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Weekend Newsstand: July 14, 2012
If only every day could be Saturday, the world would be a happier place. Although, one of those Saturdays would have to become a Monday, and that would just ruin it for all the other Saturdays. Let's just scrap that whole idea and focus on some news: a councillor agrees with the deputy mayor that downtown Toronto is no place for families; city council hikes street parking rates; Mayor Ford leans left, and then quickly back to the right; one city councillor worries about hot homes, another about hot dogs; Honest Ed's grave is not as flashy as you'd expect; and it's hot. Real hot.
Downtowners, get your pitchforks ready. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) has backed Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday’s assertion that Toronto’s suburbs are more kid-friendly and more affordable than the downtown, and says that the suburbs have more family features; more parks; less traffic; and compared to Toronto’s small condos, more living space for families. Gosh, if only there were something that could be done to resolve those issues! Maybe one idea might be to build condos with an extra bedroom for children? Oh, never mind. That will never work.
Toronto’s car-loving mayor has one more reason to cherish Toronto’s drivers—they’re money-makers. City council has voted in favour of hiking on-street parking meter rates, a move expected to raise an additional $4 million a year for the Toronto Parking Authority. Spots that cost $3.50 per hour and $2.50 per hour will go up by $0.50 an hour to $4 and $3, and $2 per hour spots would go up a quarter to $2.25.
Mayor Rob Ford leaned a little left on Friday and succeeded in limiting pay hikes and bonuses for senior managers at the City. However, in case you were concerned that he was getting a little too liberal for your tastes, you may be happy to know that the mayor voted against intervening in a court case related to the federal government’s axed long-gun registry (he lost that one). He also continued his annual tradition and voted against every one of the City’s community development grants programs on Friday. Nope, no danger of him falling too far from the right.
Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) is pushing for a change in temperature control in rental buildings. Currently, a bylaw is in place that requires the heat to be on from September 15 to June 1 to maintain a minimum temperature of 21 C. Matlow advocates indoor temperature being regulated by the temperature outside rather than by date. For those that don’t remember, let us remind you: May was hot. Real hot. Like, multiple days over 30C hot. Thank you global warming, and thank you Municipal Code chapter 497. In-home heatstroke sounds like quite a treat.
Following a rash of dogs-locked-in-hot-cars incidents, Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre) wants the city’s plaza owners to put up signs warning of the potential dangers of leaving kids or dogs in cars, in hopes that this will deter people from doing this during heat waves. She proposes signs that read: “Warning. Heat kills children and pets.” We propose a back-up method, just in case that sign doesn’t work: t-shirts for dogs that read “I’m With Stupid: Now Break Me Outta This Car!”
Though his name lights up Bathurst and Bloor streets, “Honest Ed” Mirvish’s gravesite is a tad more subdued, marked by only a black plated sheet. While five years after his death there is still no gravestone to mark his final resting place, perhaps he wouldn’t have minded. Mirvish once said that instead of tombstone he would like to erect a huge throne in the centre of Honest Ed’s, complete with ashes in an hourglass to be turned hourly, reminding Toronto that Honest Ed was still running.
Hot enough for you? Probably, unless you are a brewer, then it may be just right. If not, here’s a bunch of reasons to complain about Toronto’s ongoing heat wave.