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Newsstand: February 2, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
It’s Wednesday, February 2 or Groundhog Day, which is a great Bill Murray movie but a lacklustre holiday. Today, Toronto is a winter wonderland, cops still have to self-identify, and artists won’t be getting city-subsidized garrets.
The big news today, of course, is the weather. If Wiarton Willie (the groundhog, not the painful medical condition) emerges from his hole and sees his shadow, we can expect six more weeks of winter. Watch it live here, if you are terribly, terribly bored.
Toronto’s “Snowmageddon” was a little oversold, with forecasters now suggesting that we’ll see around fifteen centimetres of snow instead of the twenty to thirty that were originally called for. That said, there are quite a few school and other closures going on, as well as flight delays. So if you’re going somewhere, make sure you need to be there. Anyway, it’s nice to feel like we’re real Canadians for a change.
Looks like Toronto police are going to have to keep wearing their full names on their name tags. The Toronto Police Association had gone to the Ontario Labour Relations Board in a bid to have the policy reversed, claiming that the practice put officers at greater risk of harm from criminals. Which explains why at least ninety cops removed their name tags while policing last year’s G20 protest.
City staff are now recommending that a 110-year-old building in the east end not be bought and turned into affordable housing for artists. The idea of converting the house near Pape and Riverdale was originally supported by council, but staff are now saying that the cost of at least seven million dollars to buy and renovate the building would be too high. Owners of local beret and Chianti stores expressed disappointment at the recommendation.
City council is reviewing a policy that provides a three percent annual bonus to non-unionized city managers who achieve a “satisfactory” performance rating. The practice, which has already been frozen since 2009, saw about ninety percent of managers receiving the bonus. Councillor Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) noted that “In the real world, if you’re satisfactory, your bonus is you keep your job.” Ford himself spent twenty-five years working for the family business before being elected to city council.