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Newsstand: April 26, 2010
lllustration by Clayton Hanmer/Torontoist.
The political climate is a few degrees warmer after mayoral candidates spent Saturday debating at the Green Living Show. George Smitherman, Rocco Rossi, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, and Councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) met to debate environmental issues, which gave each of them a chance to pledge to support the TTC—and, in Ford’s case, to follow that up by saying that residents should be able to blackball transit lines in their area. Smitherman said Toronto should become “more of a solar city, and with some wind, as well.” Rocco Rossi repeated his calls to sell off Toronto Hydro, and Pantalone went right out and said the TTC was in crisis. “We have lost a generation in not building anything,” he said.
Condo developers are hoping to finally take advantage of a council decision made in 1968 under the assumption that the Scarborough Expressway was would soon cut through the east end. Although the Expressway itself is long dead, one of several killed in 1971 by protests led by Jane Jacobs, it seems no one ever revisited the zoning decision to approve the area near Victoria Park and Gerrard for a 1,455-unit high-rise condo. Residents of the area, which is currently comprised of residential low-rises and houses, say the twenty-five-storey proposed tower would simply overwhelm roads and services. As for the developer, their lawyer told the Sun that residents should have been well aware that the area was approved for high-rises—after all, it’s been on the books for forty-two years.
From undead highways, we move on to railroad museums. Namely, Toronto’s first museum devoted to trains and their role in Toronto’s history, and also how much fun they are to play with. Phase One of the museum opens in May, in the restored roundhouse of Steam Whistle fame. Putting a museum next to the brewery seems like a good plan—especially when the museum is dedicated to heavy machinery.
And a major police anti-prostitution operation saw eighty-six men charged over a three-day period on Danforth Avenue. Four men were charged with additional offences ranging from obstructing police to drug trafficking. As for the other eighty-two, they’ve been released, and apparently the plan is for all of them to appear in court on June 3.
Toronto Police have released a photo of a woman who suffered “massive brain injuries” in a brutal assault last week, in the hopes of finding a lead in her case. Because the woman is believed to have been sexually assaulted, police had to obtain the consent of her family to publish the photo. The woman was discovered semi-conscious at 6:45 a.m. on April 16 and rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Toronto sorting plants are having a hard time getting rid of recycled materials, after two major recycling factories that were the end buyers of the glass and foamed plastic collected from blue boxes suspended operations. Toronto’s head of waste management, Geoff Rathbone, said the city may have to send the glass to Guelph or the U.S., facing higher shipping costs.
On the bright side, though the recycling system is under some new strain, it’s got a shiny new web app. The “Waste Wizard” is a searchable database that tells users everything they’ve ever wanted to know about throwing things out. The site offers an admittedly bare-bones interface, but come on—it’s a garbage reference. And, in a little full-circle flourish, it’ll even tell you how to dispose of your computer (set it fifty centimetres away from your garbage bin for curbside pickup).