CITY HALL
• What’s next for waterfront Toronto [The Grid]
• Has Rob Ford lost his grip? [The Star]
• Hume: city needs to get serious about suburbs [The Star]
• David Miller isn’t helping anyone by opening his mouth [National Post]
• Former Toronto mayor David Miller takes jabs at Rob Ford at TEDxToronto [Globe & Mail]
• The week Rob Ford learned to play well with others [Globe & Mail]
• Doug Ford shows how he wants the job done [The Sun]
BUDGET CUTBACKS
• Councillors being asked to recommend museum cuts Monday say they don’t have enough information [The Star]
• As council set to weigh limited cuts, debate still full of sound and fury [Globe & Mail]
• Councillor worried theatre ‘could become just one more condo development’ [The Star]
• City hall’s marathon to nowhere [National Post]
• 1% sales tax idea floated at city hall [The Sun]
• City hall goes into overtime [The Sun]
ELECTION NEWS
• Transportation moves voters but politicians are loath to discuss it [Globe & Mail]
• Liberals vow to scarp Mississauga power plant [The Star]
• McGuinty denies killing Mississauga power plant to save his skin [The Star]
• Internet voting in advance polls a great success in Markham, report finds [The Star]
• Oakville and the ghost of the power plant [The Star]
TTC & TRANSIT
• Pay the parking meter from your cellphone? Toronto gives idea extra push [National Post]
• City studies pay-by-cellphone parking [The Star]
• Wheelchair users can’t always roll onto the rocket [The Star]
ARTS & CULTURE
• Metro hall gets graffiti-bombed [Globe & Mail]
• Rob Ford’s art adviser is moving on [Globe & Mail]
• TEDx draws thinkers, dreamers [National Post]
OTHER NEWS
• Word on the street is people love libraries [The Star]
• The nerds come to meet at Word on the Street [Torontoist]
• Toronto police redraw division boundaries [The Star]
• The Toronto Underground Market launch could mean great things for local foodies [National Post]
• What should Ontario do with our garbage? [The Grid]
7 comments
Why Rob Ford is right about libraries and Spacing and the rest of the left are wrong –
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97335-the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library.
(Hint: We don’t live in Antiquity any more)
Hi Joe,
Two thoughts.
#1 Libraries are more than book depositories. Even if all the knowledge stored in the books of Toronto’s libraries were made available and online–and that’s not on the horizon for years to come yet–the services provided by them would still be necessary because they do more than hold books.
#2 Mayor Ford has been very clear about wanting to keep every library in this city open and available to the public. What does “the rest of the left” want that is different from this?
R.
“Mayor Ford has been very clear about wanting to keep every library in this city open and available to the public.”
I think it’s more like Mayor Ford had reluctantly admitted that he doesn’t have the support to get library closures through council.
@ Richard
As for the services provided by the libraries beside lending books I think MIT opencourseware, the Khan academy, instructables.com, podcasts or any of a multitude other online resources can fill the gap. As always better and cheaper than the “service” we are getting now.
As for Mayor Ford’s current position it was a direct result of the chattering class predicting the apocalypse if Torontonians didn’t massively overpay for infrastructure that your average first century Roman would recognize…
The sad part is we could buy a Kindle for every household in the city for less than the current annual library budget and show people how to navigate to project Gutenberg and every house in the city would be it’s own library. Not to mention more externalities than I can articulate in a blog comment (think about every kid having a Kindle instead of six hardcover textbooks)
Joe, you still don’t get the point. More and more now, library is about public space, a meeting ground for learning. I work in IT and trust me, there is something about human contact and physical space that technology can never replace. Well, I can bet my money on this, 20 years from now, with all the great new technologies we will certainly invent, Toronto’s public libraries will still be live and kicking. Less physical books? quite possibly; vibrant space? you bet.
Yu, I understand very well that libraries are public spaces, in addition I understand what you and Richard have only hinted at. That libraries represent what economists would call a problem of bundling. To simplify libraries lend books, provide classes and space to meet with others each individual may derive different utility from each of these services in addition because the services are bundled we may not be able to choose the most cost effective delivery method for each. As I mentioned above kindles may be more cost efficient for borrowing books or perhaps a Netflix style approach would work with books in a warehouse delivered directly to your door. I gave ideas above for substitutes for classes. As for public space there are many choices from schools to churches to underutilized offices. There is no doubt in my mind that we can profitably move beyond the existing model with benefits to numerous to list here. Sadly the left led by Atwood gave the same shrill uneducated response I have come to expect in response to the mayors inarticulate musings. The quality of “debate” these days makes me fear for my daughters future…
Joe
If Kindle becomes the most convenient way to borrow books, the Public Library can re-assess at that point as loans decline – you prefer to force a crisis by simply withdrawing the books anyway. Your suggestion that everyone could be bought a kindle is risible and I hope you were joking since:
1. Not a Canadian company, that would be Kobo.
2. Not all books available in AZW format
3. Not all books (colour) can be read on Kindles and not all colour books can be read in Kindle Fire’s 7″ screen (“coffee table” size books)
That’s just what I thought of off the top of my head. Additional issues would include: presumably late fees would be eliminated in an e-lending system since books would simply expire – an income loss to the Library System. The enthusiasm of people to run Friends of the Public Library could wane as the system becomes more austere – more $ gone.