Up Next: bin Laden on the Dilapidation of Lower Manhatten Landmarks?

Why would anyone get Mike Harris to write a report on what's wrong with Toronto?

Shit.

It turns out that the TTC unions have turned down their deal and will strike as of midnight. Says the Star:

"Unionized transit workers were notified by electronic voice mail late Friday evening that they were not to report for their shifts effective at midnight."

That should make Monday morning interesting for me if something isn't done.

Dodging (Transit) Bullets

No TTC strike this morning. Lucky. Yesterday I put slick tires on my old mountain bike to make it a bit more ridable should I need it as a commuter. (An aside: Actually I should have done this some time ago as I just don't do a lot of trail riding. There's really no good reason not to use this bike around town.)

Should we make the TTC an essential service? On the plus side for commuters, it would mean no more strikes. That said, binding arbitration is usually more expensive. Yes this could be a good deal for the TTC's workers, but it may mean that we have less money to expand service et cetera. Moreover, I do not know that the TTC is an essential service per se. It's massively inconvenient not to have it, but teacher strikes, garbage worker strikes, and others are also massively inconvenient.

Mr. McGuinty, Tear Down this OMB

This story makes me so angry. The local community does not want a big box mall, the mayor does not want it, the local city councillor does not want it, local architects and politicians oppose it too. Why does the province allow the unelected, undemocratic Ontario Municipal Board override these types of concerns.

Very quickly, no one should support the OMB:

The Left-Wing Case Against the OMB:
The OMB is so pro-development that concerns such as community and the environment are often overlooked in its decisions.

The Right-Wing Case Against the OMB:
The OMB is a government bureaucracy that centralizes decision making.

There is no good reason to keep this body around unless you are in the developer lobby. The province ought, especially in the case of larger cities, to remove the OMB's power of veto over local decisions.

Budget 2008: Transit No One's Asked For

Jim Flaherty has earmarked money in his federal budget for a rail link from Toronto to Peterborough. I live in Toronto and I have family in Peterborough and in neither place can I recall there being a great clamouring for this rail link. I'm sure it's only a coincidence that this link would run through Flaherty's riding. This is of course something to remember when the Cons talk about how they are sound fiscal managers et cetera.

Today's Thousand-Word Picture

John O'Keefe was hit by a stray bullet and killed as he walked past a strip club on Yonge St. A memorial has sprung up there:

Photo by Miles Storey

Truth in Advertising

Torontoist has a great example today. I should note that "the south side of Queen at Ossington" is pretty much the front entrance to the Queen St. Mental Health Centre.

Toronto Falling Behind

According to a United Way report, Toronto's median income is falling behind that of the GTA and the province as a whole. There are a number of reasons why incomes in an urban area might be lower than those in other areas, but there are still problems that seem unique to Toronto. For example, according to Ian Urquhart people living in Toronto have a harding time qualifying for EI.

Now while there are solutions that the province or the city might address, changes to EI would make a significant difference. It is now harder for Torontonians to qualify for EI than it is for Canadians in, say, Montreal or Calgary. That said, given Harper's attitude toward Ontario in general and Toronto in particular makes me very skeptical about the chances that any changes might be expected any time soon.

Oh boy, I love winter!

I woke up hearing the sound of freezing rain, so I'm thrilled right now at the prospect of my morning commute. More commentary as the weather permits.

Letting the facts ruin a witty saying

Have you heard this tripe?

"A Liberal is a Conservative who hasn't been mugged yet."

Heh. The same blog post goes on to point out a rash of muggings near the Junction and some shootings in the Jane-Finch corridor. Okay, fair enough, now let's test this saying: How did the parties perform in the recent Ontario Election? Parkdale-High Park went NDP and York West went Liberal. Who thinks that either of these ridings will go blue in either the next federal or provincial election? I suppose the fact that Torontonians are not rushing into either Harper's or Tory's arms thus fulfilling the above saying somehow "proves" that Toronto is an open-air insane asylum.

On the Margins, Literally and Figuratively

One thing that we in Toronto allow ourselves to be proud of is the fact that our downtown core has not been allowed to rot out. There are pockets of poverty, but for the most part our downtown is a safe, livable place. The reality though is that we've just pushed poverty to the corners. By doing this, it appears that we've merely pushed poverty to the margins - the east and northwest of the city.

The problems of poverty are compounded in these areas by the fact there are no services. In turn this apparently leads to health problems. The poorest neighbourhoods are the least-serviced ones too. We need to find the money to build transit into these areas. We also need to stop building areas like this. I understand that winding residential streets and an abundance of cul-de-sacs are designed to stop traffic from sailing through residential areas. Take a look though at the Annex, the whole neighbourhood is virtually impassable by car due to its one-way streets, that however does not impede pedestrians who wish to use the simple grid layout in the neighbourhood.

Optimism on Toronto

My first impression of Richard Florida's new column in the Grope & Flail is that it's obvious that he hasn't been in Toronto long. Why? He's optimistic about this place in a way that we longer-term Torontonians do not permit ourselves to be in many ways. Is this because we've been let down by our city's inability to get top-flight events (Olympics, Expos) that other, smaller Canadian cities can attract? I don't know, but we've taken to shrugging about this place too much. We're happy when we can pay for our transit system.

Keeping the TTC in Toronto's Hands

The Star has an editorial today that suggests that it may not be so bad to have the province (in the form of the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority) take over the TTC. They appear to praise local control and then turn around and say this:

"The TTC's celebrated "intimacy" with people making local demands might not always prove beneficial. Parochial pressures could well result in misguided transit decisions that benefit a loud and local few at the expense of many more transit riders. Such inefficiency only causes gridlock to worsen and service to others to be adversely affected."

Unfortunately parochial pressures could still apply to a region-wide system. I suspect that the term "parochial pressures" is probably a veiled reference to Mel Lastman's ability to force through a truncated Sheppard Subway. The problem with a regional board on which Toronto has a minority of votes is that the area over which some politician could place a pet project is ever expanded. Under regional control would the TTC have to compete for funds with ever local bus service in outlying areas of York Region or Peel or Durham? By placing all tranist under regional control we surely run the risk of simply encouraging sprawl by creating a transit system that is designed to serve such sprawl. I have no idea why a region-wide body would be less parochial.

There are however legitimate concerns raised in editorial such as connections between the various transit systems currently in operation. Buying multiple types of tickets and trying to go from transit system to another can be annoying. That said what the GTTA ought to do is create some sort of region-wide fare system as well as a package of incentives for those transit systems that participate. This would address the major concerns of many commuters while avoiding a drastic and unnecessary experiment in transit management.

Ceasing Publication has not Stopped the Idiocy

The Western Standard may be dead, but its asinine blog continues. An example? Sure, they're clamouring with barely contained excitement at their own ludicrous speculation that some random assaults in Toronto constitute "random jihad." I shit you not - these sick bastards sometimes seem ecstatic at the prospect of some - any - kind of terror attack in Toronto. I suppose they reckon it would galvanize the populace behind their political policies and stick it to Toronto. To the Ezra Levants of the world there is simply no downside. The comment section has at least one depiction of Toronto as an open air asylum. Well, fuck you too, Shlockgun. I happen to like this place.

Creativity in planning

I'm still waiting for someone to try the "naked streets" concept somewhere in Toronto. In the meantime though they are going to try this:

"Often called the Barnes Dance (after traffic engineer Henry Barnes, who introduced the idea to Denver), such intersections use red lights to stop traffic in all directions at once so pedestrians can cross any way they like, even diagonally. Then pedestrians are stopped while cars take their turns on the green."

Additionally they are talking about putting in some roundabouts. I'm not sure how well the roundabouts will work with a street system that is essentially a grid. There are a few intersections that might benefit though. Off the top of my head I think the Dundas-Annette-Old Weston-Dupont intersection would be a good place to try it:

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Make no mistake, Harper wants an election

He played footsie with the idea with the throne speech, but now the Conservatives want to make their super-duper omnibus crime bill both a confidence vote and an all-or-nothing affair. Apparently Steve doesn't want any amendments or anything, take it or leave it. One wonders what (if anything) Steve will try to slip in there to make it unpalatable so that he can go to the polls hollering about a soft-on-crime opposition.

I'm not sure why this is a big priority for the Conservatives given that crime is on the decline. One of their spokespeople/strategists or what-have-you remarked that this would show that the Conservatives understood urban voters. This is of course based on an idiotic stereotype of urban life and the threat of crime in big cities. Toronto is not early-1980s New York, it's actually a fairly safe place compared to many other parts of Canada.

In related news, at least some Tory-sympathizers are upset that Dion didn't bring down the government. According to this post, this somehow renders Stephane Dion undemocratic. It ought to be plain now which side wants an election.

Get Naked!

Naked streets that is, from the CBC:

Right now, speed limits, red lights and clearly marked and separated areas for cars and pedestrians are the norm in cities all over the world. But that thinking is "all wrong" according to Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman, who says it is much safer to build what he calls "naked streets."

"We removed anything referring to the traffic, made it just a square and please find your own way. This is the middle of the city. This is social space, and in social space we don't want to interfere as government," he said.

For some reason this appeals to me on an almost intuitive level. I suspect that many drivers treat signs and lights as a challenge. I hope Toronto gives this a try somewhere in the city core.

Pave Paradise, Put up a Parking Lot

That's pretty much what the City of Toronto wants to do to the storied after-hours hangout, The Matador. It turns out that the area around The Matador needs more parking:

"We've identified that area as high-demand (for parking)," Toronto Parking Authority president Gwyn Thomas said this week.

Levelling the Matador would create a 20-space lot, he said, handy for people using the West End YMCA at 931 College St., kitty-corner to the club at 466 Dovercourt Rd.

So Toronto, after posturing as a green city, needs to cede more land for cars. If we level the Matador people can drive themselves to the Y to get some exercise?! Am I the only one that finds this solution ridiculous? Here's a clip that has an external shot of the Matador:

Amateur Hour at Queen and Bay

First Toronto was going to close all community centres on Monday, now they'll stay open. This follows on the heels of re-opening the tax debate and then not re-opening the tax debate. This brouhaha has been rather frustrating to watch. I was excited about Miller in 2003 and I was will to give him another shot in 2006 but I'm quickly running out of patience. One of the problems that has hamstrung Toronto for the past ten years has been funding, yet if these closures were part of a way to put funding on the provincial election agenda, it seems that city council cannot even figure out how to do that.

We look disorganized, we look like we really ought not to be trusted with any more money. I'd probably choose Miller over any number of the right-wing hacks on city council that might run against him, but I feel like he's squandering his mandate.

Good weather for airstrikes

That's a translation of viðrar vel til loftárása, a song by Sigur Ros, and it's something that occurs to me today as the air show roars on overhead. I've seen an F-16 go right over my place and I wonder how many other places in the world greet this sort of sight without some kind of terror. We are lucky here, extremely lucky.