City
Morning Brew: TTC Faces Tough Questions, Choosing Campaign Issues, Big Retail Discounts, New TFC Coach, Dunlap Observatory Trees Plowed, Leafs Hit New Low
Photo: "Hot Dog On Xpro" by Metrix X, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
In their awful week, the TTC tried to ensure all blame for the Yonge Street subway shutdown was placed with Enbridge and their contractor, but now Enbridge is pushing back, saying the City of Toronto authorized the work. But the transit agency can't just focus there, they're also getting questions about why collectors let customers pay their fare without informing them they couldn't get on a train or get as far as they needed. Basically, the week just gets worse for the Red Rocket.
Councillor Joe Mihevc wants us to talk about issues, not just who's running for mayor next year, and is even having a public meeting next week to figure out which issues are on peoples' minds. He went so far as to set up a Setting the Agenda 2010 website so we can all discuss. Seems a laudable goal, but will people participate?
The American school of before-Christmas sales and discounts seems to be migrating north in the face of the sad worldwide economy. Look for Sears and Wal-Mart to start a big head-to-head price war: Sears is offering Boxing Day prices all weekend while Wal-Mart has a price reduction strategy that will see 18,000 prices drop in November. Small, independent retailers won't like this news, but none of the Canadian retailers will be happy if Canadians head to the U.S. for American Thanksgiving next week with such strong Canadian currency in hand to take advantage of the traditionally deep discounts.
The new Toronto FC coach will be Predrag "Preki" Radosavljevic, the team's fourth coach and the most highly prized options available to Major League Soccer teams this year. Preki has a winning regular season record but has faltered in the playoffs, but at this point the TFC just need to reach the post season to make a lot of fans happy. Come to think of it, that's not unlike another major MLSE brand, who play on ice...
A word to developers: don't knock down a bunch of trees you don't have the right to knock over. Richmond Hill will pursue charges against Metrus for doing just that on the DavidDunplap Observatory lands, a property with many trees and an uncertain future. Why can't developers and trees just get along?
It might just be an end to an era... Oprah Winfrey is expected to announce today that she will end her daytime TV show in 2011, after 25 seasons on the air. It doesn't sound like retirement, though, as she is also expected to start a new talk show on her very own cable network. Hard to imagine how that would be much different, except for having to tune into a different channel.
Perhaps least surprising news of the day: the Leafs have bottomed out and fans can expect changes.
Discussion
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And Google has temporarily enabled free wifi at 48 US airports, including Boston. Thanks for the holiday cheer, Googs! (And big thanks to Joshua for doing the Morning Brew'ing this week!)
Of course they didn't warn riders before letting them pay. That would take effort. It probably would also warrant some sort of overtime pay in their cushy contracts. How else do you think a dude sitting on his ass counting change in a booth makes $110,000 a year?
Don't blame the collectors, blame management. I doubt that the collectors were even notified of the issue, which is why they let customers into the stations during the delay. It happens all the time.
"For customer convenience, please warn riders of a disruption BEFORE they pay. Thank you."
Thanks for the tip, Jerrold, missed that one in my Toronto-centric news reading!
As for the comments re collectors and paying TTC fare, fwiw, collectors are routinely informed of service delays and there are procedures in place for major disruptions that include informing customers of the issue. In cases where stations have to be closed nobody can enter, but in cases where people may still need access to the station but won't have full access to the system, they're supposed to be informed. Collectors should have been informing riders, but it's a somewhat open question as to how much collectors knew and when they knew it.
During a previous shutdown I saw a TTC station token pusher watch people get off a shuttle bus and have the audacity to charge each rider one an additional token when they tried to re-enter the subway.
Now THAT's customer service!
Guys, I love the site, but why the Oprah story? Don't really see any Toronto connection there, other than the fact it's being reported on 680 News.
That's why we say "What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond)", JJ. Basically, Oprah holds massive appeal all over, including in Toronto (just look at the press when she was appearing for TIFF). I figured people may comment on the news that she'll end her talk show. But I could be wrong. :)
After walking apporx. 40 mins from Bloor to Eglinton Subway Station on Wednesday night, I entered the station from a side entrance. A TTC employee was at the door. As I started to rummage through my purse for my Metropass he said to me "Miss, don't bother", and waved me through. Not every TTC employee snarley. I'm more pissed at the fact that Enbridge & its subcontractor will not take ANY responsiblity for what occured Wednesday. Shame on THEM!!
Joshua: what's your source that qualifies the fact that collectors are receiving information?
I see what you did there. Clever little rat.
It's in the article.
Your friendly neighbourhood typo-checker signin' in!
Typo: "Concillor Joe Mihevc".
Thanks Wooden Tofu! Fixed above.
Great PR opportunity that will no doubt not be taken advantage of:
If Enbridge had any brains they would send a couple of dozen employees (wearing Enbridgewear) into the subway station entrances along yonge at rush hour and give each person a token as an apology/goodwill gesture.
Oh, but wait - they aren't allowed to buy 100,000 tokens at once for this PR stunt. They'd have to buy them 5 at a time. That would take weeks. Never mind.
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Details released for Toronto's biggest NYE event the PRINCESS BALL 2010 at the Allstream Centre. Follow the link for more details...
.http://toronto.partypm.com/events/PRINCESS_BALL_2010_New_Years_Eve_at_The_Allstream_Centre_Toronto/7eb637d0-df87-4e64-bdc3-16586a15de1c
Sorry heres the link...
http://toronto.partypm.com/events/PRINCESS_BALL_2010_New_Years_Eve_at_The_Allstream_Centre_Toronto/7eb637d0-df87-4e64-bdc3-16586a15de1c
all these drama queens at TTC and Enbridge..i don't think the public is interested in their bitch fights
Of course the ticket collectors can't think for themselves and warn people about the trains not running. I suppose its possible that somebody entering a station might want to use the regular (not shuttle) buses that are normally available there.
Nothing will be done until we have a riot in the city, plain and simple. When the trains went down in Rio a few weeks ago, people clashed with police, barricades were knocked down and total anarchy resulted.
We Canadians are too smug to think that could ever happen here? Keep on taxing, keep reducing services, keep pouring more money into the entitled class while taxing to death those who actually have jobs and see where this city ends up in 10-15 years...