City
Morning Brew: Cyclist Gunned Down, Cheaper Groceries, Consolidation of Public Schools, Wedding Coordinator Bankruptcy Blunders, Farewell to Alex Rios
Photo: "Stopped" by Danielle_Scott, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Late last night we had yet another shooting in Rexdale. A man was gunned down on his bike after going to the store to buy groceries. Police aren't yet saying whether or not this latest cold-blood killing is related to the recent spate of gun violence in the Martingrove and Finch area, but in some ways it's better if it ends up being deemed revenge-related, because randomly shooting and killing an innocent cyclist would be worse, right? Ugh.
Groceries could end up being more affordable overall, if the significant price drops by Loblaw spurs other major food retailers to do the same. We could use a break... it's been a tough recession year for a lot of Torontonians.
A 44-year old New Brunswick woman made a very unexpected 14h drive to Toronto this weekend when a gun-wielding man carjacked her and forced her to take him all the way from the east coast to our fine city. Either this guy was desperately trying to save on air fare, or he's a deranged lunatic.. and now amongst us. Gasp!
Several highly anticipated events that were scheduled to take place in an unusual venue, the non-functioning, historic Don Jail, have all been canceled because the Ontario Realty Corporation claims that the event promoter never acquired the required licenses to throw the events. Oops.
Is it time to do a major consolidation of public schools in Toronto? Closin a bunch of schools that have low enrollment might force some students to travel further everyday, but may also allow the TDSB to save $10-15 million annually. It's clearly a tough decision to make.
Imagine finding out on your wedding day that your event coordinator/decorator has no plans to come and do the job because they're on the verge of declaring bankruptcy? That would suuuuck. But it's alleged that the company Affairs With Flair did this to more than one couple, and further allegations suggest that the company continued to take client payments even though they were in danger of going belly up. This one may end up being decided in the courts.
And the Jays let Alex Rios contract be taken over off waivers by the Chicago White Sox yesterday, saving the sub-0.500 team some $60-million in salary over the next 5 years. It's a shame they couldn't have traded him for a prospect, but getting rid of a very high-priced, mediocre player is generally a good thing.
Discussion
22 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
While I understand the history behind the seperate school boards, here's what I always thought should have happened in Ontario - consolidate the Catholic and Public systems into one giant school system.
To further save money, the school boards would be merged and the people who sit on the board would be let go and replaced by school principals or VPs who know the in-and-outs of the school system.
Finally, the time for trustees to go has come. Unless they can make a valid claim on their value to the school system, let them go.
Any 'price war' the grocers want to have is okay by me.
If it is Loblaws just cutting profit margins (which I doubt) that would be a good thing, but if it means they are squeezing suppliers who in turn would squeeze farmers then I don't support the price drops. We shouldn't forget that we are not only consumers but farmers, workers and members of a global community, prices are not the bottom line for a happy, sustainable society.
Now, we can go many rounds, i'm sure, about the validity of seperate schools, and why not Jewish or Muslim or <insert religion here> schools. But that's not really the point.
The point is that we chose Catholic for our children for a reason. (in my case, we are French Catholics and go to French Catholic school.)
Fewer trustees though, THAT I could get on board with!
A City bylaw allows cyclists with a tire size of 61cm or 24 inches or less to ride on the sidewalk.
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/sidewalk.htm
And I hope that Loblaw's prices do actually go up, so people can see the silliness of buying an apple imported from New Zealand and fertilized with synthetic oil based fertilizers vs. a local apple from a few miles away, fertilized with natural fertilzers (and so much tastier!) for the same or lower price. Ahhh..... one can only dream!
To Denise, fair enough, I went to a catholic school as well. I certainly respect where you are coming from but that is where a private education comes in. Pay to send your kids to the school of your choice. The government should not use taxpayer money to fund a catholic (or any other religious) school.
I'm a born-and-raised Roman Catholic but I always felt the school was driving me to believe for the sake of believing. Part of the reason I'm not a practising catholic anymore (and make it a point to avoid it altogether) stems from my school experience. I had to give up opportunities to take other classes to sit in a religion class and be told what to believe because the catholic curriculum stated that I had to take religion each year.
Denise's argument for the Catholic school system but against trustees shows the typical taxpayer attitude: attack the other, never something I use. Like Rob, I suggest a private catholic system. However, I think more trustees who receive a salary equivalent to a decent full-time job (somewhere in the $50-65k range) would be beneficial to the school system.
IIRC, the Catholic school board was facing serious financial ruin back when Bill Davis was premier. When he decided to retire, public funding was extended to cover the running of the Catholic schools, so why would they want to buy back the schools? They already managed to hand funding over to the Gov't of Ontario once.
I always thought that the province should have stayed out of the business of funding religiously based schools - leave it to the parishoners to fund, not the general public.
Also, local does not equal organic. So I don't see how your comparison of a "synthetic" New Zealand apple with an organic Ontario one is valid.
In this case, saying "well, it was done in the past as part of a compromise" is an appeal to antiquity.