Top Tens

And now for something completely different - to borrow a Pythonism.

I recently wrote about Tafelmusik's fantastic performance of Solomon. In terms of live music, most everything I experience these days is from the Classical or Baroque periods. It may surprise you that I enjoy other types of music. Some days I'll listen to Q107 as a break from Classical 96.3. In terms of seeing an actual live rock concert - my ears really rule it out. However, I do enjoy live rock recordings.

Here are some of the top live tracks - not in any particular order:

Cream - Crossroads
The Yardbirds - Train Kept a'rollin (Stroll-on)
Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song
Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You
The Who - Young Man Blues
The Allman Brothers - Whippin' Post
Santana - Soul Sacrifice

Concert Review - Tafelmusik - Handel's Solomon

Tafelmusik's performance of Handel's opera Solomon was the last installment in my subscription to ten concerts this year. This one was well worth the wait!

Of course, being a long performance, the concert started at 7:30 pm. I arrived at 7:45 - and was lucky to get to see any of the first part. Thankfully, the staff allowed latecomers to sit in the foyer. The rear doors were open in order to mitigate the heat in the church. On this evening, I was glad for the extra money I shelled out to be on the floor. I can only imagine how warm it must have been in the balcony.

I found the performance energetic and brilliant. Other than The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (which I think everyone would recognize), I did not recognize any of the work. This is no way detracted from the evening. I was especially swept up by some of the choruses.

"Transit City" plan just streetcars - top official

hmm - some uncharacteristically candid remarks from a top city official on the 'Transit City' plan being shopped around by the city: Rod McPhail (I think he's a city official rather than a TTC wonk) is quoted in a local newspaper: “Really, we’ll just be looking at buses and streetcars,” he said. “The only real difference between LRT and streetcar services is that the stations are a little further apart.” This is much as I'm reading into the plan. Other than tunnelled sections such as would run under Eglinton, the proposals don't seem to offer much beyond streetcar type service. I'm estimated service speed at just above 20 km / hour - or practically the same as suburban bus services. The operations would generally not qualify under the emergent definition of rapid transit. Don't forget, the TTC sold the St. Clair mess as LRT. Let's not forget the propaganda documents such as 'The Streetcar Renaissance' that were floated about during the process. It's funny, I picked this up from reading Steve Munro's blog today. Mr. Munro defends streetcars at length. Writes Munro: I will be charitable and assume that Rob McPhail has been quoted out of context, but there’s a clear problem with his statement. LRT is most definitely not just streetcars with the stops further apart. hmm - it seems to me that Munro himself uses the terms interchangeably. For example, in this post, the St. Clair West project is called "LRT".n

The usual hokum about "Jane"

That's Jane Jacobs in case you were wondering.

This is the woman that the reactionary left in this city have virtually canonized - almost deified. Jacobs was very involved - some would say instrumental - in stopping the building of the Spadina Expressway. Her legacy in this is mixed.

Old neighbourhoods remain unscathed and undistrubed. However, rather that escaping polution and congestion, the neighbourhoods are home to some of the most severe traffic congestion in the central area of the city. Eglinton Ave West is often a parking lot. When I was in the process of moving to Toronto - now almost nine years ago - the real estate agent showing me around resorting to hopping through laneways. Streets such as Davenport, Dupont and Bathurst are also choked.

The ironic thing is that in a the tawny Forest Hill neighbourhood many of the side streets don't have sidewalks. If ever there were a sign of urbanity, it would be sidewalks.

In my mind, Jacobs was an enclavist rather than an urbanist. In latter years she clearly went off the deep-end. In one of her last battles she raged against a local school's plan to build an addition. She used apocalyptic terms. I guess cities are for people, not cars - but they aren't for sidewalks or schools either.

Toronto needs to move on from the ideas of this diletant. Surely we can look ahead and behind at the same time.

Toronto - You can't get there from here

These past few days have all-too-well illustrated that the Indian meaning for 'Toronto' must have been 'You can't get there from here'.

On the weekend, the Gardiner was closed. Traffic crawled all the more slowly than usual along city streets. Instead of the City re-jigging traffic signals at the bottom of the DVP in light of closure, vehicles forced to exit on Lakeshore were allowed into our fair city about 3-4 for each traffic light sequence.

Toronto sure likes to give visitors the big middle finger on both hands. It's hardly surprising that no-one sypathizes with our city's financial problems. They can surely see that these are of own making.

[Streetcars did their short-turning and bunching tricks - not news but I thought I'd mention it.]

Concert review - Tafelmusik and Italy over the ages

The recent Tafelmusik programme - "House of the Devil" - covering Italian Baroque from the early days until the transition to the Classical period was one of its best this year. I especially enjoyed the simple early pieces.

(and yes, there is more to Italian Baroque than Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Corelli.)

The programme did include a Vivaldi horn concerto - but was predominately focussed on less well-known composers. Highlights included:

Biagio Marini - Sonata in ecco for 3 violins and continuo

Giovanni Bertoli - Sonata for dulcian and continuo (The dulcian is an obscure wind instrument)

Tomaso Albinoni - Concerto for two oboes

Miller continues tradition of small-mindedness

I've never been big on street festivals. However, I know that the Celebrate Toronto street party held in mid-summer was very popular.

Now Emporer - er rather Mayor David Miller is kiboshing the whole thing. The $$$ will instead go to one of his favourites - something with a French title called "Nuit Blanche". The imperial thumb has been pointed downward for Celebrate Toronto - and up for Nuit Blanche.

I guess Nuit Blanche brings in more of Miller's upper class friends and Harvard classmates (reason enough to shelve it:-) - whereas Celebrate Toronto brings in too many of the unwashed suburbanites.

This is just more evidence that Toronto isn't growing up despite the City of Toronto Act. If the mayor isn't big enough to accept that one of his predecessors cam up with a good idea, we have no business running our own show.

Movie Review - "300"

I finally gave into curiousity and went to see "300". I enjoyed the movie - and I'll accord it the rate or 'worth seeing'.

Some have written - and correctly so - that "300" completely omits that the the Spartan's held sway by force over the Helots with whom they shared region of Lacedaemonia and thereabouts. Then again, everyone had slaves. The Athenians used slave labour to mine the silver mines that paid for its naval might. We should hence overlook this - as the film is about the awakening in man of the spirit of freedom, free will and independance from tyrants. It doesn't mean that it was immediately perfect. There's no reason to judge those Spartan's on the basis that they had what amounted to slaves.

The film does a good job in explaining the Spartan's hoplite phalanx-based method of conducting warfare. On the other hand, I remember reading that Spartan's fought barefoot - whereas other Greeks generally wore sandals in battle. It seemend that all the Greeks were shod in sandals in the battle scenes. Some of the Spartans wore a beardbut no moustache - but more had a full set of hair on the upper lip, or were clean shaven.

The film is purposely dark and somewhat grainy. It seems perpetually to be dusk. War is a dark subject - so perhaps the producers thought that even one ray of sun would break the mood.

The last days of a legion hall

Since visuals increase reader interest, awareness - I've decided to add some pictures. Here is the partly demolished legion hall near my home - on a dreadfully drear long weekend day.

The building has long been an eyesore - boarded windows and a front that was blind to the street.

The tracks vanish

There's a track in there somewhere. The TTC's Harbourfront line west of Bathurst is out of commission. Barely 15 year old, and the tracks are in such bad shape as to require suspension of service. This citizen took this photo yesterday. There was a bus running back and forth - easily handling the ridership. The riders I saw getting on were very happy to see the bus.

hmm - would have been nice if the TTC had put up signs or any type of notice.

This is the basic technology that the TTC plans to use in its proposed 'LRT' lines (See posts and Transit City).

To me, it's not LRT to encase all of the lines in concrete. More to the point, it's not smart. Let's run LRT where the rails can be ballasted in gravel - which allows for easier ongoing maintenance.

Perpetual Change - Townhomes replace the Legion

This week 'they' finally started putting the wrecking ball to the Legion Hall at the major intersection near my house. Although I'm sure that the venue has meant a great deal to many over the years, it's time to see it go. In it's place will be the usual spacious townhouses - narrow and tall, with parking underneath - and perhaps a deck on the roof.

These can be attractive places for young professionals to live. This having been said, the first 'batch' - on the busy corner - have been slow to move. These residences aren't suitable for retired couples - too many stairs - or families with children.

The direction of perpetual change is that residential areas are becoming more residential - especially the attractive neighbourhoods. Marginal commercial properties are being moved to the residential column of the zoning ledger. The city's bizarre tax structure is an accellerant helping fuel this trend.

LRT - Eglinton and the 6 dwarves

A reader has brought it to my attention that the LRT popularity poll on the Transit City propaganda site shows that over 80% of those replying would prefer the proposed Eglinton line:

Here are the results as of this afternoon:

Eglinton - 11049 votes - 83.6 %
Sheppard East - 670 - 5.1%
Scarborough Malvern - 377 - 2.9%
Waterfront West - 363 - 2.7%
Don Mills - 329 - 2.5%
Etobicoke Finch West - 245 - 1.9%
Jane - 186 - 1.4%

Transit pundit Steve Munro prognosticates that the underground part of the Eglinton line would be the last to be built. The line would be built starting at the extremities - hmm perhaps this proposal should be called Transfer City instead of Transit City. It seems that potential riders have other ideas.

Theatre Review - "Lucy" at Canstage

This is a serious, emotion-filled production worth attending solely on the grounds that one will learn more about autism.

The title character Lucy is a thirteen-year old autistic child who is reunited with her mother after being raised in the care of her father. It's tempting to come away from the play thinking about what one has learned about the condition. However, while the playright clearly intends to educate the audience in that regard, this is not in any way the exclusive purpose.

The characters - especially Vivian, Lucy's mother - deal with very real human emotions and feelings in attempting to cope with the difficulties of raising an autistic child: denial, avoidance, guilt, exasperation and love.

I enjoyed the performances of the actors. This is worth a try.

Budgets, budgets, budgets...

...well three budgets to be exact in recent weeks. First was the federal government's version - which has just passed in the Commons. Provincial finance minister Greg Sorbara followed quickly on the tail of Jim Flaherty with the Ontario budget. Lastly, we have Toronto's municipal budget - which thanks to the mayor and the new City of Toronto Act - has appeared out of nowhere.

City Council and the public in general will have scant opportunity to review, or in any fashion influence this latest spend-fest.

To some, the big news out of all this was how the senior levels of government ignored Miller's pleas for a New Deal for Cities - (or sone of the New Deal for Cities - aka the 'One Cent Now' begging bowl.)

Remarkly, even hard-core Millerites such as the Globe's John Barber have pointed out the folly of Miller's campaign. Let's be real, all mayors would like any freebies that can get from anywhere - what's not to like about getting $$$ that you're not accountable for. However, it's only Toronto - with its civic government bought lock-stock-and-barrel by the public sector unions - that needs the money.

Canada's cities are world leaders in municipal financial strength. This is due - in the main - to careful spending and conservative requirements for reserves such as sinking funds. While Toronto does maintain the minimum sinkning funds as required by law, other reserves have been repeatedely raided.

Anyway - back to the budgets. Not only was Toronto ignored, to add insult to injury, the 905 belts' payments into the GTA Social Services Polling arrangement will be phased out over a number of years. The provice will pick up the difference. This actually exacerbates the fiscal advantage that the 'burbs maintain over the city. Unless their politicians catch the Toronto disease, I'd be expecting for reduction in business taxes in these jurisdictions.

More on the Transit City - Cost approaching $10 billion

The TTC has a habit of low-balling the estimated costs of capital projects. Given that this an engineer-run organization rather than a customer-oriented one, this is not surprising. LRT projects could keep TTC engineering and planning staff busy for a while. If working of EAs (Environmental Assessments) is part of your job description at the TTC, this is the ultimate gravy train. It doesn't matter if the scheme is good for riders or the city in general.

Despite the staggering cost estimate, it appears that the scheme is being low-balled. The TTC does this consistently - so no surprise here. One obvious delusion is the plan to use only 240 vehicles. Although the vehicles would be larger than todays CLRVs, and even so than the ALRV versions, the 240 vehicle fleet size works out to an unrealistic load factor in terms of riders per service hour.

Applying the benchmark from Calgary C-train (122 riders per service hour) , using 240 vehicles for 175 million passengers a year would require vehicles to be in service an average of 16 hours/day. This doesn't seem realistic.

I would expect LRT ridership/service hours on the proposed routes to be lower than the Calgary benchmark. Why ?

a. Other than the Eglinton line's central segment, one of the lines will be serving a dense employment district.
b. The speed of service will not match that in Calgary. The C-train lines are cut under most intersections of any size. There are at grade crossing - but most are in industrial/warhouse areas. (Check out Google Earth as a good way of investigating this.)
c. I'd expect station spacing (if there are actually stations) to end up being about 400 metres. (Longer than this and residents will demanding local bus service.) This will slow the service - reducing passengers/service hour.
d. Calgary's LRT runs in large part on completely segregated ROW (i.e. no vehicles and no pedestrians. This allows trains to run at high speed between stations. This won't be possible with the proposed lines here - other than sections in tunnels - due to pedestrian safety requirements.

More realistic would be 100 boardings / hour or necessitating about 386 vehciles (I'm using the Calgary benchmark of about 12.3 hours in service/day).

With extra yard/maintenance space, the difference adds about $1 billion to the price tag.

Information is now trickling out about some of the other truth-stretching. TTC Commissioner Milcyn Peter Milczyn has been quoted indicating that the price tag for the critical tunnel section of the proposed Eglinton line is twice the estimate put forward. The proposed line on Jane will need 1-2 km of tunnel at the South end - minimum. This is not included in the estimates - which assume at grade construction only.

In addition, the so-called 'Transit City' plan does not include other wish list lines. We're already under the gun for $1 b note for the streetcar replacements for existing streetcar routes.

Is the price tag close to $10 billion yet - yes it is.

LRT notes

It's a step forward to be seeing a plan - of sorts. It seems that this wash rsuhed to the presses somewhat. Some odd and sundry comments.

1. LRT on Jane?

I can't see this being effective LT (at the south end) without a fairly long tunnel - with a big dig at the southern terminus. Without this, there is no room for stations. Was this thrown in to balance out the map politically?

2. 240 vehicles?

Applying the benchmark from Calgary C-train (122 riders per service hour) , using 240 vehicles for 175 million passengers a year would require vehicles to be in service an average of 16 hours/day. This doesn't seem realistic.

I would expect LRT ridership/service hours on the proposed routes to be lower than the Calgary benchmark. Whey

a. Other than the Eglinton line's central segment, one of the lines will be serving a dense employment district.
b. The speed of service will not match that in Calgary. The C-train lines are cut under most intersections of any size. There are at grade crossing - but most are in industrial/warhouse areas. (Check out Google Earth as a good way of investigating this.)
c. I'd expect station spacing (if there are actually stations) to end up being about 400 metres. (Longer than this and residents will demanding local bus service.) This will slow the service - reducing passengers/service hour.
d. Calgary's LRT runs in large part on completely segregated ROW (i.e. no vehicles and no pedestrians. This allows trains to run at high speed between stations. This won't be possible with the proposed lines here - other than sections in tunnels - due to pedestrian safety requirements.

More realistic would be 100 boardings / hour - necessitating about 386 vehicles (I'm using the Calgary benchmark of about 12.3 hours in service/day).

With extra yard/maintenance space, the difference adds about $1 billion to the price tag.

True LRT in Toronto? Perhaps not.

The TTC has launched a PR campiagn to get $$$$$ for a significant implementation of 'light rail'.

The $6.4 billion dollar question is whether such a system would be true 'light rail' - or simply more mid-numbingly ineffective streetcars.

Already we're seeing that the plan is really more just streetcars. One of the lines would run down Jane - the plan being to have this on the surface. As the southern stretch (down from Eglinton to Bloor) is a standard Toronto 'arterial' - 2 lanes each way with no room for widening - there is no room for LRT.

So would Toronto's LRT be like Calgary's. I've included am image (from Google Earth) of just one of many cuts (tunnels) under intersections that make Calgary C-train successful - because of speed. This one is typical.

Those expecting Toronto to invest in such infrastructure are overly optimistic.

One-cent nonsense

Mayor Miller has ramped up a "new" campaign aimed at getting 1 cent of federal GST for 'cities'. It makes me wonder what they really teach in economics program at Harvard (of which Miller is an alumnus.) This isn't really a new 'show' - but simply rehashed episodes of the old 'New Deal for Toronto' campaign.

OK - its was technically referred to as the 'New Deal for Cities' campaign. In reality, it was and is all about Toronto. No other city in Ontario or Canada has managed to get itself in the financial mess in which we find ourselves. Now the upper levels of government have increased transfers to the municipal layer in the form of allocations of the gasoline tax and exemptions on the GST.

Now has this helped Toronto? No - things are worse. Instead of using the increased transfers to improve the city's finances, the $$$ instead disappeared in an orgy of spending. Toronto's many city halls - yes we have all of them despite being consolidated - are bursting at the seems.

What would happen if the feds granted this latest wish. Well run municipalities would take the money and reduce business taxes. Toronto would just spent it on more bureaucrats.

Bruha over Queen West developments

Mayor Miller is now aiming his jousting gear at the OMB and it's decision to allow developments in the Queen St. West near Gladstone. A local residents's group opposed the development - preferring their own plan.

It's funny, when merchants and resident on another Toronto St. - St. Clair West - put forth their own plan for changes to the transit service on that street, Miller and minions didn't listen. In that case, it was the TTC and City who were proposing the neighbourhood disrupting development - the infamous streetcar right-of-way.

On Queen West, the City is going to court to STOP a development that includes 190 affordable housing units. Cervantes would today be thinking of Mayor Miller as the basis for his character Don Quixote.

Fixing the TTC

The Sun has published a summary of remarks by local transit "luminaries" on How can the TTC be Fixed?

I thought I'd rate the remarks:

1. Bob Kinnear

In no way surprising, union president Bob Kinnear wants 'funding, funding, funding...'. Well, seeing that the ATU has swallowed whole just about all of the funding increases over the last few years, this is hardly surprising. The trough of pay and perks for union members can never be full enough. Kinnear sheds some crocodile tears about riders - yeah right!

During the most recent contract negotations, Kinnear actually objected to the TTC using a small amount of money on a service study on linking some routes in the north center of the city down to Castle Frank Station! The message is clear from Mr. Kinnear - the money belongs to the unions. (And why not, they've paid lock, stock and barrel for the Mayor.)

Surprisingly, Kinnear comes up with an idea that the TTC brass are loathe to consider - express bus service to key stations on the subway. The TTC hate express buses: the reason, they can work. Montreal has about 20 specialized bus routes - compared to a measly 7 or 8 in the larger Toronto.

Funny how TTC studies always seem to say these are too expensive to run.

2. Richard Soberman

U of T professor Soberman always shows up somewhere. Soberman has discussed the Spadina 'LRT' - and his comments are bang on - the service is 'not effective transit'. It's no surprise that Soberman wasn't part of the St. Clair study. This was purposeful - to make it easier for the scheme to be slammed up the derrieres of residents and businesses.

I believe Soberman is right, the TTC/City should use enforcement and other measures to keep transit lanes clear - without resorting to neighbourhood death sentences like the St. Clair W debacle. They do it in Montreal!

3. Adam Giambrone

Giambrone is an inprovement of his predescessor as TTC Chair. Well, anyone would be. hmm - he wants the TTC to expand its network of LRTs.

ADAM - the TTC has no LRT - it only has streetcars. If you want to see LRT, go to Calgary or St. Louis. Look's like he's bought into TTC self-delusion/rabid LRT lobbying already. (The snakeoil salesman at Bombardier are good aren't they.)

4. Rob McIsaac:

The GTTA chief sees the St. Clair debacle as the better way.

HEY Rob, would your Oakville/Burlington friends be so excited about something that saved 1-minute on their average trip to work? Why do you think it's such a good deal for us?

5. David Gunn

I have a lot of respect for David Gunn. I believe things would be remarkly different has he stayed and Moscoe had been pushed out instead. After Gunn departed, TTC operating costs per rider exploded AND service relaiability has suffered. TTC professional management turned into Moscoe's lapdogs. Eventually, Gunn's successor Rick Ducharme got tired of the BS too.

6. Donna Cansfieild

Cansfield's candour is to be commended if the article is reflecting her thoughts"

The provincial transport head honcho knows the TTC isn't perfect, but she feels the commission took a big step in the right direction late last year when Giambrone took the chairman's post.

Well - remarkable lucidity from a transporation rookie.

7. Steve Munro

Munro a long time TTC advocate and critic. I agree with many of his criticisms of the TTC - however, in his blog he often misses the mark.

At least in his comments here, he's not suggesting streetcars as a solution to all the world's ills.