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Newsstand: July 21, 2011
It’s a thirsty Thursday, as the thermometer climbs and no one talks about anything else. Oh wait, here’s a few other things: super cool new subway trains go into action today, Ford and friends avoid audits while some losing candidates get inspected, and city committee cools the cut-crazy heels of KPMG.
In transit news that even non-transit geeks can get on board with (assuming there’s one or two non-transit geeks that read Torontoist), the brand-spankin’ shiny new subway cars are going into service this morning. Back in May, we toured the new trains so you won’t be all terrified and confused that you’ve somehow fallen into a heat-sink future vortex and ended up in a future version of Toronto that has nice things, from the future. Among the new newness featured on the pretty young trains is a light-up route map, anti-microbial coating all over everything, and one big long train instead of divided cars. So the traditional Friday night hijinks on southbound trains of opening the dividing doors while the train is in motion will be replaced by racing from end-to-end.
Now this is just speculation, but we’re betting there was a pretty fun pool party at the home of Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) last night, as the compliance audit committee decided not to audit his campaign spending. And joining Ford with a pool noodle and a mai tai, probably, were Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West), James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre), and Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) who will also not be audited. Not joining in the fun are three guys you’ve probably never heard of, because they didn’t win in last fall’s election. But even though they’re losers their campaign finances are being audited.
After days and days and days of lists of lists of lists of things KPMG hates about Toronto proposed service cuts, the community development and recreation committee has voted to seek public consultation on cuts to its mandate. And! They’ll only seek public input once the city manager, City Hall’s top bureaucrat, has his say about KPMG’s recommendations. Until now, some committees were just passing the proposals straight on to the mayor and his Executive Committee without adding their own two cents. The city manager may whittle out some of the craycray things KPMG thought would be fun to throw in and see if anyone notices when he releases his specific recommendations on September 12.
In case you haven’t heard, today’s going to be hot, so stay cool out there. We know you’ve heard all about the importance of drinking water to replenish the liquid lost to sweat, but did you also know that the body needs a refill on the salt it loses from sweating too? So grab the Ruffles Original and stay safe! Doctor’s orders.