MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Adam Giambrone's fun continues, TPL wants people to "lose" books, family friendly condos, the tenants from hell, and GTA mover scams
It sure isn't fun to be Adam Giambrone these days. How well would anyone's record hold up under such scrutiny? Although the TTC is not looking for him to step down, the latest controversy involves a $10 cab ride he took on January 4, 2009 -- the day he had his first date with Kristen Lucas. Marked as a "ward visit," Giambrone has apologized for the error and donated the amount in question to the city. Hasn't everybody abused a taxi chit at least once? The Toronto Public Library will start an intriguing program on Monday that encourages participants to "lose" books. For this year's Keep Toronto Reading Festival, the TPL has created 99 journals in which readers are asked to write about the books they love. Scattered across the city, the idea is that they will be passed randomly from person to person, eventually acquiring diverse insights and anecdotes from a variety of Torontonians. At the end of the festival, they'll try to track down the journals and display the reader interaction contained within their pages. Mayor Miller has already got the ball rolling with an entry in one of the journals. His choice? -- Minnow on the Say by Philippa Pearce.
Although condo units are still being snatched up like crazy, the City would like to see more families taking up residence in the downtown core. As Councillor Adam Vaughan explains, "You can't sustain a city with a monoculture; you can't segregate singles from families and seniors from young people. What we need when we build these buildings is to build vertical neighbourhoods, and that means we need to sustain economic diversity and social diversity." It will, however, be an uphill battle, as developers tend to shy away from the minimum three-bedroom requirement believed necessary to lure potential home-buying families into condos.
City
Vintage Toronto postcards, redux
Having shared my first set of old Toronto postcards under a "then and now" theme, I decided to go with a little less structure this time around. As interesting as it is to compare the old city with its contemporary counterpart, the literalism of the exercise tends to diminish the intrigue that surrounds these historical materials.So there will be no Google Street View today. Instead, I've confined myself to imagining what these buildings and street-scapes look like now, if indeed, they exist at all.
Tech
Ride the City gets the jump on Google with Toronto launch of interactive cycling maps
Last week's announcement that Google Maps now offers a cycling directions feature was cause for both excitement and disappointment on the part of Toronto's two-wheeled commuters. While the implementation of such a tool initially seemed a timely match for the unseasonably warm and rider-friendly weather, news that it's currently only available in American cities was occasion for a disheartened sigh from cyclists north of the border.But despite the fact that many have come to rely solely on the mapping prowess of Google, there are a host of other options. Founded in 2008, New York-based upstart Ride the City now offers cycling maps for nine North American cities, including Chicago, Seattle, and, as of last Thursday, Toronto.
City
NOW writes the latest chapter in the city's East vs. West rivalry
It's a question that's been around for almost as long as Toronto itself. Is there chasm -- some deep-seated animosity -- between the East and West sides of this city? And, if so, where's the line that divides us from ourselves? Well, just in case you thought the condominiumization of Toronto had rendered such questions moot, NOW magazine has poured a little petrol on the fire. This week's edition of the publication will feature two different covers, one for readers in the East and one for readers in the West.
