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Newsstand: October 13, 2011
Some may have a thirst for knowledge, but who needs a degree when you're schooling the week? As we blaze into Thursday, pause for a moment to reflect on these tales of news: e-book downloads and old-fashioned bookery are up at the Toronto Public Library just as the budget axe comes down, the newest new new transit plan, a plan to unlock gridlock one courier at a time, and Doug Ford voices his disdain for healthy vending machines.
The Toronto Public Library will release its list of recommended staff cuts on Thursday afternoon ahead of Monday’s board meeting. Like all City divisions, the library board (ahem, the new library board) has been asked to cut 10 per cent from the budget. Proposed cuts come at a time when everyone is saying they love libraries so much and totally showing off about how smart and interested in the world they are or something. But do Torontians really read library books? No, but do they really? For real? Yes. Yes they do. E-book downloads from the TPL have doubled since 2010, at about half a million so far this year, and libraries have clocked 18 million visitors in 2011. Not too shabby.
Would you like a gondola with that dedicated light-rail line? Urban planner Steven Dale thinks gondolas could make a nice compliment to our existing transit infrastructure. Putting aside not even coming close to mentioning the fact Mayor Ford doesn’t seem to acknowledge any form of public transit that doesn’t begin with an s end with a way and fill in with an ub (whoops—our bad, we forgot about monorails! Also monorails.), Dale says gondolas have worked in other cities and they could work here. Areas deeply in need of a gondola in Dale’s estimation include the stretch up the Don Valley Parkway and a link to the island airport. Tell you what Dale, call it sgonubdolaway and you might be in business.
Now, to crudely contort for our purposes the title of that sitcom about the tall guy that nobody but our dad likes despite its eponymous plea, it looks like Everybody Hates Couriers. The hard-working men and women make 80,000 deliveries a day in this city, and Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) turns around and calls them “curb hogs”? Ouch, Matlow. The rookie councillor is on a quest to cut down on gridlock, so he proposed bumping the fine for blocking downtown rush hour traffic from $60 to $500. That idea didn’t go over so well at Wednesday’s government management committee meeting. Councillors agreed couriers can be a part of the gridlock problem, but such a lofty fine is not part of the solution. Another solution came from Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), perhaps inspired by gondala transit, who suggested parcels be parachuted into the city centre. But the committee settled on asking staff to report on how to clear roads and bike lanes during rush hour.
And it may come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the mayor and his brother nickel and dime the city for the last year that Councillor Ford is upset with the new vending machine situation on City property. After signing a new vending contract with Pepsi that sees an estimated $1 million in lost revenues compared to the last deal thanks to a ban on unhealthy vending options, Ford questions why the City is even in the change-sucking business at all if they can’t make kids fat while they’re at it.