A Bit More Detail

• The Toronto Police Service was claiming as recently as four months ago that, contrary to community concern, there was no serial killer at work in the Village. How are they to believed, especially when police chief Saunders lies about people not approaching the police with their concerns? Why should it be marching during Pride this year? The Ottawa Citizen preserves the truth.


• Tess Kalinowski suggests that the impending departure of Bombardier from Downsview Park might lead to the regeneration of that neighbourhood, over at the Toronto Star.


• That the Harbourfront Centre, despite its prominence, is apparently unable to pay $C 1.4 million in rent and back taxes to the City of Toronto is alarming. The Toronto Star reports.


• The rejection by University of Toronto students, in a very recent vote, of a subsidized U-Pass for the TTC surprises me. I suppose if they live downtown and don't want access to the rest of the city that might be a partial explanation, but still. The Toronto Star reports.


• Justine Torres writes at NOW Toronto about the importance of the Jollibee opening for her, as someone of Filipino background.

• Alex Bozikovic argues that Old City Hall is perfectly placed to be a museum of the history of the city of Toronto, over at The Globe and Mail.


• blogTO U>celebrates the start of Icebreakers, the public art event on the waterfront. I will be there--I just hope there will be enough snow for these works.


• John Rieti at CBC takes issue with the misinformation associated with the King Street businesses' campaign against the streetcar pilot project there.


• CBC investigates the harm inflicted on newcomers by how they are treated for their non-standard accents.


• Following the mysterious murder of Toronto billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman, their family has chosen to commit to a very expensive private investigation. CBC reports.

• Having visited Friday, I liked the blogTO report on the early days of Toronto's love affair with Niagara Falls.


• blogTO shares photos of Kensington Market in the raw 1970s.


• The exterior of 450 Pape Avenue was used for the movie It, and the place is seeing Stephen King pilgrims already.


• The Toronto Book Garden, a lovely mini-park at Harbourfront keyed to literary Toronto, opened yesterday.

HtO is billed as “Toronto’s Urban Beach” – its centrepiece is a long sand pit extending along the water’s edge, with metal yellow beach umbrellas providing shade, and Muskoka chairs pitched in the sand. On the edge is part of the new wooden boardwalk that will front the lake throughout the waterfront, with only a short metal rail separating it from the water’s edge.

The Toronto Star’s architecture critic, Christopher Hume, praised the park, but in a separate article, also highlighted the glacial pace of redevelopment (funding was promised while Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister) and all the bureaucratic red tape and modifications made to the urban beach. Apprently the metal umbrellas were considered a safety risk should children decide to climb on them, and modifications were made to eliminate the steps leading into the water.

Despite all the setbacks, the incomplete park (the western half is still under construction) is a huge success. On the first Saturday night, the park was full of families, children were playing the sand pit, Afro music playing and gathering a crowd, others people walking along the water. There were at least three or four different uses that I saw at one time. Apart from not being able to swim (swimming in the inner harbour is both illegal and dangerous with all the boaters), it really feels like a beach.