On Dec. 7, Toronto’s city council delivered the rarest of political creatures — a new tax with broad public support. The tax on billboards was proposed to help enforce the bylaws governing signs, and also fund public art to offset the blight of outdoor advertising.
Even as it was passed, the reform package is a victory [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘City of Toronto’
December 21, 2009
Idea #1: Tax Ads to Fund Public Art
January 21, 2008
Scarborough fair?
City councillor taps UTSC students to survey ‘Scarlem’ city services
Crime-ridden, sprawling, and underserved—accurate or not, Scarborough has a bad reputation. City councillor Norm Kelly is out to change that, using research conducted by UTSC co-op students Kathy Chan and Dorinda So.
The 68-page Fair Share Scarborough took four months of full-time work to complete, and [...]
May 4, 2006
Beach-side parking
Half a century before The Docks thrilled island residents, the place to dance on Toronto’s waterfront was the Palais Royale (see Stroll). After eventually falling into disrepair and abandoned, the heritage building is a centre of activity again, as the Pegasus Group, the company that now owns the lease to the hall, puts the final [...]
September 26, 2005
Church allowed to stay – for now
Last Thursday, Toronto’s Anglican Diocesan Council decided to give St. Stephen’s a stay of execution.
The council resolved to let the congregation of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, a church on College St. at the north end of Kensington Market, stay in their building “on a month-to-month basis until a tenant is found, and subject to the continued cooperation [...]
September 19, 2005
Historic College Street church threatened with closure
Cause unites activists, politicians in battle with diocese
At the north end of Kensington Market, St. Stephen-in-the-Fields sits across the street from a fire station. Trucks regularly scream, making the 148-year-old Anglican church seem peaceful by comparison. Lately, it is anything but. The parish owes the Anglican diocese about $400,000, and on September 30 it is [...]
September 15, 2005
A tale of two malls
Scarborough Town Centre is a reluctant community centre; many feel it could learn from Dufferin Mall’s example
Sharon Shelton is unhappy with her neighbours at Scarborough Town Centre. “Over the last [few] years there hasn’t been anything — any sort of partnerships — happening with the mall management or the merchants,” she says. That’s troubling because, [...]
August 18, 2005
A huge bin of rubbish
RONCESVALLES – It’s an overcast Saturday afternoon and the garbage can outside Sak’s Fine Foods is getting some attention. That’s no surprise — it’s new, and it’s seven feet tall. The whimsically named EcoMupi is part of a three-month pilot project. If plans move ahead, 1,500 of them will litter the streets of Toronto, each bearing [...]
July 14, 2005
The easier way to take your bike
THE ANNEX – A bus, a bike rack and my bicycle; all of the ingredients are on the platform at Bathurst station, I’m just not sure how to put them together. I’m trying out the bus-mounted bike racks that have been installed on 98 buses spread over five (soon to be six) TTC routes for a [...]
June 2, 2005
We need some roadside assistance
City cyclists all have first- or second-hand stories to tell about accidents, close calls, car doors and other perils of urban cycling. Derek Chadbourne, a member of Advocacy and Respect for Cyclists (ARC) is no exception. Chadbourne’s friend was thrown off his bike after hitting a particularly large pothole near Adelaide and Victoria. The accident [...]
