Author: Skybean

Is he sleeping? Photo of McCowan TTC booth goes viral
Raveena Aulakh Staff reporter
Published On Fri Jan 22 2010

A TTC ticket collector is shown apparently catching a quick 40 winks between customers.
Jason Wieler Photo

He’s inside the ticket booth, reclining on a chair, his arms draped over his stomach.

And that was enough to send this photograph of a Toronto Transit Commission collector – who appears to be snoozing – viral Thursday, sweeping around the world after it was tweeted by a transit rider.

It was enough to prompt TTC authorities to start an inquiry.

The photo was taken by Jason Wieler on Jan. 9 around 10 p.m. at McCowan Station. On Thursday, he posted it on Twitpic with this caption: "Yup, love how my TTC dollars R being spent … "

Wieler was leaving the station when he saw the ticket agent catnapping in full view. "I stood by for at least five minutes and he was sleeping," said Wieler.

Some riders were laughing while others were talking about him, he said. A few even went through without paying their fare or showing their Metropass. "I thought here we are, with a fare hike, and look how the money is being wasted."

As soon as the photo was posted, the comments began piling up, mostly from annoyed transit users.

"I didn’t post to get anyone in trouble, but to highlight TTC problems," said Wieler.

The TTC is taking it seriously, spokesman Brad Ross said.

"Employees have a responsibility with respect to safety of the station and the system," said Ross. "We expect them to be always alert on their jobs. This is unacceptable."

But he said there might have been extenuating circumstances.

"We are asking for an explanation."

How the price tag doubled for the St. Clair line

City Hall Bureau Chief — From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 12:13AM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 4:20AM EST

The price tag of the new St. Clair streetcar line nearly doubled because nobody was in charge as the project’s scope ballooned, public consultation ran amok and more than 20 small contractors tripped over each other.

That’s the conclusion of a new study to be presented tomorrow to the TTC’s board, which is trying to learn from its mistakes as it embarks on a 120-kilometre light-rail expansion modelled on St. Clair’s exclusive right-of-way.

“It’s no secret this thing was not the city and the TTC’s finest hour in the eyes of the public,” said Richard Soberman, co-author of the report and former chairman of the University of Toronto’s department of civil engineering.

When city council approved the 6.8-kilometre St. Clair line in September, 2004, it predicted the project would cost $48-million.

The figure was revised to $65-million before construction began.

Now, six years later, the final cost is expected to be $106-million and the last 300 metres of the line won’t open until June.

Dr. Soberman and co-author Les Kelman found the city and TTC failed to co-ordinate because there was no clear boss.

“Various elements of the project were neither centralized nor controlled by any single entity,” the report says.

The study also criticized the TTC for letting public consultations drag on indefinitely and for allowing “scope creep.”

Once shovels were in the ground, transit upgrades and unrelated jobs such as burying hydro lines piled up, increasing the costs and the construction headaches.

Those headaches linger for some business owners on St. Clair West.

Although construction is finished and streetcars are rolling from Yonge Street to Lansdowne Avenue, shoppers haven’t returned, said the executive director of the Corso Italia Business Improvement Area.

“It’s done nothing. It’s been of little value to the businesses and little value to the residents,” Jeff Gillan said. His wife owns Carmen’s Designs, a children’s clothing shop and one of approximately 250 businesses between Dufferin Street and Lansdowne.

To avoid laying off staff, she hasn’t taken a paycheque in three months, Mr. Gillan said.

Don’s Meats, located on the unfinished stretch of the streetcar route west of Lansdowne, hasn’t suffered as much as some of its neighbours.

That’s because construction crews ripped up the road outside the shop in small chunks rather than several blocks at a time, mitigating the traffic jams that paralyzed other sections of the St. Clair line, said Don Panos, who has owned a wholesale and retail meat shop in the area for 26 years.

The TTC should apply that construction lesson to its new light-rail routes, Mr. Panos said.

The transit authority also needs to avoid dividing the community, as happened on St. Clair. “They [the TTC and the city] were adamant and forced their will on the people,” Mr. Panos said.

The councillor who championed St. Clair’s exclusive right-of-way said many of the problems identified in the report have already been remedied for the first Transit City lines to be built on Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch avenues.

“You need to know where the buck stops,” said Joe Mihevc, a TTC commissioner whose Ward 21 includes most of St. Clair West. “On Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch, it’s the TTC that will be in charge. It’s their puppy.”

The TTC is already looking to replace the mishmash of small contractors that built St. Clair with larger contractors capable of co-ordinating sprawling projects. Teams of communications staff will keep people abreast of Transit City developments; one employee with 16 other projects on his watch handled communications for the St. Clair line, Mr. Mihevc said.

So far, Mark Bozian is cautiously optimistic about the 15-kilometre light-rail line outside his Toyota dealership on Sheppard Avenue East, where he chairs the business improvement area. Pre-construction broke ground last month.

“We want it to be done in a consensual, prudent, businesslike fashion,” Mr. Bozian said. “If they don’t, we’ll end up with the same nightmare as St. Clair.”

Off the Rails

The St. Clair Avenue West streetcar line leapt in cost from its conception to its completion over half a decade. Here is a list of key numbers relating to the project:

* $48-million initial cost estimate, September 2004
* $65-million updated cost estimate
* $106-million estimated final cost
* 5 the number of years to complete, assuming the full line opens by June 2010
* 20 the minimum number of small construction contracts awarded for projects relating to the line
* 8 the number of months a judicial review delayed the project

Source: Getting it Right: Lessons from the Implementation of the St. Clair Streetcar for the Implementation of Transit City.

Hume: Peter Dickinson — a towering figure
By Christopher Hume Urban Issues, Architecture
Published On Sun Jan 17 2010

During a brief flash after World War II, Toronto’s skyline grew like it was on steroids. Peter Dickinson was at work – ‘producing buildings mixed in with wild partying in the most orgiastic level you can imagine’

Dickinson, left, with 561 Avenue Road in Toronto and his phallic masterpiece, Montreal’s CIBC building, "in many ways like Dickinson himself," writes John Martins-Manteiga, "tall, lean, smart … and forever young."

During his lifetime, architect Peter Dickinson was merely a legend, now he has ascended to myth.

The arrival of John Martins-Manteiga’s lavishly illustrated biography, titled simply Peter Dickinson (Dominion Modern, 304 pages, $50), proves it.

Though his name may not be as celebrated as some, during his tragically brief career in the 1950s and early ’60s, he remade the Toronto skyline.

Martins-Manteiga, the indefatigable documenter and defender of things modern, has produced a work that despite its frankly hagiographic tone makes for interesting reading. In case you’ve forgotten, Dickinson was the English architect who came to Toronto in 1950 and died just 11 years later, aged 35.

During that short period, he designed a number of landmarks here and in Montreal. His best work remains fresh: Think of the Sony Centre (formerly O’Keefe Centre), the Education Building on College St., the juvenile courthouse on Jarvis and the Continental Can Building on the southwest corner of College and Bay Sts.

On the other hand, many of Dickinson’s projects fail to impress. Though much lauded at the time, to contemporary eyes they look repetitive, formulaic, even churned out. One mustn’t forget that the age that produced Dickinson had some strange ideas – cars with fins, slab towers and social housing that didn’t quite turn out according to plan. Much of Regent Park, in which Dickinson played a significant role, is currently being torn down and rebuilt (though his own structures, which pioneered two-storey aparments, still stand).

The modern era’s failings are not all Dickinson’s fault, but we are reminded that one generation’s heroes can be villains to the next.

AT THE SAME TIME, how sad it is to walk past one of Dickinson’s masterpieces – O’Keefe Centre – and watch large parts of it being dismantled in a city-sanctioned act of vandalism. To add insult to injury, it is being torn apart to accommodate a condo tower.

The great shame is that had the 1960 facility survived just another decade or two, it would have been celebrated as a landmark in the city’s architectural history. As it is, it’s too recent to be seen as heritage, which most identify as dating from the 1800s. In time, Torontonians might learn to love these early modernist pieces, but to most they are dull, boring and cheap-looking.

Though he was no extremist, Dickinson had big ideas about his profession. "The architect," he once told the Star, "should be the most important man in the community, because he controls the environment in which everyone lives and works."

Who amongst us today would make such an argument, even if he believed it?

But then there was Dickinson, the man. With his boundless energy and effortless creativity, he dashed off designs in a way that now seems almost cartoonish.

Martins-Manteiga quotes one of Dickinson colleagues who was deeply impressed by what he saw.

"He would take (a project) home one evening with a roll of sketch paper and he’d come back in the morning with the thing designed and finished. He’s the only man I have ever met in my professional life where this could be done."

All the while, Dickinson and his acolytes sipped martinis, smoked one cigarette after another and held endless parties. They loved beautiful women, fast cars and work. Though it would all fall apart eventually, the practice of architecture was changed forever as was architecture itself.

The old-style gentlemen’s club that characterized the profession until the ’50s disappeared along with stripped classicism and stockbroker Tudor.

Dickinson and Co. would work flat out to keep up with demand. And although a gentleman should never be seen to be working, he never had an office of his own, preferring instead to be with his employees.

"It was very short-lived and very inventive and very productive," recalls architect Rod Robbie, who would later become famous for SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre), "and it couldn’t last the way it was going . . . It was a frenetic work pace, producing buildings mixed in with wild partying in the most orgiastic level you can imagine. We came from Ottawa; my wife and I were shocked by that."

But Toronto developers loved Dickinson, who seemed to understand exactly what they wanted. He would sketch as they talked and come up with something on the spot. Even when doctors discovered cancer, he continued to work. Isadore Sharp, of Four Seasons Hotel fame, describes how Dickinson designed the Inn on the Park in two or three days while dying in hospital.

IN THIS SENSE, THERE was something almost Mozartean about the architect. Like the great composer, who also died young, it was all in his head. He seemed to be able to summon up a project in its broadest strokes and smallest details.

The fact remains, however, that this is not a time that has much affection or interest in modernism. To most, it was an aberration, a low point, a movement that began nobly but ended in boredom and banality.

What we have forgotten was that generation’s urgent need to lift itself out of a world order that no longer made sense. The past wasn’t simply over; it was to be avoided. The future stretched ahead gloriously for those willing to meet it half way.

Tomorrow doesn’t seem so appealing today, a time of global warming and economic weakness. Had Dickinson lived, he’d be an old man. But some things wouldn’t have changed.

As he said in a 1953 speech: "Three or four generations of immigrants have made Toronto the biggest and most prosperous English-speaking centre of Canada. It is a capital city…. Yet Toronto is shabby, dreary and ugly."

Some are still saying the same thing today.

For Canadian cities, big isn’t always best

The Ko family play in the basement of their Richmond Hill home.

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 8:01PM EST Last updated on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010 2:55AM EST

Forget Montreal and Toronto – they have the size but not the sizzle.

An unvarnished assessment of Canada’s cities has selected six as the most attractive to move to, and they don’t include the country’s two biggest.

It gives top honours – an “A” grade – to an eclectic assortment of urban areas: Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John’s, Waterloo, Ont., and the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

The assessment, in a report by the Conference Board of Canada, calls these municipalities “city magnets” for their ability to appeal to newcomers, whether they be relocating from within the country or emigrating from abroad.

The defining factors include cultural amenities, superior education facilities and strong economic growth. Combined, they make a city a big draw for outsiders, which will be a critical determinant of future prosperity, the board says, because Canada’s birth rate is low.

“These six cities come out on top across all rankings, so they appear to have an overall winning combination that is attractive to migrants,” said Mario Lefebvre, director of the board’s Centre for Municipal Studies.

The board said it compiled the report, commissioned by municipalities, to help governments “create dozens of A cities, not just a handful” out of the 50 reviewed.

The report didn’t pull any punches when it came to highlighting failings of urban areas. It gave Toronto – the country’s largest city – only a B grade, saying that while it has many positive features, such as the lowest level of car dependency among commuters, it has glaring drawbacks too, including too many poor people and too much air pollution.

Toronto also came in last in the country for the income inequality of its university-educated immigrants, who earn only 54 per cent of what their Canadian-born counterparts make – a “dark spot” for the city.

Montreal fared even worse, with a C grade, in part because of its even more dismal record of people living below the poverty line – about a quarter of its population. Montreal did receive recognition as the most multilingual city, with 70 per cent of the population knowing more than one language.

The least attractive cities for migrants included many smaller urban areas suffering from the downturn in the manufacturing and resource industries, including Oshawa, Brantford, and Windsor in Ontario; Longueuil, Trois-Rivières and Laval in Quebec; and Saint John in New Brunswick.

These cities have poor education resources, low innovativeness in their economies, and either low rates of population growth or outright declines, the report says.

On the “A” list, St. John’s – while the least multilingual of all the cities considered – made the cut because it’s cresting on a wave of offshore-oil-propelled prosperity and has highly ranked health care.

Calgary, another A-lister, leads the country in per-capita output, with the average value of goods and services produced per resident at $58,000 a year.

The city attracted Cici Yu, who has a masters degree in applied linguists and moved to Calgary from China in 2008. She looked at both Vancouver and Toronto, but picked booming Alberta for its better employment prospects.

“I thought Calgary was a very good place to live because we know the economy is strong,” said Ms. Yu, who works at Immigrant Access Fund, which helps newcomers get accreditation for their foreign work experience and education.

The fact that Richmond Hill is one of the most attractive places in Canada doesn’t surprise Re/Max real-estate broker Dennis Chan, who sells homes there. Richmond Hill borders Toronto, so it’s “not in Timbuktu and it’s fairly accessible,” he said.

It also has a Toronto-area rarity – larger houses with garages and decent-sized lots at affordable prices.

“For $600,000, $500,000, you get a real house,” he said.

Anne Ko, who runs an after-school enrichment program for children in Richmond Hill, says she moved to the community for its good housing and superior schools, after having lived in Toronto. “A lot of the newer and better schools that they put a lot of resources in are now in the York Region school board,” she said.

The report looked at whether certain city attributes appealed more to those with university degrees than those without, but concluded education wasn’t a major factor in several categories.

“This then suggests that policy makers must be cautious in crafting policies aimed at attracting university graduates only,” it said.

China gives Canada its approval of seal
Far from the outrage of Europe, Beijing fashion show bestows warm embrace
By Bill Schiller Asia Bureau
Published On Wed Jan 13 2010

A model, far left, wears a Canadian seal fur creation at a Beijing fashion show, while another model sports a Canadian-made fur design. (Jan. 12, 2010)
BILL SCHILLER/TORONTO STAR

BEIJING–The fur didn’t fly here Tuesday.

Instead, it strode down a Beijing catwalk without interruption.

The Canadian seal and fur industry brought its fashion designs to a premier Beijing fashion show yesterday, winning warm applause.

Had this been Europe there might have been cans of red paint hurled, incendiary banners held aloft, and outraged protest.

But this is China.

Here, where protests are banned and fur is popular, the show was a success – part of a larger strategy by the Harper government to work hand-in-hand with the Canadian seal industry to rebuild its challenged markets.

Canada was effectively thumbing its nose at the European Union Tuesday, the organization that banned the importation of Canadian seal products last year.

Instead, Canada has set about to woo the Chinese to open its gates to Canadian seal meat.

Shunned by Brussels, Ottawa believes China will do nicely as a replacement market and has tremendous potential, especially with its 1.3 billion people.

China already buys seal oil and fur from Canada. Meat would seem the next natural step.

And success might be at hand.

"We’re very optimistic we’ll be able to export seal meat into China," Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said here, following the fashion show featuring Canadian designs of sealskin and fur.

As she spoke she wore a ribbon of seal fur on her label, a sign, she said, of her support for the Canadian seal hunt.

There are two hunts per year: one in the Arctic held by Inuit, the other, larger one in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

More than 15,500 Canadians have seal hunting permits.

Shea said her delegation had good discussions with Chinese officials, as well as with importers who normally handle Canadian fish imports.

The Chinese don’t normally eat seal meat. They have a small number of seals in the country, but they’re protected.

Canadian officials said the Chinese would cultivate a taste for the delicacy – not a tall task given their prized and inventive culinary culture.

"We’re now at what we think is the end of a process of formally lifting those restrictions (on seal meat)," said Mike Pearson, director general of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who was part of the talks.

Neither he nor the minister, however, would predict when China will allow Canadian seal imports.

Shea arrived here Sunday on a 72-hour trip – her first to China – to attend the 36th China Fur and Leather Products Fair, and discuss fisheries’ issues with senior Chinese officials.

But developing the seal market appears to be her priority.

"We’d like to expand the market," she said in an interview. "China has a huge population and very good potential as a market for Canada."

Traditionally the Chinese were interested only in pelts, but in recent years they’ve begun buying omega-3 oils. Now there is research into developing a protein powder as well as the potential use of seal heart valves for transplantation into in humans.

"This (latter) is an exciting project with potential benefit to the entire world," she said.

More and more researchers are looking at using the "whole" animal and they see "tremendous opportunity. Exports in Canada’s $13-million seal industry were valued at $10 million last year.

A Fisheries spokesman said Canada exported $1.1 million in seal fats and oil to China in 2009, while an unknown percentage in pelts went to the country after being manufactured into boots and other clothing.

Canada has seemed much more aggressive about standing up for the industry since last spring, when Governor General Michaëlle Jean ate a slaughtered seal’s raw heart while visiting an Inuit community near Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

The event captured massive media attention at home and abroad.

Asked at the time whether she was doing it to send a message to the Europeans, Jean replied, "Take from that what you will."

Said Shea, "It was a great show of support for the Canadian sealing industry."

But no one has persuaded the EU to reverse its ban on seal products.

Today the government is appealing the European Union’s decision to the World Trade Organization.