City
Morning Brew: Commuter Rage, Plastic Baggery, and Paving Fees
Photo: "This Flight Tonight..." by Froz'n Motion / Cameron MacMaster, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
City Hall says merchants can keep the 5-cents they collect for plastic bags customers take away from their stores. Is this no-strings-attached policy appropriate? Are consumers and the environment basically taking a hit, or should merchants be forced to dole out a portion of the money collected for green initiatives?
The fate of the elevated Gardiner Expressway between Jarvis and the DVP is also in question at city hall today. Leave it as is, repair it, replace it, or tear it down?
Imagine making your way to work on the GO train, and arriving with 2nd degree burns after a co-commuter tosses a piping hot coffee in your face? Commuter rage reared its head at Union Station, and the judges reaction in court says it all. Is the raging coffee tosser insane or evil?
Balsillie has officially submitted his application to the NHL - to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton. Is he wasting his time? I mean, it seems that Gary Bettman has already made up his mind, and since Gary Bettman has already demonstrated that he's able to make up the rules as he goes, this application may just be a put directly into the waste bin beside his desk.
Should Torontonians have to pay the City a $127 permit fee to re-pave their driveways? Some people may be inclined to think that the City should fine people who DON'T re-pave their driveways.
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Also, the HTML this morning is a little fudged.
Non biodegradable multiple use grocery bags: 5 cents each
Non-biodegradable for the win. :-)
Much to my surprise, my coworker brought back with them a 'Fresh' apple pie from the place just this weekend. I thought they were only open during the summer and fall when apples were ripe, but apparently someone thought, "hey, why not get all our apples from California and we can stay open all year?" Disgraceful.
There should be a 10 cent charge on them if only to smack that smug look off the faces of all the greenwashing companies out there who use them.
I'd like to see the bag fee at 10 cents, or even 25 cents -- and remitted entirely to the city. Disposable plastic bags are one of those products that should simply disappear from our lives.
re: Gardiner
Anyone who has ever driven on the Gardiner when there is a hockey game or concert on knows that none of these "options" will help. Rather than focus on redesigning the highway, we need to look at alternative ways to get people in and out of the city. I personally don't have a problem with the overhead highway, but I do have issue with the underlying Lakeshore highway and the access ramps from the downtown core. And I definitely have issue with people driving down the Gardiner to park in the city core. If your destination is in the downtown core (which is the one part of the city well served by transit), then we should not be encouraging you to drive. Let's get serious about changing behaviour to park&ride, etc.. If we maintain capacity on the Gardiner for through traffic, but reduce capacity on getting into the downtown core (by removing the access ramps at Bathurst/Spadina/Yonge/Jarvis) then we'll get people looking seriously at alternatives to driving.
There is an opportunity here for the City though - waive the fee for people who want to replace their parking pad/driveway with permeable materials.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/green-pavement.htm/printable
@Sean Galbraith - I thought the city didn't want biodegradable bags because it would mess up their plastics stream?
re: biodegradable bags... not a good option since they don't biodegrate in a landfill (no oxygen), won't get composted in Toronto's green bin program (will be taken out before it breaks down), and will contaminate the blue bin program (don't want biodegradable bags mixed in with plastic.)
Frankly, I don't care. I'll pay the 5 cents -- these are still cheaper than buying garbage bags (which is what I use 'em for).
But I with somebody at the city would talk about another plastic problem that I saw scattered all over Cherry Beach on the weekend: TAMPON APPLICATORS. The place was awash in 'em (and I nearly got poked by a syringe, I hasten to add).
Just imagine it spoken with a lisp and it reads OK
I'm even more amazed by how people are suddenly so attached to plastic bags. Even though we do find them useful for a few things like garbage disposal, my parents could NEVER use them up fast enough, and built up a huge stockpile that always seemed to grow and never shrink. My boyfriend still bitches about the collection I have.
The current "alternatives" cannot accomodate the volume of people arriving via the Gardienr each day. Despite Metrolinx's best work with crayons on maps, their plans include no acutal discussion or plans for funding to construct suitable alternatives. Even if they had, construction would be so far off in the future, The Gardiner will have collapsed by the time they are built. We're stuck with requiring a very high capacity route (Gardiner or redesigned Lakeshore) into downtown for the next 20 years.
True. Also very true of paper bags as well. Reusable are definitely the way to go (as long as they're treated as such and not tossed as the reusable bags become cheaper in price and made of cheaper materials)
Best way to save the environment? Take advantage of the leftover corrugated brown boxes that some stores leave out for people. They already exist as they were used to ship the product to the store. As opposed to buying new reusable bags or bins which have to be produced, shipped, stored, shipped again, etc.
Already got a stern look from a Loblaws manager when I was using Sobeys bags for my purchases. ha ha
++++
Pet owners - use the bags from the produce section of your grocery store to pick up your dog poop.
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GARDINER. A stupid idea if Miller thinks of cutting off the Gardiner at Jarvis. The idiot just took away a lane for cars. Think of the congestion!
I say leave the Gardiner and Lakeshore as it is but consider a tunnel from Leslie to Jameson for trucks. It would be a great alternative when the Gardiner closes for repairs and for Tamil protests.
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Never have I seen such greed from a mayor of Toronto. It's time for a city of Toronto financial audit from the top down. Taxpayers are getting pissed off. Don't be sheeple, tell them off!
BTW - the City doesn't recycle biodegradable bags because its plastic has already been recycled, therefore, leaving it an inferior substance to create new plastic products.
@Sean Galbraith: My apartment too, and it's stupid that biodegradable bags are sold and yet they're separated with the plastic bags from the trash.
I agree that there should be an exemption for store owners who use biodegradable bags. It seems that there's nowhere for biodegradable bags to decompose and so their existence is pointless. I find that sad.
As for Jarrold's questions:
"Is this no-strings-attached policy appropriate? Are consumers and the environment basically taking a hit, or should merchants be forced to dole out a portion of the money collected for green initiatives?"
Consumers aren't taking a hit, they just like to whine. The environment is taking a bit of a hit. Merchants shouldn't be forced (no one wants to be forced) but instead encouraged. You catch more flies with honey. And speaking of no-strings attached, that's another type of bag that they don't know what to do with: Paper bags with strings.
@Sean Galbraith: My apartment too, and it's stupid that biodegradable bags are sold and yet they're separated with the plastic bags from the trash.
I agree that there should be an exemption for store owners who use biodegradable bags. It seems that there's nowhere for biodegradable bags to decompose and so their existence is pointless. I find that sad.
As for Jarrold's questions:
"Is this no-strings-attached policy appropriate? Are consumers and the environment basically taking a hit, or should merchants be forced to dole out a portion of the money collected for green initiatives?"
Consumers aren't taking a hit, they just like to whine. The environment is taking a bit of a hit. Merchants shouldn't be forced (no one wants to be forced) but instead encouraged. You catch more flies with honey. And speaking of no-strings attached, that's another type of bag that they don't know what to do with: Paper bags with strings.
I'm eating a Macintosh right now that was picked last fall in Prince Edward county... still good.
I think "fresh" means not frozen. The apples may not be fresh, as in "just picked", but the pie is made fresh... from the stored apples. Unless they said they were coming from elsewhere, I don't think they've advertised incorrectly.
going on a tangent, i find it amazing how so many people claim to like the NDP, despite the fact that we've had a NDP mayor for years....
Maybe, in cases like this commuter rage one, an eye for an eye isn't such a bad compromise.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/204293