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Newsstand: February 4, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Our dear old Hogtown may sometimes feel like a pigpen, but it’s actually Canada’s most sustainable large city! Corporate Knights Magazine‘s nation-wide rankings placed Toronto in second overall behind, surprise surprise, Vancouver, which won for the medium-city category. Yellowknife took the top spot for Canada’s small cities. Toronto beat out last year’s large-city champ, Edmonton, because of high scores in the Governance and Infrastructure category, low corporate greenhouse-gas emissions, and the popularity of green commuting options.
Like biking! Following this trend (in commuting and amusing Toronto monikers), the Big Smoke is looking toward the Big Apple for ideas to add more downtown bike lanes. As we mentioned on Tuesday, New York–inspired “separated” bike lanes could be coming to University Avenue, according to city planners. Critics say that several hospital entrances and heavy taxi traffic on University Avenue should nix the plan, but a recent report on the Toronto Bike Plan states the area between Bloor and Richmond streets has “the most potential to establish physically separated or buffered bicycle lanes serving the downtown area.” If the suggestion goes through here, Sherbourne Street could get the “New York style” treatment too.
We hope this comes as good news to commuters, as more bad tidings grace the TTC. Another less-than-flattering video of a TTC employee is making the viral rounds. This time, bus riders receive harsh words when they asked their driver not to take his daily ten-minute coffee break. On the upside, the TTC Trip Planner is up and running, save for a few glitches, as Torontoist reported on Tuesday (which earned us a nice mention in the Post). Even more coverage to come later today.
But one thing that’s worse than the commute to work is having your building catch fire when you’re there. Over one hundred employees were trapped in their Mississauga office building late yesterday afternoon when a raging fire broke out on the third floor, in front of Conservative MP Bob Dechert’s (Mississauga-Erindale) office. Everyone escaped without serious injuries, but the “very suspicious” fire is now being investigated by the fire marshal. Torontoist suggests invoking the “He who smelt it, dealt it” ruling.
Valentine’s Day is still over a week away, but gifts often require a lot of thought and planning—Is this diamond necklace overkill? Is this ball and chain funny “ha-ha,” or funny “back away slowly”? But if there’s really only one thing you and your valentine are after, maybe a meal at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is all you need. The popular Liberty Village resto is taking on the role of Cupid this year, replacing the bow and arrow with co-ed washrooms and an open mind. Do we get the picture, Mildred? Yes, oh, yesssss.
But if that’s not your style, you’re not alone. You most likely won’t find this pint-sized restaurant critic anywhere near Mildred’s on Valentine’s Day. The nine-year-old foodie rates and reviews the restaurants he goes to with his family on his blog, Ry’s Ratings, a roster you could easily mistake for the food section in NOW. Ryan also only eats organic, local foods. Clearly hipster parenting at its finest.
And good luck to Toronto Centre dwellers, who hit the polls today to choose George Smitherman’s successor at Queen’s Park. What? First you’ve heard about it? Don’t worry, Torontoist has you covered.