City
Morning Brew: Remembrance Day Ceremonies in Toronto, Hand Sanitizer Snafu, Billy Bishop Airport, Raptors Prefer Winning to Spirit, Giller Goes to Linden MacIntyre
Photo: "Img2009-11-01-009" by picturenarrative, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Remembrance Day in Toronto is being marked by ceremonies honouring those who have fallen in military battles. Some offices are closed for the day, some open late, and most of us will work through the day and take a moment of silence at 11am.
When you buy lots of anything, you generally get great pricing. But not always. The City of Toronto, for example, appears to have gotten shafted when it rush purchased over 200,000 bottles of hard sanitizer for health professionals at $2.59 per bottle. I bought one mini bottle of Purell at Shoppers this weekend - for about the same price.
The Toronto Port Authority has gone ahead and made the decision to rename the City Center Airport "The Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport," despite there already being an airport in Owen Sound, Ontario. The TPA generally does whatever it wants, doesn't it?
The Leafs are recently playing their best so far this season (3 wins, 3 loses, and 4 ties in their last 10 games, which really isn't so hot). But because in the NHL standings spirit is NOT everything, Raptors fans at the Zan Tabak Herald had a little fun with stencils down by Union Station.
The Giller Prize was awarded to Linden MacIntyre, for his book that touches on the uber-sensitive topic of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.
And tough new rules aimed at slowing the rapid restaurant/bar development on Ossington have been proposed and include: no large or two-storey restaurants, no rear patios, no large side patios, and more. Should these kinds of limitations be imposed? What's best for the neighbourhood?
Discussion
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By their actions, Council prefers organized crime to run wild in our neighbourhoods. The ungenerous would say that they're corrupt and run by the Mafia, but I'm sure it's just rank incompetence and unbelievable stupidity. Western politicians seem to respond similarly to all situations - reasonable fear of violence gets accommodated while civil, law abiding citizens are derided and abused. This is what you call a bad incentive!
keep the Ossington improvements a coming I say!
At the very least people should stop what they're doing, go outside and find a Canadian flag to look at for 2 minutes and give some thought to the meaning of the day. It's not too much to ask.
Might also be worth pointing out that h*pster meccas like NYC (Williamsburg et al) allow far fewer bars per block than Toronto does.
Whether our authorities can pull this off properly -- that remains to be seen...
Joe doesn't want diversity in the businesses. The council yesterday put, in essence, a serious limit to any new restaurant growth. That's not bars. The street is lined with high end restaurants including Libretto, Delux, Foxley, Paramour.
The by-laws apply to bakeries, cafes, and any foodservice establishments. I'm not sure what exactly he wants there? Clothing stores? More electrical supply shops? Mechanics?
I'm surprised you didn't go with Kirk2009
:)
"The council yesterday put, in essence, a serious limit to any new restaurant growth. That's not bars."
For some reason, in the eyes of City Hall, there are no “bars” in Toronto.
Pretty much any bar you can think of in Toronto is licensed as a restaurant, even places where you’ve never seen anyone order food. So neighbours say “there are too many places like X, Y, and Z in our neighbourhood”, and X, Y and Z are all places that serve drinks and serve little if any food. The city looks and sees that those places are officially “restaurants” (even though no one would call them that) and decides that neighbours want restrictions on restaurants, even though they don’t.
I'm not a supporter of what the city has done on Ossington. But I *would* like to see the city develop regulations that allow nightlife to flourish, while also protecting residents rights to peace an quiet. I think it's possible to that. A big first step would be the creation of regulations that distinguish bars from restaurants. Lots of cities have this. For some reason, Toronto doesn't.
just a thought....
And Poppy is right "At the very least people should stop what they're doing, go outside and find a Canadian flag to look at for 2 minutes and give some thought to the meaning of the day. It's not too much to ask."
A lot of people's lives were given so that we can enjoy what we take for granted today.
Make sure you take a moment to reflect on that and those that have lost loved ones.
Do Dat
http://www.dodat.com
Though, too many bars and restaurants -can- be bad for a neighbourhood if they end up going up faster than the rate at which people visit the area. If that happens, business just ends up getting diluted and it becomes tougher for any one individual location to thrive. And often the disproportionate increase in businesses can turn people off who are put off by the sudden change
Many of them hold office.
Go Raptors!