Morning Brew: Toronto offers New York aid, Rob Ford nailed by Ombudsman again, dogs may run free in city parks, and the Raps are back

Hey, look at us — we're really good people. Both the TTC and the City of Toronto have extended offers to help New York City get back on track in the wake of Sandy's destructive visit on Monday night. It's not yet clear how these offers will manifest in aid to the flood-damaged city, but it's nice to see Toronto do the right thing.

Rob Ford's in hot water again (when isn't he?). Although the mayor characterized it as a "witch hunt," a follow-up debate on a report from Ombudsman Fiona Crean suggests that he was far too involved in the civic appointments process, right down to the existence of a list of potential candidates, all of whom received interviews for the positions in question. Despite the push-back from Ford and his allies, council ultimately voted unanimously to accept the report.

Dog owners rejoice! Maybe. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has asked for a city report on the possibility of introducing leash-free hours at all city parks over and above the 54 currently designated parks. He proposes that dogs be able to run free between 9 p.m. and 9:00 a.m., so as to minimize overlap with peak usage by children. What do you think? Good idea?

Wanna buy a movie theatre? For the low price of $1,629,000 you could own what was once the Toronto Underground Cinema. Bonus: free popcorn! (via Torontoist).

No doubt there were some pretty fantastic costumes out there last night (and last weekend when most of the Halloween parties went down), but can anybody top this one for its local theme? Probably not.

There might not be hockey for quite some time, but sports fans can take solace in the fact that the Raptors are back. Although they lost their season opener to the Indiana Pacers — blowing a lead in the fourth quarter, no less — there were positive signs that supporters can cling to.

Photo by Ben Roffelsen in the blogTO Flickr pool