Safety First.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
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Permalink for STREET SCENE: Stay Back
Posted by Jerry Waese
Categories Street Scene, Transit
This post is part of a series of articles exploring the Environmental Assessment process and how it’s shaping Toronto. The series focuses on four major developments currently at the EA stage.
Photos like this one seem like they were taken a lifetime ago. Hilarious bathing costumes aside, the idea of swimming in the Don River is about as foreign an experience as I can think of. I know the Don as a sidekick to the DVP and as a treasure trove of beer cans and shopping carts. Though I grew up close to it, I have never dipped a toe into it or taken a drink straight from the river.
Can you blame me? From kindergarten on up, we were taught that the Don was dirty. And my teachers weren’t wrong. The Don River does not meet Provincial water quality objectives and has the dubious distinction of making the International Joint Commission’s list of 43 “areas of concern” in the Great Lakes Basin. It is one of the city’s most degraded ecosystems.
As it turns out, you can blame me. Along with nearly half of Toronto’s residents who make up the Don River sewershed, I’ve had a hand in the Don’s current condition. The sewers which combine and carry away stormwater and sanitary waste bound for the Ashbridges Bay treatment plant routinely overflow, loading up the Don with bacteria and nutrient pollution.
As it stands, our wastewater infrastructure progressively degrades this ecosystem and the water we drink. We’ve created a system which undermines itself and the value that we place on clean drinking water and a healthy environment.
With the release of the City’s Wet Weather Flow Master Plan in 2003 and the subsequent Don River and Central Waterfront Project, the City of Toronto is trying to stem the tide, initiating the process of restoring e.colic to bucolic.
The City proposes to address the need for additional sewer capacity to meet forecasted demands as the city grows while better managing the “wet weather” flows which wreak havoc on the Don. This requires changes at the source (lessening the load by disconnecting downspouts, planting trees, and promoting green roofs), during conveyance (allowing percolation of wastewater into soil for natural filtration where appropriate, separating sanitary from storm sewers, upgrading large trunk sewers) and at the end of the pipe (improving the quality of the water emerging from the Don’s 51 combined sewer outflows).
This project is subject to a Municipal Class EA.
…continue reading Environmental Assessment: The Don River and Master Class EAs
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Permalink for Environmental Assessment: The Don River and Master Class EAs
Posted by Hilary Best
Categories Environmental Assessment
1980s-2010
Before and After will appear each Friday showcasing mixed Then and Nows by local artist and Toronto history enthusiast Alden Cudanin.
Toronto Archives, Series 1465, s1465_fl0019_id0041
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Permalink for Playing Chess by Sam’s
Posted by Alden Cudanin
Categories Before & After
TRANSPORTATION
• So, this is a cycling city? [ Toronto Star ]
• Traffic cops powerless to enforce bike lanes [ Toronto Star ]
• The fault with at-fault accident rules [ Globe & Mail ]
CITY HALL
• Groups, councillors scramble for slice of surprise budget surplus [ Globe & Mail ]
• David Miller’s $100M defence [ Toronto Star ]
• Miller deserves praise. Seriously [ National Post ]
• Retirement sparks fight for key ward [ National Post ]
• Coun. Walker won’t seek re-election [ Toronto Sun ]
OTHER NEWS
• Annex resident devastated giant oak tree cut down [ Toronto Star ]
• Banned from city property? You can soon appeal [ Toronto Star ]
• Forget winter activities this March Break [ Toronto Star ]
• Oakville temporarily blocks new power plant [ Toronto Star ]
• OMB decision a victory for opponents of tower [ Globe & Mail ]
• Bottle Water Free Day [ Toronto Sun ]
• Do you know Toronto’s washrooms? [ Toronto Sun ]
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Permalink for Friday’s headlines
Posted by Kat Snukal
Categories Headlines
Toronto has edged a little closer to the goal of creating a civic museum with the recent launch of the Toronto Museum Project online.The fantastic new website includes detailed images of 150 objects in the municipal collection. The project is innovative in the way it lets people interact with the collection online. A diverse group of 100 Torontonians were invited to view the objects and share personal stories, inspired as a result. These stories are all included in the website and highlight the importance of showcasing history to our collective civic conscience. Mayor Miller called it “An inventive new way for Torontonians to engage objects, stories and ideas, and to reflect on what they mean for the city’s past, present and future.”
The online project also includes 100 exciting ideas for exhibits at a future Toronto Museum. A look through the ideas is an interesting read. One exhibit proposal is about the ancient highways used by natives in the region and would include authentic hollowed out canoes, another, tentatively named ‘Home Brew’ focuses on the history of alcohol production in city. A more populist exhibit proposal dedicates itself to the city’s armchair athletes and includes items ranging from old team photos and jerseys to World Series memorabilia. …continue reading The Toronto Museum Project goes online
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Permalink for The Toronto Museum Project goes online
Posted by Marcus Bowman
Categories Historical
Form and function.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
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Permalink for STREET SCENE: West of Kensington
Posted by Jerry Waese
Categories Street Scene, Transit
DAVID MILLER / BUDGET SURPLUS
• James: Surprise! City bolsters budget with surplus [ Toronto Star ]
• Six odd things about Miller’s budget news [ Toronto Star ]
• Maestro Miller plays us again [ National Post ]
• What The Money Means [ National Post ]
• Critics question city’s sudden cash find [ Globe & Mail ]
• A ‘lame duck’ squawks one last time [ Globe & Mail ]
PARKS & SQUARES
• Making parks more friendly [ Toronto Star ]
• Area below DVP ramps to become new park [ National Post ]
• Hume: A brilliant plan for a dreary space [ Toronto Star ]
• Yonge-and-Eg makeover draws fire [ Globe & Mail ]
BIKE LANES
• Cars, wedges and the Brady Bunch [ Eye Weekly ]
• Cars clog new Simcoe St. bike lane [ Toronto Star ]
• When is a bike lane not a bike lane? [ Toronto Star ]
OTHER NEWS
• Police budget cut by $4M [ Toronto Star ]
• Water works don’t work [ Toronto Star ]
• OMB decision a victory for opponents of tower [ Globe & Mail ]
• Where’s Joe? [ Now Magazine ]
• Toronto’s unsung co-ops [ Eye Weekly ]
• East vs West: The politics [ Now Magazine ]
• East vs West: The rivers [ Now Magazine ]
• East vs West: The buildings [ Now Magazine ]
• People’s Glossary of BS [ Now Magazine ]
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Permalink for Thursday’s headlines
Posted by Kat Snukal
Categories Headlines
A photo I took when we went through this ritual in mid-2008.
Context!
June 13, 2008. A Friday. I was covering City Hall for Eye Weekly at the time.
At 2:24 in the afternoon, the City put out a press release. Seventeen minutes later, my editor forwarded it to me, asking if I had any idea what it was about:
Media Advisory: Mayor David Miller to make important announcement
Media are advised that Mayor David Miller will make an important announcement today.
Date: TODAY - Friday, June 13
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Mayor’s Protocol Lounge, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 100 Queen St. W.
Reasoning that it was either really good/important news (something so urgent they were announcing it late on a Friday afternoon) or really bad/embarrassing news (something so unfortunate they were announcing it late on a Friday afternoon), I decided that it was worth my time to schlep down to City Hall. So did the rest of the media, who — along with a whole whack of curious councillors and political staffers — enthusiastically stuffed into Miller’s office much as they did today, to hear what course-altering proclamation the mayor had in store.
…continue reading He’s done this before, you know
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Permalink for He’s done this before, you know
Posted by Jonathan Goldsbie
Anyone who doesn’t own a car, and the insurance that goes with it, is going to have fewer resources to deal with injuries if they are hit by a car, as a result of changes to auto insurance just introduced by the Province of Ontario.
In an effort to reduce auto insurance costs, the Province has cut in half the amount of medical and rehabilitation benefits coverage that drivers are required to purchase. Drivers will be able to purchase more if they want to, although in all likelihood few will do so. This move is presented as a calculated risk for the drivers themselves — they are gambling that they will not need as much medical assistance if they get in an accident.
The problem is, if a driver hits someone on foot or bicycle who does not own a car, and therefore does not have automobile collision insurance, it is the driver’s insurance that pays for the medical and rehabilitation needs of the victim. And now, most drivers will have half as much coverage as they used to — meaning that non-drivers who are hit by a car now have recourse to only half as much insurance money to cover medical and rehab needs as they used to. While it may still be enough to cope with injuries in many cases, for serious injuries that may result in long-term physical problems the new amount could well be inadequate to cover the the expenses the victim needs to pay to recover full health.
Lawyer Patrick Brown explained the consequences of this change in a blog post when these proposals were first introduced. Brown noted:
Perhaps the greatest injustice of this new law falls upon children. Parents of a child can increase their benefits to ensure added protection is given to their child if the child is struck down by a car while walking or riding his/her bike. However, parents of a child who do not own a car and do not have car insurance, will not be able to give their child this added protection.
Non-drivers can’t choose how much coverage they get. Yet although the Province was warned of the consequences to non-drivers, it did not make any adjustments to the final proposals to take them into account.
photo by Doug McGregor
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Permalink for Ontario auto insurance changes hit pedestrians, cyclists
Posted by Dylan Reid
Categories Cycling, Pedestrian, Queen's Park, Traffic
DAVID MILLER
• Is Mayor David Miller going to run again? [ Toronto Star ]
• Miller finished … or on comeback trail? [ Toronto Sun ]
• See ya David Miller? [ Globe & Mail ]
TTC
• TTC staffers get conflict policy [ Globe & Mail ]
• Photo contract ‘taints’ Transit City [ Toronto Sun ]
• Councillor urges Transit City freeze [ National Post ]
YONGE/EGLINGTON SQUARE
• Hume: Square plan won’t save dead zone [ Toronto Star ]
• Plan to transform Yonge/Eglinton square wins council approval [ National Post ]
OTHER NEWS
• Visible minority’ will mean ‘white’ by 2031 [ Toronto Star ]
• T.O. to become even more multicultural: StatsCan [ Toronto Sun ]
• The perfect mayor a marriage of McCallion and Miller [ Toronto Star ]
• Province refuses to offer more protection for Dunlap Observatory [ Toronto Star ]
• City parks staff rebuked for banning abusive man [ Toronto Star ]
• Developers balk at affordable-unit idea [ Toronto Star ]
• Fuzzy boundaries no more [ Globe & Mail ]
• Billboard companies bombard city with requests to bend sign rules [ Globe & Mail ]
• Community council rejects King St. tower [ National Post ]
• Toronto: not as cheap as advertised [ National Post ]
• LED signs for Gardiner rejected [ National Post ]
• Leslieville’s joker strikes again [ National Post ]
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Permalink for Wednesday’s headlines
Posted by Kat Snukal
Categories Headlines
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