news
Newsstand: March 5, 2012
It's back. Monday, it just never leaves us alone. However, it does provide us with news, so that's pretty good. Today: city council will debate changes to the TTC board; Scarborough residents talk transit; the Toronto Police are after you (although probably not you, unless you are a TTC-robbing bandit); rodents in a home (better than snake on a plane, right?); and it's cold. So very cold.
Today, city council will debate major changes to the TTC board, including TTC Chair Karen Stintz’s (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) motion to dissolve the board and reconstitute a new board, with seven new councillors immediately and four citizen members later this year. However, in the opposite corner, Mayor Rob Ford, Councillor Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), and fellow Ford Nation citizen Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) want to shift to a board where citizen appointees hold the majority, or perhaps all of the seats. And why might this be? Apparently, Team Ford doesn’t have faith in city council, or, as brother Doug so eloquently put it, “they don’t have the business experience and personally I wouldn’t trust them running my daughters’ lemonade stand.” Because running a city is very, very simple. That sort of thing can be easily passed off to elected representatives. But a lemonade stand? No, sir. That requires budgeting and infrastructure, and, well, you’ve got to be kinda likeable, or else nobody’s going to buy what you’re selling.
Over in Scarborough, more than 100 residents met at the Malvern Public Library yesterday to hear a panel discussing Scarborough transit options. More specifically, they came to hear that LRT is best. A group that goes by the name Respect Scarborough (and seems to be affiliated with/supported by CUPE Ontario) brought in a three-expert panel (Jamie Kirkpatrick of advocacy group TTCriders; Andre Sorensen, associate professor of urban geography at University of Toronto Scarborough; and Eric Miller, the director of U of T’s Cities Centre) to advocate for the the LRT plan. They focused on better coverage to Scarborough, and noted that Mayor Rob Ford’s Sheppard subway extension would end at the Scarborough Town Centre. Ah, nothing like a good, politically neutral, community-based discussion.
It’s Cops and Robbers, TTC-style. Toronto police are on the hunt for a “lone bandit” who most recently struck at Dupont station, landing a TTC employee in the hospital after shooting him twice. They’re also after a “group of thugs” that has robbed three TTC ticket collectors so far this year. The Toronto police have increased undercover patrols on the subway to try to nab the balaclava-clad bad guys, but, so far, to no avail. Also, are you aware that the children’s game of Cops and Robbers is also sometimes called Jail Tag, Team Tag, Chase, Police and Thief, Prisoner’s Base, Jailbreak, and Manhunt? Well, now you do, and you’re welcome.
As if the Toronto housing market doesn’t make headlines enough, the focus is now on semi-detached homes—or, more accurately, their squirrelly (and ratty!) residents. We’re telling you, the real estate market is just nutty.
Also, winter is here. Still? Finally? Hard to say. Either way, it’s cold.