🌡️ Another sunny but chilly fall day. A high of 10 in the afternoon.
🚴♂️ Cyclists are going to hate this one, but drivers may love it. The Ford government is about to give itself the power to halt bike lane construction in cities across the province. Existing ones could also be torn out in the future.
📜 As mentioned above, the provincial government is adding red tape to the bike lane approval process. The city also wants staff to develop a new process for building secondary suites on Craven Road in the east end. TVO’s John Michael McGrath used these examples to show that if you want less of something, you overregulate it.
🗳️ David Rider explains why the Ford government’s bike lane move is more about shoring up the suburban voter base than actually ending gridlock.
🚆 Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency responsible for the Eglinton LRT and other key Toronto transit projects, just had a quiet but significant shakeup at the senior staff level.
🇨🇦 Canada’s in the midst of a diplomatic scandal. The federal government accused the Indian government of assassinating Sikhs involved in the Khalistan independence movement and participating in other crimes, like extortion. Some Sikh groups want India’s Toronto consulate to be shut down.
🏕️ The Clarence Square encampment is one of the biggest in the city. It has a gas generator and a porta potty. The Local has been following one resident for four years and uses his story to explore the city’s evolving homelessness policies.
🛌 Haven Toronto, a drop-in shelter for elderly homeless men, is sounding the alarm on the number of people accessing its services.
🐶 Matt Elliott did his best Mr. Burns impression and implored Mayor Olivia Chow to release the hounds. In this case, the hound is Toronto’s auditor general. After the auditor's report found city park staff were spending a lot of time parked in trucks rather than working, the columnist argued increasing the accountability budget would pay dividends.
🌳 The parks division promised to up its game after the auditor’s report called it out.
🚚 City staff didn’t want to pay $200 to install GPS trackers on untracked park division vehicles. The auditor general looked at what the data told us about vehicles with trackers. And now there’s a scandal.
💻 More auditor general fallout. The city may cancel its contract with the company responsible for administering the online payment system after the auditor general said it wasn’t delivering the promised cost savings.
🎨 Graffiti Alley is a downtown landmark for urban art. Toronto may soon honour it by officially changing the name in city maps from Ln S Queen W Spadina and Ln S Queen E Augusta to the name everyone knows and loves.
🏠 Housing policy wonk Ricardo Tranjan has a crazy idea. If governments want non-market housing, they could just build it rather than dumping the responsibility onto developers — which raises the price of market housing and makes it harder to build.
🎤 Are you … ready for it? Taylor Swift’s Eras tour comes to Toronto for a six-show run in November. Destination Toronto’s CEO expects the city’s businesses will reap over $150 million.
🚗 Yesterday’s bike lane announcement also included some helpful information for drivers and everyone who loves to pretend they’re a character in GTA 5. Speed limits may soon be raised to 120 kilometres or higher on Ontario highways.
Commuter corner
Until Oct. 18, subway service on Line 2 between Victoria Park and Kennedy will end at 11 p.m. for track work. Shuttle buses will run instead.
Until Nov. 3, the 501 Queen streetcar will divert both ways via Church Street, King Street and Spadina Avenue because of track work.
Events, dear boy, events
Justin Timberlake is at Scotiabank Arena on Oct. 17 and 18.
Brett Young performs at History on Oct. 17.
Coin is at Massey Hall on Oct. 17.
The 25th annual Planet In Focus film festival takes over the Paradise Theatre until Oct. 20.
Need a Halloween costume? Check out the Riverside Vintage Crawl on Queen East on Oct. 17.
