City
Morning Brew: Sleeping TTC Worker Photo Goes Viral, Rocco Rossi on Transit City, Gun Found on Bus, Paraplegic Patient Arrested for Dealing Drugs from Hospital, Raw Milk Victory
Photo: "Dupont" by jamonation, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
It's still January, but I'm ready to declare this snoozing TTC collector's snapshot the most widely known Toronto photo of 2010 after it was passed around through social networking sites, reported on dozens of blogs and pretty much every mainstream news web site, and even came as the lead story on the 11pm news on Global TV.
Mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi had a lot to say yesterday, and appears to be looking a little right of center on a few issues. Putting a halt to the city's ambitious and costly Transit City plan (to explore other options), curbing spending and the stranglehold that unions have on city function, replacing city councillors who are on the TTC board with private sector people, and selling city assets to curb debt were issues he spouted. Hmmm. We're listening.
When you accidentally disembark a TTC bus and leave something of value behind, it's usually a far cry to expect to be lucky enough to get it back - especially if it's a semi-automatic gun. Some poor thug is going to have to get a new gun, which in this city should be easy enough.
Here's one for the weird but true list. A paraplegic patient wearing a hospital gown and in a wheelchair (and who already has a criminal rap sheet) was arrested at a coffee shop within St. Michael's Hospital for dealing coke, ecstasy and marijuana. Police also found and seized a loaded gun and bullet-proof vest.
North of the city, a Newmarket court has found raw milk activist Michael Schmidt not guilty on a long list of charges related to selling unpasteurized milk. Eating or drinking raw milk products in Canada is fine, but you can't sell them. Schmidt appears to have gotten around this by creating a co-op of people that buy into shared ownership of the cows that provides the raw milk. Now if only we could buy shares in cows at supermarkets, and get free samples of raw milk cheese with those shares.
And tomorrow is the big day for those opposed to Harper proroguing parliament. Hopefully the turnout at the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Toronto Protest event is substantial.
Bob Rae sings "Stephen Harper: He Prorogues":
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Absolutely brilliant.
If I buy into a law coop am I a lawyer now?
Sounds like a positive to me! Your turn Mad Max.
For a great example, of this, Google "Sad Rat" that appeared on Gothamst in NYC.
Yes, that's exactly what we need. Years and years of more "exploration of options", rather than something actually happening right now.
Pardon my language, but we seriously don't want to fall into that fucking trap again. TransitCity may not be ideal, but it's SOMETHING. Something that's long overdue, and can't reasonably be put off any longer.
And Xavier, the way the law works in Ontario drivers, transit and cyclists all have the right to use the road. They're all traffic.
But I'm more than a bit wary of generalizing from Dupont to every other street in Toronto.
As we all know, you can twist statistics and studies into whatever you want the answer to be.
If you look at the article that you posted:
"46% walk, 32% take transit, 12% cycle, and only 10% drive. Not surprisingly, walkers were also the most frequent visitors to the area, followed by cyclists, transit users, and finally drivers."
They surprisingly forget about the 32% that take transit and leapfrog the 12% who cycle to the 2nd most frequent shoppers. Cars account for 10%. So, in the small study...maybe one more person cycles as opposed to drives? Not really an argument anymore is it?
12% of customers bike, that's the mode of transportation. However in terms of frequency of visits the order is walkers, cyclists, transit users then drivers. Sheesh, read before you post.
So yeah, the argument that there are economic benefits to bike lanes on major roads remains.
Nice try though. Too bad just like Jerrold you didn't do your homework.
Cyclists are usually hitting 10-25km (very fit roadbikes can go 40+, but that's not very achievable in the city). They mesh much better with traffic on residential streets where drivers are going 30-40 and are inherently paying much more attention as they worry about kids, pedestrians, and parking spots.
Directing cyclists away from major streets will reduce door prizes, improve traffic flow, improve safety, and save space for traffic. Bike lanes eat up space but are little used 8 months of the year. Major roads where they may be useful is where there are no close alternative routes, there are more than 2 lanes per direction, and speeds are 50 or less (i.e. Wellington and Adelaide are major routes but could live with a bike lane (err once adelaide goes back to its normal width). Avenue is a bad place for bike lanes since there are far superior alternative routes (Poplar Plains, Forest Hill, Oriole Parkway, Rosewell...).
But your criticisms are really interested. Screw studies. Let's base public policy on what we see through our wind shields as we zoom by.
We need to think about cutting costs and it's not going to be pretty. The reason everyone loves Miller is because he didn't bother to have these difficult discussions or do any of the ugly cutting we needed. That's the easy way out. I hope more mayoral candidates are frank about harsh fiscal reality we face.
We will <i>have</i> to do things like cut services and sell off assets to make up for the massive annual deficits and to cut our debt. We can't keep piling it on and hoping the Toronto of the future can pay it all down.
After living in an area that had zero bike lanes, but suggested side street routes, I can say that it is a hassle. If I wanted to go anywhere, I'd have to map out the route since side streets were usually not continuous. I'd also end up going out of my way, have to back track and end up being forced to bike small distances on very bike unfriendly streets because two bike friendly streets were not connected.
Suffice to say, the amount of recreational biking I did was minimal unless I was sticking to a route I knew well.
The idea should never be to make driving "miserable." The idea should be to make transit excellent.
Transit City might accomplish that, but too many of its proponents see the issue as pro-car and anti-car. I hope we can find somebody who sees the bigger picture.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2010/22/c3221.html
these dudes/ladies are often so astonishingly grumpy that perhaps a little nap would do those surly old darlings a world of good. I would expect Mr. ZZZZZ in the pic there would have woken up feeling fresh as a daisy and full of good cheer towards everyone dropping their $3 in the pail for a smelly, stale subway ride. All hail an on-the-job-siesta for TTC drivers and collectors in the name of even-slightly civilized service!
There's no bike lane there and the cars are always backed up during rush hour in the morning anyway.
In fact, Dupont is usually so congested that I ride my bike (every day, throughout the year) on Davenport where congestion is just as bad, except there is a bike lane, which means the smart folks on two wheels can safely bypass the unfortunate people on four wheels.
anyways, you can agree/disagree with that.. and that I can understand. but why a leader would look forward by freezing transit boggles my mind. we're years behind now.
that said, I still have no idea who I would actually vote for. rossi's at least stated his platform.. it's just one I'll never vote for. i haven't heard an alternative yet that I will.
I'm so disgusted by Jerrold's take on bike lanes that I think I'll have to stop reading Morning Brew. Way too Toronto Sun for me. Maybe I'll give Torontoist a try.
The sleeping ones are brutal though. I have personally woken up collectors in the days before the ubiquitous camera phones. "So sorry, but may I please purchase some tickets?" I think one guy that I can remember looked sort of grateful, like "whew, good thing you woke me" and the rest were slightly to very pissed I disturbed nap time.
I think the photo of the guy in the booth sleeping should have a night cap drawn on it, encircled in a wreath and made into their new logo.