After last week's marathon meeting, city council is set to debate the proposed budget cuts put forth by the executive committee. The meeting begins this morning bright and early and is scheduled to be a two-day affair. Though the closure of libraries and the scrapping subsidized day cares are off the table, the city's least attended museums as well as the Toronto Zoo, and city-owned theatres are still on the chopping block.

Following her bronze statue of Tommy Douglas, artist Lea Vivot has her sights set on casting Jack Layton's likeness in bronze for three different sculptures. One will feature Layton on his bike, while the others will feature him sitting on a bench, and one with his cane, as he makes his way up a flight of stairs. Vivot, who has not been commissioned for the work, plans to have them installed near Parliament Hill, in his Toronto riding, and in Hudson, Quebec, where Layton was raised.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to attend one of those eponymous TED conferences you're always watching on YouTube, Peter Kuitenbrouwer at the Post has a decent write-up about the TEDxTO conference held here on Friday. 700 people were chosen to attend based on their answers to a questionnaire, many of whom Kuitenbrouwer notes were on the cutting edge of both technology and fashion. Check out this year's opening video, which is all about the various speaker's relationship with TO.

Remember that Toronto Life article about the exodus to the suburbs (which weren't really suburbs at all)? If you want to engage with the topic of the urban/suburban divide through a lens that takes in more than just bourgeois consumerism, it's worth taking a look at Christopher Hume's editorial on the degree to which Mayor Ford has ignored areas which helped to get him elected and at the provocative work going on over at The Ethnic Aisle, which recently featured a series of articles on the 416 vs. outer-416 vs. 905 split from the perspective of race and ethnicity.

The Leafs cut 14 players from the team on Sunday, leaving them at 29, which is still six too many as they get ready for the start of the season. Apparently the team wants to make it "really, really difficult" to be a Maple Leaf, but I suppose that's a relative statement. Brian Burke still has a lot of work to do to if he wants to see his boys in the post-season.

IN BRIEF:

• Jays sunk by Rays
• The hunt for the next great Canadian bio
• McGuinty defends scrapping Mississauga power plant

Photo by Jeff Stewart in the blogTO Flickr pool