The 2024 global liveability index was released on Wednesday, and thanks to the city’s growing housing crisis, Toronto officially fell off the top 10 list for the most liveable cities in the world for the first time in three years.
“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”
Toronto’s population growth higher than major U.S. cities due to ‘surge of immigration’: report
Toronto’s population is the fastest growing in Canada and in the United States, a new report says.
Its growth is attributed to a “surge of immigration,” according to the report, published by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development. The report analyzed population growth data in both countries over the span of a year, from July 2022 to July 2023.
Toronto’s Hunger Games Housing Crisis: 12,000 mid-income households entered a city lottery to get a break on rent
More than 12,000 mid-income households entered a city lottery to get a break on rent. Their chance of winning: 1 per cent
When Toronto city hall and the developer of a gleaming new high-rise launched a lottery for apartments at reduced rents this spring, hopeful households turned out in droves — nearly 12,500 of them, each seeking refuge from a worsening housing affordability crisis.
The first phase of the west-end Galleria on the Park development was offering brand-new, city-supported homes aimed at mid-income earners, which cost hundreds of dollars less than market rates.
Believe It Or Not: Toronto traffic sucks but other North American cities are worse
NYC’s drivers spend a grueling 100 hours in traffic — here’s where the Big Apple ranks among the world’s most congested cities
The Big Apple is the greatest city in the world — for sitting in traffic.
For the second year in a row, New York City reportedly has the world’s worst congestion as drivers spend an average of 4 days stuck in traffic at a cost of over $9 billion to the city.
Drivers in the New York metro area lost 101 hours behind the wheel sitting in traffic jams last year, according to the transportation analytics firm INRIX’s Global Traffic Scorecard.
WARMINGTON: Hate crimes on rise as politicians dump problem on overworked cops
Toronto Police are called to investigate reports of hate crimes five times a day in Toronto (once) the good.
It’s not so good anymore when it comes to people getting along. More than half of those calls are for alleged anti-Semitic crimes.
“We are attending an average of 145 hate crime calls for service a month,” Deputy Chief Rob Johnson told the Toronto Police Services Board on Monday. “Since Oct. 7, we have attended 1,378 hate crime calls for service.”
14-year-old boy facing two counts of first-degree murder in connection with Rexdale shooting investigation
A 14-year-old boy has been charged in connection with a “mass shooting” that took the lives of two men and wounded three others earlier this month in north Etobicoke, police say.
The shooting happened at around 11 p.m. on June 2 in Rexdale.
Police say that a group of men were gathered outside North Albion Collegiate Institute following a soccer game when at least two suspects got out of a vehicle and began shooting “indiscriminately.”
Fourth teen girl pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of Toronto homeless man
TORONTO — A fourth teen accused in the fatal stabbing of a Toronto homeless man has pleaded guilty.
The girl, who was 14 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of 59-year-old Kenneth Lee.
Police have alleged that Lee, who was living in the city’s shelter system, died after he was swarmed and stabbed by a group of girls in December 2022.
Toronto pushes stubbornly ahead with a mystifying name change for Yonge-Dundas Square
Late last year, with little notice or public debate, Toronto City Council voted 19-2 to rename Yonge-Dundas Square, the busy gathering place opposite the Eaton Centre in the heart of downtown.
The purpose was to erase the name of Henry Dundas, the prominent Scottish statesman, who stood accused of delaying the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Henceforth, council declared, Yonge-Dundas Square would be known as – wait for it – Sankofa Square. Toronto was mystified. Sankofa?
Ontario Science Centre abruptly closing due to structural issues
The Ford government says it will be permanently closing the Ontario Science Centre to the public “effective immediately” due to “serious structural issues” that were identified with the building in a recent engineering report.
The abrupt closure of the North York tourist attraction means that Torontonians will no longer be able to visit the museum after today, although private events scheduled to occur over the weekend will be permitted to proceed.
“The actions taken today will protect the health and safety of visitors and staff at the Ontario Science Centre while supporting its eventual reopening in a new, state-of-the-art facility,” Kinga Surma, the province’s minister of infrastructure, said in a news release.
Way back in the 1960’s an elementary school day trip was a certainty. I recall going at least twice.
It’s old and in a bad neighborhood, a new beginning may be just the ticket.
CRISANTI: Proactive responses needed now to combat crime in Toronto
For years now, I have voiced my concerns surrounding the challenges that the Toronto Police Service (TPS) currently faces due to the plummeting number of officers as a direct result of the lack of political support.
From pivotal decisions such as removing School Resource Officers (SRO) in 2017, declining numbers of community officers from priority neighbourhoods, and the implementation of a hiring freeze within the TPS – we have created the perfect conditions for brazen criminal behaviour.
You can write off the Chow years, nothing positive will happen under her misgovernance.
Lynn McDonald: Toronto’s costly push to trade Yonge-Dundas for a name more closely associated with slavery
There is a lot wrong both with the name that Toronto city council chose to replace Yonge-Dundas Square and the burden that the name change will place on taxpayers.
Originally budgeted at $335,000, the new estimate is $860,000 — and who is to say it won’t go higher? That would be a lot of money even for a desirable name, but the name the city chose, Sankofa Square, is problematic.
Olivia Chow’s greatest vulnerability? Her friends
Imagine the confusion.
Toronto’s most labour friendly mayor in recent memory and still — a major strike that would have paralyzed this city. Or, as Mayor Chow put it, wrought “huge, huge economic damage.”
Sometimes in politics, success rides not on the platforms you pronounce or the policies you deliver, but on the bullets you dodge. And a TTC strike would be about as destructive a bullet for Mayor Chow to duck as can be conceived. Because while the political confusion and upheaval that would have followed is challenging to predict, the wrath of Torontonians would not be.
Chow had better be a one term mayor or Toronto is toast.
Why can’t Toronto keep its best public spaces in good repair?
Two centuries ago, Toronto’s leaders set aside a parcel of land in its growing west end for the enjoyment of the public. It became Clarence Square, a classic Victorian park with handsome residences on its flanks.
They would be astonished to see it now. For one thing, the little patch of green is surrounded by an ever-rising forest of high-rise towers in glass and steel. For another, the square itself is an unsightly mess. A graveled dog park occupies one side, a homeless encampment another. The fountain at its heart is broken and encased in plywood hoardings. The lawn is full of weeds.
Because our ever rising taxes go to support bloated union wages and (insert deviant progressive cause of your choosing here).