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Weekend Newsstand: February 21, 2015
In the news this morning: the province's new sex-ed curriculum is set to come out Monday, the Bay-Bloor pedestrian scramble is in trouble, and the city aims to improve George Street.
According to an email obtained by the Canadian Press, the new Ontario sex-ed curriculum will be unveiled Monday. The curriculum is said to be largely the same as the one introduced in 2010 and then scrapped after protests from religious groups. It will include information about same-sex marriage and homosexuality beginning in grade three, with discussions about puberty and masturbation being “encouraged,” in the CBC’s wording, in grade six. Premier Kathleen Wynne has said she thinks students should begin learning to read facial cues and body language as early as grade one in order to more fully understand consent.
The Bay-Bloor scramble, one of three intersections in the city where four-way vehicular traffic is sometimes stopped to let pedestrians cross to any corner they wish, is in trouble. Critics say it slows down vehicles disproportionately more than it helps walkers, while proponents see this outcry as a struggle for the identity of the city: Do we want a walkable, people-first Toronto, or a retrograde cars-only mega-city? One person who might weigh in, city planner Jennifer Keesmaat, didn’t return a request for comment from the Globe and Mail. Prominent urban planner Richard Florida argues that scrambles encourage the “creative class” to consider Toronto a first-class city, and that getting rid of the one at Bay and Bloor would be turning back the clock for the city.
The City of Toronto has bought a row of abandoned homes on George Street between Dundas and Gerrard, as part of a project to revitalize the area. Seven of the eight homes it now owns will be designated heritage buildings, while the remaining one will be used to expand the city’s largest homeless shelter, Seaton House. The shelter will also be renovated and its focus will shift from temporary and emergency shelter to longer-term assistance, perhaps because nearby residents have complained about the shelter and the people it houses, and to abide by notions that changing the shelter is key to changing the face of the neighbourhood.