OCCUPY TORONTO
• Occupy camps may be the first stage of a broader shakeup, analysts suggest [The Star]
• Occupy may have a good cause to stay [The Star]
• Toronto’s protesters have the right to stay put [Globe & Mail]
• Occupy Toronto: fact and fiction [National Post]
• Gordon Lightfoot’s Occupy Toronto appearance says more about parental relations than protest [National Post]
• Occupy protest all about war on Ford [The Sun]
• Occupy protest won’t affect Santa Claus parade [The Sun]
• Occupy Toronto: week 5 no plans to leave [NOW]
• Who’s afraid of the Occupation? [NOW]
CITY HALL
• James: Toronto’s sunny economic disposition [The Star]
• Maintenance, not hackers, brought down site, city says [The Star]
• Tens of thousands of 311 calls going unanswered [The Star]
• City denies its ‘stonewalling,’ calls for CUPE 79 to come to the table [Globe & Mail]
• Fight to license more cats and dogs in Toronto to increase revenue: city auditor [National Post]
• Rob Ford vs. city unions: leveraging for a lockout [NOW]
• Adam Giambrone: colour-coding civic power [NOW]
TRANSIT
• Commuters stew as York transit strike drags on [The Star]
• Suburban commuters want to switch to transit [The Star]
• Drivers warned to prepare for LRT construction woes [Globe & Mail]
• TTC to the Feds: congestion is a problem you need to care about [Torontoist]
OTHER NEWS
• Embrace the hate, Toronto [The Grid]
• What’s happened to Queen West since the big fire? [The Grid]
• What happens to downtown buildings after a major fire? [The Grid]
• City’s red tape slowing vital mid-rise development [Globe & Mail]
• U.S. green group lauds Toronto’s storm water initiatives [The Star]
• Downspout deadline looms for 120,000 Toronto homes [The Star]
• Novel idea: a library that sells books? [The Star]
• Skunks, chickens, monster-Barbies: designing Santa Claus parade costumes [The Star]
2 comments
Re: James: Toronto’s sunny economic disposition
More fuel for the Pollyanna’s and 1%’ers. Have a look at the data, free from spin. In October 2010 total employment for the city was 1,280,800. By October 2011 it decreased to 1,266,300. A decrease of of 1.1%. The reason the city’s unemployment rate dropped was not due to a healthy economic environment but solely due to a reduction of the labour force. Employment dropped by 14,500 jobs while the labour force dropped by 37,600. Meanwhile in the balance of he GTA Employment increased by 27,100 positions and the labour force grew by 21,500. For some perspective in 1989 there nearly 1,500,000 jobs in the city.
http://www.toronto.ca/business_publications/pdf/2011-october.pdf
Counting cranes for high-rise construction activity is a useless metric as for it does not account for the subsidies (direct and operating) that are stimulating their construction. It also ignores the future costs associated with subsidizing the operating expenses that these condos will require. By that I specifically am referring to he fact that the costs to provide traditional municipal services, police, fire ambulance, libraries, parks etc., will not be covered by the tax revenue that they generate.
Re:What’s happened to Queen West since the big fire?
Gary Duke is quoted as saying – As for the other landowners whose land is still vacant, “they’re crazy,” says Duke. “They’re always afraid that they’re not going to get enough money.” That is easy for him to say after decades of paying a pittance in property tax and then benefiting from Adam Vaughan’s push to enact by-law 980-2010 (http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/bylaws/2010/law0980.pdf). The other victims of fire, throughout the city, should ask Adam for the same consideration and attention, and question why he has gone silent on the issue.