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Newsstand: September 8, 2011
Thursday, aren't you just the Thursdayiest of Thursdays now? In the news: Waterfront Toronto does a thing for the Pan Am Games, Woodbine Live! is still a big empty field, public works committee orders a review of the Yonge-Dundas scramble intersection, and Iran bans filmmaker from travelling ahead of TIFF.
Oh look, Waterfront Toronto is doing something, contrary to Fordian belief that they just sit around and stare at each other all day. Along with the province, Waterfront Toronto has selected and announced the team of developers and architects who will build the Pan Am Games athletes’ village. The village will lie along Front Street about where the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway meet. After housing 8,000 athletes and athlete-related folks, the plan is to convert the village into a residential neighbourhood with 2,100 units.
As Waterfront Toronto proves its usefulness, a big empty field in Doug Ford’s ward (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) is proving something else. Ground was supposed to be broken on Woodbine Live!, this big shopping and funland extraordinaire, last fall, but instead the project is having trouble doing anything. Developers haven’t obtained building permits yet. Apparently the delay has much to do with the lagging U.S. economy, but some Toronto Star “observers” wonder if the retail portion has attracted enough tenants worth building for.
A funny thing happened to Iranian documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb on his way to TIFF. The co-director of This is not a Film had his passport taken away, along with his laptop and notebooks, and is banned from travelling. Mirtahmasb’s co-director (and the subject of the film) was already banned from travel and movie-making for 20 years because the regime found him guilty of supporting the opposition. The film must now speak for itself at the festival.
And Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) wants to review the usefulness of the Yonge-Dundas scramble intersection because he might have once seen a lot of cars there at rush hour and that sounded like a good enough reason to him. Minnan-Wong put forth the proposal at Wednesday’s public works committee meeting. Local Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto-Centre, Rosedale) is not opposing the review, but she’s pretty peeved that she didn’t hear about it until yesterday.