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Newsstand: February 12, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Surviving the hatestorm brewing over Adam Giambrone’s (Ward 18, Davenport) head would be hard for the toughest of skin, and it seems to be getting to him. His public revelation of an affair with twenty-year-old Kristen Lucas has already prompted him to drop his mayoral dreams, and now he’s considering forgoing his seat on council, too. At least David Miller still has his boy’s back, letting him “finish the job” as TTC chair. That is, until George Smitherman or Rocco Rossi (now the two leaders in the campaign) give it the wholesale reform they, and others, think it deserves. Perhaps undeservedly, since the TTC managed a three-hundred-thousand-dollar surplus in 2009 when it was expecting to lose twenty-three million.
Now for some TTC news that isn’t about affairs or viral videos. The subway will be closed between Bloor-Yonge and St. Andrew stations this Saturday and Sunday night, starting at midnight. While work is done on the tracks and the Automatic Train Control system, shuttle buses will carry commuters from Bloor-Yonge to Osgoode stations until normal service resumes at 9 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday. Same goes for next weekend too.
The tale of Queen West’s abominable bike bandit is coming to an end. Igor Kenk was arrested in the summer of 2008 when thousands of supposedly stolen pedal-pushers and a stash of drugs were found in his Queen Street West shop, Bicycle Clinic. After being cleared yesterday of assault charges from his time out on bail, Kenk and all of his bushy-bearded infamy is set to return to Toronto streets by spring. A film and graphic novel to come soon. No, really.
A recent study has proclaimed Toronto Canada’s most elitist artsiest city! In 2006, over 22,000 artists called Hogtown their humble abode, the neighbourhood of Parkdale in particular. Competition wasn’t stiff, with Montreal in second place with 13,400. The study dares to label artists as anyone working as an actor,
comedian, artisan, writer, director, composer or conductor, dancer, musician, or painter or other visual artist. Though the concentration of artists in Parkdale has increased since 2001, some things never change. Artists still like public transit, coffee shops, and they still make no money.
Ryerson University President Sheldon Levy has big plans for the legendary Sam the Record Man location—he’s just not sure what they are yet. So he hired two architecture firms to design the new student learning centre. We know that Rye High is going sky-high with ten stories right on the Yonge Street strip, but all other plans are likewise up in the air. Possibilities include retail stores, a subway entrance, and the Sam sign in there, somehow. It should be completed in about three years, and Yonge-Dundas Square can finally get the twinkle in its eye back (and no, we’re not talking about Zanzibar).
Days before the beginning of London’s fashion week, British fashion trailblazer Alexander McQueen was found dead in his home. The forty-year-old designer is rumoured to have killed himself, depressed after his mother died on February 2. McQueen’s newest collection was set to be unveiled at Paris fashion week in a month.
Apparently one of McQueen’s last designs was a scarf he designed for the Vancouver Olympics, which officially begin tonight as the torch nears its final destination at the BC Place stadium, carried by an unknown final torchbearer.