Despite the criticism surrounding his decision, Rob Ford is still skipping the Pride Parade to go to his cottage. When asked by reporters Thursday if he would reconsider his plans, he said, "My family comes first. I am going up to the cottage like I said. That's it." The mayor also wouldn't commit to attending any other Pride events because, as he said, he usually doesn't even know what he's doing tomorrow. Although, according to Ford's mom, he does know what he's doing on the weekends because the family "always spends the weekend together," so, then, what's one weekend away from the fam? They must have one heck of a BBQ.

TTC chair Karen Stintz spoke to the Economic Club of Canada yesterday about the challenges of modernizing the 90 year old transportation system. The National Post breaks down the top five things they learned about the TTC from the meeting, including the obvious (riders are never satisfied) and the not-so-obvious (there were 27 hours of delays last year because of smoke at track level).

What's with all the hate for bike lanes? Along with yesterday's announcement that the Jarvis bike lanes are dunzo, two Scarborough bikes lanes face the same fate. Councillors on the public works committee voted Thursday to kill the Birchmount Rd. and Pharmacy Ave. bike lanes, but they have to wait for city council to approve the decision. The big argument against the lanes is that the area in which they exist is "not downtown," so cyclists obviously don't exist around those parts.

No beer tent here. The Distillery District is going to live up to its name this weekend when it hosts the TD Jazz Festival and becomes the first 'hood in the city to take advantage of the new changes to the liquor license act. Visitors to the fest will be able to walk around freely with their alcoholic beverages. Free at last, we are free at last.

IN BRIEF:

• Toronto woman wins $22-million jackpot
• Raptors pick tall Lithuanian teen in draft
• Two Canadian flicks top shortlist to open this year's TIFF

Photo by Derek Flack