Photo: "AGO stairs" by septembergurl99, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Former Canadian Olympian, Marnie McBean summed it up nicely: "Toronto finally won something." Beating out Lima and Bogota on the first ballot, the Pan Am games will come to the city in 2015. Although the bid organizers are ecstatic about the win, public reaction has been ambivalent. As desirable as new sporting facilities and infrastructure are, many are worried about the price tag of an event that's not as prestigious as it used to be.

A Globe article featuring Amir Gissin, Jerusalem's leading PR man and Israel's consul-general for Toronto, explores his project to "rebrand" Israel abroad by using Toronto as a testing ground for the international community at large. Citing the city's overall size, its large Jewish and Muslim communities, and the fact that it's home to some of Israel's harshest critics (the article mentions the United Church and the Canadian Union of Public Employees), Gissin views it as an excellent testing ground for a PR project that aims to change the discourse that surrounds the country.

The TTC announced yesterday that it'll be limiting the number of tokens purchased at one time to 10 or less. The move is intended to prevent hoarding in the face of a possible (likely!) fare increase in the new year. Was it ever fast, though. The decision on the fare increase won't even take place until Nov. 17th. I also wonder about the effectiveness of such a strategy. If one really wanted to hoard tokens, couldn't he/she just purchase 10 over and over again on separate days? I guess they bank on people not going to the trouble of doing so.

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Toronto is home to some pretty strange houses and front lawns. And living around Dupont and Christie, I've had a chance to take a look at quite a number of them, clustered as they are in this area. I've often wondered, however, where else I could find such quirky architecture and/or laugh-inducing landscaping. Well, by combining the resource (read distraction) that is Google Street View with the recommendations of blogTO's followers on Twitter, my curiosity has been mostly satisfied. I've just taken a virtual tour of some of the weirdest properties in the city, and I thought I'd share the experience.

October's been a busy month for the visual arts throughout the city, headlined by the Leona Drive Project and the Toronto International Art Fair. And along with these major (although sadly short-lived) events, there's been plenty of stimulating shows at galleries across the city, many of which are still running, if only for a few more days.

Here's a roundup of the exciting events I've checked out over the last few weeks and some recommendations for upcoming shows.

With its many parks and trees, Toronto is a city that looks particularly beautiful in the fall. And as the end of October nears, much of this beauty has hit its peak. After a few windy days, what remains of the the bright and saturated foliage will likely hit the ground, leaving us with the prospect of cold grey days and (ugh!) snow. So, to commemorate another season, I thought I'd share some of the excellent photos in the blogTO Flickr pool that depict the various facets of fall.

Photo: "King and Bay" by PJMixer, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

As the Toronto District School Board loses students to Peel Region, York and Durham, new Director of Education, Chris Spence, is proposing to close 35 schools in eight neighbourhoods across the city. According to Spence, the point of the closures isn't only to save money by shedding costly unused space in sometimes run-down schools, but also to keep students in large enough numbers to allow more program choice. But with the price of commuting expected to steadily increase and families potentially migrating back downtown, some trustees think the proposed closures are premature and ill advised.

Also proposing cuts is Toronto's municipal government, which plans on taking a 10 per cent bite out of its operating budget by cutting $343 million over the next two years. Unlike the province, the city can't legally run a deficit, so councillors are being called on to implement immediate spending controls, a possible 3-per-cent hike in user fees, and to avoid any "new initiatives."

Speaking of the province and its deficit (recently announced at $24.7 billion), The Star is reporting that one of the ways the McGuinty government might tackle the shortfall is by bringing back the "Rae Day," or as it would have to be referred to this time around, the "Dalton Day." Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

As someone who went through his formative years during the 1980s, I must admit that I'm still profoundly influenced by this time period. Perhaps a kernel of my childhood naivety has somehow been preserved over the years, such that I tend to greet 80s memories in a less complicated and carefree way than I do those of the 90s, during which time, I, like so many others, experienced the awkwardness and alienation that seems to unavoidably accompany the attendance of high school.

So, perhaps problematically, I often find myself cruising the web for recollections and souvenirs from the 80s, hoping somehow to reengage with a certain feeling or attitude that's now (mostly) faded. I used to accomplish this by searching out old episodes of Degrassi Junior High or listening to the Smiths and Tears for Fears with startling frequency, but my new habit is searching YouTube for depictions of Toronto during my own personal wonder years.