It works for transit, why not cyclists?
This month Toronto's online cycling newsletter, Cyclometer, points to a neat little online tool called Ride The City. It lets you map a route online and shows which sections have bike paths or lanes. You can even select a safe, safest or direct route.
You can drag the little green cyclist on your screen to figure out what streets are nearby your destination.
The mayoral race frontrunner, who boast a well-resourced team of communications specialists, has taken some flak for having, four months into the campaign, a temporary website with almost no information and a single video that made Adam Giambrone's "You talking to me?" effort look like Citizen Kane.
On Wednesday night, georgesmitherman.ca 2.0 sprang to life. It's certainly an improvement.
The website features his signature campaign colour -- purple -- and, more importantly, some actual content with policies, news, videos, photos, ways to donate, contact, events and information about the candidate.
There are also buttons for his Facebook page, Twitter feed, RSS feeds, YouTube channel and, um, the weather. Bit of a CP24 touch, that.
There were, an hour or so after it launched, a few bugs. There are three videos -- candidate and campaign team stuff -- but clicking two of them took you to the same monthly "campaign family dinner" where Smitherman introduced Bruce Davis as his new campaign manager.
There are rumours of a full Smitherman social media assault, including an iPhone app (which now seems a bit old-school, given Rocco Rossi's launch of an iPad app on Wednesday night. Pantalone is going to have to hit back with an app for that next-gen iPhone dissected by gizmodo.com) and other cyber-tools aimed at wooing the digital generation.
Now if only we can get some more Smitherman policy to wrap all the ones and zeroes around.
Ever wonder if you can recycle that moth-eaten sweater? Pie plates? Dog poop? Your father-in-law?
The City of Toronto has a website to make it easy for people to figure out if all manner of household items are recyclable, and they've given it a catchy name -- the Waste Wizard.
A test run found it pretty good. Here are the answers for the above items.
Moth-eaten sweater: Please place items in your Garbage Bin ensuring the lid closes or in a garbage bag (weighing less than 20kgs/44 lbs) affixed with a City-issued garbage bag tag.
Pie plate: Please place this item in your Blue Bin. If appropriate, please empty and rinse this item.
Dog poop: Please place this item in your Green Bin. Line either your indoor container or outdoor Green Bin with a plastic bag or kraft paper bag.
Father-in-law: No items were found. Please try another search.
Mayor David Miller is trying to rally opposition to Dalton McGuinty's decision to delay $4 billion worth of transit funding. In a recent editorial board with the Star, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan praised Miller's passion but said, in so many words, he is wasting his breath.
Despite a call to arms from even the mighty Royson James, it has been difficult to see that the rallying cries are having much more effect than Miller's federally ignored "One Cent Now" campaign.
But there is a buzz online that seems to be bigger than the community of self-described city nerds. When Miller filed a twitpic of his "Save Transit City" button, many on Twitter and Facebook asked where they could get theirs. (Given the transit link, it's tempting to reference another button, but we'll refrain.)
There are 463 members of the Facebook "Save Transit City" page, but it's growing quickly.
Do you think it will work? What would it take?
He might bristle at being called a journo, but David Miller is a prolific chronicler of his life as mayor. Miller is constantly firing off tweets and often augments the words with "twitpics" taken with his BlackBerry. One day it will be an arms' length portrait after a "great lunch with David Suzuki", the next it will be a red-hued sky titled "Sunset over North York."
But there are hazards to being Toronto's chief magistrate and a part-time paparazzo. Miller recently spoke at a breakfast gathering focused on the progress of Pan Am Games planning. He was followed by his counterparts Fred Eisenberger of Hamilton and Brian McMullan of St. Catharines. While Eisenberger was talking, he gestured and looked over to Miller, who happened to be holding up his BlackBerry in mid-snap. "Are you taking my picture?" a clearly bemused Eisenberger asked Miller, who laughed and turned red. To big laughs from the primarily business crowd, Eisenberger halted his speech, took out his own camera-phone, snapped a photo of Miller and quipped, "I'll email it to you later."
Alas, Miller didn't include include his photo when he tweeted about the event. The report was a rather colourless: "At Global public affairs Pan Am games breakfast with Mayors McMullan, Eisenberger."
As the largest city in the country, Toronto is home to an endless number of fascinating people – all of them with stories to tell. The Goods is our news blog where you’ll find live reporting, features and reader conversations about the region and the people who live here: the newsmakers, the unsung heroes and the behind-the-scenes tales.
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