June 28, 2007 - I went to check out TTC's Transfer to the Future: My New Streetcar public consultation exhibit at Dundas Square this afternoon. First of all, kudos to the TTC for picking such a great location for the event - the exhibit caught a lot of people's attention! Of course, having a huge streetcar on a podium in the middle of the square helps!
The highlight of the exhibit was the demo LRV on display. To show the public what Toronto's future streetcar/ LRV fleet could look like, the TTC actually brought in a demo car from Minneapolis. The Bombardier built car is fairly wide and tall, and definitely much boxier than our current streetcars (see picture). The demo car however has some neat features, including a vertical bike rack, pull down seats, and even luggage racks! The driver is completely shielded from the passengers (kinda like the pilot on a plane), suggesting that a proof-of-payment system would be used on these vehicles.
The TTC engineer on site, however, was quick to point out that our new streetcars might not look like the Minneapolis ones at all - our streetcars will be adapted to our local preferences (hence the public consultation). He did say however, that the downtown LRVs will not be double-headed, since we already have loops built in place (and thus no need to have cars be double-headed like the subway). Other issues, such as the need to build ramps (or would that be part of the vehicle) from current platforms, the need to set up POP systems, are still up in the air.
I'm not sure how the TTC plans to review the public input - but by holding a consultation exhibit in the heart of the city on a hot summer day is an excellent, well-coordinated way to create excitement and buy-in from the public. I thought having a demo car on display drew a lot more people to check out the exhibit (those panels alone did not do it) - at one point, the demo car was so packed that my friend Janet said it's probably what rush hour will feel like in these vehicles. I also liked how they had young enthusiastic TTC staff (that's almost an oxymoron) on hand to give out clipboards, explain the consultation process, and to answer questions.
So yeah, good job TTC. I can't wait to ride these new LRVs =).
June 26, 2007 - A new era of riding public transit began today by the introduction of the Presto smart card - Canada's first electronic, fare-calculating transit smart card that will enable riders to simply pay fares through a tap of a wallet-size credit card.
I don't think I need to explain how the card works, since many cities around the world, including Hong Kong and London (two case studies that the developers of Presto drew heavily from), have been using similar technology for years. The pilot phase of Presto involves GO commuters who travel between Meadowvale or Cooksville station and Union Station. Commuters can also use their Presto cards on Mississauga transit buses to and from the two GO stations, and also at TTC's Union Station. Eventually by 2010, commuters can then use Presto across the GTA, with the exception of the TTC (where only 5 stations will have such facilities).
Certainly the Presto card is a start in integrating our often fragmented transit system (having to keep two types of tickets and passes whenever a municipal boundary is crossed is not very convenient for transit riders). However, the TTC is still very hesitant in using such technology and without the TTC's full participation, Presto will not be widely used.
Also, even with Presto, commuters will still have to pay multiple fares (i.e. whenever you transfer from one transit agency to another). What is really needed, in addition to a smart card, is fare integration - we need to develop a new pricing scheme for transit service across the GTA. For example, it's ridiculous that someone from Etobicoke to Scarborough pays only 1 fare on the TTC for a journey across the city, but for someone going from John Street to Sheppard Station, two fares are required (for a shorter journey). Why not bring back a zone system and integrate all the transit services under the GTTA brand?
Wow - this post is becoming too much like a work discussion! Anyway, it's a great first step - and they did develop a pretty cool website to help launch the card. Too bad I don't live anywhere near Meadowvale or Cooksville, or else I would totally sign up to be a Presto user!
June 19, 2007 - Yay! My article was published today in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Policy- my first (and sadly, probably my last) piece of work to be published in an academic journal! Sure, the paper feels like it was written a billion years ago (December 2004 to be exact), but wow, it's such a great feeling to see your name printed on an actual paper.
Chances are no one I know will ever read the article and grad students who are forced to read it will curse me for adding to their reading load. But oh well, I'm still proud of my work =)
Special thanks to Prof. Conway for pushing me to write this and for getting it published!
Boo for my parents not caring though. or my friends. sigh.
June 15, 2007 - The Ontario government today announced an unprecedented $17.5 billion rapid transit action plan for the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton. Named "Move Ontario 2020", the transit plan features 52 projects that will expand transit to all corners of the GTA. You can click here for a list of the projects (including Toronto's Transit City vision and the extension of the Yonge Subway to Highway 7!).
What's significant about this announcement is not only the scope of this plan, but also the fact that the province will fund two-thirds of all project costs (with hopefully the feds covering the remaining one-third), thus relieving the municipalities of their traditional one-third share.
While critics were quick to say that this is simply an election promise (and the Liberal government doesn't really have a good track record when it comes to that), what's important here is that at least transit, for the first time in a long time, has been brought to the foreground as an important election issue. Sure, the plan is bold and it's not for certain that all the projects will be built, but at least there's now A PLAN to do something - which is something that we haven't seen since the early 90s. Could this transit dream be finally realized?
June 14, 2007 - Just when I was feeling very depressed about the TTC, it managed to surprise me again with the unveiling today of its latest public consultation on the plan to purchase a new fleet of light rail vehicles to replace our current streetcars. With a hip, youthful, flashy multi-media website "mynewstreetcar.ca", this is definitely not your ordinary public consultation meeting or open house. On the website (cleverly named Transfer to the Future) you can actually click through various pictures of both the current streetcar fleet and LRVs in other parts of the world and tell the TTC what you like or don't like about each one. Pretty cool way to speak your mind from the comfort of your own home (or office)!
What I especially liked is the awesome video that they've put together to advertise the site (see video at the bottom of the site). The video actually makes riding the TTC seem cool (not an easy task I tell you). The video should be on tv - and if it's reworked a bit (i.e. include more shots of buses, the subway and maybe even the RT), it could actually be part of a whole new advertising campaign to make the TTC more youthful and appealing (TTC marketing ppl: can you hear me?).
This is the 2nd time the TTC has impressed me with a new website in recent months (the first was their Transit City LRT Plan) - could this really the beginning of a new era in TTC marketing and public relations?
June 12, 2007 - Is it just me or has the subway been super slow and super unreliable lately? The other day, it took me almost half an hour to go from Eglinton to College - which normally takes about 12 minutes. What annoyed me the most was the train stopped just outside Eglinton Station - you could actually see it standing on the platform. Why couldn't the train just stop at the station to at least let people on?
Then today, Bernard and I were on our way to Union to catch our 5:20 GO train. We left Jenny's convocation at 4:50ish (yay!), got to Queen's Park Station at 5 and what was supposed to be a 6 minute subway ride to Union turned into more than 20 minutes!! The reason: some sort of signal problem (again!). What pissed us off the most was we stopped just outside Union Station for like 5 minutes - when the train could've easily pulled into the station to drop people off! Ultimately we missed our train home and had to wait for another 40 minutes for the next one.
As much as I support transit, sometimes riding the TTC just really gets to me - there needs to be a better accountability mechanism in place - who's the blame for subway delays? and what can be done? and why can't they just pull the train into a station and wait for the signal to change there?
June 10, 2007 - So as I mentioned in my previous post, after 10 years of avoiding Wonderland, I finally went this weekend! Now I haven't purposely avoided Wonderland per se - it was more like I was never really interested. This is partly because I'm EXTREMELY TERRIFIED of height, thrill rides and roller coasters. I just don't like that feeling of being flung by machines - it's just so scary =(
So when B asked if I'm interested, I was a bit hesitant at first - given I know I probably would not want to go on most rides. But I figured hey, if little kids can do it - I can totally do it. But nope, I was wrong. The first ride I went on, the Spinovator, is supposed to be like riding the tea cups at Disneyland (only faster and on a slanted floor). Anyway, I FREAKED OUT on the ride - I screamed, yelled, cried, begged for it to stop. I felt like I was going to fall out of the basket and die right there. It was actually really pathetic and thinking back, I'm kinda embarrassed about it. The next ride was the Rage - the pirate ship. I was THIS CLOSE to getting off the ride before the ride started. The hyperventilation did not help either - I felt like I was going to pass out when the safety bar was lowered. Having said that though, the ride turned out to be really mild and all the freaking out was for nothing.
So after those two freakish experiences, we split up for a bit - Jenny took me to Hanna Barbara land where we went on the only kiddie ride that we were allowed on (boo - that's height discrimination I tell you) while B and Grace went on one of those crazy roller coasters. We met up afterwards for a really expensive and disgusting lunch, and then off to more rides that I could handle (the water ones, The Italian Job, Swings, Thunder Run and Bumper Cars). I also went on that Sponge Bob motion ride by myself - it was actually kinda cool, even though I'm not a big fan of Sponge Bob myself (it's kinda creepy actually).
I also played the Fool-the-Guesser game, where you pay 5 bucks and have the person guess your age, within 2 years. I've played that a couple of times, and of course I won each time. This time, the girl guessed I was 23, and was pretty shocked when I told her I just turned 27. I won this ugly orange Wonderland dog, which B refuses to put in his room. =(
So overall, I still had lots of fun. The funnel cake was good - though expensive and the strawberries tasted kinda funny. We also played this game called 20 questions, which seems to go on forever. And yeah, that's pretty much my Wonderland story. I feel bad that I wasn't cool enough (or as B nicely put it "man" enough) to go on the real rides =( maybe next year, we can start with the level 4 ones again. And in the meantime, I guess I'll let my 27 yr old body recover (sigh...so sad).
On a side note, can I just say how I was shocked by all these housing developments along Rutherford and Major Mackenzie Dr in Vaughan? There are so many new subdivisions in the area that the houses seem to stretch on forever!
June 7 - 10, 2007 - I honestly wasn't planning on blogging about my birthday this year, given how I'm really not a birthday person. Having said that though, I have to say this year is probably one of the best ever - having a great group of friends and an amazing boyfriend to celebrate (?) my big 2-7 with me certainly helped. So yeah, here's my annual, hypocritical birthday blog.
June 7: Cheesecake and Subway Buttons
I got to spend my actual birthday with B (much thanks to Alaska!). I came home from work to find a nicely decorated cheesecake with a generous amount of icing on it. Apparently B was planning on baking a cake, but he ran out of time and had to simply buy a cake and decorate it. It was still nice - I don't think anyone has ever baked and/or decorated a cake for me!! The cake was a bit sweet, but it was still very tasty :) and yeah, it would eventually take us a whole week to finish the cake.
B also made me dinner - it was SPAM with 3 different kinds of pepper - hahaha. I haven't had SPAM in a while, so it was all good. We watched The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - apparently he has been wanting to watch that for awhile.
B then surprised me with a half-complete set of the TTC subway buttons from Spacing magazine. It was kinda funny - we were talking about the buttons just earlier that night. Anyway, turns out he got them at the architecture bookstore and didn't know you could order the whole set from Spacing until a couple of days ago. Still super cool though - we have about 30 more buttons to go to finish the whole set, so if we buy a new one each year (like he suggested), I'll be 60 years old when the whole set is complete!
June 8: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
We went to the zoo today! I haven't been there in a few years - and B hasn't been there since elementary school. Anyway, it was a really really hot day - and the zoo was packed with a million school kids. We saw pretty much all the animals we wanted to see, including the giraffes!! At the giraffe exhibit, we saw a whole bunch of kids who said they were born in 1999 - that really made us feel old (I was already in my first year of university in 1999 - sigh). We also saw snakes - which freaked Bernard out a bit (though he kept wanting to see them?). Anyway the zoo was loads of fun - though a bit expensive - but we both got a nice tan out of it though!
We then joined Queenie and Jenny for karaoke, dinner and Shrek 3. Queenie had just came back from Europe, so we chatted about her trip quite a bit (so jealous). Can't wait to see her pictures either!
June 9: Nearly died in Wonderland
Grace, Jenny, B and I went to Wonderland today!! holy crap!! I'll save that for another blog.
June 10: Of friends and family
My high school friends surprised me with a nice lunch at Milestone's. I wasn't expecting so many of them to show up - so that was super nice. My friends Amy and Ray had just came back from their honeymoon to Italy and Greece, so we talked about that quite a bit. It's really nice to just have a couple of days revolve around you I guess! A part of me also can't believe that I've celebrated more than 15 previous birthdays with these people already. As for gifts, I got a new set of dishes/cutlery from Freeman - I think that's his way of saying "stop borrowing my dishes/kitchen utensils, you cheap-ass! here's some new ones!"
I also had a nice dinner with my parents - they gave me a nice new tie (now I just have to learn how to tie it) and my sister gave me a nice shirt from American Eagle. Nothing special, just a quiet night at home with the folks.
And there you have it, my 27th. What made this year special was I got to spend it with everyone that I like and enjoy hanging out with. A big thank you to everyone for remembering my b-day and for taking the time (and money) out to celebrate it with me. :D
June 3, 2007 - After almost five years of planning, construction, and much controversy, the highly anticipated Michael Lee-Chin Crystal officially opened today at the Royal Ontario Museum. As the centre-piece of the Renaissance ROM project, the Crystal, along the opening of new galleries, will completely rejuvenate one of the Toronto's most beloved cultural institutions and help create a new civic landmark for the city.
The man behind the Crystal is the international renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, who also designed the famous Jewish Museum in Berlin (one of the most beautiful museums I've ever visited) and the original design for the Freedom Tower in New York. Libeskind was said to have drawn the first sketch of the ROM crystal on a napkin, and while the final design is slightly different (due to engineering and costs reasons), the Crystal still stands out as a sight to behold.
To celebrate the opening of the Crystal, the ROM opened its doors to the public starting at midnight today for a free 24 hour architectural preview. With our love for cities, buildings, design, and museums, of course Bernard and I were not going to miss this "event of the year" (you can read Bernard's thoughts on the ROM here). So yesterday (Saturday) morning, we woke up super early and made our way to the ROM to get those tickets. Our goal was to be among the first group of people to be inside the Crystal. When we got there at 9:45 am, there were already 10 or so people lining up outside for tickets (and they weren't giving them out till noon!). By 11:45 am though, the line had stretched all the way around the block to Trinity College!
The line-up wasn't so bad and I got to meet pretty much everyone from B's architecture class. We also launched into a debate about planners vs. architects vs. engineers - with the conclusion that planners, despite being the most important, never get any respect!!! Anyway, by 12:15 p.m., we were on our way back to uptown with those hot tickets in our hands.
At 11:30 p.m. that night, we were among the thousands of people lining up outside the new Bloor Street entrance of the Crystal, waiting to get in. The Crystal looks stunning illuminated - though I read somewhere that it would not be lighted up every night. By 12:30 am, we were inside the stunning new foyer of the ROM.
The ROM Crystal feels less intimate than the Jewish Museum - though this could be because the galleries are still bare at this time (and also the museum was packed). Having said that, the building is simply an architectural masterpiece. Here are some of my favourite parts of the new ROM:
1) The Stair of Wonder - the new staircase that extends from the basement to the fourth floor is not as spectacular as the old staircase with the totem pole, but it does feature some really neat exhibits along the way (everything from antlers to toy soldiers to bugs) and hence the staircase acts like a gallery on its own.
2) The windows - the small slices of window on the walls are perfect intimate places (we saw people crawling into them all night); the larger windows allow visitors to see the action on the street - and allow passerby on Bloor Street to see inside the museum, including the ROM's famous dinosaur displays.
3) The fourth floor - where the textile exhibit will be is a large yet intimate gallery with a ceiling filled with bright lights - definitely my favourite floor in the Crystal
4) The one and the new - the old facade of the original building was beautifully preserved and in some cases enhanced; visitors could see where the old meets the new in a carefully designed manner (apparently the new structure never actually touches the old building and merely meets it)
5) The open spaces, balconies and catwalks - they provide yet another way for visitors to enjoy the building and their museum experience, through carefully designed lookout points to galleries and floors above and below. I should also note that the walls themselves are a piece of art - none of them actually make a right angle with the ceiling.6) Spirit Room - Though no where as powerful as the Axis of Death/Axis of Continuity/Holocaust Tower/Garden of Exile in the Jewish Museum, the Spirit room was purposely left empty, in a quiet corner of the atrium, to allow visitors to reflect and contemplate on the exhibits.
Despite one unfortunate incident where I got yelled at by a security guard for climbing the wall like Spiderman, the architectural preview as definitely an unique experience. Eric, B and I ended up staying there till close to 4 am - and the crowd inside was only getting bigger. Whether you love it or hate it, it seems like the ROM Crystal is the talk of the town - and getting people talking and being excited about a building, much less a museum, is success in itself. Time will tell on whether The ROM Crystal will help alleviate the museum's status as a must-see in the city. But if the opening is any indication, I have no doubts the Crystal will find a place in the architecture textbooks as one of the most daring and stunning pieces of work in North America.
As for the pictures - Bernard and Eric dressed up and both wore black that night. With the contrast from the white walls, both looked super duper hot! of course, they failed to tell me about the dress code and I ended up wearing white and pretty much blended in with the wall everywhere I walked. Boo.
June 1, 2007 - Well, technically, the PM didn't write directly to me, but the envelope had my name on it, so I'm going to say that he did =)
So why did I get a letter from the PM? well apparently, Prime Minister Harper is sending letters to Chinese families across the country to officially and "personally apologize for the Head Tax" - something that happened almost 100 years ago. The Head Tax, as we all know, was a fixed fee charged for each Chinese person entering Canada back in the late 19th - early 20th century. The tax took effect beginning in 1885 and lasted until 1923, when the Chinese Immigration Act banned Chinese immigrants altogether. The tax was $500 Cdn per head, which at the time was enough to buy two houses. It should also be noted that the Chinese was the only ethnic group required to pay such a tax.
Anyway, when the Harper government took power, one of the things that they did was to formally apologize for the Head Tax. Last year, the Harper government also announced that all Chinese immigrants who once paid the Head Tax will be compensated (there were only 20 survivors).
Back to the letter - it was great that the PM apologized - and I think sending letters (in both English and Chinese) to the Chinese community is great PR. Of course, I also know that this just is a way to buy votes - and I have to say, despite this nice gesture, he's still not getting my vote.
Why was the letter addressed to me though? I have no idea. I was actually excited when I saw the envelope (I thought maybe he was going to offer me a job or something!). Oh well - at least I can still say I got a letter from the PM!
