Since I last wrote about Toronto in the fall the Mayor has been busy doing the hard stuff of getting the city’s finances in order. She worked out a deal with the province to upload the costs of the DVP and the Gardiner to the province. She managed to wrangle almost half a billion in cash for housing from the Federal government. (I say “wrangle” because some of the MPs did not seem too happy with her, according to this: How the mayor outsmarted Toronto MPs). And she just finished her 1st budget under with a record tax increase (so says Globalnews.ca). All in all, a pretty strong first year for her.
I can’t say it will be smooth sailing from this point. Before he left, Mayor Tory acquired the FIFA world cup for the city. Not surprisingly, costs are surging. Mayor Chow acknowledges she and the rest of the city are saddled with it. No doubt it will be a great event: it will also be a drain on Toronto coffers, as this shows. Will she be able to keep voters happy with all these additional financial demands? It depends.
One group of people who might behard to win over will be residents in Etobicoke. They are mad because they now have to bag their own leaves in the fall! Imagine that. I also imagine many a perq unique to certain neighborhoods will die over time if they haven’t already done so.
One of the gems of Toronto, our libraries, were slammed with a cyberattack, and while it’s been slow to recover — it’s hard! — it finally has. Kudos to all the staff and support who managed to pull this off.
In other good news, after years of blockages, my intersection, Yonge and Eglinton, has finally reopened! (You can see it above.) Yay! As for other intersections, people have been trying to rename Yonge and Dundas. It has not been a good process, despite good intentions. This argues that people should just stop.
In food news, the couple who ran long time Toronto dining establishment the Rosedale Diner are putting down their pans and retiring after almost 50 years in the kitchen. Wow. I remember going there in the early days and how it was such a great spot to hang out. Especially in the teeny tiny booths in the window.
Relatedly, blogTO has a good story on how Toronto establishments are struggling to deal with diners working in them. Also in blotTO is a fun piece on the best restaurants near each ttc subway station. For some stations, there’s a wealth of places to choose from. Others, like Castle Frank, not so much.
This might not seem to be a Toronto story, but this piece on how tough it is to get into schools like Waterloo certainly is, because it ties back into some of the high schools in the city. As this piece shows,not all 94 averages mean the same thing. Do some private schools have grade inflation? The universities in the province seem to think so.
In other city stories, the TTC is getting new 60 new streetcars. That’s good. Also Toronto Police arrest kids as young as 14 in a TTC stabbing. Not good. Terrible in fact. Also terrible: Loblaws was blamed for the botched flu rollout in the city recently. Ugh.
Speaking of the flu, if you know someone who has it or other some other ailment and needs cheering up, why not send them flowers? I highly recommend tonicblooms.com if you need someone to order from.
Thanks for reading this. See you again next season. I’ll close off with this poster from the late great Bamboo Club (below) courtesy of Jamie Bradburn.
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