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Newsstand: May 16, 2013
Next stop, Thursday! Here's some news to keep you chugging along: TCHC starts naming names to police, a new complaint surfaces against the mayor, the City looks at making intersections better, and the anti-casino set gets a new ally.
A while back, Toronto Community Housing Corp. CEO Eugene Jones vowed to take action against contractors who could be bilking the company out of money. Well, we might just have our first winners. TCHC is looking to get police involved in two cases that have come out in a third-party review of its dealings with outside contractors.
If the recent lack of public complaints against Mayor Rob Ford has left you sitting around bored, twiddling your thumbs, perhaps devoting too many seconds to pondering when popsicle season will begin in earnest, consider the drought over. Some outraged citizen has launched a complaint with the City’s licensing department after Ford stuck magnets on cars at Tuesday’s Etobicoke community council meeting. Apparently someone takes littering by-laws very seriously. As do the #TOpoli folks, who have been calling it “Magnetgate.” Another thing that happened yesterday: the prime minister’s chief of staff bailed out a senator with a massive personal cheque.
It’s universally accepted among journalists that any story about traffic lights basically comes with a built-in pun lede, and this gem about the City’s public works committee giving the green light to a plan to better synchronize traffic signals is no exception. The decision came after some debate at committee, where it was revealed that, among other things, there is no red-light conspiracy out to get you when you’re driving and already late for work.
Less than a week away from the big city council casino showdown, one more councillor has made up her mind. Michelle Berardinetti (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest) is adding herself to the “no” camp, at least when it comes to a casino downtown. As more councillors declare their opposition, the possibility of a casino downtown becomes more faint. Because after all, we know councillors prefer saying no to things.
The war on scooters and mopeds has begun. Police are now ticketing motorized two-wheeled vehicles parked on sidewalks, and apparently that’s not sitting too well with people who own those vehicles and park them on sidewalks. E-bikes are notably absent from the police crackdown, however, so they’re probably now your best bet if you want to have it both ways.