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Morning Brew: More cops hitting the street, Rob Ford poses with neo-Nazi musician, baby wombats, piano issues in Trinity Bellwoods Park, and the TTC is hiring
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says hundreds of extra cops will be deployed for the remainder of the summer school break to combat gun violence in the city. Starting on the August long weekend, 300 extra officers will be available each day in addition to the regular force. "Our intent is not to overpolice our communities, our intent is to overprotect them," Blair said at a press conference yesterday.
Rob Ford's staff say the mayor had no knowledge that a man he posed for photographs with and met privately was a former neo-Nazi musician with a history of making racist comments. According to the Globe and Mail, John Latvis, former member of RAHOWA (short for Racial Holy War), was pictured wearing a military uniform with Ford at the mayor's annual New Year's Levee and the pair met privately in March to discuss "transit issues," of all things. The mayor's office says the photo was one of hundreds taken at the event. Which it was, so let's all just calm down.
From former white supremacists to orphaned baby wombats. A zoo in Chicago is sending the non-releasable Australian hairy-nosed wombats to Toronto as part of a breeding program.
A teal piano in Trinity Bellwoods park placed by the "Play Me, I'm Yours" project isn't producing sweet music for local residents. One too many impromptu 3am concerts have forced organizers to shift the instrument to Front and Yonge by the Sony Centre. Public music was also a problem for local residents when a popular drum circle grew too large and had to be shut down.
Need a job? Don't mind dealing with the mayor's traffic violations? The TTC is hiring 500 new operators to fill retirement and resignation vacancies.
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Blue Jays back to offensive ways in avoiding sweep [CBC]
- TTC station shut down after car crash knocks out gas line [National Post]
- 36 Hours in Toronto [New York Times]
- Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon gets a new path through downtown [The Star]
- Toronto Hardship Fund saved for now [The Star]
Photo: "R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant" by twurdemann in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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There were non-creative families living around the perimeter of Trinity Bellwoods looooong before the current horde of care-free eternal children "discovered" the park.
I guess you agree with Councillor Holyday: families don't belong in the core.
Not waited for Corporate Canada to come along and install one for their use, then think the "man" is against them when people don't want to listen to the wailing of a PBR fueled sing-a-long at 3pm.
There has been at least 1 other piano removed from next to the St Lawrence Market, which was right outside a condo building. When I spoke to the rep at the PanAm Games to get the thing moved, he said they had received multiple complaints from across the city & were moving pianos outside condos in Yorkville as well.
While the pianos were a unique idea, they didn't do a good job of considering how disruptive they would be. Believe me, if you had to listen to some guy playing the first 5 seconds of "Chariots of Fire" at 4am right outside your window, you would have gotten the thing moved too!
By all means, welcome to the neighbourhood in all your hipster doucheyness. But be a good neighbour. You're part of a diverse community of people who don't want to be annoyed any more than necessary.
Literally, nobody lives there. It would be perfect.
Quick question: What kind of car did Mel Lastman drive? David Miller? I couldn't tell you, as it was never in the news nor was it news. Yet somehow, what Rob Ford is driving is worth reporting on for some reason.
There are many reasons to attack this mayor, but the trivial ones certainly detract from the legitimate arguments.
Don't you know? He famously had an Excalibur. Google Excalibur car, and be entertained!
The Sun has a hard on for Ford and the Star has a hate on for Ford. Neither of them are objective about it because of a political agenda. But I find the Star to be more pathetic because I used to respect the Star for having editorial standards whereas the Sun was always a crappy rag. Now they both have embarrassing editorial staffs. Good thing the Globe is still around.
That said, there was a noteworthy aspect to the car purchase exposing yet again the weird relationship between the supposed Mayor Rob and his supposed rookie councillor brother Doug. No one elected Doug Ford to be the mayor's nanny, or to lead trade delegations to Chicago (read: go to a Cubs game in Chicago), or to head casino development, or to champion subways in Scarborough. He was elected to mind matters in his ward. The guy is smarter than Rob by a mile, I'll give him that, but he's also a bully with terrible ideas and he constantly makes everyone queasy that he is part of the city's leadership. The fact that he lords it over it his brother, even what he drives, is awkward and uncomfortable.
The Nazi photo thing is just dumb and I'm glad everyone quickly dropped it. Not Ford's fault at all.