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Weekend Newsstand: June 4, 2011
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.
Holy Moly Saturday, you sure did come out of nowhere! What news saith you? A new park is coming to town, the pinkos are taking over the roads, snail mail does matter, the OSPCA has a case of hypochondria, and public housing is officially more dangerous.
In not exactly surprising but no less shocking news, living in Toronto public housing puts you at a greater risk of being murdered. Compared to residents in the rest of the GTA, public housing residents are four to five times more likely to be murder victims. Among some of the fixable reasons violence is rampant in and around TCHC properties is the reduction in community police officers that patrol these areas. Looks like the soon-to-be reconfigured TCHC board has a lot to look forward to.
Remember when the Newmarket OSPCA was going to euthanize a bunch of the animals in their shelter because of a ringworm outbreak? Well, whoops! Turns out there was no clinical evidence of a ringworm epidemic at the shelter. Not even an onslaught, not even a spate of cases. Now that the OSPCA is sure there aren’t a bunch of ringworm-infested animals in their shelters, they are once again free to eat all the puppies they can handle.
As the postal strike rolls into Hamilton, lapping at the shores of our fair city, some folks are wondering why we should give a good gosh darn about the snail mail stoppage. And sure, your front porch is probably littered with reasons to stop the mail for a bit: coupon packets and promotional letters from cable companies. But the City points out all the little things a mail strike could mess up for lots of people, not just old folks and couples trying to send out wedding invitations. Like lookey here, parking permits will not be mailed out (but parking tickets must still be paid) and rebate cheques for flooded basements could be delayed. So see, it affects lots of people. Lots!
A new national park is coming to town. Well, it’s here now already. It’s actually been here for a good long while now it seems, but now the Rouge Valley will be officially designated as a national park. The move will protect the 10,000 acre tract of ravines, forests, meadows, and creeks from any future development and earns it the cool-sounding descriptor that the prime minister gave it in his throne speech: an urban national park. Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Toronto cyclists’ coup is almost complete! The Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway will be closed down from 2 a.m. til 2 p.m. on Sunday to make way for bikes. Bikes! So many bikes! The bikes are part of the pinko plan to take over the roads for bikes and bikes only the Ride For Heart.