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Newsstand: October 20, 2009
Despite the fact that Mayor Miller promised to divert 70% of waste from landfills by 2010 as part of his 2006 election campaign, he will be well out of office before his dream is realized. But why should he worry? Experts are saying that his goal, though lofty, was a noble one. “The faster we got to 70 per cent, the longer that landfill is going to last,” says the man with the (failed) plan. “So that was why I [set] an ambitious date.” I don’t know, Davey. The fact that it was an election campaign promise, by virtue of name alone, kinda indicates that you set the “ambitious date” to get elected. But what do we know of such things?
So who will get the honour of seeing Miller’s garbage plans come to fruition (and whose budget will shoulder the brunt of building the new city facilities required to process the extra material from the condos and apartments slated to help reach this goal)? Not Karen Stintz, apparently. The councillor cites “prominent-yet-undeclared contenders” (according to the Globe) for “suck[ing] the oxygen out of her fledgling campaign.” [Publisher’s note: One key member of Karen Stintz’s mayoral campaign exploratory committee is Rob Silver, who is also a co-owner of Ink Truck Media, Torontoist’s publishers.] The good news is that we don’t have to paste that into every damn article in which her name is mentioned anymore.
Speaking of rates and infrastructure and all those terribly interesting things we here at Newsstand just love to report, the Sun reports that “a nine-year plan to gradually raise rates to cover costs and fund much-needed repairs has turned an important corner, along with yet another 9% increase.” You might as well click through to read the details; we couldn’t get past the fact that the budget changes include a new Green Bin processing facility built at Disco transfer station. Really? There’s something in Toronto called a Disco transfer station? There’s a Disco Road? (What’s that saying about small things amusing small minds?)
Finally, two men got busted for soliciting a plainclothes officer for sex during a three-night prostitution blitz on Danforth Avenue between Woodbine and Victoria Park. They then came back and solicited a second cop because, apparently, Toronto’s finest are really that impossibly hot. Or they look like hookers. Either way, “it’s a safety concern,” says Constable Wendy Drummond. “We have people discarding used condoms along the street, which poses great health risks to the public and children who may be curious.” No, Wendy, it’s just nasty and you should keep enough of an eye on your children to ensure that they don’t pick up used condoms off the street. But that’s not the worst part: out of the seventy men nabbed, eight were taxi drivers who were on duty at the time. So the next time you wonder what that smell is when you climb into that cab… happy Tuesday, kids!