Sunday Supplement: No cash for TO, no electricity for Metrolinx, and no more Dufferin jog
Sunday Supplement rounds up the week's most important, amusing and link-worthy news stories.
From the week that was: Toronto snubbed on G20 money, Metrolinx wants to knock down some homes, a 100 year traffic nightmare finally comes to its end, an idea to pay kids to go to school confirms the apocalypse is coming, and we say a sad goodbye to former Leafs coach Pat Burns.
Verbatim
"They had money for just about everything up there -- things that people neither needed nor wanted, and yet nothing left for Toronto -- no legacy fund and not even compensation for businesses which were badly hurt." - Liberal MP Dan McTeague on the G8/20 funding discrepancy between Muskoka and Toronto.
"That's the problem with politics today...that people are doing things solely for the sake of winning or advantaging themselves, and it's not something I would have any intention whatsoever of doing now or any other time." - John Tory muses about campaign strategy after fielding a trick call from Rob Ford's deputy communications director, Fraser McDonald who was posing as "Gary from Toronto."
"Should we pay kids in our more disadvantaged communities to do well in school? Perhaps, as part of a poverty reduction scheme?" - Education director for the Toronto District School Board, Chris Spence, on a controversial proposal to pay kids to attend school.
"If we actually could electrify the system we'd actually need to test and commission the actual system for probably six-to-nine months. When we're actually talking about construction finishing, you're almost looking at a year before when you need the service in place." - Gary McNeil, president of GO Transit, who actually contends that an actual electrified rail link to from Union to Pearson can't actually be built by the promised date of 2015.
"As for my career, I always said to my kids, 'you don't cry because it's over, you're happy because it happened.' That's the main thing. I'm happy it happened." - Pat Burns, who passed away at 58 on Friday.
Numbers
52 - The number of CCTV camera the Toronto police would like to retain from the G20 summit for use throughout Toronto.
70 metres - The length of the new Dufferin underpass.
13.5 hectares - The size of a potential development in Toronto's waterfront film studio district that would see the area made to look like New York, Chicago and London.
7 cents - The approximate savings per litre one can expect when buying gas from the Costco station at Warden and Highway 401.
9 - The number of homes that Metrolinx wants to demolish for expansion of the Georgetwon south rail corridor.
Ideas from the gravy train
Although it's a sure bet that the City won't be ponying up any funds for new traffic lights -- especially ones that aren't so kind to the colour blind -- I still think these things look damn cool. Check out the image below for how they work. Spotted on Yanko Design.
From the archives
We posted this Toronto Tetris clip back in 2007.
Lead photo by McIvory, second photo by Todd Metcalfe.
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