City
Morning Brew: Island Airport Expansion, Mayor Miller's Book, Bill Blair's Candor at Jane & Finch, Students Protesting Police Presence, Webs on the Flag
Photo: "1" by Spirited_Away, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Will they pave the old Canada Malting silo site and put up a 600 space parking lot to serve the Island Airport? As rumours swirl about the potential for several more airlines (including US-based Continental) to operate out of the controversial downtown airport, Air Canada Jazz (who was evicted in 2006) is still pursuing legal action at the federal level against the Toronto Port Authority. If expansion is in the TPA's plans (and they're not in bed with Porter), shouldn't Jazz be a shoe-in?
Outgoing mayor David Miller is writing a book highlighting the interactions and experiences he's had with the people of the city during his tenure as mayor. All politics aside, I'm really looking forward to reading this when it comes out in June of 2010. I had the pleasure of hearing him tell a few personal stories about memorable Torontonians, and they were great.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair had what sounds like a serious and honest heart-to-heart with residents of the Jane-Finch area, regarding the issues of racial bias, stigmatization of the community, and challenges with curbing youth violence and gangs. It's a breath of fresh air to have a chief of police who isn't afraid to take the issues on in this way.
Students at Northern Secondary plan to protest police presence in their school today. The protest stems from the recent YouTube arrest video/incident, which I thought clearly showed who was to blame for the fiasco.
Wang "David" Chen, the Kensington shopkeeper who was charged with assault and kidnapping of a convicted thief, is finally in court today. His defense attorney is hoping to see the charges against him dropped, but if they're not, he plans to launch a constitutional challenge of our citizen's arrest laws.
And news out of an Oshawa Zellers store has us wondering whether draping the Canadian flag with ghouls and spider webs is extremely offensive, kinda gauche, or not worth being concerned about whatsoever.
Discussion
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Taking Porter again in two weeks to Thunder Bay.
Such a great convenience having it there.
Bring on Continental!!
First it was going to be an opera house. Then it was going to be a museum. Maybe they can save the bottom ten feet or something, but honestly..?
Expand the airport, but end flights at 10 pm and cut service on the weekend.
The flag is the flag. Don't whore it up with garbage. Don't turn it sideways and make it into gaudy car dealership banners. Don't wear it like a f*king cape on Canada Day and wipe the Jagermeister drool from your mouth with it. So no, don't put spiders and webs and crap on it.
Rome and Athens have a few crumbling old buildings from important points in history, too.
A park won't generate revenue or tax dollars, but a parking lot will. So will a condominium, but I don't think anyone wants to live across an inlet from an airline hanger...or do they?
I just hope that the debate on the fate of the space is brief and does not drag on out until it becomes the next round of councillors' topic to discuss. I know that Toronto doesn't like to do much else than waffle but it's time to shit or get off the pot.
Sigh. Why have Canadians become so accustomed to aiming low?
Fixed!
Great idea!
Are we living in bizarro-land?? What with all those monstrous glass/steel condos in the skydome area, what's adding a few more thousands of people traffic to the area by letting gianormous planes land on the airport!!
WHO are these imbeciles at TPA???
I mean, WHO TAKES the TTC ANYWAY!(*sarcasm)
You really think they can land a 777 on the tarmac on the Island?
If that's the case, why isn't Jazz allowed to fly there then?
Jazz used to fly out of the island, ending around 2006. There has been much politicking between Porter, the TPA and Jazz since then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_City_Centre_Airport#Air_Canada_Jazz_eviction
The air traffic from the airport is limited by the size of the runway. Currently it is only prop planes, no jets, and I don't think that will really ever change.
And going by readers comments in the T.O. Star article, folks seem to "not" want more traffic out of there. So what's the TPA's problem?
HAhahaaa... hmmm, maybe you should ask the thousands of people who choose to cram themselves into closet-sized condos in the spadina/skydome/waterfront area. I figure they don't mind a little noise. That's just my take.
And I for one couldnt be happier the Airport is there.
You do not hear the airplanes at all. What you hear is the screeching on the 509 streecar zipping down Queens Quay and the honking of car horns at jackwad cyclists who dont obey the rules of the road. Any whirl of a plane that I may hear is like white noise.
I love Porter and everything it brings and offers me as a passanger.
Most Torontonians really don't give a rat's ass about their own history.
Someone should put together an 5-10 minute emotionally-driven powerpoint show about the destruction of heritage landmarks in Toronto and play it at the start of these meetings. It could use these photos from this Urban Toronto forum thread (http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=6947&;page=124) and some deep voiced actor to dictate in a really symathetic manner (someone who you'd hear talking about volcanoes destroying remote villages on the Discovery channel). Then see how many people cheer at the suggestion of demolishing things like this.
They seem like boneheaded idiots to most of us, but I'm optimistic that a little education would go a long way.
Personally, i find highway noise way more disturbing. And yes, streetcars generally are screechingly loud(*not as loud as the buses though) so i hope the new LRT lines will provide us with quality/low noise transportation. People take city noise for granted sometimes(*I've lived in cities all my life) It's a slow death for your ear drums.
Everytime a building is coming down you're whining. There are tons of buildings that have been preserved, reused, restored in the city, you don't seem to appreciate them if you dont see the balance between the heritage buildings that have been preserved and those being torn down for better use. Have you been to the distillery district? The roundhouse? Should we do the same with the Malt silos? What is your better vision for them?
If Porter plans to expand (and other airlines use the airport, too), a parking lot only makes sense. If the city gets a park otu of the deal, so much the better.