Our weekly recap of the week’s news nuggets in Toronto will bring you up to date and add some fuel to your small-talk tank heading into the weekend.
Royal York’s interesting new guests
The iconic Fairmont Royal York Hotel is one of the first major buildings in Canada trying their hand at a new way to save the bees. With a declining bee population and few ways to reverse the negative effects of urban environments on bees, Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building partnered with bee experts Pollinator Partnership Canada to design a “bee hotel” on top of the Royal York.
Toronto wins “Intelligent Community” award
A global think tank known as the Intelligent Community Forum recently awarded Toronto with an “Intelligent Community” award — an honour that hasn’t been given to a Canadian city since 2007 (the last recipient was Waterloo, Ont.). Reasons for winning? A diverse economy, advanced technology, and more residents with undergraduate degrees than many other major cities. Just when you thought we were worried we were starting to look a little silly.
Toronto’s condoms released… and they certainly are clever
Recently Public Health announced that they would be releasing a Toronto-themed condom, available at local hot spots around town. The design has just been released and is being showcased all around the media and the Twitterverse—and who can blame anyone for enjoying a good joke? The packaging features street signs from around Toronto, including Wood, Cummer and Coxwell. Hey, you don’t have to be mature about everything.
Giving Toronto props
Ready Set Recycle! starts this weekend. And lest you thought this event was just a fun-of-the-mill junk drive, think again. This event gives Torontonians a chance to buy and sell props and other entertainment-related items. While much of what you can buy includes basics like lights, scrims and basic set pieces, classic costumes and special effects props (hello, fake blood!) are also available.
Buggin’ out
A Toronto start-up company, Aspire Food Group, has started up with the goal of creating a network of bug farms to grow insects for food. The plan is to concentrate on the developing world in the short term, but to grow the business in Canada as well.
Rob Ford Jersey-nomics
Does this count as another Rob Ford post? Well, yes but it’s not really about his antics. The sometimes-joked-about Rob Ford Jersey Curse (some believe that Rob Ford sporting the jersey of a sports team spells bad luck for the team) may have been broken since Ford’s trip to rehab. After allegedly cursing the Jays for their home opener in April, the Jays have been on a major upswing since he left town on May 11. Think this will affect voting?
Traffic. So much traffic
A new study conducted by Dutch company TomTom suggest that Toronto has the second worst traffic congestion in the country, just behind Vancouver. An interesting tip from the report, apparently short cuts add on average about 50 per cent travel time to the trip. So, just suck it up and sit in traffic, I guess, is the message.
Movies you didn’t know were shot in TO
Summer is the time when we flock out in droves to nice, air-conditioned movie theatres and enjoy a good action flick. BlogTO released a list of ten movies that were not-so-obviously shot in Toronto (read: not as obvious as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Notable inclusions are Chicago, A Christmas Story and Billy Madison (or at least, a single scene shot at Black Creek Pioneer Village, which features what is arguably the movie's best line: “If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis).”
A man, a library and a cucumber
Toronto Police arrested a man at a Scarborough library for allegedly committing an indecent act while holding a cucumber… what more can we say?
This is a man’s world (still)
A great infographic made by Women in Toronto Politics on the gendered breakdown of Toronto candidates for this provincial election. Bottom line: 29.5 per cent of candidates are women (five are incumbents). While stereotyping may lead you to believe that more left-leaning parties have more female candidates, the PCs actually top the stats, with 45 per cent of their Toronto candidates being female. The NDP comes in last at 18 per cent.
