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Friday’s headlines

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OCCUPY TORONTO
• Occupy Toronto stands firm [The Star]
• Hume: it’s not what you protest that matters but where [The Star]

CITY HALL
• Ford’s concessions to police may affect other budgets [The Star]
• Ignoring cut request, Toronto police board passes almost billion dollar budget [Globe & Mail]
• ‘Huge task’ to cut back 2013 police budget [National Post]
• Mayor Rob Ford a no-show at annual mayor’s arts awards lunch [Globe & Mail]
• City seeks to curb overtime costs [The Star]

TORONTO ZOO
• Toronto zoo admission prices to rise [The Sun]
• U.S. zoo in promising talks over Toronto’s elephants [The Star]

TRANSIT & CYCLING
• York region bus drivers set to strike Monday if committee can’t reach 11th hour agreement [Globe & Mail]
• York region bus drivers could strike Monday [The Star]
• Licences, plates may loom for Toronto cyclists [The Sun]

OTHER NEWS
• Alternatives urged as community housing board votes on selloff plan [Globe & Mail]
• History deserted and left to rot [The Star]
• Haunted city: a ghost map of Toronto [Torontoist]

4 comments

  1. The cycling-license thing is pure head in the sand Fordism.  Here’s a tip for the Fordies — you are not in fact smarter than every other municipal government in North America.  Copy the successful cities and learn from the lessons of the failed ones.  How many big cities have actually implemented bicycle licenses?  (Not anti-theft registration, but licenses)    Answer: none.   This is not a best-practices like outsourcing waste collection, where there is at least some proven record.

    Many cities are talking about licenses, from Seattle to Calgary to New York (http://tinyurl.com/3tuwdt7), but until you see it implemented in big cycling city, with good results, there is no point in Toronto rushing out on its own, especially with Ford running the ship.  Fools.

  2. Licencing at a city level would make little sense considering the number of cyclists crossing municipal lines. If it is done (and I don’t think there is a compelling need for it yet), it should be a provincial policy. That said, the police need to do a much better job of holding cyclists accountable to the rules of the road (and cars to of course). It is not acceptable that over half the cyclists who are out at night seem to have no lights. Many will say that when cyclists ignore the rules of the road, it only endangers the cyclist. That’s nonsense. It endangers everyone… especially when you have to factor in driver-response.

  3. Bicycle licensing means regulation, new layers of bureaucracy, and obstruction of personal freedom. Is this what conservatism stands for? No, it’s simply the reactionary right that wants to make it more difficult to ride a bike. They have no interest in any meaningful expansion in cycling infrastructure besides recreational trails because they don’t want to accept any changes to the status quo. They are reactionists, not common conservatives.