City
Morning Brew: Maple Leaf Gardens to be Recommissioned, Presto Transit Card Pilot Begins, Paying Homeless to Commit Crimes, Queen's Quay Condo and Exhibition Place Hotel Designs, Future of Toronto Zoo's Elephant Exhibit
Photo: "Maple Leaf Gardens [3]" by Rick Harris, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Maple Leaf Gardens will finally be getting a major overhaul and once again host skaters and ice and hot chocolate (and a grocery store). Ryerson University is doling $20m to keep the ice surface and build athletics facilities (through student fees), the federal government will be kicking in $20m, and Loblaws and Ryerson will fundraise for the final $20m ($5m of which has already been donated by Loblaws). This sounds like a plan that everyone can be happy with, doesn't it?
Presto, the much anticipated and long-overdue automatic transit fare payment system, is officially in pilot program stage in the GTA. Metrolinx has equipped 75 transit users with a Presto card, which will be used to pay fare at a currently (very) limited number of locations. But in the coming years, the system will be expanded to include several transit authorities in Toronto and surrounding areas. Eventually, it should be adopted by the entire TTC system and allow for easy payment when traveling on multiple transit systems.
Paying a drug-addicted homeless person a couple hundred bucks to go into a high-end store to steal pricey merchandise (like a $4000 designer lamp) is pretty low, but police believe that it's been happening here in Toronto. Studio B on King East has seen it happen a few times recently (see embedded video footage below).
A 36-storey condo plan (by famed architect Moshe Safdie) for Queen's Quay East sounds like it'll be quite the building. Filling an area that's currently no-man's-landish, the aim is create a place that's regarded as a "wonderful environment to live in," with "gardens in the sky" views of Sherbourne Park and the Lake.
In other development news, City Hall has approved the design and construction of a hotel on the grounds of Exhibition Place, and previous concerns about a potential conflict of interest have been quashed.
And in sad news, the Toronto Zoo has lost another of its eldest residents. For the fourth time in as many years, an elephant has passed on, prompting debate about the future of the long-standing elephant exhibit. Should they get a few more animals, or phase it out?
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If Mr Lamp had paid a couple of hundred bucks for a security guard he would have still had his thousands of dollars of ugly lamps.
Coming soon: getting buzzed into and out of high end stores.
That is the way it works in jewellery stores. The one at yonge and gerrard for example.
Wow for the Presto system. Talk about 25 years late to the game.
how much do you think security guards cost?
The lady and I walked into one of the furniture stores at Queen @ Dovercourt about two weeks ago for about 6-7 minutes. There was no staff in the store at the time. I could have easily grabbed anything I wanted and walked out of the place if I were so inclined.
I assume whoever was working decided to take a trip across the street for a coffee at Starbucks and felt that the store was safe enough to leave the place for x number of minutes.
I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened to Studio B. Really, this guy was in there for 90 seconds? Where were the staff?
Smart cards are a solution to a problem the TTC doesn't have.
We're not behind, we're ahead and smart cards will be a move backwards.
Wait, the story is about theft on the west side of downtown, but the stolen item came from a store on Queen E?
Go figure, Joe Pantalone got his way with the Ex conference center. A shock to all i'm sure!
Adam, you can post with your real name, instead of a horrible "Chester Pape" pseudonym. You forgot to add the classic bits from Kodos' speech on the Simpsons: "always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!"
"Questions were raised during the council meeting about a possible conflict of interest of the Toronto architect who has been hired to design the hotel, Rocco Maragna, and who used to sit on the board of governors for Exhibition Place."
Conflict of interest? That's UNPOSSIBLE!
Really? How do you figure there's no problem? You don't think the ongoing token/ticket fiasco of the last couple of weeks is illustrative of a problem regarding how fares are collected by the TTC? You don't think that a Smart Card system of some kind (whether Presto or another type) would have completely nullified this?
Actually, I'm far more curious about the second part of your statement - how exactly are we ahead?
I've been on metro systems in major cities all around the world, and I can tell you the fare collection system that they employ (which in virtually every case includes Smart Card system in some form), is vastly more efficient and effective, in my opinion to what we do here.
Please enlighten me, because I just don't how you are able to make that statement.
I think Chester means we're "ahead" by being the worst Transit system in North America, for a city of Toronto's size.
Why on earth do they need to do an expensive, drawn-out pilot project for pay-per-use transit cards? There are numerous cities around the world that use such a system. It has been proven effective. We already know it works. London’s Oyster cards are great for residents and tourists, for example.
If the TTC had already adopted smart cards then we wouldn’t have all the problems with limited or non-existent token sales for over a month before the fare increase.
Time to start locking the door, and only allowing customers to be buzzed-in, one at a time. Many of the better jewellery stores do this anyway, and have for years, so why not a high-end furniture store?
Police should be keeping an eye out for one Brick Tamland.
So Maple Leaf Gardens is going to have a condo added on? I'd like to see some artists renderings, because it sounds like the original ice surface won't be happening. Then there's that roof. What will it exactly look like? Probably a shadow of its former self, more likely in name only...hello, Historical Preservation Society of Toronto, are you on this case? EH?
I heard, from cbc reporting this, that Loblaws is only ponying up 5 Million. Cheapskates, own the building and let the students fund the majority. uhm huh. Oh those Weston's, that's why I don't shop there. Too expensive, Hello No Frills!
Some gangsta found a way to avoid being found out, for now what with sending in 'employees' to nick for them.
Of course, the store owner can't hold the thief 'for the police' if the same guy returns to the store... yeah.
If you don't see me on the floor, I'm out back, loading up that shotgun - that'll teach 'em stealing expensive chandeliers.
Wait, wait, don't tell me, I have no rights protecting my property. Amirite?
I say bullshit.
Reminds me of that Curb episode, Dave goes to a jewellery store, but they won't buzz him in, 'cause he looks scruffy. Too funny that.
I'm sorry to hear Tara the elephant passed away though. I'm thankful the zoo let the others grieve, but, only a few hours? That's way too short for elephants.
yeah, I don't want to see these majestic animals in a zoo in the frozen north. They deserve better.
City Councillor Raymond Cho, who is chairman of the Toronto Zoo Board of Management, says 'he loves elephants'. What did we expect him to say? If you love them, keep them penned up in a climate totally opposite of their natural habitat.
Even Alaska shipped their elephant to a sanctuary in California.
http://www.savewildelephants.com/maggie.asp
Time to stop importing more elephants to satisfy people's curiosity. Take a trip and see them in the wild or watch them on HD. Not zoos here, please.
So sad about Tara. I always found the elephant exhibit a bit depressing. It seems like way too small a space (and boring) for such great creatures.
"I heard, from cbc reporting this, that Loblaws is only ponying up 5 Million. Cheapskates, own the building and let the students fund the majority. uhm huh.
Oh those Weston's, that's why I don't shop there. Too expensive, Hello No Frills!"
You do realize no frills is owned by Loblaw, yes?
Yes, but look at the price difference for staples and such. I don't need fancy for my food shopping.
Gimme cheap and cheerful!
@dandmb50 - Since the media will not give us ALL the facts I will disclose some interesting facts.
I was at Queens Park subway station yesterday and with all the talk about these presto cards I noticed one of the "tap Machines" at the payment booth. I waited a while and one person used the presto card. It flashed on the screen that it cost him $2.19 for his fare. I went to presto site and it costs $6.00 to purchase and you must load min $10. It currently works on Go transit and some systems and some TTC stations. I have read a lot about presto but never heard about these facts? Why is the media not mentioning this? Give us all the "facts" I think it will be a good idea. Think of the money the TTC will save from counting the money/tickets etc. Think of the employees that will be fired? Daniel .. Toronto .. http://bit.ly/bKGa13