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.
---
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!
Comments (12)
I'm no Miller supporter, but I have no problem with him attaching conditions to the subway extension. He is paid to represent the people of Toronto, and this extension doesn't do anything to help commuters within the city. People in Scarborough STILL have to use the crappy LRT, so if York wants a subway, they can pay for it.
See, that's why Toronto needs some sort of downtown relief line. I'm still upset that the Transit City LRT thing only has ONE LINE south of Bloor. We need better transportation DOWNTOWN, folks.
Re: 905/416 transit smackdown, am I misremembering or did Mississauga not offer long ago to fund the lion share of a subway extension to Sherway or Square One? As I recall, Toronto rebuffed the offer because the extra fares would not cover the extra cost of adding all those additional riders to the system. It's more money in the city's pockets to have 905ers pay Green P parking fees than to pay TTC fares. But that's okay so long as the city uses all that extra revenue to fund green initiatives like, um, er, what exactly?
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.
The subway system can't handle many more riders on the Yonge line at Bloor station and points south.
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.
Putting the same amount of money into GO Richmond Hill (double track, electrified, grade separated from crossing rail line) would likely move more people in that area more quickly. Instead people on the Bloor Danforth line will likely have to give up hope of getting on at Yonge because every southbound train will be full.
I'm betting the registrants won't hear a word from William-Ashley and will only find out about any discontinued china when their guests show up with toasters to their reception.
Jonathan:
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.
My mom and aunt Nancy have Wedgewood and other sundries, including a number of beautiful Royal Doultons.
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.
I'm getting really sick of Joshua's mind numbingly poor quippy "analysis" of city issues. Turf war? Hardly. Like everyone else is saying, this is about Toronto not being left holding a bag of stinky, stinky shit the day this extension opens.
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.
everyone seems to think this line into the 905 wont help torontonians. will it not bring more people into the city to go to sporting events, concerts, restaurants, shopping, festivals, etc etc etc that dont have the use of a car, dont wish to drive, or prefer to take the subway...
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..
It's true they're restructuring, but I would be concerned about the fate of some place-settings nonetheless, if that's the sort of thing I got concerned about. This sort of news doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
You don't think this is at least in part a way to try to get funding for the city's (cheaper) transit plans first? I'm not the only one to think this is the beginning of potential turf wars, particularly given the current economic climate. The billions of dollars all these plans will cost is one natural resource Canada doesn't have.
But I'll try to be less mind-numbing about it. :)
View More Events
Suggest an Event
Join the blogTO Flickr group
Join the blogTO YouTube Group
RSS