MB Toronto
Morning Brew: More on the new TTC streetcars, Rob Ford to appear in The Nutcracker, Islington Village's mural makeover, LEED platinum buildings in Toronto, and what's next for Occupy Toronto?
Sure the new streetcars are awfully pretty to look at, but the Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer has six serious questions about them, related to issues like bunching (apparently there won't be any), fare payment (they will run on the — gasp — something like the honour system), and how many seats they have (70!).
Well, this will be a sight to see. Rob Ford will make a cameo as a "cannon doll" during a performance of the holiday favourite, "The Nutcracker". According to the ballet's spokeswoman, it will be a "non-dancing miming role" and the mayor will don a multi-coloured "Petrushka" outfit.
Check out Islington Village's mural makeover. So far there have been 22 murals created since 2004, and by illustrating the area's historic past, they really spruce up what had become a rather drab area.
The Globe has a look at some of the GTA's rarest buildings — those which have attained LEED platinum status. Alas, it's a very short list.
With news breaking out of New York that police moved to clear Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street protesters last night, one gets the sense things are going to get very interesting for the local branch of the Occupy movement. Some New York protesters speculated that the latest developments would only galvanize the movement, which would surely resonate with the residents of St. James Park. But there's always the possibility that without the ability to occupy the original park, the protesters will have lost some zeal.
IN BRIEF:
- Ghost ride for Jenna Morrison
- Doug Gilmour (and others) officially inducted in Hockey Hall of Fame
- "Plastic money" makes debut
Photo by MrDanMofo in the blogTO Flickr pool
Discussion
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Clearly you don't live here, or never been here. the village has a nice little charm. Even a article written by Blogto stated the same. The murals add a nice touch.
It can definitely work as long as the fine is high enough and officers are there often enough for people to see it's not worth the risk.
Even if the fine was outrageous, something that runs as often as the streetcar will never be checked enough. Plus you have the extra expense of hiring people to ride around on streetcars and check for payment. Also, this won't work if they implement Presto or anything like that, because there is no proof of payment for that. How do you prove you put your token in the box after the fact either unless everyone asks for a transfer, regardless of if they need it? And if everyone who pays by token or Presto needs transfers, then won't that take a ton of the driver's time to hand them all out anyway?
I just don't see the honour system working for the TTC. The buses and streetcars are too many and too frequent to check enough of them without the cost of all the people checking being higher than the cost of just having drivers accept payment and take a little longer to get going.
Presto makes it easy. Inspectors have a hand held unit that reads your card and confirms you have paid the proper fare.
People who pay with tokens or cash need to take their receipt/transfer from the machine and keep it. Its really not so hard. It already works everywhere in Europe, and we already have it on the Queen Streetcar, VIVA, and GO transit. People here can handle it.
Alex, I have not been on a Viva bus because I do not live in York region, so I can not give input into that. I can say that they do it on the GO trains and when I've had to take the train in the past I've been checked. There will be less street cars and it's not a difficult job hoping from tram to tram when that is your only job. Taking a little bit longer to go is the opposite of efficient which is what we do not want this already poor system to be.