CITY COUNCIL
• City Council speeding to get through 2011 budget [National Post]
• City budget wrangling continues [The Sun]
• Bag tax blunders: Levy [The Sun]
YONGE & GOULD FIRE
• Answers still sought in Yonge St. blaze [The Star]
• What the #!%*? Toronto’s heritage buildings [National Post]
• Demolition of heritage building gutted by fire could begin on Tuesday [National Post]
• Ryerson still interested in heritage building site [Globe & Mail]
• Whispers of arson [The Sun]
• Roads remain closed after Yonge St. fire [The Sun]
• Where else is Toronto’s heritage getting burned? [OpenFile]
TRANSIT
• Need a streetcar? There’s an app for that [The Star]
• LRT and a subway [The Sun]
• Eglinton LRT still a priority: Metrolinx [The Sun]
HOUSING
• Lawyers estimate $25,000 per tenant in Wellesley class action [The Star]
• Fiorito: A game of hardball after Wellesley fire [The Star]
• St. Stephen’s Community House meets needs of thousands of city residents [The Star]
POLICE
• Lots of gravy in bloated police budget [The Star]
• High alert for Coptics in GTA after terrorist attacks [The Star]
• Ford backs off campaign vow to hire more police officers [Globe & Mail]
• Police board to choose chair [The Sun]
• Leadership decision looms at police board [The Sun]
CITY BUILDINGS
• The Fixer: Lights out at derelict Toronto Hydro substations [The Star]
• Build Toronto makes first sale [The Sun]
CITY WASTE
• Energy-from-waste plan to be pitched to Toronto [The Sun]
4 comments
Transit referendum! What if spacing contributors and/or readers push for a referendum on Toronto transit? One of Rob Ford’s main arguments is that people want subways over LRT. In that case, why don’t we really ask the people?
McGuinty would also love a referendum on transit as then the decision is out of his hands and he wouldn’t have to take a politically risky stance.
Tom, if there were a transit referendum, LRT would be the loser. I’m not saying one or the other is better — or better in what circumstances, but the reality is that there is VERY little support for Transit City in the very areas it was meant to serve (with the Eglinton line being perhaps the sole exception). Without commenting on whether Transit City was a good or a poor plan, it’s implementation was extremely shoddy. Other areas that have implemented LRT in North America have been very careful to have extensive community consultation so as to build robust public support for this mode of transportation. That simply didn’t happen in Toronto. Most of the folks in the areas that would have been served by Transit City do not support it (again, with the possible exception of Eglinton) — and are more than a little put out by all the downtown types who are advocating for it. I’m not saying Ford is a good mayor, but I think he has read the mood of the public a lot more carefully than his critics give him credit for. That said, politics is about more than just reading the public and obliging them..
I agree, SAMG. I’ve run into friends who are still unaware that there’s a difference between a streetcar and an LRT.