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Newsstand: June 27, 2012
Good morning Wednesday! The brightest and sunniest day of the week. We are all just so happy to have you in our lives because without you, we would be that much closer to the dreaded weekend. In the news: a newish transit plan; Captain John’s floats off into the sunset; the little guys can pollute with the best of them; bridge over troubled condos; and drugs, drugs, drugs.
NEW TRANSIT PLAN ALERT! Two of Toronto’s most important transit-friendly councillors have a proposal to expand and improve as much as 175 kilometres of subway, LRT, streetcar, and bus routes. TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) and TTC Vice-Chair Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) are pitching their $30 billion OneCity proposal as a 30-year plan to help deal with the city’s ever-increasing gridlock problem. Stintz and De Baeremaeker are asking council to submit OneCity for a staff study in July. The details of what the plan hopes to accomplish are expansive, but many of the ideas in it have been discussed in the past—some of the environmental assessments have even been done for years. Of course, a lot of these ideas depend on increasing taxes as a provincial election draws near.
It is time to start saying goodbye to Toronto’s favourite floating live-in seafood restaurant. Captain John’s restaurant, where owner John Letnik has apparently been living since 1983, was ordered to shut down by health inspectors after Waterfront Toronto rescinded the ship’s lease and the City cut off its water supply, which seems redundant. Letnik owes $500,000 in taxes, rent, and insurance, so this probably means the end for the landmark.
Ever wonder who in your neighbourhood is polluting and what they’re polluting with? Now you can know (about some cases). Toronto Public Health’s ChemTRAC program, currently in its first phase, has found that some small- and medium-sized polluters have been emitting as yet undocumented carcinogenic toxins in the city. The data only includes power generators, water treatment plants, printers, and chemical manufacturers so far, but that list will continue to grow. Anyone using more than 100 kilograms of the chemicals found on a list of 25 priority substances will need to report to the program. In contrast, the federal government’s equivalent is only concerned with polluters once they use over 10,000 kilograms. There is even a handy map with which you may check on your neighbourhood establishments. However, not many potential polluters have data available yet.
In the field of extraordinary, yet slightly unsatisfying time-lapse videos, here is one of a bridge between two condo buildings near Spadina Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard West rising into the sky. While it is kind of remarkable that the 450 tonne structure was brought up 33 storeys on what appears to be a couple of ropes, the bridge does not reach its destination in the video.
In three separate drug busts since Sunday, GTA police have seized $20 million worth of marijuana plants; over $1 million worth of cocaine; and $1.5 million worth of various illegal drugs, including a package that could be Toronto’s first seizure of bath salts.