September 2nd, 2010
STREET SCENE: Transit Ballet at Manning
By Jerry Waese // No Comments
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
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Thursday’s Headlines
By Nicole McIsaac // No Comments
Mayoral Race
• Smitherman, Thomson told to skip labour day parade [ Toronto Star ]
• Open the city's pools on hot days: Rossi [ Toronto Star ]
• A Rocco and a hard place [ Now Magazine ]
• Understanding 'suburban fury' [ Eye Weekly ]
City Hall
• Howard Moscoe: A merry prankster that made a difference [ Globe & Mail ]
• Quips and Quotes: Howard Moscoe's most memborable lines [ National Post ]
• Terence Corcoran: Miller regime tries to cash in with spending [ National Post ]
• Moscoe highlights scraps with Lastman [ Toronto Sun ]
City Living
• Restaurants face pricey municipal hurdle for backyard patios [ Toronto Star ]
• Hume: Do patio rules make good neighbours? [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto named one of worst ' Speed Trap Cities' [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto goes campy to get e-waste to the curb [ Globe & Mail ]
• New bee species discovered in Toronto [ National Post ]
• Laptops and lattes [ Now Magazine ]
Other News
• Coin, crumpled papers found in century-old time capsule [ Toronto Star ]
• Controversial ACC rally fires up teachers. Was it worth it? [ Toronto Star ]
• Ailing Toronto couple loses west-end home in foreclosure [ Toronto Star ]
• Time capsule revealed, but contents remain mysterious [ Globe & Mail ]
• A different election to think about [ National Post ]
• Toronto District School Board's $120,000 rally called a 'waste of time'' [ National Post ]
• Killer tomatoes [ Now Magazine ]
September 1st, 2010
World Wide Wednesday: Hotspots – Tokyo, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Copenhagen
By Hilary Best // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
• If you've been saving up for a trip to Tokyo's Shimokitazawa neighbourhood, be sure to plan your travels before 2013. The bohemian hotspot is due for revamping and some fear that the very characteristics which make this place a favourite (twisting alleyways, discount shops, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, open air urinals) will be lost. The Globe and Mail shares some local gems.
• Worldchanging shares a recent study from a team of economists at the University of Munich examining the effects of mandatory parking minimums on development in urban and suburban Los Angeles. The study found that parking minimums "significantly increase" the amount of land devoted to parking, to the detriment of water quality, pedestrian safety and non-automotive modes of transportation. The authors suggest that these mandatory minimums often exceed market demand for parking space.
• For the Love of Biking shares some creative bike post designs from Minneapolis's DERO.
• Trust Copenhagen to find an unexpected solution to the problem of illegal bike parking. Copenhangenize reports that the City has started a program to move illegally parked bikes near Metro stations to designated bike racks. The team of "bike butlers" will then oil your chain, pump your tires and leave a little note on your bicycle asking to kindly use the bike racks in the future. The positive reinforcement appears to be working - "when the project started in April they were moving around 150 bicycles a day. Today that number has dropped to between 30 and 50."
Photo by ajari
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Nicole McIsaac // 1 Comment
Mayoral Race
• Green and gritty: Candidates talks about the environment [ Toronto Star ]
• Smitherman targets environmental jobs [ Toronto Star ]
• Fiorito: Dumb mistake or just plain sick? [ Toronto Star ]
• Feldman endorses Rossi for mayor [ Toronto Star ]
• No need for recall [ Toronto Star ]
• Smitherman vows a greener city [ Toronto Sun ]
2010 Election
• Outspoken city politician Howard Moscoe packs it in [ Toronto Star ]
• Veteran Toronto councillor Howard Moscoe won't defend seat [ Globe & Mail ]
• It's debate-apalooza! [ Globe & Mail ]
Other News
• How a tweet sent Cineplex on bed bug scramble [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto timeline: A day in the life of a nonexistent bed bug [ National Post ]
• Day of the homeless remembers those who died on streets [ Toronto Star ]
• City's diversity should be more than a slogan [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto to host conference on gay tourism [ Globe & Mail ]
• Fantino turns over OPP command [ Toronto Sun ]
August 31st, 2010
NO MEAN CITY: Sweet times at Sugar Beach
By Alex Bozikovic // 5 Comments
Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture
Two weeks ago I took my son to Canada’s Sugar Beach. He’s a toddler, and I wasn’t sure whether he’d enjoy the visit. The newest park on the waterfront is a playful two acres of landscape design by Claude Cormier, with candy-striped hunks of granite and small, sugar-pile hills of grass – but that conceptual play is a bit over the head of an 19-month-old. But I liked it a lot, and surprisingly so did he: those rocks and hills are great to climb and tumble on, and the large artificial beach, with its wispy white sand imported from Ohio, is one serious sandbox. Throw in the sights of the lake (boat! seagull!) and you have a winning park experience for almost anybody.
The sad thing was, we had the place to ourselves. It was about eight on a Saturday morning – an hour when the only people using parks are parents, dog owners, and elders practicing tai chi – and there was almost nobody else there. The adjacent Redpath Sugar plant and the new Corus Quay office building (handsome but underwhelming) were quiet.
LORINC: Frankly, Miller has done good
By John Lorinc // 23 Comments
John Lorinc will return to his election coverage columns in two weeks. In the meantime, here is his column from the Summer 2010 issue of Spacing.
With Toronto’s sports franchises giving us little to talk about, it appears that our newest preoccupation is laying waste to every aspect of David Miller’s record as mayor. If the city seemed to project its hopes on him in 2003, Torontonians today appear intent on tarring Miller with all their frustrations, real and imagined.
Indeed, listening to the bellicose rhetoric of those seeking to replace him, an uninformed observer might conclude it’s been seven squandered years in Leftigrad. The faster we can undo the damage Miller has wrought, most of the mayoral candidates imply, the better.
But there are several major civic issues the candidates aren’t talking about. Here’s the reason: those rhetorical omissions, all quite deliberate, silently tell a tale of (mostly unacknowledged) political success.
Let’s look at four of the largest problems the city faced back in 2003: garbage, policing, corruption, and infrastructure. In all cases, Miller’s record has been strong enough to quiet potential successors (at least, so far).
GARBAGE
Though it seems like ancient history, Toronto’s waste management woes dominated council politics during the late 1990s and early 2000s as the City sought to replace the Keele Valley landfill. During the Mel Lastman years, Miller helped defeat the creepy scheme to ship Toronto’s trash to Adams Mine, but the backup plan — schlepping it all down to Michigan — morphed into an ugly international embarrassment for Miller after he became mayor.
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Nicole McIsaac // 2 Comments
Mayoral Race
• Let voters fire mayor mid-term, Rossi says [ Toronto Star ]
• Heritage grants 'unfair,' Rossi says [ Toronto Star ]
• Rossi's mayoral campaign struggling to get off the boards [ Globe & Mail ]
• Mayoral candidates face off on heritage [ Globe & Mail ]
• Pantalone to police union: don't endorse me [ National Post ]
• Smitheran promises more protection for Toronto heritage buildings [ National Post ]
• Mayoral candidates debate heritage [ Toronto Sun ]
• Smitherman's plan to save city's heritage [ Toronto Sun ]
• Rossi promises voters right to recall [ Toronto Sun ]
TTC
• Career college students locked out of TTC post-secondary pass [ Toronto Star ]
• Not so fast on TTC h.q. [ Toronto Star ]
Other news
• Fort York museum $4-million over budget [ Globe & Mail ]
• Porter: Confessions of an ex-warrior cyclist [ Toronto Star ]
• Bedbugs have TIFF theatres on alert [ Toronto Star ]
• Vote for best toilet ends Tuesday [ Toronto Sun ]
• G20 crossbow detainee languishes in jail [ CBC ]
• Smog advisory in effect for Toronto [ CBC ]
August 30th, 2010
ELECTION: Council Turnover – Ward 2
By Nicole McIsaac // 1 Comment
It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are eight wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the second in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent.
Ward 2 – Etobicoke North
Ward 2 is bordered by Highway 427 in the west, Dixon Road in the south, and the looping, twisting Humber River to the north and east. The ward includes pockets of marginalized areas and very wealthy neighbourhoods, as well as industrial lands.
The Candidates:
This is Rob Ford’s ward, and the biggest story so far is his brother Doug's announcement that he will run for the mayoral candidate's vacated Council seat in Ward 2. It's a bone of contention for other candidates; Rajinder Lall insists that a seat in City Council shouldn’t be a “dynasty,” while Andrew Saikaley argues that a Council candidate should not also be the campaign manager of a mayoral candidate. Here's a look at some of the people lining up to replace Rob Ford:
STREET SCENE: Bouquet of Bikes
By Jerry Waese // 1 Comment
On Spadina.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
Monday’s Headlines
By Nicole McIsaac // 6 Comments
Mayoral Race
• Ford tapping into suburban fury, poll finds [ Toronto Star ]
• Spin doctor Kinsella joining Rossi campaign [ Toronto Star ]
• Ford's vote for sole-source contracting called hypocritical [ Toronto Star ]
• Polls do not a mayor make [ Toronto Star ]
• Hume: Poll reflects a clash of cultures [ Toronto Star ]
• Persichilli: Toronto's future, not Ford's past, should be the issue [ Toronto Star ]
• Moscoe for mayor? [ National Post ]
• Furious George wants to tap into Ford's base [ Toronto Sun ]
• Mayoral hopefuls - except Ford - back gun registry [ Toronto Sun ]
• Ford enlists foes to raise cash [ Toronto Sun ]
City Building
• City seeks new deal with golf courses [ Toronto Star ]
• Women's College Hospital to stop birthing babies [ Globe & Mail ]
• Putting the 'fun' in 'underfunding'! [ Globe & Mail ]
• Rob Ford can't take full credit for Woodbine Live [ Globe & Mail ]
• Peter Kuitenbrouwee: City sees green in golf courses [ National Post ]
Other News
• How panhandlers use free credit cards [ Toronto Star ]
• Summer, kids and the parties on the beach [ Toronto Star ]
• First Nations want say in the preservation of important archaeological sites in Ontario [ Toronto Star ]
• One year later, cyclist killed in confrontation remembered [ Toronto Star ]
• Hunt for G20 riot ringleaders goes hi-tech [ Toronto Sun ]
