Photo: "rain runner" by wvs, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday July 21st, 2008:

Right after being touted as the safest big city in Canada, six homicides have been logged in Toronto this week, including three men found dead in a car in south Etobicoke yesterday. Police are saying it's likely gang-related, and that the victims were shot elsewhere before the bullet-riddled car was driven to its final abandoned location.

Toronto will be going ahead with a plan to install pay-per-use public washrooms on our city streets, despite recent failed attempts to run a similar arrangement in Seattle - where the public toilets ended up being used by drug dealers and prostitutes to conduct (non-peepeepoopoo) business. Toronto is hopeful that a $1 entry charge and 15-minute auto-security trigger will prevent ours from reaching the same fate.

--

A basement hydro vault explosion has resulted in a 5-alarm response, a number of firefighters being injured, and several residents of a Danforth & Victoria Park high-rise being evacuated. The nasty plume of smoke resulted in difficulties evacuating residents in higher floors, leading to disturbing news media visuals of people stranded on balconies.

Honest Ed's, the iconic discount shop in the Annex, celebrated its 60th anniversary this weekend, in style. While the hotdogs, cupcakes, and fashion show would have likely been shunned by Yorkville-types, discount shoppers and fashionistas ate it up and enjoyed it for what it was.

The success of the volunteer-based Meals on Wheels program is being compromised by high gas prices because the stipend given to drivers isn't enough to make up for costs. And if that's not enough to raise public concern, perhaps that news that beer is also going to get more expensive will.