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Morning Brew: Mayoral debate mostly predictable, TTC pursues open payment system, Niagara tourism beats up on Toronto, Conrad Black a model prisoner, OPP probe, more G20 photos and Yonge St. renewal
Last night's CP24 mayoral debate met with widespread boredom and a little frustration from the many live-tweeting the proceedings. Not only was Ben Mulroney there to annoy everyone, but the only candidate to take a firm stance on the G20 -- one of the topics under discussion -- was, predictably, Rob Ford. Echoing a post-911 George Bush, Ford offered this little gem: "Either you support the police or you don't support the police here.... This is black or white. I support the police." He then took a shot (mostly) at Thomson, saying that she and the other candidates were "sticking up for the protesters." Heaven forbid one would support the right to free assembly!
There were other heated moments, including another Ford jab at Thomson, who he called a "nice lady" but with "zero political experience." This prompted the other candidates to demand an apology from Ford. Ugh. Perhaps it's my own skepticism, but this crop of candidates is anything but inspiring. Maybe one can take solace in David Crombie's theory that the election won't really begin until after Labour Day.
Adam Giambrone has announced that the TTC will pursue a plan to introduce an open payment system that will allow passengers to pay their fare by waving a credit card, debit card or even their cellphone at the turnstile. The technology will be similar to the Paypass and Zoompass, but not everyone's happy. Rocco Rossi promises to scrap it if he's elected mayor, claiming that the Presto Card is the better option because it will allow for subsidies from the province.
Deploying a classic but often inaccurate dichotomy, a series of ads touting the benefits of a visit to the Niagara region depict Toronto as a big, bad and noisy city. Imploring viewers to "shake the city," the ads show scenes of Toronto's graffiti-covered alleyways, a couple discovering their bikes have been stripped of key parts, all while car alarms ring in the background. I suppose all of these things do happen in Toronto (graffiti, stolen bikes, etc), but I've never been so stressed-out by life here that I just had to escape. And certainly not to one of the tackiest towns in North America...
In Brief:
We'll find out shortly (the hearing starts at 8:45 a.m. in Chicago) about the conditions for Conrad Black's bail. Not surprisingly, he's been described as "the complete model prisoner."
John Lornic examines many of the signs that urban renewal is taking place on Yonge St. south of Bloor.
Toronto police will release an additional 21 photos of G20 suspects to go along with their original most wanted list.
The OPP has targeted the recently renovated building at 101 Bloor St. West as part of a government corruption investigation. The probe hinges on "irregular transactions" between government staff and renovation contractors.
Photo: "Piper St. Reflection" by Ian Mutto of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Discussion
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I'm 27, right in the middle of the key demographic, and that is not a debate. I do not want to hear Ben Mulroney, and the worst offender of them all - Melissa Grelo - over-hyping and using hyperbole to describe a debate. And that's all they do.
The last debate, I don't think there was 20 minutes of serious conversation, all the air time was taken up by those those two bozos.
It's a debate and there's a reason why it needs to remain serious. Get Steve Paikin to moderate a series of debates with these candidates.
I'm all for using technology to have people give questions. Twitter and Youtube can be great tools for future debates, but my god, not to this degree.
Re: The TTC - why not just adopt Presto. I don't want to use my debit or credit card for transactions. I'd rather load up a Presto card and run through transit seamlessly.
"John Cursio, who left the ORC three years ago under a cloud of suspicion over his dealings with Royal Painting and Contracting and other contractors.
Cursio, who went on to work for the Toronto Transit Commission as a project manager, was fired earlier this year after the Star published a story revealing that he awarded a $50,000 TTC photography contract to his girlfriend, who subsequently lost the contract."
OF COURSE the TTC hired a con man without doing any due diligence on his background, or looking into his reason for leaving his last post. More of the same from the TTC brass.... any they wonder why we have zero faith in them.
If Toronto wants to build a world class city, where is... "Eco Land" a totally sustainable place for people to visit? An Aquarium? An "urban farm" in the downtown core? Where is the stuff to visit? The ROM is too expensive & please don't mention Medieval Times. This city cannot satisfy the tourists; it's too uninspiring. The zoo is expensive & where are the discounts for the Toronto people? Where are the downtown to zoo shuttle buses or will it take away from the $10 parking they charge, or whatever the rate is?
Yes, Niagara Falls might be tacky, but still is fun, since there are tons of things to do at any point.
Horrible ideas, horrible execution, horrible acting, horrible directing, horrible sound design, horrible supers, horrible mnemonic, horrible everything.
The traffic and parking situation was pretty terrible too, if I recall.
I'm in no hurry to go back
The American falls are part of the first National Park in the United States, and it's not nearly as crowded as the american sidfe. There's nice paths to walk and bike, great parkland and somehow feels more "Canadian" than the Canadian side.
Honestly though, when someone tries to knock you down unprovoked it reeks of an inferiority complex. Niagara's so great? Then tell me about Niagara, not Toronto.
The worst part about this is the dishonesty. Toronto has it's dark sides and far from perfect but these ads just pander to the stupid.
For the record the Falls are nice but the city is less than lively. The strip? Where is this because I know you don't mean Clifton Hill or the streets outside the casino.
And I agree with tripper, $20 to park?
Torontonians don't go to tourist spots in Toronto. Tourists go to them.
And just because you don't have a clue about the current real estate market doesn't change the fact that condo sales are soaring.
That is why I like it, it's calm.
The Niagara tourism board is a little wrong in being so direct about Toronto, but their main point is about showing the big city and how awful it can get, which is why it's a nice idea to get away to Niagara. Also, remember that Niagara isn't just about Niagara Falls, so the crime and poverty argument is not valid. Niagara is beautiful with many things to see and do. It is also a sort of breadbasket. Besides, there really isn't a debate. Why would you compare a REGION with a city? Different worlds, directions and sizes altogether.
This just reiterated the fact that Toronto is full of crybaby ninnies who have absolutely no problem dishing it out but cannot handle jabs in return. As LOL said, get off your high horse, take that stick outta your ass, deflate that ego, and look beyond that bubble of a world you call downtown.
Re: Mayoral debate
Moderation was just a placeholder. Why were two younger and less politically experienced news personalities take charge when someone like Gord Martineau or Pam Seatle should've been there instead?
That Caribana ad makes me want to rip my eyes out. It's low-rent and embarrassing.
But @ yourself and Kenny regarding the "crybaby" comment: Tell me one city whose residents wouldn't react to being misrepresented?
Frankly the 'babies' are the ones who need to badmouth something else to feel good about themselves. You'll find examples of that in these comments.
Daniel .. Toronto
http://bit.ly/Daniel2010
It also doesn't matter if Toronto has haters, I'm sure all big cities do. Unless your city is perfect then I'll excuse myself.
But you said "Amen" to Kenny's grade school logic so I didn't expect you to flipflop on that affirmation.
I Love Niagara, I Love Toronto, I Love Southern Ontario, I love Canada...
That is all...
;-)
If tourists want to visit Toronto, they will. You think those tacky, insignificant Niagara ads will change their minds?
Toronto's response is the only thing that'll make tourists change their minds.
I didn't claim tourism will be affected, I said the ads are pathetic.
You let me know when you hear Toronto's response. Unless you consider that to be handful of comments here.
They should only be responsible to serve the city. I could care less about the smooth transitions with GO.. the province will force them to comply with anything anywayz.. so the TTC is smart for going there own route, only issue is that it will be incredibility expensive to implement this once it's ready :(. But stupid goons running for office don't see they would need provincial money anywayz so no better way t get money if you can sell of a cut of the profitable system instead of being piggy backing of PRESTO.
I'm originally from St. Catharines, and there are the nice things about the Niagara region that everyone is ignoring. Thanks to the poor economic growth and mismanagement of all the municipal governments in the area, housing is dirt cheap. You can get a really nice 3 bedroom, 1800 square foot ravine lot bungalow for less than $300k.
You can ride a carousel for 5 cents.
You can wait 45 minutes for a bus (ok, so that's not too different from Toronto)
You can go on a winery tour on a bicycle! Drink all you want and drunkenly pedal your tired ass home. Or into a ditch.
Ice-wine is much cheaper in the Niagara region since you can buy it at the wineries.
You can go see where Laura Secord did her stuff. Same with Isaac Brock.
You can snoot it up with the hoity toity set in Niagara on the Lake.
All you protesters looking for something to do - come to Niagara Falls to picket Marineland. Hurling abuse at families is the 'in' thing to do.
At some point during this post I forgot I was trying to be sarcastic, but I remembered right at the end! I LOVE WINE!
I'm originally from St. Catharines, and there are the nice things about the Niagara region that everyone is ignoring. Thanks to the poor economic growth and mismanagement of all the municipal governments in the area, housing is dirt cheap. You can get a really nice 3 bedroom, 1800 square foot ravine lot bungalow for less than $300k.
You can ride a carousel for 5 cents.
You can wait 45 minutes for a bus (ok, so that's not too different from Toronto)
You can go on a winery tour on a bicycle! Drink all you want and drunkenly pedal your tired ass home. Or into a ditch.
Ice-wine is much cheaper in the Niagara region since you can buy it at the wineries.
You can go see where Laura Secord did her stuff. Same with Isaac Brock.
You can snoot it up with the hoity toity set in Niagara on the Lake.
All you protesters looking for something to do - come to Niagara Falls to picket Marineland. Hurling abuse at families is the 'in' thing to do.
At some point during this post I forgot I was trying to be sarcastic, but I remembered right at the end! I LOVE WINE!
Is anyone else taken aback by the daily pro-G20 protestor stance that this site has taken?!
I understand the right to free assembly, but once an protest turns into a "riot", I think that right disappears. I will support your right to assemble as long as you don't torch police cars and loot businesses!
I don't think anybody who went to the protests (especially the ones on Sunday) thought they would influence policy in any way - they just wanted to be part of a happening.
Please stop comparing what happened that weekend to a simple, peaceful protest on the Queens Park lawn.
People were bussed in to our city and took us hostage. They came to cause terror and mayhem, and they succeeded. I'm sorry to all of those people who were earnestly interested in protesting, but you have 363 other days in 2010 to do so.
And based on opinion polls, the vast majority of Torontonians would aggree with me!
Rob Ford is a cob booster and will probably shower even more millions into the bloated Police budget if he's elected. The cops took are city council hostage along time ago... I really don't hear people bring that up. the fact no candidate can even stand up to them shows who really yields the power at city hall.. what a sham.
Maybe the term "bussed" was a misnomer, as it sounds too organzied, but your implication that people didn't travel into the city to cause trouble is laughable.
Do youself a favor a take a look at the media coverage of past G20 meetings and resulting protests, and see if it's all "locals" causing the trouble.
Seeing as how you were detained during at least part of the weekend, you probably got more of your info from the CBC than I did.
Oh, and as I protestor, you destroyed the rights of me and millions of other Torontonians who wanted to be able to enjoy our city without feeling threatened by a bunch of self-righteous assholes who knew all along that their "protests" would not lead to a lick of difference in policy. I'm not concerned about your rights one bit. Sorry!
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