Culture in Danger (Culture en Péril, with subtitles) (via Tupperfan)

The LCBO announced in May that it would no longer be handing out plastic bags at its stores, to the delight of most environmental-minded citizens, and the scorn of other plastic-loving ones. It was intended that the LCBO would not order any more bags after their supply runs out.

From their news release:

LCBO has stopped ordering plastic bags and expects supplies of the remaining stock to run out by summer. As a result, availability of plastic bags in the next few months will vary from store to store.

Note it said “by summer”. Not “in the summer” or “the end of summer” or “by fall”, but “by summer”, which would mean before June 23, 2008.

The Toronto Star went even further:

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario will announce today that it won’t hand out plastic shopping bags once it exhausts existing supplies, the Star has learned. Some stores have already run out.

So I found it strange that it is now the end of September and the three main stores I go to (Manulife Centre, Hudsons Bay Centre, and Yonge/Wellesley) are still handing out plastic bags. Even busy stores, like Yonge/Dundas, still have a supply. The strangest thing is that some stores seem to have restocked plastic bags, as in, they had run out and now they have them again.

There’s two possible explanations:

1) The program is incredibly successful and everyone is bringing their own bag or asking for paper bags (because you have to ask, since most clerks are still reaching first for the plastic). This means the supply of plastic bags is dwindling more slowly than they first thought.

2) They caved in on the policy and have quietly brought plastic bags back.

I certainly hope #1 is the case. But two things are causing me to be suspicious. First, is the return of bags at the stores that had previously run out. And second, is the quality of the more recent plastic bags - they are thinner than the old ones. Why would the bag change if there was no new contract signed?

Does your local LCBO still have plastic bags?

I’m sorry, I have to get my anger and distaste of Stephen Harper’s “ivory tower” comment off my chest. Doesn’t Harper have two university (“ivory tower”) degrees - a bachelors and a masters - in Economics from the University of Calgary? And according to his Wikipedia entry, he lectures often there to this day. So it angers me when he says this:

“Yes, we believe they’re wrong,” Harper said. “We’re listening to ordinary people, not people who work in ivory towers, but people who actually work on the street and deal with crime on a day-to-day basis.”

This statement means two things. First, either he believes his alma mater is no ivory tower or his education in economics is “wrong”. In my opinion, the University of Calgary is a fine post-secondary education… but based on his comments, should we now assume everything he says about economics is also “wrong”? Secondly, he must believe the 40% of Canadians with post-secondary education are “wrong”… if that’s the case, I’m interested to see what his post-secondary education plan is going to be? Destroy it? I wouldn’t be surprised.

UPDATE: Maybe Stephen Harper is attacking ivory towers because his own alma mater is disagreeing with him

Lookatdat! Dundas Station screen now lets you know when the next train comes

crossposted to Metronauts.ca

Above are aerial photos of six GO train stations on the Lakeshore Line. Can you identify which station is which? Even for someone like me, who is fairly familiar with the system, I had a difficult time putting a name to each one. There are no obvious distinguishing features to make identification easy — instead, there is a typical GO Station recipe: platform, station building, parking lot, and arterial roadway access. For a transit system to be truly visible and integrated into our urban fabric, these stations should not be placeless, featureless landscapes. The above photos show just how far we still have to go. The identity of each of these stations and more discussion, after the jump.

How many did you get right?

There are three reasons why I chose to place the spotlight on the Lakeshore GO Line. First, the line has been in operation for over forty years. Second, there is already high-quality and frequent (by commuter rail standards) service to each of these stations. And last, the line is poised for significant investment and improvement as part of MoveOntario and the Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan.

There are very few urban transit lines in the world where four decades of continuous service has failed to spur significant development adjacent to a station. With a few exceptions, GO Transit’s suburban stations are expanses of parking lots and low density development with little walkability and identity. Instead of turning these stations into urban places, the model followed was clearly to make it as efficient as possible for commuters to drive from their homes to hop on a train.

I believe the main barrier that has prevented GO Stations from becoming urban hubs is the prominence of Park and Ride in the system’s ridership strategy. Granted, park and ride clearly represents a significant proportion of riders; however, building large parking lots on the land that is also the most attractive for development is completely counterproductive to building an all-day transit culture. Unlike in urban settings, the desirability of development drops off sharply around GO Stations, mainly due to the perception of distance in suburban environments. The parking lots therefore automatically push development beyond the limit of desirability, simply due to their size. Very few people are going to purchase a home adjacent to a GO Station when it takes ten minutes to walk across a windswept parking lot. Meanwhile, park and riders get a comfortable ten minute drive to park closer to the station than those who live by it. Is there any surprise then, why few developers have jumped at building around the stations? Is it even fair to those who are choosing a more sustainable way of living, by punishing them with that long, uncomfortable walk?

A major topic in the Green and White Papers is the concept of a Mobility Hub. I believe if GO Transit and Metrolinx are truly passionate about that concept, there needs to be shift in how we design and build around existing and new GO Stations. It is possible for park and ride to coexist with Transit Oriented Development, for example, selling the park and ride lots for development that incorporates a multi-storey parking garage to maintain park and ride capacity. But most importantly, a balance has to be made in facilitating more intermodal activity beyond the existing car-to-train.

There is huge potential for our suburban GO Stations to become landmarks and places. And if we take the right approach, perhaps soon the aerial photos above will show a place with identity, and not just another parking lot.

Are you surprised with the lack of development around our GO Stations? What do you think we should see as we move forward? What kind of measures can we take to encourage the idea of Mobility Hubs?

It’s taking me a moment to believe this, but accroding to an article in The Star today, Toronto will be launching next summer a bike rental system similar to the highly popular Vélib’ program in Paris and the soon-to-be-launched Public Bike System in Montreal. Considering the glacial pace that cycling intiatives move at in this city, I’m surprised, and excited that this is actually happening… now if only we have the bike lanes to go with it.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Toronto mayor David Miller says the city is joining the ranks of Canadian municipalities considering a ban on the sale of bottled water.

Miller says city council will examine how the city can curb bottled water waste as part of a larger effort to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills.

A report outlining the city’s options will come before council in November.

Miller says Toronto’s tap water is more pure than the leading brand of bottled water.

His comments come after the city of London, Ont., banned the sale of water bottles in their municipal buildings on Monday.

Other Canadian cities, such as Kitchener, Ottawa, and Vancouver, have all expressed interest in a similar ban.

I swear, if this is going to be the subway map on the new trains, I will blow a gasket

Officially announced today was one of the East Bayfront’s worst kept secrets: a campus of George Brown College on the waterfront between Lower Sherbourne and Lower Jarvis Streets, south of Queens Quay East. It was no secret that Waterfront Toronto was wooing an education campus, and the health sciences program seems to be a perfect fit for the desired “creative-class” professionals to create a balance to the 10,000 or so residential units that will be buit in East Bayfront. More interesting are the details: not only will there be classrooms, but a student residence and a recreation centre as well, adding to a diverse mix that will be vital to the area’s success. The province will be kicking in $61.5-million, and the City/TTC will speed up construction of the East Bayfront LRT, which will run down Queens Quay East into the Portlands. The campus is anticipated to open in 2011.

More interesting though were the quotables from Dalton McGuinty, who echoed my thoughts on the so-called souring of Ontario’s economy. From Posted Toronto:

Dalton McGuinty said that at a time of an economic slow down, the George Brown investment builds on the “single greatest strength” in Ontario: a skilled and educated labour force.

“We’ve faced slow downs before and we’re surely face them again,” the premier said at the site of the future campus, which is set to break ground in January.

“While we can’t control the high dollar, the price of oil or the sluggish U.S. economy, we are hardly helpless.”

I stated awhile back that while Ontario’s manufacturing is going down the drain, we have a strength that makes the GGH well positioned for continued growth, and that is our very well educated, creative-class workforce. And say what you may about the growth in the Prairies, but the 21st Century economy - the Creative economy - is, at the moment, more attracted to places like Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver. Although Calgary, and Edmonton in particular, has made great strides in diversifying their economies, the core and current impetus of their growth is still the 20th Century industries of oil and gas. So as much as Harper, the west, and Flaherty want to give Ontario flack these days for becoming “have not”, we actually “have more” of what will propel us in the decades to come, once this transitional phase is over. And investments like the ones made today, will add further depth to our workforce and prepare us for the new knowledge based economy.