From Cork to Toronto

Illegalsigns.ca is an excellent new advocacy site which I spotted on a Spacing post . It chronicles the presence of illegal commercial signs - usually "third party", not directly associated with the business it is erected on. The signs can be overlarge, obscuring windows, too close to another large sign and so on. Crucially it points out how some companies re-erect such signs after being told to remove them by Toronto Municipal Licencing and Standards (MLS). The activists have obtained copies of the inspector work records and chronicle the failings of the advertises and those meant to regulate them. I think there are some horrific signs in Toronto, especially the rooftop signs erected on unsightly steel gantries. The numbers of signs already identified as illegal ( Google mashup ) is pretty eye watering, especially near City Hall . Unlike the harder-line members of groups like the Toronto Public Space Committee , I am not against commercial advertising per se, especial...

This is what annoys me, all the yipping about the Portlands power station and the Island Airport and then the likes of this can be let happen - or at least we can only hope that now the cat is out of the bag it can be stopped. If the owner of the Palais Royale was willing to pay $120k upfront and $25k per annum for the use of the car park, and more to shuttle people to free car parks nearby, then surely the majority of that sum should be been paid to TTC to operate a service along there. Councillor Sylvia Watson's "clarification" doesn't use the word transit once. This is not surprising when the Gardiner and rail corridors cut off Lakeshore from the streetcar line and people try to organise private buses because TTC service is so dire . The nearest bus service ( route 80 to Keele subway) has no Sunday service which I imagine would be a peak period of activity and unless a sub-service came eastward from Parkside Drive, the walk would be prohibitive for those of...