The Weekly Wrap for Friday, March 11, 2011

Targeting Layton Liberals along the Bloor subway line. Instead of doing the hard work of taking on Harper, Jane Taber says the NDP are back to poaching voters from the Liberals. [Globe and Mail]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The evolution of a street: from ghost town to hip destination to tarnished outdoor mall. Corey Mintz discusses why your great neighbourhood has terrible restaurants. [OpenFile]

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Power to the people. Edward Keenan reports on how Hart House is harnessing the energy from exercise equipment and using it to generate electricity. [YongeStreet]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No more dreams of a backyard in suburbia. Cody Winchester looks at the fight for family-sized condos in downtown Toronto [National Post/Montreal Gazette]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Does Ford rule by fiat, or is council still supreme? Cityslikr fills you in with a backgrounder about what the TCHC debate was really about [All Fired Up In The Big Smoke] Daniel Dale gives a pretty good blow-by-blow-of the special meeting of Council on March 9th [thestar.com] and CitySlikr calls out the cowardly councilors who chose to stay silent during a debate about whether Toronto is still a representative democracy. [All Fired Up in the Big Smoke]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Speaking of our eroding democracy, Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy reviews a show about another side of the G20 featuring arrestees’ portraits and stories [Torontoist] while the Fifth Estate presents the gripping G20 documentary You should have stayed at home. [cbc.ca]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you know about the stop at Wychwood Barns? Videographer Darren Alexander profiles the work of a decidedly different kind of food bank [YongeStreet] during Stop for Food, a fund-raising prix fixe dining event running in selected Toronto restaurants until March 31st. [thestop.org]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A reminder that the Canadian Music Fest is in town to March 13th, with shows scheduled at local venues the Annex Wreck Room, Clinton’s, Free Times Cafe, Lee’s Palace, Rancho Relaxo, Sneaky Dee’s, Sonic Boom, and others.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s in the Economist so it must be true: bike lanes make economic sense. R.A. analyzes the data. [The Economist, h/t Tim Kraan]

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Every Friday, the Weekly Wrap collects articles from around the web about or of interest to residents of the West Annex.

Read last week’s wrap:

For columns from previous weeks, visit the Weekly Wrap archive.

The Weekly Wrap for January 21, 2011

“There [sic] still ‘Left Wing Pinkos’ to me”. Don Cherry writes a thank-you note to Spacing Magazine for the donation of button proceeds. [spacingtoronto]

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why does the right support the separated bike lane network, and the left oppose it? Herb explains the perplexing politics of building cycling infrastructure in Toronto. [I Bike T.O.]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lumpy gravy. Marcus Gee asks why only the downtown elites have to shovel their own snow. [The Globe and Mail]

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before the Dufferin Mall, there was a racetrack. Photoblair investigates the interesting history of the place where the Dufferin Mall now stands. [Photoblair]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you know the heritage view of the Legislature in Queen’s Park is not of significant importance? Karen Howlett reports on Superior Court of Justice Justice Harvison Young’s surprising decision to allow highrise condos behind Queen’s Park. [Globe and Mail]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Is Toronto hero-poor?” Derek Flack reviews the short list of local heroes, and speculates why there aren’t more. [blogTO]

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He wrote Billy Bishop Goes to War living in an unheated apartment over a barber shop just down from Honest Ed’s. Shelly Youngblut interviews John Gray. [CalgaryHerald]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The “Livability Movement”: Lydia DePillis traces the development of the environmental movement’s successor. [Washington City Paper]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Every Friday, the Weekly Wrap collects articles from around the web about or of interest to residents of the West Annex.

For columns from previous weeks, visit the Weekly Wrap archive.