MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Rob Ford faces libel trial, night vigil for the Jarvis bike lane, Queen West fire has a hero, broken bins, Underground Cinema for sale, and dangerous poo
Rob Ford will have to prove he didn't defame George Foulidis when he made controversial comments about the Boardwalk Café owner's lease arrangements during the 2010 mayoral campaign. According to The Star, Ford may be helped by changes to the "fair comment" defense. Former mayor David Miller and councillors Frances Nunziata and Doug Holyday could testify as witnesses in the $6 million suit.
The planned removal of the Jarvis Street bike lane was delayed yesterday after a small sit-in protest prevented work vehicles removing the controversial line separating road and bicycle traffic. Work is scheduled to resume at 10 this morning but more protests are planned. Last night die-hard cyclists held a candlelight vigil at Jarvis and Wellesley.
A man is being hailed a hero after running back into a burning Queen West building yesterday. Pavel Tosiek returned to the fire above a hardware store next to the Cameron House to rescue a trapped roommate after he heard his screams from the street. The cause of the fire isn't known.
Toronto's used and abused plastic street bins are the focus of the Toronto Star's "Fixer" column this week. Apparently, more than a quarter of the pedal-operated receptacles are broken, requiring users to push the slimy flap open by hand.
The Toronto Underground Cinema is up for sale for a cool $1.6 million, almost twice what the current owner paid for the theatre in the basement of a condo building near Queen and Spadina. The rep house ran into financial troubles in 2011 and was forced to close.
Hazardous poop from a community of barn swallows nesting in the rafters of the Toronto Police Marine Unit's boathouse is ruffling a few feathers. Airborne particles from the dried avian droppings can cause a serious fungal infection, but so far no cases have been reported.
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Could mystery Toronto woman hail from Delaware? [CBC]
- One of two women on Mayor Rob Ford's executive committee quits [Metro]
Photo: "Approaching" by Joseph.Morris from the blogTO Flickr pool.
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They have a smaller opening that the old bins, a lower total volume and are dependent on an easily broken mechanism to function properly. They are a classic case of over design gone wrong. Plus they are much harder to clean out.
The only real advantage I can see is that they are mounted to the ground on a single point, which would make removal (for repairs) easier to do.
http://media.nowpublic.net/images//1c/0/1c042f90a0cf77eacb33affde4126060.jpg
This combination of can and local management is the way to handle it.
The only other best-practices solution I've seen are the solar powered compactor bins, which can suck in more volume due to the compacting. Pretty great, common now in many cities:
http://bigbellysolar.com/the-city-of-philadelphia/
Astral has not lived up to the contract; the contract should be broken, and one of the above solutions explored.
Why Astral and city council decided to try and redesign a garbage bin is ridiculous. the finished product is ugly, cheap, and breaks often.
Is Astral on the hook for all repairs? and if so, why are 25% of all the bins broken?
However, its one thing to ask questions about what was going on and suggest that something seems fishy and another thing altogether for Ford, in his usual manner, to loudly and publicly toss out a bunch of accusations of corruption and the like without anything to substantiate them beyond his own suspicions. We all know now that Ford has a tendency to speak first, think later (if he ever does think at all). He routinely states things as "fact", which are more often than not incorrect, or flat out falsehoods - how many times in his career has been caught out for flat out lying?
When you're just Joe Blow, its probably no bid deal. When you're the Mayor, or even a Councillor, your words and conduct do mattter adn there can be consequences - something that Ford refuses to accept, to his continuing detriment.
That's not to say that its a slamdunk for the plaintiff. Its simply to say that there is some basis for bringing forward a legal action. Its hard to argue you haven't been harmed professionally when you're publicly accused of corrupting public officials by an individual who subsequently became the Mayor. Now that he's made those accusations, its on Ford to substantiate them, or he may have to write a cheque to this guy. It is what it is.
Of course, as with any defamation action, truth is an absolute defence.
Thanks, Miller, for always putting form and facade ahead of functionality!
Ford is so useless. If he thought there was a serious issue with that contract why didn't he do anything about it? Why didn't he try to initiate an investigation or get the ombudsperson(sp?) involved? All he did was yell about it on the radio, which is all he's good at apparently. Since it looks like it really was a case of corruption why hasn't anyone else looked into this?
And we keep the economy rolling by saving & spending.
WE RULE THE WORLD, MR P!
Love you baby!
Just another 1st world white persons issue. This doesn't really matter with all of the other issues going on in the world an in all of the 2nd and 3rd world countries with really issues. You finally stepped up to the plate and spoke up about something to bad it doesn't really effect much in this world other that the pleasure of your bike ride to work. You can still ride down Jarvis as many have with our without bike lanes...
Cyclists, fight city hall if you're angry - not motorists. If you lose, don't whine about it.