to determine the Superhero and Supervillain of the year.
Results tagged “taxis”
A scandal seems to be brewing over the conduct of Tuxedo Limousines after many people complained that the company was shitty and acted in bad faith. Interestingly, many of the people who hired limos through Tuxedo paid the company in cash, in parking lots or gas stations. This only confirms many of Torontoist's longstanding personal biases against people who hire stretch Hummers.
Toronto police chief Bill Blair yesterday said that the police assigned to Toronto schools would be uniformed and armed, contradicting earlier comments by school board chair John Campbell. The officers will remain on campus only until Robocop testing is completed.
Eight people face 101 charges in an ATM scam which allegedly involved placing equipment on bank machines to steal customer PINs and data. Hey, you know what the real scam is? Paying service charges to get my own money out of the bank! Am I right, folks? Huh? Am I right? Thanks, you've been a great audience.
If you were wondering why convenience stores seemed strangely barren this weekend, wonder no more: Ontario introduced Power Walls, a province-wide ban on the display of tobacco products. Now those sweet, sweet cancer sticks live behind grey flaps, pushing cigarettes one step further into the realm of contraband.
A slaughterhouse-bound tractor trailer crashed on the 401 yesterday, setting 50 pigs loose on the highway. It's a funny human interest story, because nobody died, with the exception of a few pigs, and they were on their way to the chop anyway. Everybody wins!
Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here.
Hundreds of taxis disrupted city streets yesterday, driving erratically through downtown Toronto, flouting traffic laws, and honking their horns randomly. Subsequently, many of the drivers also participated in a protest against bylaws which limit Pearson pickups to licensed airport limos.
With some 2,212 responses in just under two weeks, our TTC survey is done, and the complete data is in the hands of Michael Anders, the TTC’s Market Research Director. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the organization will be holding a special meeting in Committee Room 1 at City Hall to discuss their next steps, and Anders has told us that they "will be prepared to discuss [Torontoist's] findings" (whatever that means!––either way, Torontoist will be in attendance).
This is precisely the idea behind MyBikeLane Toronto. A North American network of blogs launched in 2006, MyBikeLane is dedicated to outing the road hogs and other boobs blocking the way. All cyclists who have experienced lane blocking are invited to post photographic evidence and license plate numbers, track re-offenders, and use Google geotags to record the scene of the crime.
A group of airport taxi drivers were ejected from the Toronto council chambers yesterday after a dispute regarding the council's plan to ban taxis that are not registered in Toronto from picking up fares downtown.
King Street Is For Walkers, Via No Longer Just For Walkers, Class-Action Lawsuit Time For Menu Foods
The TTC proposes an "experiment" to make King Street West (between John and Spadina) a pedestrian-and-streetcar-only zone during the summer of 2008, much to the chagrin of business owners on the restaurant strip. However, the plan would allow a single lane to remain open for taxis and deliveries.
Union Station is getting a $100 million facelift. Commuters will not just be getting wider platforms but a whole new one when engineers and construction workers finish moving a sewer by 2008.
Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man.

Newsstand: November 19, 2009
