Queen Street report
Queen Street West, a bustling street of bars, bookstores, boutiques, clothing shops, clubs, music stores (both for CDs and musical instruments), restaurants and street vendors, is my home turf. Casa di AccordionGuy — and yes, it’s a real house, not a condo — is tucked into a quiet residential neighbourhood a couple blocks north. I’m pleased to report that the worst effects of the garbage strike is that there are only three or four piles of garbage . Aside from an increased amount of discarded wrappings and cans in the street gutters, it’s surprsingly clean, and remember, this is after a heavy influz of tourists thanks to Canada Day, Gay Pride Weekend and the Molson Indy. Most American cities with Toronto’s size and population would be wallowing in their own filth by now.
I took some photos of Queen Street today at about 2:00 p.m. and will post them later.
Entrepreneurs or con artists?
A trio of guys — two in their early twenties, one in his early teens, have been doing the rounds of my neighbourhood, going toor-to-door and offering to haul people’s trash away for the measly sum of $2.00 a bag. They said they’d take the garbage to the proper depot (the depots are still open, it’s just the collectors who aren’t working). I opted to go with a pragmatic approach: we gave them only our food garbage and while they were canvassing houses down the block, I took pictures of their pickup truck, with the license plate in plain view. If they’re legit, there’s no problem, but if they’re just dumping the bags elsewhere (some people have been dumping garbage in parks), we’ve got a way for the cops to trace them.
Recommended Reading
Here’s what some of the local media have to say about the strike:
A discussion from the BoingBoing site on Toronto, my smart-ass comment about San Francisco (which I made here) and civics.
Strike talks collapse, city says (Toronto Star)
Trash talkin’ in court (Toronto Sun )
Talks stalled in municipal strike: unions accuse city of rigging bust (CBC Toronto)
A whole page on Canada.com devoted to the Toronto strike.
Trash talking: Mel’s deputy sticks it to unions while making like Mr. Clean (Now magazine)
Composting for smell and sanity (eye magazine)