news
Newsstand: September 7, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
So, here’s what’s been happening the past few days: the building doomed by the six-alarm blaze still isn’t accessible, neither are the city’s “transit deserts,” but full-day kindergarten is.
The giant six-alarm fire at College and Bathurst streets, which we told you about here, has left several students homeless right before the beginning of a new semester. Many tenants were hoping for a chance to save some of their belongings from the destroyed building yesterday, but the fire marshal has dubbed it unsafe, what with the collapsed bottom floor. The owner of Canada Computers and the building’s landlord said the damage was over one million dollars. Still, a cat was the only casualty in the blaze.
A new study of Toronto’s public transit (which we wrote about last week) has found that not enough emphasis is being put on the bus system. Many commuters said service is basically crap, with a five-minute trip taking them closer to forty. The TTC said it’s improving service on thirty bus and streetcar routes, but some say there needs to be more of a focus on community-based transportation, according to the study. Frequent, local routes will also help with “transit deserts,” the report says. Of all TTC riders, 60% use buses, and the large service class in Toronto’s population doesn’t live in or commute to easily reachable areas.
Here’s some feel-good news. This past weekend, a retired Toronto couple—former city councillors Gordon Cressy and Joanne Campbell, who relocated to Tobago, saw the opening of that island spot’s first public swimming pool. Forty years ago, Cressy helped with the launch of Trinidad’s first YMCA pool, and the do-gooder couple was looking for a similar project. The twenty-five-metre pool has eight lanes and tiled change rooms and offices.
And some not-so-feel-good news. Citytv reporter Tara Weber is leaving the city, in large part because it’s not accessible. Weber has been a paraplegic since she broke her back in a car accident at age seventeen. Weber sent a note to Mayor David Miller and the candidates about the issue, and also wrote to many places in the city that still aren’t wheelchair accessible. So far, no response, except from TTC spokesman Brad Ross. Weber is relocating to Calgary.
The kiddies are off to kindergarten, and with the roll out of full-day programs, parents have a burning question on the brain: will there be naps? With younger kids, some as young as three, enrolling, parents are wondering how it’s all going to work. The full-day program is coming to six hundred schools across Ontario. The Globe is taking the whole subject a step further and following four students throughout the school year to take a closer look at the traditional and new programs.