City
Morning Brew: January 6, 2009
Photo: "Light Commute In Overdrive" by sniderscion, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Can't we all just get along? Toronto's executive committee of city councillors attached some notable conditions on their support of the Yonge subway into York Region. Like $2.5 billion worth of notable conditions. The move also screams turf wars since the city is pushing its own Transit City plans in what inevitably will turn into petty bickering about who gets transit money first. Get ready for it: 416 versus 905 Transit Smackdown 2009!
April Fools! Oh, right, still January. Tell that to Thomas Noftall who appeared to win $135,000 on 4 Fruit Smash scratch-off lottery tickets, only to find out that the winning combos were a printing error... and he'll get nothing. I've got an uncle who gives scratch-offs with every present he ever gives and nobody ever wins, so much so OLG's gotta have enough to cut this guy a deal.
I Bike T.O. has the scoop on how to winterize your bike, but if studded tires aren't your thing Clayton Preddy is digging his Ktrack. Although the manufacturer is targeting the city's winter bicycle commuters (or perhaps the ones who put their bikes away for winter), before you know it there will be meetings of the Green Snowmobile Club. That'll be good... snowmobilers will be able to see the angry look cyclists usually reserve for drivers who get in their way.
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I like getting mail as much as the next guy (ok, maybe even more - I love coming home to a letter or package), but one Toronto man went so far as to rob a Canada Post deliveryman at gunpoint yesterday.
Grand poobah of proper china and crystal Waterford & Wedgewood went into receivership yesterday, shattering job and wedding registry security worth more than all their place-settings combined. Not a Toronto story? It will be when hoardes of wild-eyed brides flock to local fine china poobah William-Ashley to update their registries to non-bankrupt dishmakers.
Team Canada won gold in the world juniors last night, their fifth triumph in a row. Does winning ever get old? The rest of the world doesn't really care? Well, Blame Canada!
Discussion
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Re: OLG's weaselly behaviour, "printing error" is not a valid excuse for false advertising. It should have been caught by OLG's many auditors, and OLG should have printed a retraction with an offer to buy back those tickets. If that didn't happen then OLG must either pay up, or pay even more in punitive damages.
If you look into the recent archives of Steve Munro's blogging, he gives very good explanations as to why. Anecdotally though, we can all see the problems. At Bloor and King the platforms already don't fully clear before the next train arrives. You can't funnel even more people through there without massive upgrades.
Unfortunately, upgrading these stations is an extrordinarily complex thing to do. They were practically built to prevent expansion from happening. It's gonna cost money and plenty of it.
One of the conditions that the city has insisted on is that if any improvements to Bloor-Yonge station to accomodate the added capacity are identified, they be accounted for in the project costs. Though I think the city should cover some costs for capacity upgrades, because it's pretty packed as it is, and there are quite a few new condo towers going up in the area (which the city itself has approved) adding to capacity concerns at Bloor-Yonge.
The company is not going bankrupt however, if you listen to the video accompanying the article link. It will however be reshaped into a slimmer, more cost efficient company without all the dead weight that 250 years can accumulate.
The reality is that while more people will be added to an already over crowded subway line, the number of people won't actually justify a subway line north of Steeles. Look at the parking lots and the bus ridership in York. The numbers don't add up to the minimum needed for a subway line (and those municipalities seem to be allergic to the sort of high density development that would be needed to change those conditions). And if there isn't the number of people, that means that the line will never (just like Mel's Sheppard line) meet the TTC threshold for cost recovery. That'll be the greatest and most enduring financial burden for the TTC so getting a deal for provincial subsidy on that line will be key.
it may mean a larger ridership, and trains that are more packed before they hit the core, but business in the city will hopefully see some action.. not everyone in the 905 likes shopping at smart centres, and big box power centres..
But I'll try to be less mind-numbing about it. :)