BIKES
• • Police ‘astonished’ as number of stolen bikes recovered passes 2,000 [ CBC.ca ]
• Stolen bikes (photos) [CBC.ca ]
• Bike-theft saga takes a turn toward the strange [ Globe and Mail ]
• Bikes keep on coming [ Toronto Sun ]
• To catch a thief [ Eye Weekly ]
• Wheels of change [ NOW Magazine ]
• Burying the handlebar [ NOW Magazine ]
TRANSIT
• Competing plans for Toronto transit cause delays [ Globe and Mail ]
• Taken for a ride [ NOW Magazine ]
• ‘Scramble intersection’ to hit Toronto [ National Post ]
• Bring on the traffic, baby [ NOW Magazine ]
• Ontario to get $7.8-billion for infrastructure [ Globe and Mail ]
PARKS
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• Tax money down the toilet [ Toronto Sun ]
MISCELLANEOUS
• The hipsters are coming! [ Eye Weekly ]
15 comments
Re: Competing plans for Toronto transit cause delays
I’m with Metrolinx on this one. The city desperately needs more east-west rapid transit.
Transit City is nice, but it won’t be significantly faster than the buses it replaces. Anybody who argues that it is a rapid transit network should be tarred, feathered, and rode out of town on a rail. (A streetcar rail …)
Why do you only link to mainstream, traditional media?
I think many, like me, would agree that a subway line would be lovely. The questions that Metrolinx seems to leave unanswered are: who is going to pony up the extra cash, and who is going to fast-track it?
I love articles with titles like “The hipsters are coming!”
It reminds me of the front page article about UK band Klaxons so many months ago, saying something to the effect of, “If Paul Revere went on his midnight ride today, the response would be, ‘No shit, Sherlock, I read it in NME two months ago.'”
Tim,
One of the main reasons is time. I try to get the headlines up in the morning before 9am so people can take a look at them at work. I don’t mind doing this – I volunteered. It usually takes me half an hour, often times more. By sticking to mainstream media, I can still make it to work on time (I have a long commute).
I’m not sure which non-traditional sites you had in mind (blog TO perhaps?)but it would certainly take me a lot longer to get through even a handful of them. And if I started linking to one, I would feel obligated to link to others.
Also, by linking to mainstream media on Spacing, it gives people interested in less traditional media the chance to discuss and critique mainstream news.
Re: The Hipsters are Coming!
“Hipster” is a derogatory term that means “Other White People”. White people use it to differentiate themselves from their brethren, so it’s an expression of self-loathing, basically.
Why do white people hate it so much when other white people show up?
There is absolutely no need for a subway along Eglinton. That is the same kind of thinking that left us with the underused Sheppard and Spadina subways.
LRT adds a lot more to the street life and it can be on the ground running a good decade before a subway can.
“The city desperately needs more east-west rapid transit.”
The danger with going subway is that if the price of gas falls below a buck, even for a second, Queens Park will order the hole filled in – again – and then we’re stuck with buses.
“LRT adds a lot more to the street life and it can be on the ground running a good decade before a subway can.”
Really? Can you verify this with a local example of where LRT actually initiated a vibrant streetscape?
Leonard: Ah, a little something called Spadina. The place was a disorganized mess before the LRT. Its not perfect, but about 10,000 times beter than what preceded it.
And, honestly, St Clair is looking much better too. Having lived up on St C for 3 years, I can attest to the improved streetscape. Some might not agree, but i like it.
Mookie,
Both Spadina and St. Clair were very vibrant before the streetcar was built. I asked luke to cite specific examples in Toronto where a streetcar line was built and a previously dead neighbourhood roared to life with restaurants, shops and businesses.
Leonard, it’s hard to give examples where there have been only two lines built by the TTC since the rise of the car in the 50s.
Spadina was very vibrant before the streetcar.
Queens Quay was largely empty before the streetcar was built. It’s doing pretty good these days and is often packed on weekends.
I like streetcars better than subways for short-to-moderate length trips because I feel more connected to the city. I can take note of restaurants & cafes that I might return to, notice interesting areas I might want to explore, etc. In contrast, I’ve taken the subway past Jane station (for example) every workday for the past 2 years and yet I have not the slightest idea what’s there.
Re. the hipster article — I find it annoying that those of us who live in rougher neighbourhoods are not supposed to hope for anything better; that we’re supposed to live in a slum and do without decent restaurants, bars and stores so that people who don’t live here can feel good about preserving ‘aunthenticity’ over ‘gentrification’.
Ok. Thanks for the explanation. I like your round-up but I always feel it’s missing something knowing there’s a bunch of Toronto-centric media (not just blogTO) posting interesting things – and often doing a better job of it, or doing it earlier – than the media on your list. Not sure if you’re using an RSS reader or a custom home page like Netvibes but I’d suggest adding all the Toronto Media you’d ideally like to scan to your reader/page so you can quickly scan headlines each morning.
Mike Dub: I’d venture to say it’s a term less based on race than class.