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Newsstand: January 27, 2012
Oh, so no one told you it was gonna be this way? That must be tough. At least it's Friday, right? In the news: City looks for public's input on new Sherbourne bike lane proposal, Mayor Rob Ford tours TCHC high rise, York transit gets back on track, Toronto's labour disruption still brewing, and magically delicious Pan Am Games update.
City councillors are separated over the separateness of the proposed new separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street. Right now the proposal is for street-level but curb-separated lanes to run between Bloor and Gerrard streets, and for the portion of Sherbourne between Gerrard and Front streets to feature a raised lane with a mountable curb. Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) says the current proposal is “a good start” as far as levels of separateness go, but Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) says the lanes have to be “physically risky” to cars in order to keep cars out. But who cares what they say, right? Because the City is welcoming input from the public (hey, that’s you!) on the proposal until February 17.
Mayor Rob Ford spent a chunk of Thursday touring a Toronto Community Housing Corporation highrise in the Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue area. Apparently the mayor does one of these tours every week in order to get a sense of the conditions in TCHC units. Along with local councillor Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York-South Weston), at least two police officers, TCHC staff, and a bunch more people wearing mostly black jackets, the mayor guffawed at holes in walls, heard stories from tenants about bed bugs and drug dealers, and handed out business cards as he went door-to-door in the 14-storey building. The mayor promised residents that he was on the case, and if they called him, all their repair needs would be met. Oh, and also, he added that this totally proves that the TCHC should sell off those 675 other units in order to fund the repair backlog.
Transit in York Region will slowly start getting back to normal as one group of striking workers worked out a deal on Thursday and the other union will vote on a deal on Saturday. And by back to normal, York Region means that bus fare will be waived for a month and all buses will have security for at least a week in case any riders go rage guy on the drivers.
Meantime, talks between CUPE Local 416 and the City are still not going anywhere. The potential labour disruption is only 10 days away and the City’s director of human resources says there are still 20 key issues to work out, including tool allowances being paid out without any receipts required and lieu-time for working lunches. Talks are supposed to be under a media blackout these days, but, really, how will the City tell us how uncooperative the union is if they adhere to a blackout that both parties agreed to? Really.
And in the grand tradition of sports having something to do with cereal, the Pan Am Games organizers are revealing that the facilities will be bunched in “clusters” throughout the region. They said some other stuff too about the budget and the timelines, but that had even less to do with breakfast foods than the clusters stuff, so we stopped paying attention.