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Weekend Newsstand: May 26, 2012
Ah Saturday morning, when the summery smell of fresh cut grass comes at the cost of early-morning lawn mower wake-ups. Focus on the news instead: The mayor's itinerary reveals not much work is being done, Liberals force Catholic schools to say the word "gay," TTC ridership is up and they're looking to expand service, a new streetcar line is being built anyway, and road closures.
Still on the hunt for that dream job? The one that pays more than $150,000 a year, but your work day doesn’t start till noon-ish? The one where you get to dictate your own schedule, meet with whomever you choose, blow off meetings with colleagues, stakeholders, and just whoever you don’t feel like meeting with? The kind of job where people voraciously defend your performance anyway? Run for mayor. The Star has compared Mayor Rob Ford’s itinerary from last year to recent months, and the mayor seems to have a lot more time on his hands. Though defenders say he’s still out there fighting for the little guy, his schedule shows the mayor takes almost a third less meetings, and sometimes doesn’t even attend his 9:30 a.m. daily staff briefing because he’s still at home. Nice work if you can get it.
There is one thing the mayor does seem to work pretty hard at: buying parkland for his own personal use. But the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority doesn’t think that’s such a good idea. The TRCA has released a report on the matter, saying the purchase should not be allowed. The deciding vote will be held June 1.
The provincial Liberals have taken another step towards forcing the Catholic school board to recognize that being gay is a thing. The education minister announced an amendment to the government’s anti-bullying bill that would prevent schools from catholicizing the name of anti-homophobia bullying clubs. Currently some Catholic schools seem to think “gay-straight alliances” is too real, preferring to force students to call their clubs things like “Open Arms Club” and “Respecting Differences.” This is all much to the chagrin of the kind of guys who wear cloaks on a regular basis the Ontario Assembly of Catholic Bishops, who will make a statement on the decision on Monday.
The second annual SlutWalk took the streets on Friday, with hundreds marching.
More and more people are riding the rocket, and so the TTC is looking for $2 million to increase its service to meet ridership demands. Oh and look, they have an extra $9 million sitting around from fare revenue surplus. The TTC says it will take a bit of time for service to increase, with approvals needed from city council and the like. But they hope to bump it up by next fall.
Speaking of increasing TTC service, did you know a new streetcar line is being built right now on Cherry Street?
And speaking of streets, there will be subway closures on the Yonge line between Bloor and Union and a few road closures too.