Media Roundup - October 19th 2007

Media Roundup

Um, could the fun police just stop already?  Taking new aim at the goal shared by many urban planners and dreamers alike - fostering uniquely local, thriving local businesses that add to cultural life, the Toronto Parking Authority would have liked to turn a beloved Toronto icon, the Matador, into...a parking lot...really.  Apparently, "exercisers" at the YMCA opposite need a place to park.  Really.  Fans of the late night venue's dancing good times started up www.savethematador.com in an attempt to bring some sanity to a city populated with car-loving authority figures.  The site's creator, Simon Wookey, explained his thinking thus:

The Matador is dead so long live The Matador! If the owners want to
sell and move on, so let it be. Let us embrace the spirit of this city
and of Jane Jacobs and reinvent this building so that we may use it to
reinvest in ourselves.

Turns out, Wookey got his wish with the National Post reporting that the Matador was saved this week.

Ironically, others are applauding Toronto for undergoing a cultural renaissance - well, an architectural one at least -  at this very moment.  The New Yorker profiles Will Aslop's  Sharp Centre for Design (a.k.a the OCAD building) and his contribution to Toronto's changing visual landscape.  Note that parking lots are never mentioned.

Stand on guard: it's time to ensure that Dalton McGuinty and Co. make good on the housing, school and transit policies presented in their 2007 election platform.  In elections characterized by a record low voter turnout, an enormous pendulum shift and doubts as to whether mayor David Miller successfully lobbied for Toronto, the Ontario Liberal Party emerged the winner.   

Housing starts reached a 29-year high in Canada last month, driven largely by the strong demand for condominiums.  Condo sales are especially strong in Toronto where they are on pace to beat the 2005 all-time record.

And elsewhere in the world, the IMF predicts that the decade-long housing boom in the UK may soon meet its decline, US-style.

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