City
Morning Brew: May 12th, 2008
Photo: "Standby" by wu5mike, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday May12th, 2008:
Twenty years later, five familiar faces and voices will be returning to Toronto for a show at ACC on September 21st. Are Danny, Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, and Donnie still hangin' tough? Can they still make the teenaged girls scream the way they used to, or will this be a stadium full of 30 and 40-something screaming ladies? Tickets go on sale today.
A new report on tourism in Toronto suggests that the Big Smoke isn't a "must-see" amongst tourists because our sight-seeing is stale, service at attractions is poor, and roads and traffic are bad. When did Toronto earn the nick name "The Big Smoke" anyhow? I've lived here my whole life and only very recently has the use of this horrible name picked up steam.
Despite several years passing under laws preventing people from smoking cigarettes in public buildings, people are still lighting up in many of Toronto's night clubs. The Star went bar-hopping for an investigative story, and found that in some cases bar staff are clearly aware that this goes on.
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New, big recycling bins are a problem for residents living above retail shops. Carting a massive bin up and down stairs just isn't practical or possible for many Torontonians, and the city still doesn't have a solution to the problem. Bags may be the answer.
Is Yonge-Dundas Square for the people? Apparently not. In an incredible twist of irony, when the National Post attempted to photograph Toronto chief city planner Gary Wright (who was on the planning team for Y-D Square back in 1996), they were asked to stop because a multinational company was about to start giving away free pizzas in a corporate promotion.
A fender bender outside the Guvernment night club escalated to assault, abduction, and attempted extortion. One victim ended up in the suspects' car where he was roughed up and threatened, before being dumped on the side of the road way out near Pearson airport. Police are looking for 5 people and Torontonians are sure to blame 905'ers for polluting the downtown with their uncool, suburban, bad-ass behaviour.
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Perhaps Parm and Coca crashed the benz drunk and it will be it will be found later on in a ditch somewhere.
But you never know
Why is the story so unbelievable?
I hope NKOTB likes their trip to the Big Smoke. I've already got someone buying tickets for me so I can relive my youth in September.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto's_name
The best plan is not to think of tourists at all. Build an engaging, interesting, beautiful city for ourselves.
Fix transit. Discourage street begging. Keep parks/trails open year round rather than closing them up in the winter. Stop building fake beaches, real parking lots and skyscraper condos on the waterfront.
Let's focus on getting the great city back on track. Bland yes, but people will come to see it if it's ALIVE.
Or, we could sink a billion or so into an aquarium that no local ever visits...
From the industrial age mindsets of parents/grandparents whose kids moved toward the more populous Toronto claiming 'greater opportunity'.
It's also the only place I've ever heard the term "Upper Canadians" used in everyday speech. Prior to that, I'd only known it from my grade 8 and high school Canadian history textbook.
All these papers are writing articles about these new big blue bins, yet I haven't seen one yet that includes a picture of the darn thing. I dont know what they are talking about.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2485888043_1e5bb42c54_b.jpg
Working in claims i have heard these stories before and more often then not the vehicle was not stolen and recovered later in a ditch.
Broken? After one pickup? Not good.
It's not illegal to take a photo on public property, but that doesn't stop those unaware of the law from believing it is. In this case, I don't think the staffer was suggesting it was illegal, but rather that professional recording required a permit. Nothing on the YDS website suggests that permits are required for news photography.
For example?
Wiki says: The Big Smoke ? originally a nickname for London, England, presumably imported by British immigrants.
It'd be tough for them to win any legal battles over something like photography even though it's privated owned.