Yes, Toronto made it into the Monopoly World edition though Montreal is the top Canadian city (actually the TOP CITY WORLDWIDE on the Monopoly board). Good to see that makers of Monopoly have “updated” the utilities to renewables, Solar and Wind. Well to “celebrate” our induction to the middle of the Monopoly board Mr. Monopoly will be at Ontario Place along with Mayor Miller from noon till 2pm today.

The University of Toronto is joining forces with IBM. They hope to build a supercomputer among the top 20 in the world and the fastest in Canada. The computer has been optimized with respect to energy use and will have a dedicated building to house it at a projected cost of C$50 million over 5 years.

Not the first time that a major university has set their sights on a supercomputer. Good to see U of T stepping up to the likes of Virginia Tech and Indiana University who have long enjoyed the use of and prestige of managing such a system.

Looks as though the infamous Yonge and Dundas intersection will become a “Pedestrian Scramble” next month. One’s sense of bewilderment in the valley of enormous billboards will be somewhat elevated when that arrives.

This would be a fairly large “cultural shift” but it may be a good thing for people. The main issue is regular traffic. Obeying a red light should be easy enough but streetcars and other traffic may have longer waits as pedestrians can cross from all directions at once. More delays and “rage” but not a huge inconvenience. Of course pedestrians CAN already cross mid block with restrictions legally. As many cyclists and pedestrians can attest, having the right of way doesn’t preclude you from getting hit by a car.

The rethinking of people and vehicle traffic is a good thing. We could use better coordination of our traffic lights in the city. This is already done on some routes for the TTC but keeping as much traffic, travelling at the legal limit, moving should be a priority. It makes getting from A to B that much easier and reduces smog. More than enough reason to try to improve the situation.

   Toronto Island’s weather turned ugly Saturday.  What originally appeared to be a cooler sunny day soon changed.  Much of the qualifying runs were laid out on the skateboard and wakeboard courses and then it happened.  A fierce afternoon thunderstorm started and many took shelter. The quick and the lucky scattered to pavilions around Toronto Island, others bolted straight to the ferry docks.  Some however were not so lucky.

Not everyone had the piece of mind not to hide under trees or lucky enough to be away from some of the metal fences.  At least two people were struck by lightening, one right across from the booth where Silverstein were signing autographs.  Thanks to the Emergency staff on hand as well as the Police and Fire boats dispatched to the island everyone was OK and the event was able to continue.

A few hours later you could hardly image how bad the weather had been moments before.  Barring the drenched pavement and grass of course.  Everyone had to make the most of it.

Classified dusted off the crowd and kicked things off on the main stage once the rain subsided.  Silverstein were awesome and powered through a shortened but intense set.  Hot Water Music were also a treat to see live.  The good weather whether held out into the early evening and RZA and GZA gave the masses a long awaited and stacked set, just fashionably late.

So glad that the sun came back, even if the puddles were far from gone.  Wasn’t keen on mud sliding/diving, just thankful no puddles or muddy sinkholes claimed my footwear.  Tomorrow is another day.  Hoping WETstock ended Saturday and Wakestock continues where it left off…

Heard on CFRB’s John Moore show that they’re talking again about beefing up transit along Eglinton Avenue, specifically if a subway is better than light rapid transit (LRT). Over a decade after Harris cost this province tens of millions of dollars shutting down subway construction west of Allen, along Eglinton, and almost a decade after Harris left office (if memory serves right), a couple of Councillors have raised their heads tentatively to broach this idea again. It must’ve been all those billions Jim Flaherty — a Harris brother-in-hate-Toronto arms — was waving around yesterday that’s got them showing courage.

But as far as I could tell the millions promised for the Spadina extension to York was exactly what the McGuinty government set aside before the last election, so all they’re doing is reminding us that they still have it banked for whenever it happens. I’m sorry to be such a jaded Torontonian, but ever since Lastman-Harris-Chretien stood on the banks of Lake Ontario promising us billions to revitalize the waterfront, we’ve endured many more such announcements by the Mayor-Premier-Prime Minister of the day, or parts thereof, promising millions or billions for TTC, waterfront, or take-your-pick-of-desperate-Toronto need, followed by nothing. I don’t know why optimists even try to get together a bid for big games like the Pan Am games because (a) the federal government hates Toronto and won’t lift a finger for it and (b) no senior government is going to invest in infrastructure in this city. All those billions China spent on Beijing, making it a games jewel, would never happen here under similar circumstances because the country doesn’t see Toronto as representing it to the world, even though it does, even during an ordinary tourist season.

Anyway, it’s not like the plans for Spadina, Eglinton, or even Queen Street subway expansion are new. They’ve been studied and planned to death. Yet today’s leaders are loathe to use the technology proven to move masses of people swiftly, without being hindered or slowed down by car traffic, because it’s the most expensive to build. It’s a good thing our city planners back in the 1940s and ’50s had more guts, else we’d have an LRT down Yonge Street and along Bloor-Danforth instead of what are today overloaded subways. Now, OK, I know that we haven’t yet reached the massive crowds of London in rush hour — where getting on a train means committing to not being able to move even a mm, anywhere in the car — however, during the day and on Sundays Toronto trains are fuller than they should be from a user’s point of view. I attribute this directly to the fact that our leaders, starting in the rich 1980s (remember, the era when people flaunted their wealth), stopped building subways here in Toronto, while they continued in Montreal, and that voters rejected a leader who put subway planning in her platform in favour of a do-nothing so that, in the words of one editor, we could give him a second chance (to do nothing). And so instead of having a line parallel to Bloor-Danforth, we have none, neither along Queen — which planners say is the one place a subway would pay for itself — nor along Eglinton. And so people take buses, subways, streetcars down to Bloor-Danforth or up to it, thus causing needless overcrowding on that line, while the Yonge-Bloor interchange has become a nightmare.

While debate continues about whether Eglinton should have a subway or an LRT, and the federal government waves around money already committed to one subway and makes no announcement about any other subways, England is set to spend 32 fuckin’ BILLION bucks on a crosstown subway line in London, this in a city that has never stopped building subway lines, even getting them built by badgering developers into funding them if they want to build towers. It’s not like the British like London any more than Canadians like Toronto; it’s that they understand that they must move people as quickly as possible there, as efficiently as possible if that city is to continue to generate wealth for the country. It’s too bad Ontarians and Canadians forget that piece of wisdom.

It was good to see the Federal and Ontario Government were all smiles about finally giving Ontario some Infrastructure funding.  Approximately 3.1 million under the Building Canada Fund from the Feds, and almost 3 million from the gas tax.   Ontario will match the Building Canada Fund amount (3.1M) for a total of 9.3 million towards Ontario Infrastructure.

A great start.  Remember that some of these funds were already fought for by Mayor Miller and Premier Dalton McGuinty and promised by the PM Harper.  I tend to agree with Christopher Hume’s Toronto Star article that Infrastructure spending is still paltry and almost too late.  It was no surprise to see us lose Olympic bids when our current transit routes and highways are so strained.

We cry for the benefits of our Infrastructure but have much work to do to earn them.  The sad thing is partisan squabbling between the Feds and the Province have already delayed any real progress on this issue.  Instead of focusing on investing in Canada the Conservatives have been focusing most of their attention on abstract issues like Democratic Reform.  Not exactly what will strengthen the Canadian economy and make us competitive in global markets.

Some feel that Canadians are ready for an election but all candidates, including the reigning Conservatives, need to work harder and TOGETHER at all levels. A contrast to current partisan power games.  Infrastructure, whether it’s a TTC Subway station, improved internet/cell phone network,  bike lanes or highways provide real benefits to taxpayers.  Plans for the Waterfront, TTC’s LRT and subway expansion are steps in the right direction.  Hopefully politicians put more money where the mouths are moving.  The cheques are still in the mail.

It’s sure to be a lazy Sunday afternoon.  A great day for the Poor Pilgrim Island Solstice Show.  There’s plenty music in store.  It all kicks off around 4pm with Aaron Lumley’s set and ends with the Feuermusik Big Band at 10:45pm.  So much to see! Best bring a bike.  Each musical stop along the Poor Pilgrim route will be no more than a 10 minute bike ride.

Note to would be cyclists on the island. On Sundays there are no bikes allowed on Centre Island Ferry. Bikes are allowed on the Ward’s Island and Hanlan’s Ferry at all times.

Food, drink and even a flashlight would be a good idea to pack too.  A great compliment to the feast of music.

Poor Pilgrim Island Solstice
Toronto Island
Sunday, July 13th
Featuring:Aaron Lumley, Colours…Brothers, Ryan Driver, Stud Bancker, Allison Peacock, Eric Chenaux, Nadj, Laura McCoy,  Yuula Benivolski, Alex Lukashevsky, Maya Postepski Ensemble, All Under Heaven, and the Feuermusik Big Band
Starts at 4pm

Matix Clothing’s Lord of the Lines makes a stop this weekend at “Poyner Park” this Saturday. Lord of the Lines is great idea for a skateboard contest. The elements are simple. One flatbar, ledge and manual pad. Best set of tricks on all three in one line wins. Good luck!

Lord of the Lines Contest

Saturday, July 12th

Scadding Skateboard Park
707 Dundas St. W, Toronto ON

Starts at 4pm. Best line on flat bar, manny pad & up ledge.

A Hamilton City Councillor is pushing for free public transit, a “no-brainer” move some Torontonians would like to see happen here, at the very least on smog days. It’s a no-brainer because as the Councillor points out, free equals more riders, and on smoggy days, when apparently 50% of Toronto’s smog comes from cars, that’s a good thing.

But “while cities like San Francisco and Montreal can offer free rides on
smog days,” Adam Giambrone, Chair of the TTC, says that “the concept doesn’t work with the TTC’s 1.5 million daily riders.” (Nick Kyonka, The Toronto Star, 8 July 2008)

He’s right. Free equals more riders which requires sufficient capacity. I don’t know much about public transit in San Francisco, but I do know that Montréal has more subway lines than Toronto, servicing a much smaller population than we have.* In other words, they can accommodate an influx of riders, the kind of influx that requires large-capacity carrying transit for the kind of riders who won’t tolerate packed, overheated buses and streetcars but will take the subway in lieu of their preferred cars. Toronto cannot.

Not on our buses, not on our streetcars, not on our subways. This is what the Art Eggleton-school-of-apathy established in 1980, the Ontario-Canada-school-of-hate-Toronto, and the learned-helplessness-of-Torontonians have begotten us. The one thing that may save us is the green movement, whereby even the most apathetic and most-Toronto-hating politician may find it beneficial to start building subways again, especially downtown where it would pay for itself. (I don’t know what’s happened to the subway to York U, but it seems to have transferred itself onto the slow track.)

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* How much smaller is Montréal to Toronto: read this tourist post. For a person like me who remembers when the two cities were neck and neck in population, this is very funny. I’m glad she had a good time here! That’s what we like, happy tourists!!! Even if we natives have to put up with an inadequate TTC.

Times, they do keep on changing here in the big T.O. There’s another sudden loss on the local airwaves as of yesterday. Leslie Roberts is leaving his hosting duties on CFRB. He used to hold down the 10:00 am to Noon time slot, but no more. Global, his main and first employer in Toronto, is expanding their news division — holy cow! I thought for sure that the CRTC-inspired (as in, you want a license, you gotta…) Global National with Kevin Newman would die into oblivion once the CRTC looked the other way. Instead Global is going against CTV’s current drive and doing  more Canadian. Shocking! And Leslie Roberts, formerly of Montréal and now of Toronto, is going to be a big part of that.

He will continue to anchor the Six O’Clock Global News show, but we will soon see him contributing to a new public affairs show a la 60 Minutes. Well, OK, there’s a little American inspiration instead of Canadian, but since I discovered how cleverly the Fifth Estate colours their stories and since CTV buried W5 in the schedule, I’m not surprised Global would look south of the border. Perhaps this new show is an outflow of Global Currents that Kevin Newman hosts? That would be neat. I hope too that with this change that Global will start to film all their original news productions in HD.

Anyway, congrats to Leslie Roberts on his big promotion and big raise, and now I know too what happened to Troy Reeb: he’s Leslie’s boss.

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Meantime, CFRB Operations Manager Steve Kowch has to find a new host for the 10:00 am to Noon slot. May I suggest a radical departure from the CFRB norm? A sole female host.

I realise a sole female hosting a regular, weekday talk show on CFRB may spark controversy, but I say you’re about a couple of decades behind the times. We’ve listened to capable and entertaining female hosts leave CFRB or be  relegated to weekends at the same time as we’ve heard newbie Ryan Doyle come on the air and assault our eardrums with stereotypical and uninformed spouting. He’s obviously a good producer, but he’s not nearly the same calibre as the female talk show hosts I’ve heard. Furthermore, there must be a lot of women chomping at the bit to have a shot as sole host of a good time slot. It’s about time CFRB provided that.

So Mr. Kowch, you’re not sure what to do with this time slot. Here’s my suggestion: Hire a woman. And for good measure put Doyle back on producing duties only and find another good woman to take over his current slot.