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Newsstand: August 24, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Today: the TTC promises action…on its museum, there’s more scandal in Belleville, and Rubik’s Cubes are cool again (or at least lucrative).
The TTC pledges it won’t hesitate to act on the list of recommendations made by an outside panel released Monday. The area to tackle will be customer service, but according to a marketing guru who’s worked with GO, riders may not notice a difference for a few years because more than twelve hundred employees will first have to learn to “walk the talk.” The report asks for better training, on-the-job support, information kiosks, and hiring a chief customer service officer, among other things. Another marketing expert compared the TTC’s corporate image to that of BP, so it’s got a ways to go.
Still, despite all the negativity of the report, the TTC’s five million dollar plan to dedicate a museum to itself hasn’t been affected (phew!). The museum will be part of the new TTC headquarters and will showcase the past, present, and future of the service. A large diorama featuring sleeping token collectors surrounded by litter will be the centerpiece of the exhibit.
Are Belleville’s mayor and police chief having an affair? That’s the rumour circulating, but Mayor Neil Ellis says it’s rubbish. You probably remember Chief Cory McMullan from two weeks ago, when she made it known that she was the victim of alleged domestic abuse. Well, the latest gossip is that mayor and chief were together the night of the assault and that hubby decked Ellis in the face. Ellis said McMullan gave him a ride (in her car) that night, and he and the chief’s husband grabbed one another’s shirts after the husband started screaming, but no punches were thrown.
The Rubik’s Cube is no longer just an ultra-frustrating pastime, but now a seventeen-year-old has managed to turn it into art. Eric Limeback from East York has become so fast at the brain teaser that he can twist the squares into images like The Last Supper and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. A surefire sign Limeback has made it: he’s appeared on Oprah and he’s dating a model. An art studio in the Distillery District sells his creations. People will buy anything, so art like this can sell for millions.
And speaking of art, here’s a really stupid kind. Toronto Police arrested a photographer for taking pictures of traffic, while standing on the Gardiner Expressway. The man got two tickets, one for being on a highway, and one for failing to stay left of a roadway. He also got bitch-slapped for being an idiot.