Photo: "Gardiner Thrones 1" by PDPhotography, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Another Monday, and another weekend of not much but strike-related news...

The city union strike enters week two, and kids are now out of school for the summer. This means no pools, and no summer camps for a lot of kids. I wonder if any city workers are skipping out on picket line duty, to stay home and care for their own kids.

Striking workers formed a human chain and brought the cleanup after the Pride parade to a near halt yesterday. Apparently the city reneged on their word, hiring a private company to clean the streets of debris after a million people partied on the streets. The alternative would have been what? To leave tonnes of crap all over several city streets?

Also related to the strike, there's good news for those who are unable to get street parking permits and collecting parking tickets as a result - the city says to keep them and they'll erase them once the strike is over. No word on what happens if you get towed though!

The new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, Tim Hudak, is speaking out for taxpayers and wagging the finger at city union workers on his first day on the job.

And in non-strike news (there is some?), fans of Toronto chef Susur Lee should take a look at this ride, eat, read, sleep restaurant experience deal.

And for those of you who were not online all weekend (and not allowing he strike to ruin your time off work), here's a quick recap of what blogTO was up to:

• Dennis visited a number of TTC subway stations, and pondered St. Andrew station's facelift.
• Christopher took a trip to Pacific Mall, and didn't particularly enjoy himself.
• Devon enjoyed a burrito at Johny Banana.
• Briony filled us in on a summer-long series of pop-up fashion sales at the Drake.
• Derek talked to residents in the Christie Pits area who are protesting the temporary dumps in city parks.
• Robin interviewed The Shuffle Demons, who are attempting another saxophone world record.
• Roger got some great photos of the 2009 Toronto Dyke March.
• And I found some space up front and got snaps of the 2009 Toronto Pride Parade.