• Election ignores cities, panel says [ Toronto Star ]
• Mayor wins praise for new development agencies [ Globe and Mail ]
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• Viva, union head back to talks [ Toronto Sun ]
• Gridlock danger seen [ Toronto Sun ]
• Bloor bike brawl [ Eye Weekly ]
• Against the environmentalist, aesthetes have no hope [ Globe and Mail ]
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9 comments
Dear Toronto: If you want the election to be about cities, and about Toronto more specifically, stop re-electing Liberals by such large margins. Politicians don’t care about safe seats.
My strongest recommendation is that every Torontonian vote for the person most likely to unseat the incumbent, however good a job the incumbent has done. If Toronto’s 31 seats are in play every time, just watch the attention we’ll get. And the Liberals are almost certain to lose anyway, so there’s not a lot of risk as far as who’s going to win.
This Starbucks situation is really really depressing. Can the petitions help? Why are there so many people that don’t care about it? Though I guess it’s not surprising since it’s the national post talking about it. The conclusion of the article is absurd: “But you can’t stop change.” I wasn’t aware that everything needs to change to a Starbucks. What kind of way of thinking is that anyway? It implies that all political/social activism is futile because it’s best just to give up and allow everything to become dominated by huge chain stores.
Andrew has the best political analysis here. Toronto gets ignored just like Alberta does, because the seats just aren’t competitive.
Ottawa gets more attention, despite being the capital, because the seats are volatile. Same with Quebec (ex Montreal), 905, 519, and 705. The political capital to be gained in the rest of Canada from attacking Toronto far outweighs anything to be gained from being solicitous to the city. The politicians will still hate Harper, most of the residents will, the media people (especially CBC) will, so why bother? No one needs to do anything for Toronto and no one will until things change. Unfortunately the “sophisticates” are too stupid to realize this.
The city trying to manage which specific retailers go into which commercial space is insane. Poeple hate developments solely because of the company going in, rather than worrying about the health of the neighbourhood. People still go to the big corporate stores (they’re big cause they’re POPULAR) , they’ll just go to a different neighbourhood or different city. Meanwhile the “protected” neighbourhoods languish.
You’ll notice that all the hardware stores downtown are horrible and close ridiculously early. CT is the only one open regular retail hours, but they’re not the same as HD. So I end up going to Leaside or to Yorkdale. But people protest the heck out of proposed HDs.
Cabbagetown Home Hardware stays open “normal retail hours” — that’s “Reality”.
Three in One  Flood Protection, Benches and Bike Parking (New York Times)
what? “let’s vote for people that are bad for us in order to get their attention”? That’s very strange.
I didn’t realise Kensington market is languishing without a starbucks. And I don’t hate developments, I only hate deleterious development like the one in question because I worry very much about the health of the neighbourhood.
“This Starbucks situation is really really depressing.”
Wow. Imagine if you lived in the US and were selling your house for a buck 75 on ebay, or had no health insurance. And THEN they built a Starbucks next door!
It’s faster to get to Laird & Eg from King West than Cabbagetown, the HD is actually safe. I called the nearest 6 Home Hardwares to my area and they all closed at 6. Can hardlywait till Portland HD opens, and hope every day that Home Hardwares go out of business, thanks to their horrible service and extravagant prices.
Reality Check your parody of an internet loon is spot on, especially the bit about HD being “actually safe” compared to Cabbagetown Home Hardware. Kudos.