Friday May 16, 2008
Latest Columns 
In the city's port, a notorious ship of fools struggles to stay afloat
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008 12:00 AM Page A10
Shipping season has begun, just in time for the ships not to come again. A crew of stevedores awaits the non-existent ships at the Toronto Port Authority's non-functioning container facility. Undeterred by the absence of business at their port, the authoritarians keep the workers busy with drills in which they move around empty containers and ''stuff'' trucks with imaginary cargo.
Markham Bypass has residents' group crying NIMBY
Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:00 AM Page A12
Who says NIMBY is wrong? It wasn't Jane Jacobs, who defended neighbourhood alarms as warning signs authorities are foolish to ignore. If she were alive today, she would be ringing bells about the Markham Bypass in outermost Scarberia - a classic assault on an unsuspecting neighbourhood.
Hard to find downside to city selling off Enwave
Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:00 AM Page A14
What's next for Mayor David Miller, tax cutter? The new script, called Agenda for Prosperity and written by a blue-ribbon panel of fiscal experts, calls for Mr. Miller to prove his free-market stuff by selling off an unnecessary utility or two. As it happens, plans to do just that are well under way.
Those plastics you dutifully recycle? They're shipped to China
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:00 AM Page M3
My neighbours came home the other day to discover six large new recycling bins sitting on - I should say covering - their front yard. The house is a semi, divided into three apartments. Together, the bins constitute a virtual fourth - 480 litres of prime space in the Annex! Are we all mad? The new blue-bin rollout raises the question - and, in that much alone, confirms the suspicion. Our good intentions have run amok.
Tax cuts for business set to become the fiscal policy of city hall
Published: Thursday, May 8, 2008 12:00 AM Page A14
The good news is that the city gained 22,000 jobs in 2007, a performance that brought total employment to a 10-year high and, for the first time, met the official goal of 17,000 new jobs a year.
Why das boot will never get off the ground
Published: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 12:00 AM Page A13
I once predicted my pet poodle would turn down the Order of Canada before the struggling Sony Centre managed to build the bizarre boot-shaped apartment tower architect Daniel Libeskind designed as part of its latest gambit for survival. Little Pierre remains ready and willing to do his duty, but the call from Ottawa has yet to come. In the meantime, buyers have appeared for 460 of the 490 apartments in the improbable boot.
Due process be damned, council's on a crusade
Published: Monday, May 5, 2008 12:00 AM Page A9
Toronto council can and will do anything, so there was no surprise this week when it swept aside cumbersome due process in its headlong rush to defend the ''Concerned Residents'' of the fictional hamlet of Hillside, Ont.
Gutter politics. A misguided bridge scheme. He rose above it all
Published: Saturday, May 3, 2008 12:00 AM Page M3
Allan and Sue Sparrow were looking for peace and quiet when they semi-retired to Algonquin Island a decade ago. But a proposal to expand the island airport with a bridge to the mainland pitched them into the leadership of a massive grassroots political campaign - one that culminated with the election of Mayor David Miller and the return of political sanity to the city as a whole.
Activist remembered as leader
Published: Friday, May 2, 2008 12:00 AM Page A16
Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton and Mayor David Miller took time yesterday to offer glowing eulogies for activist and politician Allan Sparrow, who died of cancer Wednesday in London, Ont., at 63.
Why a black face on Ajax council still matters
Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:00 AM Page A15
The least important thing about Renrick Ashby, newly elected councillor in the Town of Ajax, Ward 2, is that he's black. But his colour is hard not to notice during official proceedings in the River Plate Room at town hall, which is decorated with nostalgic souvenirs of Imperial glory (Ajax was named after a famous Royal Navy cruiser) and populated mainly by the same friendly folk one might have found anywhere in suburban Canada, circa 1970.
