news
Newsstand: July 13, 2012
Good morning! It is Friday, which means only one more day until the weekend and three more days until Monday. In the news: Doug Holyday confuses downtown with a big scary monster that’s out to get our children; a fiery civil servant comes to town; cool landlords get consideration; no books for crooks; and Happy Birthday from the beach.
Yesterday, in an exemplary display of out-of-touch-ness, Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) came out, gums flapping, to tell the rest of council, and later, reporters, that downtown is not a suitable place to raise children. Holyday, the deputy mayor of the whole city, made the comment repeatedly to council that the city’s core is not the best place to raise children, even going as far as providing an anecdote about an imaginary child named Ginny playing in traffic (even though the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in Toronto are found in the suburbs, and not downtown). The whole hoopla stems from debate over forcing a condo developer to include family-sized units in a new 47-storey building at the corner of King Street West and John Street. Since he came to office, councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) has had a requirement that three-bedroom units make up 10 per cent of each new condo building in his ward. In the end, Holyday’s motion was defeated 27 to 4. There was no word on whether or not Holyday understands that some people are different than he is.
Toronto’s hottest job is set to be filled by a man from Barrie. Jim Sales will be taking the position as the City’s fire chief, which has been vacant since the end of April. Let’s hope he also fills the position of Mr. January for next year’s Toronto Fire Fighter Calendar.
Air conditioning could be coming to Toronto’s renters. Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) had his proposal to re-evaluate current bylaws regarding a “maximum allowable room temperature,” which could need to be maintained with air conditioning on the hottest of days, put to a staff report. The proposal also asked staff to look further into the requirement that rental units be heated from September 15 to June 1, regardless of how hot it is outside.
It seems that the library cart at Toronto West Detention Centre has been collecting dust for the better part of the past two years because the jail lacks a volunteer to push it around. This news comes after Alex Hundert, imprisoned for his role organizing protests around 2010’s G20, wrote a blog post describing the lack of reading material. In total, 29 of the province’s detention centres, including Toronto East Detention Centre, do not have library volunteers.
Danforth Avenue between Pape Avenue and Jones Avenue was closed yesterday morning for about an hour because someone put sand in a birthday card. A Canada Post employee was handling the package when a mysterious brown powder seeped from inside. Toronto police force’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear and Explosive unit was called to the scene to deal with the birthday wishes.