City
Morning Brew: The Annex getting Sketchier, Detroit Cop's Gun Found in East York, Province Powerless on 407 Billing, H1N1 Vaccination Waste
Photo: "dancing at sunrise" by louise@toronto, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Just how sketchy has the Annex become? It's certainly seen a shift toward being a destination for cheap eats and booze, and along with that has come dirtiness, drunkenness, and violence. In an interesting roundup of opinions, Adam Vaughan takes a jab at the 905 mentality, local shop owners talk about the rapid fall, and chicken wings take some of the blame.
Police in East York responding to an armed mugging of a fast food chicken delivery guy discovered a loaded gun that is believed to have been stolen from the Detroit Police some time ago.
Toronto-area drivers that suddenly get questionable 407 ETR bills (in the tune of hundreds or even thousands of dollars, mostly accrued interest) shouldn't rely on the provincial government to do much about it. According to Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, the 407 "is responsible for establishing its own business practices," and he's "not aware of anything" Queen's Park can do to change it. So what's to stop them from simply holding onto unpaid invoices, sending out notification after waiting for heaps interest to accrue, and then seeking payment?
The normally rather peaceful neighbourhood of Bloor West Village experienced what appears to be one of those bling-bling bang-bang types of shootings. Several shell casings have been found, but no victim has turned up yet, after an altercation between occupants of a black SUV with tinted windows and slick rims and a white four-door sedan.
The media are making a whole lot of noise over nothing serious. H1N1 vaccinations have a very short shelf-life, and at the end of each day a few may require disposal as a result. Collectively this represents "hundreds" of doses but overall it's less than 1% lost.
And for those of you who were caught up in the Santa Claus parade crowds this weekend, or just out and enjoying a couple of beautiful falls days rather than sitting in front of a glowing computer screen, here's what blogTO was up to:
- Christoper tried to test-drive a $500,000 car.
- June Too dined on yummy Filipino food at Remely's - in a strip mall in Scarborough.
- Charlotte uncovered some local design finds at Bluebird Handmade in the Annex.
- Tim announced the closure of I Deal Coffee on Queen St, and pondered the potential fate of Madras Pantry.
- Matthew reviewed the Bellwoods showcase show at Lee's Palace.
Discussion
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As someone pointed out in the comments on the Globe link, Toronto continues to prove it's the worst planned city on the planet.
The entire problem is the Brunswick. People aren't coming out of Sushi joints and pissing on things.
Put a couple of cops on the corner and start busting people. At the very least fine the Brunny for noise violations.
You mean the perverts who invaded homes in Little Italy that the news inexplicably reported as "Near Kensington Market" or the Annex?
"stabbings"
No s on the end of that.
Discussion in the 'hood centres on whether the 2 guys involved were from outside the area and decided to settle things on Elora, or if one of the parties invovled lives on Elora. Much speculation going on.
I've lived in the area for over 12 years and think this is an aberration for BVW. I don't think the place is going to go to hell in a handbasket
I can see why parts of Little Italy would be described as "the Annex," but maybe your sentence just isn't clear enough?
@mr hate: "Near Kensington Market" is fair. It's a really short walk away from the stretch of College that qualifies as "Little Italy", depending.
How interesting! Love neighbourhood border debates.
It bugged my ass that it seemed like they were either trying to add edge to the story or avoid crapping on Little Italy or both.
In my books, the Annex ends at Bathurst. Then you get yer Little Italy west of it on College down south and Little Korea west of it up top.
Little Italy, Chinatown, Gay Village, their borders can change as the community expands or moves away.
Traditionally the South Annex is bounded by Grace street on the west, Spadina on the East, College to the South and Bloor to the North
Grace St. seems far to me. I admit I haven't lived in the neighbourhood long, but I've never heard of "South Annex" used. Granted, this is just my own experience, completely personal. I wouldn't know what you meant if you used it with me though :)
And are we still talking neighbourhoods? The more we spread out a neighbourhood (the area you describe seems pretty big, I have to say, for a "neighbourhood"), the less useful it is. If you need a name for a cluster of streets, either wait for some kind of character/distinctive community to develop, or be content with "south of the Annex."
Frankly, I think it's terribly problematic for a newspaper to use any neighbourhood designations at all in something like a crime report. It doesn't add any useful information, and only antagonizes people.
The Brunny does seem to be the biggest sore spot. While you do have drunks stumbling out of Lee's, Dance Cave, and the Wreck Room, they don't seem to attract the same sort of douchebags that go to the Brunny.
I've wondered if older area residents decided to hang out at the Brunny and have a pint, if they could reclaim the space. By avoiding it, they're only letting the douchebags take control of it. A few weekends of 45 year olds hanging out at the Brunny would probably send the popped collars running toward a different spot.
they should just inject those expired h1n1 vaccine to those reporters bitching about it to shut them up
So I don't really find people getting confused when someone refers to the 'upper' beach. People seem fairly aware they are talking about north of Kingston.