Ka-ching. Toronto might be getting a casino, after all — or at least the GTA. At a press conference earlier today it was announced that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) plans to open a casino somewhere in the Toronto Area, though the specifics have yet to be determined.

Here's a nice bit of work from the Globe on bike collisions in the city. Using data obtained from Toronto's Traffic Safety Unit, the paper has put together a map that plots 25 years of cycling accidents in the city. Organized around where and when accidents took place, the project hints at the fact that Toronto could do more to make the streets safe for cyclists. Not only do we have "the highest percentage of bicycle collisions by population among major cities," but the accident rate hasn't changed much over the last decade. There are more cyclists on the road, to be sure, but the stats still aren't particularly encouraging.

Check out the interactive map here.

The City of Toronto is cracking down on illegal concert postering. And guess who's set to pay the price? NOW reports that local venues can be get fined up to $500 if by-law officers see posters on light or hydro poles, parking meters and bus shelters.

The poorly advertised by-law came into effect in 2010 and instead of tracking down the bands that put up the posters, venues are being held accountable since they are the easiest to track. Some Toronto venues are challenging the crackdown, including Lee's Palace and Clinton's. For more, check out the full story in NOW.

What do you think? Is this a fair strategy?

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has just issued a "no board" report, meaning Toronto city workers could be locked out or on strike in about two weeks.

The report confirms that negotiations between the City of Toronto and CUPE 416 have effectively broken down and the province will not intervene with a conciliation board in attempt to resolve the issue. The City has been in negotiations with CUPE 416, which represents 6,000 outside workers including garbage collectors, park maintenance staff, and early education workers, over wage and job security concerns.

The City and union are in legal position to issue a labour disruption on February 5.

As the clock ticks down to the city council vote on the 2012 Toronto budget, a long list of local literary types, including well-known names like Margaret Atwood and Jack Rabinovitch, have written an open letter to the mayor and other members of city council asking that the some of the surplus from the 2011 budget be used to avoid cuts to the public library system.

Their argument is pretty straightforward, if decidedly un-Fordian. In the absence of a more thoroughgoing study of the economic value of the library, it's not really possible to know if the cuts on the table will actually save money in the grand scheme of things. "Will the cost of education rise as a result of the cuts?" ask the writers. "How about the cost of settling newcomers? Or the economic cost to the city's reputation?"

Where's there's bike lane removal, theres...gravy? While it was all but a guarantee that the cost of removing the Jarvis Street bike lanes would exceed that of their initial installation, the actual costs had yet be revealed until the Toronto Cyclists Union requested specific figures from the City's transportation staff, who confirmed that the removal of the lanes and reinstallation overhead traffic signals will cost $272,000, which is up significantly from initial estimates of $200,000.