🌡️ Mostly sunny with highs in the low-20s.
💲 Fines are supposed to be a deterrent for bad behaviour. That’s the whole point. So what happens when the city lets people get off scot-free? Does the system have any validity? Because that’s what’s happening. The city’s Administrative Penalty Tribunal cancelled or reduced fines for 40 per cent of people who fought their parking tickets.
🍜 This one kinda sounds like it’s straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Toronto Life profiles chef David Schwartz, a Jewish guy behind one of the best Chinese restaurants in the city.
🏡 Another property tax hike might — or might not — be on the horizon, Mayor Olivia Chow said as she started the city’s budget consultation process yesterday.
✈️ Billy Bishop is a hot topic at city hall. Right now, it’s just about whether to extend the runway to let the island airport continue operations past 2023. Looming over the less contentious question is the big one of whether to extend the lease for a few more decades, Edward Keenan writes.
🏥 University Health Network is opening a 51-unit social housing building to serve frequent ER visitors in an effort to reduce strain on the hospital.
🎶 Toronto Life has a cool breakdown of how Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is making everyone rich. From a $20 ticket to a choir performance of Swift’s albums to a $121,000 box ticket to the show itself, people are cashing in.
📚 The Toronto Public Library is trying to cut down on massive wait times for ebooks by reducing the number of holds a reader can put on books to 15 from 30. With the current system, we’re seeing average wait times of two months.
🏠 Toronto’s shelters are full. Encampments are popping up all over the city. Premier Doug Ford said he’s going to take action but provided no specifics.
🚗 The premier also said he’ll raise the speed limits on all 400-series highways without providing any further details.
🏘️ On the topic of refugee housing, a new apartment for families fleeing hardship is opening in the west end.
🎤 The Oasis lads are giving themselves another opportunity to snap on each other onstage in Toronto as they’ve added another show to Rogers Stadium on Aug. 25, 2025. Scalpers even started selling tickets before the presale opened in an IOU scheme.
👮 Toronto is beefing up its police presence ahead of the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
🚧 The Toronto Region Board of Trade normally has good ideas on how to solve congestion issues in the city. So why did the organization jump on board the Ford tunnel train when the project will likely cost untold billions and not take traffic off the roads? That’s not me asking the question, it’s Spacing’s John Lorinc.
🏡 Toronto home sales are starting to pick up steam as interest rates come down.
🚆 Most would agree Toronto has one of the worst — if not the worst — transit systems in the world when compared to other major cities. But it’s slowly getting less bad! Construction is now finally underway for all parts of the Ontario Line, which will run from the science centre south through Pape Station to Leslieville, then run west through downtown.
💉 Some advocates are preparing for the closure of safe injection sites by training regular people on how to respond to overdoses.
Commuter corner
Today through Friday, subway service between Victoria Park and Kennedy stations will end early at 11 p.m. but shuttle buses will pick up the slack.
Events, dear boy, events
Nuit Blanche goes from sundown Saturday to sunup Sunday in one of the marquee arts events of the year.
Fred Again is at Scotiabank today and Friday.
Director Guillermo Del Toro hosts a fundraiser at The Revue tonight.
El Mocambo hosts the Toronto Burlesque Festival today to Sunday.
Canada’s Picklefest returns to the Junction on the weekend.
Toronto’s Coin Expo takes over the Toronto Reference Library on Friday and Saturday.