City State

Posts with category ‘General’


Signing off: City State’s top three unanswered questions

This is the end. City State is being discontinued as of this post. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by these pages, especially the regular readers and contributors. Perhaps we’ll find another meeting place somewhere in the blogosphere. In the meantime, here are three questions I’ve been pondering.

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Gloria Lindsay Luby farts at Gardiner party

At city hall yesterday, the Supreme Soviet—beg pardon, the Executive Committee—voted 12–1 in favour of tearing down the Gardiner east of Jarvis (or, at least, to go ahead with an environmental assessment of its tear-down). The lone dissenter was Gloria Lindsay Luby, the Etobicoke councillor who, running counter to the urban zeitgeist that puts walking, cycling and transit ahead of driving, said that the city should be building infrastructure, not tearing it down. Why she may be right, after the jump.

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Crime waves come and go, but hiring cops still makes good politics

A few days ago, a police force spokesperson said more patrols weren’t necessary to combat violent crime in the city. Queen’s Park disagrees and is handing over an extra $5 million to the Toronto Police Force for additional patrols. Thankfully, police chief Bill Blair declined to look his gift horse in the mouth. It’s the mouths of some of his existing officers that require examination.

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Two more dead dogs in Toronto—is there a Canikiller on the loose?

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The section of High Park known as Dog Hill has been cordoned off by police after two dogs died and a number of others fell ill from ingesting what appears to be liquid antifreeze. The incident comes four years after a series of dog poisonings in Withrow Park caused by pesticide-laced wieners. That crime was never solved, and the whole thing now has a certain Unabomber-esque intrigue to it. Toronto may have a Canikiller on its hands, striking without warning, then lying in wait for years before mounting another sneak attack. And if so, here is an appeal to the perpetrator: please feel free to forward your wacked-out, manifesto-ish screed of complaints and demands to the Toronto Life offices. City State will publish it in full, not because your cause is righteous—it’s heinous—but because we’re all curious.

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Air Canada’s racket: This time, it’s baggage extortion

Last week, Air Canada announced it would cut 2,000 employees. Based upon my experience this past weekend, those that remain are busy shaking down passengers for extra money. My wife and I made a quick trip to Calgary to visit family and hike up a mountain. We packed a single, large piece of luggage and hopped on a plane at Pearson without hassle or questioning. But when I tried to check the same piece of luggage in Calgary for the return flight, I was redirected to what was, for me anyway, a new step in the check-in process: the weigh-scale extortion station.

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What good could possibly come of a Rob Ford mayoral campaign?

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City Councillor Rob Ford would make a terrible mayor, but that doesn’t mean he’d make a terrible mayoral candidate. Here at City State, because we enjoy political spectacle, we are openly encouraging him to mount a campaign. One fellow hack in the city hall press gallery said a Ford candidacy would unleash a “public shit show.” The most likely result of such a campaign would be that we’d get to watch Ford hang himself. But there is some evidence that Ford can be a crafty politician at times, and he could make life uncomfortable for his opponents. To give you some idea, I dug up this clip of Ford debating Mayor David Miller last September, in which Ford manages to drive Miller bananas.

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TTC driver charged with careless driving in Broadview rear-ender

The dog days of summer continue for the TTC—and it isn’t even June 21. Tuesday afternoon, a southbound streetcar on Broadview Avenue rear-ended a car near Tennis Crescent. According to TTC spokesperson Brad Ross, the driver of the car was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the streetcar operator was charged with careless driving. For those of you keeping score, you can add this incident to the DUI bus driver, the bus driver who lost control in what appears to have been some sort of medical “event,” the 74-year-old man who died after being hit by a bus, and the streetcar driver who didn’t check a track switch and collided with another streetcar. Oh, and don’t forget the ticket-forging collector.

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Will Metrolinx take over the TTC subway? A transit logo conspiracy theory

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A couple of weeks ago, City State posted a comparison of the TTC’s logo with transit logos from other cities around the world. The conclusion: the TTC’s art deco identifier, while distinctive, lacks simplicity and ease of recognition. Meanwhile, in an unrelated yet completely related development, Metrolinx—the regional transportation body that is poised to take over the GO system and implement road tolls and parking taxes everywhere and will soon run our frickin’ lives—recently unveiled a new logo of its own. As it happens, the new Metrolinx logo is everything the TTC’s is not. More conspiracy theorizing after the jump.

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With open arms, police welcome this year’s summer of violence

What’s most striking about this past weekend of blood and violence in Toronto—five shootings and four stabbings—is the blasé reaction from police. The National Post reported that, according to Staff Sgt. Courtney Chambers, additional police patrols are not necessary. The CBC, meanwhile, quoted Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan saying the following: “Crime waves, you know, they come and they go. This is just one of those summer weekends.” Shucks, Det. Sgt. Ryan, I’m sure Dylan Ellis, Oliver Martin and everyone else who was shot or stabbed over the weekend are sorry to learn you had a bad couple days at the office.

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Highway tolls are like fuel injection for Rob Ford’s mayoral candidacy

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Road pricing in Toronto is now officially up for debate: at last Friday’s Metrolinx board meeting, staff put forward a proposal for a 10-cent-per-kilometre toll on all 400-series highways in the GTA, as well as on the Gardiner Expressway and the DVP. The first to wade into the fray, not surprisingly, is Rob Ford. He calls the idea “political suicide.” The issue undoubtedly gives a big boost to Ford’s mayoral prospects, as it rolls his two pet peeves into a single, politically explosive package: taxes and the persecution of drivers. The unthinkable campaign—Rob Ford for Mayor!—has taken a giant leap toward reality.

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Howard Hampton resigns as NDP leader; seniors still in soiled diapers

After 12 years at the helm of Ontario’s NDP, Howard Hampton will be best remembered for his tirade against the media last October. If you haven’t seen it in a while, here it is. It’s worth another look. Back when he said it, he struck me as a politician desperate for attention, which is exactly what he was. But when I watch it again now, outside the context of a provincial election campaign, two things stand out. One: it was an incredibly sincere, from-the-gut outburst—the first Canadian politician in recent memory to speak his mind so forcefully. Two: Howard Hampton has zero charisma.

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No more hotboxing the streetcar

At least for TTC staff, anyway. Thought you’d like to know.

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OMB hearing over Leslieville big-box project pits seniors against children

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Yesterday morning’s Ontario Municipal Board hearings on the proposal for a SmartCentres retail complex in Leslieville were dedicated to deputations from members of the general public. Anyone who wanted to put his or her thoughts on the record was welcome to do so. A total of 18 people spoke. The final score: anti-SmartCentres 14, pro-SmartCentres 4. According to SmartCentres land development manager Fraser Smith, that’s a closer margin than you usually get at an OMB hearing. “It’s very rare for the Ontario Municipal Board to hear positive sentiments for a development proposal,” he said. But more interesting than the final score were the arguments themselves, which suggested that this battle is turning into a generation-gap fight. The proceedings even featured real, live kids and old folks used as props.

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Hey, TTC! Maybe I should drive

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Between Tuesday’s bus accident (which left a kilometre-long wake of property carnage in North York) and Wednesday morning’s head-on streetcar collision (on Dundas), the TTC was already having a bad week—to say nothing of two massive delays on the Yonge line, the arrest of an alleged ticket-counterfeiting booth jockey and the continuing media coverage of a driver caught drunk on the job. The irony is that, last Friday, the TTC invited media to drive a bus through an obstacle course. I aced the test. I am ready to serve!

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Counterfeiting: Revenge of the TTC booth jockeys

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In our youth, we just hopped the turnstile and made a run for the open subway doors. But as we age, we become less nimble, less certain of our ability to outrun even puffing, red-faced collectors let loose from their glass cages. At that stage in our lives, there’s more fun to be had in trying to outwit them: drop less-than-exact change in the fare box, slip them last week’s transfer (I used to keep a collection of old transfers in my wallet), give them a sob story (“The turnstile ate my token!”). The collectors are more annoyed than fooled: they’ve seen it all before, and our bullshit just becomes a staple of their routine. Eventually we mature and pay the full bloody fare. And that’s when they eke out their revenge. Mostly, they just act surly and give us grief. But collector Nafisa Zahur apparently came up with a truly innovative way of outwitting us in turn.

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Journalism + booze = immortality

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At the National Magazine Awards gala last Friday, host Adam Sternbergh cracked a joke about Walrus editor Ken Alexander’s drinking habits. I forget exactly how it went, but really, it was a throwaway line. Everyone who ever worked at The Walrus had a story to tell about Alexander and the bottle. And now it’s time to share them over a pint: Alexander’s days at The Walrus will be officially over on July 4.

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Yes, New York, Toronto has heat waves and beaches

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It’s always fun when Toronto gets mentioned south of the border, but take a gander at this gullible post from New York magazine about HBO shooting Grey Gardens on the shores of Lake Ontario. By what miracle of motion picture production did they recreate Long lsland–like sand dunes and hot weather in the igloo village known as Toronto?! Sheesh.

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Canadian anthem of spurned spouses switches networks

The entire 2004–2005 NHL season was cancelled due to a lockout. In 2005, Canada’s fertility rate reached its highest level in many years. The only people who can’t see the link between these two facts are the hockey obsessed. The nation’s wives and girlfriends—who can never get their men to bed on a chilly Saturday night—understand the connection intimately. And Dolores Claman’s “The Hockey Theme” is the clarion call that summons the men and plunks them down in front of their set. As national anthems go, Claman’s song swells us with patriotism and little else. Put another way, that stupid song is the Pavlovian bell that leaves the entire nation unmanned. And now TSN, which typically airs hockey several nights per week instead of just on Saturdays, holds the rights to the song. Get ready for a long, cold winter.

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David Miller’s city hall could use a dose of Vancouver-style political intrigue

Vancouver’s current mayor won’t be running for re-election this fall, as his own party, the Non-Partisan Alliance, has dumped him. I know a lot of people point to Vancouver as an example of why political parties are bad at the municipal level, but this strikes me as a nice bit of theatre, with lots of drama and a fascinating result: the ineffectual, polarizing incumbent being jettisoned. Could such a thing ever happen to David Miller? Should it? A hypothetical Toronto scenario after the jump.

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A Jetsonsesque future: Toronto says “No thanks,” Montreal says “Yes, yes, fast, fast, fast!”

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The July issue of Toronto Life is now on newsstands. A peek at the table of contents shows that there’s a column by me about what’s become my axe to grind: Toronto’s stubborn refusal to adopt a vacuum waste collection system for the West Don Lands and other large-scale redevelopments. After that story went to press, Montreal decided to dive into the vacuum waste game, and their example shows Toronto what a bold, risk-taking city looks like: vacuum waste there will either be a huge success, or it will be a classic Montreal fiasco.

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Gary Roberts loses hockey’s geriatric crown to Chris Chelios

The best thing about watching the Red Wings accept the Stanley Cup last night: the Pittsburgh crowd broke into a chorus of boos when 46-year-old Chris Chelios hoisted it aloft. He clearly savoured the moment. Meanwhile, the Pens’ 42-year-old Gary Roberts, a favourite son of Leafs nation, looked—just as he always does—like the sorest loser in hockey history. Watching all those shots of him on the bench, unable to celebrate his teammates’ goals because he was too distracted by his own obsession with winning a second Stanley Cup, struck me as pathetic.

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Flaherty: Nuts to fiscal conservatism, let’s buy votes!

Remember when Jim Flaherty was a fighting fiscal conservative at war with the tax-and-spend ways of the McGuinty Liberals? Those days appear to be over: Flaherty has offered financial help to GM. I’m just guessing here, but if you tune into tonight’s "At Issue" panel on The National, you’ll see Andrew Coyne, the guardian of fiscal conservative purity, get his knickers in a knot, and Chantal Hébert wryly pokes fun at him. Fiscal conservatism looks like it’s about to hit the wall. Tax breaks appeal to voters when their wallets are flush, but when people lose their jobs, a tax cut is far less interesting, since it would only apply to their EI cheque. So politicians buy votes with subsidies in the hopes of propping up the jobs. In recessionary times, Common Sense Revolutions tend to give way to common sense.

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The 2008 Pug Awards: The people have chosen (the wrong buildings)

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Poor Lisa Rochon. Last Saturday, the Globe and Mail’s architecture critic wrote about the Pug Awards—Toronto’s people’s choice awards for architecture—singling out two buildings as “heartbreakingly banal”: the Hazelton Hotel in Yorkville and the Argyle Authentic Lofts in the Ossington-Dundas area. This year, more than 50,000 people cast votes on-line, and apparently they did so just to make her eat her words: the Hazelton and the Argyle emerged as the night’s big winners. The buildings’ profiles are all still on-line (links after the jump), so you can see for yourself that Torontonians have expressed a firm preference for staid, stiff-necked, unembellished, boring conservatism.

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TTC: The better way to drink and drive

City State realizes that the most recent round of collective bargaining between the TTC and its union was a disappointment to everyone, but no one was feeling the pain more than bus driver Satvinder Bisla. Yikes: Bilsa has been charged with having a blood-alcohol level three times over the legal limit, and apparently with having a bottle of “suspicious liquid” in the bus to stay fuelled. Incidentally, this coming Friday morning, the TTC is hosting a media day in which journalists will have the chance to drive a bus through a pylon-laden obstacle course. I will be attending. I’ll mix up a couple of early risers to get in the mood.

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Oshawa plant-closure story unfolding by the minute

Remember that controversial no-strike agreement between the Canadian Auto Workers and Magna International from last year? Well, it appears that the same type of arrangement is informally at work, at least for the moment, in the CAW’s fight with GM over the closure of an Oshawa truck plant. According to the Toronto Star’s Web site, CAW workers blockaded GM’s Oshawa headquarters this morning, even as others continued to show up for their shifts at the facility. They’re protesting but not striking. Arguably, they can’t strike. There is no market for the trucks the plant produces, and if the CAW shut down the plant it might suit GM just fine.

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Nobody really watches hockey anymore? Au contraire, Tiger

Some golfing fella who goes by the name Tiger Woods had the gall to say “I don’t think anybody really watches hockey anymore.” Over at Cbc.ca, the story has sent the comments section into overdrive. It would have been less controversial if he’d said our flag was for dorks. I suppose he never watches lacrosse or curling, either. A proposal for corrective measures after the jump.

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Humanitas by any other name (or, Toronto to get its own city museum)

The most memorable museum I have seen in my life and travels is the Eel Interpretation Centre in Kamouraska, Quebec. It was owned by a local eel-fishing family that, during the off-season, charged admission to their garage. They displayed their nets and explained Japan’s insatiable appetite for eel. One wall was devoted to collateral damage: a taxidermist had stuffed all the animals (other than eels) that had been accidentally ensnared in the nets, from raccoons to seagulls to a sad-eyed baby seal. It was the corniest, most picayune museum ever, but it was brutally honest; the lesson learned was that eel fishing is fascinating, and that sometimes bad things happen. I mention it as an omen: this morning, the mayor’s executive committee (known to City State as the Committee of One Mind) approved the latest proposal to build a Toronto Museum.

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There are reasons to keep the Gardiner, and they don’t all have to do with cars

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“It’s ugly.” That’s how the chair of Waterfront Toronto, Mark Wilson, described the stretch of the Gardiner Expressway from Jarvis Street to the Don River at a news conference last Friday, where waterfront honchos announced their intentions to rip it down and replace it with an eight-lane road. I seriously beg to differ with Wilson’s assessment, and I’m not just being contrarian: whether you’re driving atop the Gardiner, or beneath it on Lake Shore Boulevard, the east end of the expressway is a truly enjoyable stretch of road. The usual suspects—Royson James, Christopher Hume—are lamenting that it’s not being completely torn down. So let me make the last-ditch argument that this chunk of the Gardiner is worth saving, for reasons that have little to do with cars.

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Globe content unleashed on-line

The old thinking about on-line content is that if the information you provide is valuable, then people will pay for its retrieval. The reality is that charging for on-line content is a great way to kill the value of information. If I want to retrieve something I read last week, but have to pay for it, I probably won’t bother. That’s how good stories die. Effective immediately, The Globe and Mail has finally broken out of its on-line torpor (thanks to “Inkless Wells” for the tip), so I can now reread John Barber’s columns for free. And there’s the paradox in a nutshell: they’re not worth a penny more, but as a result of being more readily available, they are much more valuable.

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Is it time to redesign the TTC logo?

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A story late last week in the Toronto Star noted that the TTC will be conducting a back-to-the-future update of its subway signage: the iconic 1920s logo on a stick. It’s pure, simple and elegant in comparison to the designs being eliminating. The story sent me out for a surf, which turned up this image of subway logos from around the world. These are part of a larger collection that includes logos from other Canadian cities. The site identifies them all by city, and the TTC logo is easy to spot: it’s the one whose shape makes it look smaller than all the rest, and whose letters are nearly impossible to discern.

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Yellow Pages: Ballast for my big blue bin

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I walked out my door yesterday and found two Yellow Pages behemoths on my doorstep. Thankfully, someone came and stole one while I wasn’t looking. Perhaps one of my neighbours actually makes use of the Yellow Pages. I sure don’t. Who, in this day and age, makes their fingers do the walking through pounds of inky newsprint when you can find everything you need while afloat in the cloudlike ether of the Internet? I promptly put the Pages where it belongs—but not before discovering some truly stupid information inside, plus one very curious omission, which I’ll tell you about after the jump.

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They’re demolishing Harvey’s. Where are the heritage preservationists when you need them?

For a time, when I was doing some work at Maclean’s from their offices at One Mount Pleasant Road (or OMP as it’s known to those inside), I would head out for a Harvey’s lunch at Bloor and Yonge. I did so partly for nostalgia: it brought me back to my earliest days as an office drone in the early ’90s, when I toiled away in downtown Montreal writing pension plan summaries under the draconian supervision of actuaries, ate regularly at Harvey’s and gained about 30 pounds. The kids in the YouTube video know my passion and may soon know my once-thickened midsection if they keep it up. It was also an act of national pride: I prefer to get my artery-clogging fast food fix from a Canadian institution. Then there’s the plain fact that nothing beats a Harvey’s burger loaded up with pickles and tomatoes. So today I shed a patriotic, Morgan Spurlockesque tear for my favourite burger: this afternoon, an excavator is slated to begin razing the Bloor-Yonge Harvey’s.

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“Ethnic Food”—Putting the à la carte before the horse

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ethnic food / ‘eØnIk fu:d / n. 1. A general term used to signify prepared foods from around the world, typically from cultures other than one’s own. 2. The wide array of cultural foods available for purchase and consumption in restaurants throughout Toronto. 3. The wide array of cultural foods whose sale is forbidden on Toronto city streets, as it is uncharted bureaucratic territory fraught with potential pitfalls and liabilities, requiring extensive consultation with stakeholders and exhaustive regulation. 4. Banned substances. 5. Banned substances with their own logo.

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Jane Jacobs is dead. Pass it on

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A few months ago, I squared off with Richard Florida when I ridiculed his syrupy fawning over Toronto in the pages of the Globe and Mail. Florida’s riposte went like so: “I have been wondering for some time now why people like Preville are so negative and insecure about what Jane Jacobs said is North America’s greatest city… People like Preville are all too ready to rip into this town at the drop of a hat.” Ever since that exchange, I have been wondering precisely the opposite: Why is it that people not like Preville are so insecure about Toronto that they need to be constantly reassured about its tremendous qualities?

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Today in Toronto

November 21, 2008

Breast Fest Film Festival

Local charity Rethink Breast Cancer delves into the stigmas surrounding the disease with a new ...

Ensemble Vivant

The trio presents a diverse program culled from the classical, jazz and Latin dance genres

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