NOW has a few good stories in their current issue.
1. Street furniture debate at City Hall “It’s too early to say whether the forthcoming 20-year city-wide single-company street furniture contract will be a boon or a blight, but one thing’s certain: any issue that causes this much political dissonance is certainly worth watching.”
2. Bird and falcon fatalities “Although the falcons are special because they’re considered a threatened species, they’re far from the only skyscraper fatalities. According to the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) between 940,000 and 9.4 million birds die each year after hitting skyscrapers in the GTA, either mistaking the reflections in the windows for open sky or trees, or drawn to the lights at night.”
3. Living under the Gardiner “Chris has lived under the Gardiner at Spadina for eight years. He doesn’t mind if you call him Chris Gardiner — just don’t call him homeless. It took Chris three years to collect the materials needed to build his makeshift home on this swath of forgotten land next to rusting hydro transformers. The place is more welcoming than some apartments currently listed for rent downtown. Unfortunately, the city wants to refurbish the underside of the expressway, and it has deemed Chris’s house to be in the way.”
4. The Star also has a big, fat two-page article about street furniture in today’s paper. Jennifer Wells writes, “Within a matter of weeks city council intends to issue a so-called RFP, or request for proposal, that will result in a host of savvy companies from around the globe bidding on Toronto’s 20-year street furniture contract. Never heard of street furniture? Well, you will. Imagine a transformation of Toronto streets into a co-ordinated landscape of litter bins and newsracks and toilettes and more that we, the people, actually like. Or so we hope.”
top photo from City of Toronto, bottom by NOW
