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Morning Brew: Ford spills on streetcar incident, Toronto beaches bathing in litter, the sinking of Captain John's, and Batman vs. Spiderman
Rob Ford says he didn't drive past open streetcar doors last week and claims he doesn't understand what made the driver of the vehicle leave his seat. The mayor finally shed some light on his side of the story during an impromptu scrum yesterday, telling reporters the driver "accosted" him after he stopped between the front and back doors while passengers boarded.
According to my official Ontario driver's handbook: "At streetcar stops, stay at least two metres behind the rear doors where passengers are getting on or off." Should we cut the mayor some slack for this?
Sunnyside and a handful of other Toronto beaches are looking decidedly worse for wear after the Canada Day long weekend. Pizza boxes, fireworks, beer bottles and other detritus strewn by thousands of litterbugs is still covering the sand waiting for city workers to clean up the mess. If you didn't take your crap home or toss it in a bin, boo to you, good citizen.
On the topic of transit, Tanner Zurkoski, the winner of an Evergreen Brick Works competition, is spending a month in a car to highlight how much time commuters spend in their vehicle. He's got AC, luckily.
Captain John's was finally claimed by the deadpool last week, ending a stint of more than 35 years on Toronto's waterfront. The restaurant was originally housed in a different salvaged ship, the M.S. Normac, before it was struck and sunk by the steam ferry Trillium. The Grid tells the story.
Toronto's Batman is still making the rounds, but this time he's got competition. A series of pictures of the Caped Crusader fighting a person dressed as Spiderman on the subway surfaced on Flickr yesterday. There's no clear winner, but judging by smiles and nonchalance from the people in the background it didn't get too intense. OK, that's enough Batman from Bateman.
Gavin Slate, a singer-songwriter from Toronto, knows first hand how tough it can be for aspiring musicians to gain exposure and create a buzz without a team of professionals fighting your corner. To get people talking about his music, Slate has come up with a novel way of creating a buzz - make himself the unofficial GTA Starbucks pick of the day. Check out the video:
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Lind powers Blue Jays past Royals [Globe and Mail]
- Toronto police launch crime-fighting app to encourage real-time tips [The Star]
- Ford opposes businesses still charging bag fee [The Sun]
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Photo: "Unbounded" by Lychee_Aloe in the blogTO Flickr Pool.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1221041--mayor-rob-ford-says-he-didn-t-drive-past-open-streetcar-door
Re: Rob Ford and street cars. It gets complicated when people start moving off the steps and are already at the door before the doors open. You stop when the doors are "open" right? Not if they have potential to open? He probably got trapped because people walked onto the roadway before the doors opened.
Was he breaking the law? Probably not. Was he potentially dangerous? Very much so.
Everyone who drives in this city knows that there's always the potential a streetcar's back doors will open, so you know better than to gun past it. Drivers see people do this all the time, and it must have been a very dangerous move if the driver decided to get out of the car.
Ford is lucky he didn't kill someone.
yeah it looks really bad after Canada Day, but those waterfront parks are trashed after every major event. The event organizers should pay to have them cleaned up. Or maybe the people who turn Marilyn Bell Park into a parking lot should pay? Have you seen it there after Caribana? It boggles my mind how much junk is left behind.
Define "we".
Gratuitous Ford bashing has reached a tipping point and it's starting to backfire ... please keep bashing with all your "we" might. Don't forget to stomp your "we" feet for effect.
As for the litter, that's nothing. Have you seen the Lakeshore parks after Caribana? Wow that's a site to be seen.
How are people who don't live in Toronto supposed to know they're supposed to stop?
An honest working man OR a proven liar (Mayor Ford).
But that's typical of the left. Selective enforcement of ideals, bylaws, and laws depending on the day of the week and how it suits their situation at the time.
Isn't it bad enough he referred to the streetcar as a 'bus' when he finally recounted his side of things?
From the Star article:
The driver then “came out and accosted me,” Ford alleged. Referring to the streetcar as a bus, Ford said: “I don’t know exactly what was said. He says, ‘Get behind the bus.’ I don’t have to get behind the bus, the back door’s closed."
Can we be sure he knew what he was talking about when promoting Subways Subways Subways? Maybe he meant LRT's LRT's LRT's and we just didn't understand his interpretation.
this is a fact.
Those are facts.
It's typical of the Left, the Right, the Centre, the fat, the thin, the tall, the short. Grasp that, and you have grasped a central truth about people.
Aside: I will cut the mayor (himself a man of bizarre ideological contradictions) some slack on the streetcar-door thing. I've noticed TTC operators getting after some drivers that really did nothing wrong.
Lefties are not the only group I detect whining, clutching their pearls, bunching their panties, and in general acting like a bunch of thin-skinned babies on this forum.
“If it’s not which streetcar door the mayor drove by it is whether or not the mayor has been partying in the Entertainment District. When it’s not whether he’s been partying in the Entertainment District, it’s whether he’s been picking up liquor on Dundas St. When it’s not that, it’s whether or not he’s gone off to the cottage instead of attending Pride.
“Very little of what you talk about when you’re talking about this mayor has anything to do with work at City Hall and as a result his approval ratings are dropping.
“He’s not doing anything here, in fact he’s doing very little, he barely even shows up for work.”
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Gallery+fastest+growing+areas+Canada/6354589/story.html
I hate you.
Thing was a Starbucks ad.