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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Monday’s headlines

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TRANSIT
• TTC projects 2012 shortfall [The Star]
• Exclusive: TTC changes mind, wants to give Presto smart cards green light [The Star]
• TTC report backs province’s electronic fare-collection system [Globe & Mail]
• GTA needs gas hikes, road tolls, congestion charges to fund transit: Experts [The Star]
• Oslo does it, Stockholm does it, London does it [The Star]

RACCOONS
• Animal madness [National Post]
• Small but feisty rally tackles raccoon issues [The Star]
• City too broke to help with raccoons: Councillor [The Sun]
• City’s raccoon policy a ‘cop-out’, residents say [The Sun]

CITY HALL
• City Hall Diary: The other Josh on city council [The Star]
• Reports of the death of NIMBYism greatly exaggerated [The Star]
• Ford’s ‘respect for taxpayers’ mandate is about to get real [Globe & Mail]
• Taking survey of the city [National Post]

OTHER NEWS
• Fixer: Are cyclists alienating drivers by being selfish and rude [The Star]
• How helpful are Torontonians with tourists? We find out [The Star]
• James: Ambassador cabs designed to instill pride of ownership [The Star]
• More foreign air travellers, fewer U.S. motorists visit Toronto [Globe & Mail]

4 comments

  1. This raccoon madness shows the amount hypocrisy out there: if you care so much about the welfare of raccoon, then what about rats? What about mice? What about ants and flies and mosquitoes? Why should they be treated with cruelty while raccoons are protected? Well, I would not have protested if this poor man is given a lecture or fined $100. But for him to be handcuffed and charged (dangerous weapon, a.k.a., a shovel) and called to be banished from the neighbourhood clearly show that some people place the welfare of animals firmly above the welfare of a fellow human being; and for me, that is a far bigger problem than animal cruelty.

  2. It hasn’t seem to hit the mainstream media yet, but the redesign of Queen Quay West is under threat. See torontoist and Steve Munro.

    The proposed changes would dramatically improved things along Queen Quay West for both transit and cyclists and are well supported by the community.

    The report suggests that the project can still go ahead with the streetcar tracks at their present location, but would require Queen Quay to become westbound only rather then bidirectional, a change the report calls “relatively minor”.

  3. The Post’s Matt Gurney says “[Ford’s] voting base was never likely to object to service cuts.”

    People keep making false assumptions about Ford’s voting base. I keep running into transit riders, public housing tenants and other folks who say they voted for Ford because he seemed like an empathetic straight-shooter who was on their side. Most still think this. They have no idea that Ford is considering drastic cuts to the services they depend on, and they don’t really believe it when I tell them.

    Unfortunately, just as Ford Nation wrongly assumes he has a small government constituency and mandate, the pinkos wrongly assume that everyone reads Spacing and knows the mayor’s program won’t fly. If the centre-lefties are to prevent the mayor from doing permanent damage, they will have to drop the pinkospeak and figure out a way of reconnecting with centrist Ford voters.

  4. “Reconnecting with centrist Ford voters”… you make it sound so easy. Sadly, as your own experience has shown, many of these people are almost comically disconnected. Unless the ‘pinkos’ can somehow gain control of talk radio I don’t think there’s much chance of changing anything. As the saying goes, you can’t reason someone out of an idea they weren’t reasoned into. If that sounds elitist, so be it. I am tired of people apologizing for voters who allowed themselves to be conned by the biggest huckster ever to cross a municipal stage.