MB Toronto
Morning Brew: City council seeks new budget chief, Del Grande hints at return, Scarborough subway resurfaces, del Toro wants to stay, and Leafs give away free tickets
City council is seeking a replacement for budget chief Mike Del Grande a day after the councillor decided to step down from his position as chair of the budget committee. Shortly after announcing his departure, which was seemingly provoked by councillors adding spending to the budget, Del Grande said he would consider returning if he was voted back unanimously. "If you're going to leave, leave," said councillor Paul Ainslie. Should council call Del Grande back or find someone else?
The subway debate is never dead in Toronto, it just sleeps occasionally. Waking the monster this time is councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who believes replacing the Scarborough RT with an extension of the Bloor-Danforth line is possible in the next decade. Should replacing the obsolete RT be a priority like the Yonge relief line?
Movie director Guillermo del Toro likes filming in Toronto so much he's hoping to shoot here for the next couple of years, according to the Toronto Star. Del Toro is hoping to follow up the sci-fi Pacific Rim with vampire TV series The Strain.
The Maple Leafs are giving 1,000 fans the chance to attend the team's opening home match against Buffalo Sabres on Monday night. 15,000 season ticket holders, who saw their time at the rink cut in half by the lockout, will also get a free night at the ACC. Tickets will be assigned randomly over the next few days to passionate fans, the team says. Will this win back angry fans?
Finally, cellphone thieves beware: apps that automatically upload photos to the Internet like Dropbox keep running, even if you don't realize. One Reddit user found that out when pictures of a stranger bleaching her moustache started appearing online [via Reddit.]
IN BRIEF:
- Toronto officer hit by car, smashes through windshield [CBC]
- Man arrested in connection with lockdown at Etobicoke school [Globe and Mail]
- Man charged with ex-husband's murder seeks dead spouse's life insurance payout [The Star]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Photo: "Winter Activities 12" by Sarah M Jordan/blogTO Flickr pool.
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In an ideal world Metrolinx would be the organization to absorb the TTC but they've shown their inability to get their act together and become the seperate entity I think we all want them to be - seperate from the bickering both at City Hall and Queen's Park.
Perhaps you've never looked at a map of London, Boston, Paris, Philly or New York City and noticed the suburban light rail lines that feed into trunk subway lines. At some point it becomes more effective and more affordable to collect suburban riders on light rail and feed them into subway stations rather than keep building subways everywhere. This is proven, it works, and it is the right way to go. The problem with Toronto is that instead of building an elevated/surface streetcar as originally intended they went with the stupid RT, which meant the line was never expanded. Worst of both worlds.
Del Grande's return. Nor at least half of council,
come to that.
Another reason converting the RT to subway is a bad idea is because you'd lose half the stops, and the line itself would be shifted a km or two away from its current ROW, which will cause havoc to nearby schools, businesses, and neighbourhoods that having been using it for 30 years.
Nobody said that LRT doesn't work... or that it can't be rapid transit. But in the plan approved for Scarborough, it is not rapid transit. PERIOD. Even Miller acknowledged this. Yes, it is running in it's own ROW, but it won't reach rapid transit speeds given the intersections. Yes an LRT can go subway speeds... but not as planned in Scarborough. There's a hydro corridor that would have provided a rapid transit corridor (open cut out of traffic but intersecting various major streets) whether using subway or LRT. The old Scarborough Town Council at one time was considering this option for rapid transit and the Scarborough Mayor now regrets now pushing this option. But the option didn't even come up at Toronto Council. As I said many times, I think Ford is a bad mayor... But the fact that he's a bad mayor doesn't mean the LRT plan approved for Scarborough is rapid transit or a good plan or good value. Folks, it's one thing to express an opinion on these boards. It's another thing to spread inaccurate information AND engage in name calling.
@realityCheck: It's one thing to believe bullshit about a type of public transit; it's another to be then believing said bullshit and wanting the other mode that doesn't work for the part of the city in question to be built when you know that it won't work and will be a waste of money.
If people wish to be stupid about LRT's, that their problem, but I'm not going to reward it with pats on the back and a smile, instead I'm going to reward it with insults. Bottom line, not building LRT lines in Scarborough is stupid, dumb, and idiotic-end of story. Please try and realize that you're in the minority on this one.
How sweet. Must be cold in the tent this time of year though.