The TTC is apparently losing about a bus a day to repairs and safety issues. Many of the buses are around 18 years old and nearing the end of their lifecycle. By next year the TTC will lose around 320 buses, more than five a week. Toronto, York Region, and Provincial officials are lobbying Ottawa to pony up money for the York U subway extension. Many of them complain about the lack of help the......

David Soknacki, the right-winger picked by David Miller to be his budget chief, has announced that he is retiring from politics and will not be running for re-election in Ward 43 - Scarborough East this fall. Some councillors see this as another sign that Miller can't work with others who don't see his viewpoint. In the past, Soknacki has openly criticized the Mayor and his allies. Nonetheless he's earned the respect of many from Miller's......

Everyone writes about the city's revelation that thieves are using two-by-fours to bust up the city's beloved lollipop bike posts. The Star's Betsy Powell, who broke the story last week, has her piece here. The Post marvels at how city staffers who are usually slow to act in August managed to react quickly to the problem. The Sun reports that around eight bikes have been stolen from busted stands in one week alone. Finally you......

The City is receving about $980 million dollars from Toronto Hydro. There was some fierce debate about how the money will be used but in the end the City will earmark the money for waterfront redevelopment and the York U subway. Sadly fancy ketchups or green dresses were nowhere on council's radar. Pictured here are the very happy Toronto Hydro mascots. Despite the promise of a billion dollars the city still needs more money. Council......

We were intrigued by an idea brought up by David Ross on the Reading Toronto site of a high speed train to Montreal. Shanghai has one that takes people from a suburban airport to downtown Shanghai in five minutes. Torontoist has taken this ride in a cab and trust us, it's LOOONG and congested. It currently takes about five hours by train to get to Montreal, a high speed train could do this in one.......

So Dalton and the Queen's Park Posse have announced their budget and he was right there were no surprises! The city is getting lots of money ($600-odd million) to build a subway to York U. which the higher ups at the TTC don't really want but is better than the subway along Sheppard that goes nowhere. A little more funding for social programs but probably not enough to completely reverse the gutting that Harris did.......

York U prof Amy Harris is the guest editor over at Reading Toronto this week and appropriately enough she's been posting on novels set in Toronto. There are a few stalwarts on the list like Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, Atwood's Cat's Eye and Michael's Fugitive Pieces. She also gives a plug to Dionne Brand's What We All Long For, which TOist reviewed here and is now in paperback. One of the books......

Despite the fact that Kensington Market is one of the most creative neighbourhoods in the entire city a good art gallery has never really been able to set up shop in the neighbourhood until rental gallery/shop/concert venue Xpace came along. So Torontoist was pleasantly surprised to see that the graduating students of U of T's Visual Arts program had turned an empty packing plant at 250 Augusta Avenue into a space for their group show.......