The tale of the present-day TTC's mediocrity seems to have been a tale foretold – for a fee, to be precise, by a New York City consulting firm called Jacobs & Davies, Inc.
In 1910, the company's engineers produced a report for Toronto's council on the feasibility of an underground rail network, recommending the system's creation with reference to the flourishing underground systems in London and New York.
Three things about the report are noteworthy, nearly 100 years after it was submitted.
First, noting the "fan-shaped" nature of Toronto's development, it favoured the construction of a subway that looks astonishingly similar to the downtown "relief" line featured in Metrolinx's regional transportation plan from 2008 and debated by council in late January: "We believe the wisdom of this proposal is indubitable ... some diagonal routes would seem to be strongly needed, and of course the longer they are delayed the more expensive this surgical operation will become..."
Second, the report predicted the current situation of Toronto's public transit under the city's control: "...we would not be understood to favour municipal operation, as we are convinced that such operation, even with the best will in the world, is usually incompetent and wasteful and unsatisfactory to the public."
And third – ironically, considering this report resulted in city council commissioning another report, which ultimately voided the first – it prophesied the difficulties associated with having transportation subject to the political whims of councillors, noting the difficulty in creating and sustaining a rail network "with ever changing government."
In late January, city councillors voted 31-13 to ask Metrolinx, the provincial agency tasked with rolling out the region's transit system, to prioritize the "relief" line over a Yonge line extension into York Region – moving it from a 25-year plan into a 15-year one. The line is designed to loop from Pape or Donlands down through Union Station and back up again to Dundas West.
The move symbolizes the desire of some councillors to thicken the downtown core's strained transit network over expanding into the suburbs. But York Region's vice-president of transit and Metrolinx's chair both seemed anxious about Toronto not playing by the regional plan's rules. And so again, the debating continues; meanwhile the TTC rusts.
Glad Day opened in 1970 and has been in its location at 598 Yonge St for 27 years. The store has been hit by the recession, admits manager Prodan Nedev, but is still attracting regular customers.
“We’re having difficulties like everyone else with the latest economic thing,” he says, “but we’re still confident with the number of customers we’re getting. We’re not giving up.”
Nedev says Glad Day still draws those looking for a store specializing in queer literature.
“Even though the need for this sort of niche gay and lesbian bookstore is not quite as important as it was and we’re not the only source for this material, people still like to come to us. We still have a lot of selection you won’t find anywhere else.”
Jearld Moldenhauer, who founded Glad Day and sold it in 1991, says gay bookstores fill a need the chains won’t.
“Their commitment is just to the dollar,” he says. “Anything marginal, esoteric is not going to find a place on their shelves. Let’s take a book on gay Muslims, you’re not going to find it on their shelves.”
Nedev says Glad Day tries to compensate for the competition by selling older works through the internet and by hosting appearances by queer authors.
Nedev says the store made the right decision in not moving to Church St when This Ain’t the Rosedale Library decamped to Kensington Market last year.
“If we had moved to Church St we would be gone by now,” he says. “Rents on Church St are so expensive and the audience is so limited. We’re glad we stayed on Yonge St.”
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