I was actually planning to check out the Air and Space Museum this summer because there was a Groupon deal for it back in June. (BTW, the groupon and wagjag coupons are still valid, but you have to call 416.638.6078 first to book your visit.) I remember hearing about the Canadarm and Avro Arrow in history class, but don’t know much about them. This was my chance to find out.

How a museum can close down is beyond me. It’s not like we are running out of land…Downsview Park is like a huge useless piece of land with weeds growing as far as the eye can see. Not sure why they couldn’t just build the skating rinks on another piece of the land. And it must be nice to collect $100,000 in rent from one little building on it too.

The Toronto Star partnered up with The Onion website to produce this advertisement filled, fake news piece of crap. Since no one watches TV, listens to the radio, or pays for a newspaper anymore, I think a lot of people will be getting false news as their primary source of news. I’d bet that more than half of TTC riders won’t even realize it is fake news!

Luckily, I’m kind of a computer nerd and have heard of the Onion before. It is a funny news website where they make fun of real news. I totally didn’t fall for it and tell all my friends the protests are over…

Toronto city councillors voted 38 to 4 in favor of banning the sale of shark fin. The rule will come into effect in September 2012. So fill up on that shark fin soup (a Chinese delicacy) before it is too late!

Toronto Star Shark Fin Article
CBC Shark Fin Article

Shark Fin soup is served at pretty much every Chinese wedding, as well as Chinese New Years and larger birthday banquets. It tastes kind of like chewy, clear vermicelli noodles (aka…it’s tasteless) in a mildly salted soup. For all I know, I might have actually been eating vermicelli noodles and I’d be none the wiser.

I don’t think that it is the city’s job to ban shark fin, in the name of animal preservation. It should either be a Canada-wide entire shark ban or not at all. I feel a bit sorry for the restaurants downtown, because I’d bet that the majority of the consumption wasn’t even done in Toronto. I mean, no self-respecting Chinese person would eat at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. All the fine cuisine is in Markham and Richmond Hill, and the wedding halls are also North of Toronto’s borders.

If they tried to put that shark fin ban in Richmond Hill and Markham, all hell would break loose. Actually, let’s just say that the bootleg DVDs and sharkfin soup won’t be on the English menu anymore.

p.s. I’m not a shark fin soup lover or anything and “Megashark Versus Giant Octopus” is a great movie.

There were some new food places as well as some old places. Actually even the old places look new because their design matches the food court colors. Check out that hardcore Subway with their LCD menus:

Well, I like the new eatery. It looks very sleek and modern with their black and stainless steel colors. Everything also seemed pricier than usual too. I usually get a chicken shawarma from Villa Madina, but since I’m going broke, there’s only one thing to do:

The black and stainless steel McDonald’s! The only thing yellow in this picture is the “Wet Floor” sign!

Yep, I was on a brand new TTC train. Clean floors, clean seats, clean windows. All the carts connect so you can walk from the front to the back of the train. There were blinking LEDs on the map to show you which stop you are at, as well as a display with the name of the stop. A nice voice tells you to “please stand clear of doors” before they squish you, and the air conditioning seemed to be working better too.

When I busted out my phone to take the videos, some 12 year old kid saw me and gave me the stare down. I thought he thought I was an idiot, but then he took out a camera and started taking videos too! His YouTube channel probably has better videos than mine. Anywho, I arrived at Yorkdale and said goodbye to the new chariot of the Gods (aka. new TTC)

I’ve seen the ads in the Metro Newspaper saying that there are public TTC meetings going on all week. I have never been to one, but I kind of imagined it to be a couple of TTC speakers at a table and a room full of reporters (and dedicated citizens) asking questions. In fact, I even thought that there would be refreshments!

To my disappointment, the meeting was pretty much just a room with about 40 posters showing what the route changes are. The info on the posters were pretty much identical to the info on their website.

Sample:
8 BROADVIEW – No service after 10:00 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
120 CALVINGTON – No service after 10:00 p.m., Monday to Saturday. No service on Sundays and holidays.
20 CLIFFSIDE – No service after 10:00 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.
(times 37 other routes)

There were also some TTC workers standing in front of the posters answering questions and giving out comment forms. I wouldn’t call the event a meeting. It was just an info session for people that don’t have the internet or just want a human to relay the info to them.

I don’t think it’s worth it to attend these meetings. You tell the TTC surveyor that service ends at 10pm, but your shift ends at 11pm. Some will write stuff down on their notepad, while others will just “remember” to bring it up with the people in charge. As the TTC surveyor has no power, once the meeting is over, they can pretty much throw away their notepad and your comment cards. It’s a way to console the public after giving bad news.

I think the TTC is run in a really bad way, but as normal Toronto citizens, there’s not much we can do about it.

Entrance. Get a comment card from the nice lady:

Posters of the route changes aka reductions:

More posters, and a poser!?!:

The new plan is to just build subways (which are about 3-4x as expensive). I have no idea where Ford will get the money to do it, but hell ya, subways are key. Anyone who has ever played Sim City knows that subways are well worth the cost. If you build subways, people will start using it and the roads will clear up.

Anyway, I was reading some of the comments on the news sites and someone made a very good point.

Note that these subway maps are totally to scale. I looked at a Google map, used my fingers to measure their distances, then resized the Tokyo subway map to about the right size.

If you’ve seen the Tokyo subways at rush hour, just imagine if they didn’t have a subway! All those people would be driving on the 401!

The final voting results:
Rob Ford – 47% (380k votes)
George Smitherman – 36% (290k)
Joe Pantalone – 12% (95k)
Rocco Rossi – 0.6% (5k)

When I look at these numbers, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people vote. About 800,000 votes from a population of 3 million? I thought Rossi was a contender, but he only got 5,000 votes. If I told all my Facebook friends to vote for me, I wonder if I could beat that number. Hrm…maybe I should try out for the next one. lol

Anyway, the Torontonians have spoken. They want change and we will see if Ford can deliver it. It will be an interesting 4 years.

At the G20 Summit meeting on June 26 and 27, the world leaders will talk about world economics. The yellow lines on the map shows where a gigantic fence is going. More details about the security zoning at the Toronto Star.

So I just heard that the G20 Summit in Toronto is apparently a big deal…(honestly, I’ve seen the articles in the Metro newspaper for a while, but the headlines made me think it was just some sort of global warming discussion, and obviously sudoku was way more interesting) I know it is a big deal when my friends tell me “they have the week off during the G20″. (I coulda swore they worked 7 days a week!) Anyway, that lead me to do a Google search to find out what the G20 ordeal is all about.

Word is that Canada spent $1.1 billion on facilities and security for G20 and G8. (Japan G8 2008 was $381 million, United States G20 2009 was $18 million) Most of the money goes towards security costs. They have to fly in RCMP officers from all over the country to keep people out of the danger zone…

As a solid Torontonian who could care less about the G20, I just had a few questions:

Why is the G20 in Toronto?
It seems like a bad idea to put it in the busiest city in Canada, then spend a billion dollars to evacuate it. I’ve asked about 20 people on MSN, and about 20 of them are against the G20 in downtown Toronto. So what are the advantages of having it here?

What exactly are the G20 protesters protesting about?
I mean, do the world leaders even know that you spray-painted some ATM machines? I don’t think they would even care if you robbed a couple of banks. Rich people don’t use ATMs. They tell their assistant, who calls some people, who then calls a manager, who then tells their employees to prepare a room/car/sandwich/etc!

Why not have a G20 webcam meeting?
Imagine 20 faces on a single monitor (or 20 faces on twenty 3D TVs). It would be cheap with zero chance of assassination. Also a much better use of technology than giving sound cannons to people that are trigger-happy with their tazers.

I think that if the meeting was really that important, they wouldn’t have time to plan it for months and billions of dollars. Obama would just call up Harper and say “Yo, what’s up H-man! We have to do a conference call right now with Iceland because their volcanoes are costing us some dough!”

Was it arson by a disgruntled student? Or a mere electrical mishap? Police are still looking for more clues. Just check out the images of the fire.

Caesar Martini’s with some fire action in the background.

Nooooooo, Mel’s Diner on fire!

Nooooooo, Mel’s Diner after fire!

And some student’s amateur video of the Waterloo Fire

Mr. Sushi was one of my favorite places to eat. And Mel’s is always good after alcohol. Can’t say I’ve ever been in Sugar Mountain though (if they build a McDonald’s to replace it, I’d be happy). And no comment on Tabu, other than they probably “accidentally” caused the fire on purpose. All the good times at the plaza will now just be a good memory.

Waterloo Record – Fire destroys businesses in Waterloo plaza
CTV – Fire rages over Waterloo student hub