• Will pick up your crap for $$$ [ BlogTO ] Zach Slootsky, one of our reporters at Spacing Votes, also contributes to BlgoTO and has a neat little post about the young fellow who walks along downtown streets cleaning up litter while asking for donations (photo above).
• EDITORIAL: Tear down the Gardiner — now [ Eye Weekly ] “Start with the words “Gardiner Expressway” and we’d be sawing logs before you got to the end of your sentence. But now that we’ve seen the report that no one wants to turn into a plan, we’re sold. There are few things so singularly positive and transformative that Toronto could do in the immediate future as replacing the Gardiner with the “great street” that the report calls for. The effect, not just on the waterfront but on the entire downtown and the orientation of the city, would be immediate, dramatic and positive. Replacing parking lots and a view of the ugly concrete face of the industrial-suburban complex with parks and stunning north-south and east-west sightlines would change the entire character of the city. The waterfront that would be constructed along the newly grand Lakeshore Boulevard would be a gateway and gathering place that could define the Toronto of the future.”
• Parking in Toronto [ Globe and Mail ] A small feature profiling Torontonians parking and driving habits.
• Encore! Bring back Nuit Blanche! [ Globe and Mail ] ” By now, almost every Torontonian knows that Nuit Blanche, the all-night contemporary arts extravaganza that unfolded in the city’s streets and galleries last weekend, was a blowout success. But while the city’s movers and shakers — Mayor David Miller among them — are publicly calling for a repeat engagement, there is no certainty that Torontonians will see the likes of it again. City Councillor Kyle Rae, chair of the Roundtable on Arts and Culture, said this week that he had “solid information” that Nuit Blanche is “not part of the budget for next year.”
DURHAM TRANSIT STRIKE
• No end in transit strike [ Toronto Sun ] “And most GO Bus drivers, while not involved, have been respecting picket lines, dropping passengers outside GO station entrances, said John Johnson, chair of the Durham Region Transit unit of Canadian Autoworkers Local 222.”
• Transit strike drags on [ Toronto Star ] “Nothing will happen over the weekend,” said Garth Johns, commissioner of human resources for Durham. “There’s no question about that. However, if we got a call this weekend, we would sit down, but … we’re not expecting talks until Tuesday or Wednesday — the earliest.” No talks have been scheduled between the two sides. Some 300 drivers, mechanics and clerical staff went on strike last week, removing Durham Region Transit buses from the roads in Oshawa, Pickering, Ajax and Clarington. Service remains in Whitby where drivers are under a different union contract.
