City
Morning Brew: June 27th, 2008
Photo: "Nightboarder" by Chow Dogger, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Your Toronto morning news roundup for Friday June 27th, 2008:
A wanted Toronto fugitive has voluntarily returned to Canada from Africa and turned himself in to police. The former freelance accountant has admitted to allegations that he siphoned close to a million dollars from Toronto-area childcare centres before attempting to hide in Kenya and Uganda. You'd think that kind of money would stretch a lot further than a couple of years in developing nations, but the guy was so broke that he couldn't even afford the flight home (which was fronted by the CBC's The Fifth Estate).
18 of 23 trucks inspected in a safety blitz set up near Exhibition Place had safety issues, and 5 were taken off the road on the spot. I'm not sure how difficult it is to meet all safety requirements, but it would appear to be something that only occurs for a small percentage of large commercial vehicles.
The latest Gardiner Expressway makeover plan is pushing to have the spiral exit to York-Bay-Yonge unspiraled and replaced with a straight ramp to reduce the rush hour bottleneck. While they're at it, perhaps they can fix the mess that is the Lakeshore to Strachan intersection, remove the ridiculous new pedestrian-only light on Spadina just north of Front, and work on the timing for the Queen's Quay & Lower Spadina intersection.
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A young Brampton woman has died after a head-on collision with a TTC streetcar. Late last night, she somehow ended up travelling the wrong way within the dedicated streetcar lane. More details are sure to follow today.
Illegal dumping of trash in city parks is a heavy and expensive problem. Everything from old car parts to toilets are ending up in parks, costing the city a significant amount in clean up costs. A proposal to make dumping more difficult, and up surveillance in an attempt to deter and catch violators is in the works.
And High Park has been declared by Toronto police to be safe for dogs once again. The person and motive for the recently discovered poisoned bread fiasco are still unknown.
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I'll give it a day before the residents of St. Clair west start citing that as an example for why they should remove the streetcar line from their street.
How long does it take Jerrold to post an abusive reply?
And perhaps the reason people dump in parks is because they don't know about the alternatives? I don't know, people are pretty dumb and lazy but I wouldn't know what to do about an old toilet either. In conjunction with making it harder to dump perhaps a campaign on where to put your trash might solve the problem.
I think Jerrold must have been joking. The last thing that downtown Toronto needs is faster access by car. What we need is transit and pedestrian infrastructure with a dollop of bike lanes.
Yes, people are dumb & lazy. All they have to do is contact the city or go to the city's website (http://www.toronto.ca/garbage/index.htm) to find out how to dispose of unusual items. If they don't have a car to move items, they can arrange for pick-up.
This is what happens when you get too comfortable, you get soft. Believe it or not, Toronto's engine is its business community. Our economy isn't fuelled by knitters and poets, it's business - the bankers, the lawyers, small industry etc. Almost all of them rely on labour and other things that need physical access in and out of the city.
There's a very high probability that removing part of the Gardiner will create gridlock and slow access in and out of the city even further. That's inefficient, that's anti-business, and it won't help us remain competitive, which is vital right now.
I don't mean to jump on the fraser institute bandwagon, but the truth of the matter is we are forgetting that we have to appeal to existing and new businesses. Obviously a balance has to be struck, but the city under Miller has not struck the right balance. Transit is well and good, but in the absense of massive transit development, removing the Gardiner is a stupid move.
No, this is one of the things Toronto needs most (certainly after better public transit, but also in conjunction). Look, we all hate cars, blah blah blah, but having cars essentially idling away while gridlocked on the highway is not any better for the environment either. Rising gas prices will make driving inhibitive in the (very near) future, and hopefully Torontonians will find a good alternative in public transit to move themselves - but we can't just dismiss the fact that people drive and that there should be an efficient and fast way for them to get from Point A - the downtown core.
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I can't believe people from Toronto are still pining for this 'world class' bs. How can someone grow up here and have such little pride for the city? If you want to live in London or Tokyo, you should move there. They are much more dense, have much better transit systems and exist in economies with significantly higher fuel costs. It is inherent that they will rely less on cars, it would be entirely impractical. Their context is not our context. How we address our problems, along with our end goals, will not be the same.
Like I said, tearing down part of the Gardiner would be irresponsible without a massive expansion of our transit infrastructure. A study into it is a waste of money.
With anti-car people, its the same logic. Letting traffic congestion get worse is not going to make everyone or even a huge portion of people just abandon their cars. You have to accept that there will always be a great deal of commercial and residential traffic, and people who rely on it. The responsible way is to accept that and work around it.
Seriously? Who in God's name would be proud of such a tepid, politically correct city at all costs to the point of degradation type of city?
Maybe if Toronto had a backbone, I could have some pride for this city.