Pet saver defends his actions - "Tre Smith, an animal cruelty investigator for the Toronto Humane Society and former mall security guard, is not allowed to investigate animal cruelty complaints pending an investigation in which he handcuffed the owner of the dog to a car." [Toronto Star]

Great jorb, Toronto council

Best one-liner on this week's land transfer tax fiasco: "The same business groups who wanted Queen’s Park to give Toronto more taxing powers screamed like the well-fattened pigs they are when Toronto actually tried to exercise them." [Steve Munro]

Canadian ZENN's electric car

Toronto Company Has Electric Car But Our Government Won't Let Them Sell It - "Although the car is now available for sale in 48 US States, no Canadian government has approved it for sale in Canada. In fact, Queens Park refused to even entertain the idea until Al Gore cornered Dalton McGuinty earlier this year and insisted that he make it happen." [BlogTO]

What the other 9/10ths thinks

Toronto still terrific - "Toronto is funky, tolerant, multicultural, young, with an artistic sensibility and an inherent dignity. It's not New York. It's not Chicago. It's more earnest, more harmonious." [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Funny, isn't it, reading what an outsider has to say about the city where you live? This article highlights 10 general categories of stuff-to-do in the city this summer that make the travel, currency, and border hassles worthwhile for US-ian tourists.

Sometimes a travel writer's enthusiasm boggles the mind, though. For example: "Families will have a blast taking the fast, on-time subway through town". What on earth does that mean? An "on-time" subway? Has Toronto such a beast? Our subway are scheduled to run "every x minutes" - with x being a function of time of day and day of week - with the only fixed times being the first and last train of the day. I think even giant TTC transit nerds like myself would have a hard time saying to themselves, "boy, that subway sure was on-time".

Another good one: "Taxis are plentiful and inexpensive". I guess Einstein was right... it's all relative.

HtO Park: Toronto’s Waterfront takes a big step forward - "Despite all the setbacks, the incomplete park (the western half is still under construction) is a huge success. On the first Saturday night, the park was full of families, children were playing the sand pit, Afro music playing and gathering a crowd, others people walking along the water." [Spacing Wire]

Checking out HtO is now on my (short, but growing) list of things to see in the city this summer.

Best quip yet about LED lighting on the CN Tower and condos: "We like change, but we urge restraint." [Torontoist]

Big trouble in little Downsview

I didn't pay much attention to the circling news helicopters for the first couple of hours, but when one of Toronto EMS's bus-sized ambulances pulled up in front of my apartment building, it seemed wise to investigate.

Dozens of police cruisers, the Emergency Task Force, several regular ambulances, one tactical ambulance, the aforementioned huge ambulance, four or more satellite news vans, two news choppers hovering and at least one small aircraft circling overhead make for an awfully busy scene just a block south of my home. The cause? A 'lockdown' at C.W. Jeffries, the neighbourhood public high school.

Apparently a 14-year old student was shot inside at 2:30pm, and later died at Sunnybrook. CityTV's News at Six had a couple of really tasteless video clips of the victim's mother (and others) screaming and collapsing outside the hospital when informed of his death.

Thankfully, it seems like it was 'only' a murder, rather than a spree shooter. There seems to be some confusion has to how a nearby indoor pool fits into the scenario, with The Star reporting that "police at first responded to what was initially reported as a drowning at a pool near the school."

Coverage a-plenty:

• ETF enters high school after fatal shotting at indoor pool [CityNews]
• Boy killed in school shooting [Toronto Star]
  
• Teen dies after Toronto school shooting [CBC]
• Student dies after being shot in Toronto school [CTV]
• Teen shot dead at Toronto high school [Globe and Mail]
• Toronto school in lockdown after shooting [Canada.com]

TTC's "36th Annual Bus and Maintenance Roadeo"

How Tough is it to Drive a Bus? Now it's Your Turn to Find Out - "The Bus Roadeo competition takes place this coming Sunday over an obstacle course that is designed to challenge the most skilled urban bus driver. TTC drivers qualify during run-offs at the divisional level, and compete for top honours... The winner [will] compete at the North American championships, which will be held by the American Public Transportation Association next year in Austin, Texas." [PR @ CCN Matthews]

Oh, and before you get as worked up as I did about it being "your turn to find out", be advised that the headline is addressed to the newsroom and/or transit beat journalist-types who actually read these press releases.

Inappropriate Honours Dr.

Judy Sgro, longtime (and still serving) Liberal MP for the riding in which I live, has a street named after her in North York. Awesomely cranky Councillor Moscoe no likey one bit:

Eglinton-Lawrence Coun. Howard Moscoe is one of the outspoken opponents "The city has a policy against naming streets after living politicians," he argued. "But if you're going to name a street after a living politician, you might as well put the 'reelect' in front of it and do some good for her," he facetiously notes.

[CityNews via BoingBoing]

The policy in question may be found here (see point #3). It cautions against naming streets after living persons of all kinds, not just politicians.

Adam Vaughn gets tough on nightclubs - "[His] proposal would require nightclub owners to apply and pay for the a permit to use public sidewalks for lengthy line-ups." [BlogTO]

It's okay to think it's ugly: No one says you have to love the ROM addition [Toronto Star via Spacing]

Ruffians to annoying kids listening to music on the TTC: use headphones, or get yourself stabbed. [CBC]

Prius too small as T.O. limo - "Green Limousine Inc., can currently operate [its] "green" limo service in Ajax and Pickering, but not in Toronto, where a bylaw that stipulates vehicle size, trunk space and passenger legroom restricts the use of the most popular and energy-efficient hybrid cars." [Toronto Star]

Most Azuredly

Azure is an art, architecture, and design magazine published in Toronto (but with international coverage). Based on the website, it looks promising; however, with teasers instead of full articles, it's hard to say for sure.

Landlord licensing in works to force fixes at 'appalling' apartments - "Moscoe said he plans to introduce a licensing scheme to force landlords to clean up their buildings based on the model followed for restaurants.'We inspect restaurants periodically. If there's a problem, it gets inspected monthly until it gets cleaned up,' said Moscoe." [CBC]

Rental realities - "The tenant reports posted on a new ratings website suggest that some Toronto apartments are crawling with unsought guests, guileful supers and nightmarish neighbours." [Globe and Mail]

Toronto Life Acquires Naming Rights to Downtown Toronto Entertainment Complex - "The new world-class entertainment complex opening in downtown Toronto will be named Toronto Life Square. Developed by PenEquity Management Corporation and referred to as Metropolis during initial construction, the multi-use complex is scheduled to open in phases, beginning fall 2007." [CCN Matthews (press release)]

More pedestrian Sundays!

Spacing says Kensington's wicked awesome Pedestrian Sundays concept is having two babies: one named Baldwin, and another called Mirvish.

This is great news. I had never been to Baldwin Street before Dave started working there, and now it's one of my favourite parts of the city. The hippy factor there is a little lower than in Kensington, but still pretty substantial. As for Mirvish, well, I'll reserve judgment for now.

Orange Alert

This afternoon I dad an americano at Orange Alert Organic Coffee @ McCaul and Dundas West for the second time in three days. Tasty stuff.

I came home, and after a little Googlin', I discovered a review of the café on a site called Tupalo (tagline: "stuff in your neighborhood"), which is a city-by-city, user-generated map site. It's a solid implementation of an idea I've seen several times elsewhere (e.g. Google Local), but based on individuals adding their favourite places rather than adding a whole phonebook's worth of locations. For example, here's a search for coffee near Dundas that returns just four locations based on reviews by happy-camper customers.

Later that night, Borrelli, Liam, Dave and I made rowdy fools of ourselves over loads of delicions "meat" at Bo De Duyen. Maybe a positive review will go some distance toward making ammends?

York U assaults on YouTube

Retrofit that s***!

Faulty towers - "Typically viewed as "mistakes" from the 1960s and '70s, and largely excluded from urban debates, [high-rise apartments] may in fact represent one of our greatest opportunities for creating a sustainable region... Though efficiencies are gained from reduced land coverage, transit use and so on, exposed floor edges (typically protruding balconies), minimal insulation, single-pane windows, and aging mechanical systems give these buildings an unacceptable environmental impact. A typical 25-storey building contributes 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide." [Toronto Star]

Torontoist vs. Torontoist in...Non-Citizen Voting! [Torontoist]

Tear out the Sheppard subway!

I've been pondering the implications of the so-called Transit City LRT plan for Toronto (which has been discussed in passionate and speculative detail over at Spacing).

An LRT is to run westward along Sheppard to Don Mills station, which is great; however, travelling this direction past Yonge will then mean a transfer from the LRT to the subway at Don Mills, then to a bus at Yonge.

It is well-known that the Sheppard stubway, while convenient for a limited range of commutes, loses a great deal of money every year. If the LRT is added, it may being seem like an inconvenience.

My outlandish proposal: rip out the subway tracks and run the LRT underground from Don Mills to Yonge. Eventually, the LRT could hit the surface around Wellbeck (doesn't the Sheppard tunnel already run a certain distance past Yonge?), and head all the way out to Weston with connects at Bathurst, Downsview station, Keele, and the proposed Jane LRT.

Swapping subway for LRT along Sheppard shold cost considerably less than digging a new LRT tunnel (as is planned on Eglinton), requiring only new tracks and some station modifications to raise low-floor LRT doors up to meet the platform. The subway cars used on the Sheppard line are interchangable with the rest, and so they won't go to waste.

Will it cost less to operate an underground portion of an LRT line than the current Sheppard subway? Have heavy-to-light underground rail retrofits been sucessfully accomplished elsewhere? I have no idea, but a great deal of transfer hassle would be saved at Don Mills, and a single-trip, transfer-free LRT run from the east through to Weston would make a lot of sense.

Far too big, too high, too close - "It's a cat-and-mouse game between the [billboard] advertising companies and overworked city inspectors trying to enforce an inadequate bylaw that is convoluted and confusing, even to them. Among other things, it mandates the kind of billboard that is permissible and the minimum distance between signs." [Toronto Star via Spacing]

This article profiles Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca and its map of allegedly offending billboards.

Province brands city a high-risk employer - "Toronto has been declared a 'high-risk' employer by Ontario's Ministry of Labour because of its poor health and safety record, the city's employee and labour relations committee has heard. The designation means the city is subject to more intensive and more frequent safety inspections, and pays higher premiums to the WSIB." [The Star]

Things that should not be

A couple of exceedingly minor municipal issues have been bothering me lately, but I haven't had time to lay them out clearly here. I know these may seem a little petty, but I think both are relatively significant in terms of civic propriety. In both cases, I feel like a doofus for being annoyed, but each does seem like the kind of thing that shouldn't be happening.

Toronto EMS / Support Our Troops - When I first noticed a big yellow ribbon decal on an ambulance, I presumed it was a one-off show of patriotism by a particular EMS crew. Apparently not, as I have not seen a single ambulance or EMS SUV without a yellow ribbon for some time now. This should not be permitted. These ambulances are municipal vehicles -- just like fire trucks or police cruisers -- and allowing them to sport stickers that push a divisive political message is totally inappropriate. Despite the slogan's overt neutrality, 'Support Our Troops' in the current context is code for 'do not criticize the Afghanistan mission'. I thought about contacting Toronto EMS, but I don't want to be a jerk about it.

TTC / Request Stop Program - This service, whereby TTC riders can ask drivers to let them off buses in-between official stops at night, is explicitly offered exclusively to women. Posters throughout the TTC and audio announcements in subway stations all specifically indicate that this service is for women only (in this poster [PDF] the word 'women' even appears in a different typeface for emphasis). I can understand the motivation, and I would allow that women might feel less safe than men in the city at night, but how could a program like this make it through the planning stages without setting off gender discrimination flags? Presumably most drivers wouldn't refuse to stop for a man (or male children), but would the program really suffer from advertising to men and women alike? The only rationale I can think of is to limit the program to addressing sexual assault, rather than robbery. In any case, this is a potentially beneficial city service that needn't be, and yet is, offered in a discriminatory fashion. Promoting this service for men would not make it less effective for or useful to women.

A tale of two towers (and two landlords) - "At first glance, the state of 1011 Lansdowne doesn't seem unusual. It's a low-rent, badly designed building in a traditionally sketchy part of town, just north of Dupont Street. But then you notice that it is attached to another 23-storey tower: 730 St. Clarens Avenue [which] has none of the problems that plague its neighbour. The drastic difference between the two suggests the real issue with troubled buildings: It's not poor people, not immigrants, not gangs -- it's the landlord." [Globe and Mail]

Red sky in morning...

Woke up to a fabulous display on the horizon today, around 7:00am... and so, my very own first YouTube video (hold your applause!). The uploading and conversion process was ridiculously easy, taking only a smidge longer than the time I needed to upload a few shakey stills to Flickr. Where's Tudor's high-end photo gear when you need it?

Lapel pins trumpet Mayor's mantra - "How do you spot Mayor David Miller's supporters at City Hall? Check their lapels. There is a good chance that a Millerite will be sporting a blue-and-white lapel pin emblazoned with Toronto's logo and the words: 'Opportunity. Liveability. Prosperity.'" [National Post]

Homeless shelters overloaded, critics say - "The hidden-camera operation is the latest move by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, a veteran group of homelessness activists critical of Mayor David Miller's strategy on the homeless." [Globe and Mail]