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Morning Brew: Ford misses Mayor's Arts Awards lunch, meet the voices of the TTC, more on the Pusateri's infestation, talk of bike licences at Police Board meeting, and the Leafs tank in Boston
Rob Ford was a no-show at the aptly-titled Mayor's Arts Awards lunch yesterday. Ford, who had previously confirmed his attendance, was apparently held up by some "urgent business," according to councillor Gary Crawford. The response was met with the expected guffaws. The urgent business was apparently the last seasonal game for the football team the mayor coaches. The lunch went on without a hitch.
They are the voices you hear everyday but had no idea what they looked like, until now. Sue Bigioni is the voice you hear announcing every subway stop and she's a real person, not some robot. Bigioni, a TTC communications assistant, was selected back 2007 for the job. Cheryl Bome, an admin assistant at the TTC, handles the bus and street car stops. The biggest hang-up of the job: pronunciation.
Yesterday it looked like the Pusateri's location at Avenue and Lawrence was forced to close on account of a cockroach infestation and other sanitary failings. Today it gets better — or, more appropriately, worse — with news that the infestation also included rats. Insert joke about overpriced food here.
Will cyclists eventually require a licence to ride on city streets? They will if Councillor Frances Nunziata gets her way. "I think that is something that we need to look at because of the number of fatalities we have on the streets," she told the Sun after a Toronto Police Services Board meeting yesterday. Chief Bill Blair also noted what he thought might be some benefits to a bike licensing program in the form of fostering greater "accountability," aiding in enforcement of traffic violations, and retrieving stolen bikes. What no one mentioned is that it'd also likely be a colossal waste of money.
With all this talk about big corporate greed, you know there would have to be some discussion about generosity. Right? Anyway, apparently volunteering your time is good for you, and not just in that karmic way. It actually increases oxytocin levels and makes us better and happier people.
Do you tend to believe all those "end of the world" warnings we seem to get every few years? Well, according to U of T Astronomy PhD candidate Kelly Lepo, you shouldn't. Speaking at the Danforth/Coxwell library, Lepo dispelled any fears about an Apocalypse Now from happening, using — wait for it — legitimate research techniques.
IN BRIEF:
- Video of Toronto Libyans taking to the streets celebrating
- Leafs beaten by Bruins
- Toronto police board passes almost-billion-dollar budget
- Looks like our elephants may be moving stateside
Photo by celina laurette in the blogTO Flickr pool
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Richview Collegiate.
Now if he could only apply himself as
diligently to the real needs of the city
as he does to football, we'd all be
much happier.
In this report:
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeplan/pdf/chapter02.pdf
It says most cyclist/motorist collisions are caused by the motorist.
Dear Ms. Nunziata,
I got word of your completely unjustified idea to make cyclists such as myself get a licence to ride my bike on the streets of Toronto.
I was hit this summer by a motorist who was trying to speed past a streetcar, knocking me to the ground and causing enough damage to my bike that I needed repairs.
My friend has experienced the same fate, and my partner, like me, has given up on riding lately because of the amount of distracted drivers who cut us off and don't even see us because they are texting! Dangerous.
How about you and the police board, and anyone else at City Hall consider making sure drivers do a better job at driving in this city?! How about spending money and time making traffic flow better like not allowing left turns at intersections and having cars go east-west then north-south at intersections before allowing pedestrians to cross, rather than at the same time which just stalls everyone? Maybe such solutions would reduce the amount of craziness we see drivers doing to get home just that much quicker. There are so many easy and effective solutions at work in cities worldwide and it just baffles me constantly that no one at City Hall seems to have the foresight to initiate these changes.
We are not polluting, we are not causing any road damage that needs costly repairs, nor do we cause decreases in work efficiency caused by traffic jams and the like.
You are so misguided by this idea of bike licensing that I'm truly shocked you even went public with it honestly. Pay cops to stand at certain traffic areas instead of construction sites and there they can write down the licence plates of everyone they see illegally texting, talking on cellphones or going through red lights. I regularly count 20-30 people a day doing these infractions just in my neighbourhood.
Gun registry? No.
Bike registry? Yes.
Remember, bikes don't kill people, people* kill people.
*People, that is, driving cars.
Hehe, I first read that as:
"Video of Toronto Librarians taking to the streets celebrating"
As if.
I'm skeptical as all hell.
It's like saying that a vehicle registration tax will reduce vehicle-related fatalities: it might, but only because of the increased financial disincentive against driving in the first place. It sure as wouldn't make drivers more attentive.