Diamonds for cash

The Toronto Sun, in its paranoid wisdom, has an entertaining article linking a one-off, one-week traffic enforcement blitz , acknowledged and publicized by the police, as a desperate cash grab by Mayor Miller. The anonymous officers quoted in the story lend some credence to the rumour that the Toronto force is less-than-enthralled by enforcing existingcontinue reading

TREB’s Victory

The delay of the vote on the land transfer and vehicle registration taxes may represent a defeat to Mayor Miller, but more than anything, it’s a victory for the Toronto Real Estate Board, who orchestrated a bombastic campaign against the former. “Nobody likes taxes, but the public has been adamant that a second land transfercontinue reading

‘10-4, one elephant northbound’

Two elephants wandered away from a circus in Newmarket early this morning, and were returned in due course with no harm done except to someone’s shrubbery, which was nibbled. The audio is very funny: 911 call (.mp3) Police scanners (.mp3)

Poor Ed

No sooner has he cooled than the speculation about the Honest Ed’s site begins. I lived a few blocks away from the store 15 years ago or so, and it didn’t seem like a place that was raking in the cash even then. There was probably a point in the past, maybe about the timecontinue reading

Call me narsty and suspicious

From the City’s FAQ about the garbage bin plan: The smallest cart (75 litres) will cost less than $209 per year, which is the current cost of providing solid waste management services to the average residential house. All houses in the city will receive a rebate of $209 per year so those opting for thecontinue reading

Safety madness, chapter 501

The Toronto Transit Commission has not only removed the “walk left, stand right” signs from its escalators, it’s also suggesting that no one should walk on the escalators at all: “The intent is for the escalator to carry people up the escalator. If they are capable of walking, they should be utilizing the stairs. Now,continue reading

Better ways?

So apparently every bright idea about transit anybody has had in Central Ontario for the last 50 years is now public policy, from running GO trains on the midtown CPR tracks to an LRT down Pape (or is it Greenwood?) to reviving the Radial Line in Hamilton, for a total of 52 proposals. Contingent oncontinue reading

Driving Home a Point

Saturday’s Post had a somewhat incoherent article with the bombastic headline “Toronto’s War on Cars” over the weekend, featuring a 25-year-old risk management consultant who couldn’t be arsed to walk to the subway stop nearby. But they made up for it today with a great op/ed by News Talk 1010 drive home host John Moore.continue reading