The Five Stages of Grief

December 25, 2010 - In 1969, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross introduced what has become known as the five stages of grief. The five stages are:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

The model was originally used to describe the process that people go through when suffering from terminal illness, but was later expanded to other personal losses such as death of a loved one, break up and divorce, job loss, etc. Kubler-Ross explained that while not everyone will experience all five stages at a time of loss, most people experience at least two of the stages and many experience a roller coaster effect - that is going back and forth between the different stages.

I don't know where I am on this spectrum. Over the past 12 hours, I think I have experienced all five stages. There were times when I'm definitely in denial. I was angry at times but mostly just sad and disappointed. I've cried and yelled. I've tried to tell myself it will be okay and have tried to understand it, but I'm still confused as ever. Then it goes back to the denial stage all over again.

I feel like a part of me died. And I'm in mourning.

Its weird that I'm coming back to blogging after a few years away, but I think writing about the end of this once very important, if not the most important part of my life will hopefully help me deal with it better.

Olympics Wrap-Up

August 24, 2008 - So after 2 weeks of watching more sports than I have in the past 2 years, my Olympics watching officially came to an end with the Closing Ceremony (which I had to watch on youtube!). Surprisingly, I watched way more of the Beijing Olympics than I thought I would, thanks to the CBC online streaming site that allowed me to watch pretty much every sport and almost every race or competition that I want. With the end of what may be the most spectacular Olympics ever, I thought I would share three of my most memorable moments of these games (at least the moments that I managed to watch):

- Matthew Mitcham of Australia wins gold in 10m diving and kisses his boyfriend in front of tv cameras

This kid (only 20 years old!) managed to beat the heavily favourite Chinese divers with an amazing final dive and won the only gold medal in diving that did not go to China. How did he celebrate his win? by running to the stands and kisseing his mom and his boyfriend! Aww. He is also the only openly gay male athlete out of the 11,000 at the Olympics. Kudos to him for 1) winning the gold medal; 2) being openly gay in a field that's still homophobic and 3) for making his sponsors fly his boyfriend over from Sydney so he could watch him compete. It doesn't hurt that he's super cute as well.

- Matthias Steiner of Germany cries on the podium holding a picture of his late wife after winning gold

No one really thought he would win gold in weightlifting after he failed to lift the two lighter weights. In his final shot, he decided to go for it and raised his weights by 10 kg - to 258 kg. He groaned, yelled and lifted it over his head. The announcers were clearly shocked - no one thought he could do it. On the podium, as the German national anthem played, and with tears flowing down his face - he took out a picture and smiled at it: it was a picture of his late wife, who died a year ago in a car accident. On her death bed, he had promised he would make their joint Olympic dreams come true. And that he did.

- Natalie du Toit of South Africa swims in the open water race with one leg

For many, it's hard enough to swim with two legs, but this girl from South Africa became probably the first one-legged swimmer to swim in an Olympic competition. Her determination and grits are hard to match. She finished 16th in the race, but she is definitely inspirational. Anyone who came back from the shock of losing their leg to training for the Olympics deserves our applause.

The excitement of winning medals at the Olympics are truly memorable, but what I think makes the Olympics special are these truly inspirational stories. I'm sure I missed a whole bunch too, like that story of the US swimmer who has testicular cancer at 24 and still swam in the Olympics, or the story of the Somalian girl who came in last in the 200m race but still got a standing ovation. It's great that for 2 weeks every 4 years, the world focuses not on multi-millionaire baseball players or hockey players, but on real athletes that show what true sportsmanship is all about.

Am I Moving to Vancouver?

August 21, 2008 - As some of you know, I have been applying for jobs for months now. My theory is that it never hurts to see what's out there, cause you never know what could happen. So to my surprise, on Monday, I got a call from TransLink, the regional transit authority in Vancouver, asking me to do a phone interview with them for a Transit Planner position!!

To say I was shocked is an understatement, given the fact that I have applied to out of province (and out of the country) jobs a number of times and have never gotten an interview. To have the opportunity to interview for what sounds like my dream job in my dream city is really truly unbelievable.

Of course, even if I do get the job (and I don't think I will based on my interview today), it's not like I will take it. Yeah, it's great to imagine how cool it would be to move to Vancouver, but really, am I willing to give up everything that I have now and start fresh in another city? I think the answer, at this point is no.

Oh well. At least I tried!

Montreal is the new Boardwalk?

August 20, 2008 - Back in February, I blogged about the new Monopoly "Word Cities" edition contest where voters can choose which 20 cities will make the board for this new version of the game. Today, the full list of cities were announced: Montreal shockingly will become the new Boardwalk, with Riga, Latvia as the new Park Place.

I'm not sure how Montreal became the most expensive real estate (over London, Paris and New York?) but I guess kudos to Hasbro (the folks behind Monopoly) for sticking to the results of the voting by fans. Still, if it was really based on a list of world cities, I highly doubt Riga, Kyiv, Taipei and Gdynia (I had to look up where that is - it's in Poland) would ever make the list.

It's a bit disappointing - but at least two other Canadian cities made the list: Vancouver (as the new New York Ave) and Toronto (as the new Virginia Ave). But no South American cities? or any other American cities other than New York? a bit shocking.

The board game itself is pretty though - each block has a picture that features the city and around the blocks are pictures of the 68 cities that didn't make the list. Definitely a more worthwhile collector's item than other editions I think.

Here's the full list of 22 cities that made it into the game:

Dark Blue: Montreal, Riga
Green: Cape Town, Belgrade, Paris
Yellow: Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Beijing
Red: London, New York, Sydney
Orange: Vancouver, Shanghai, Rome
Magenta: Toronto, Kyiv, Istanbul
Light Blue: Athens, Barcelona, Tokyo
Brown: Taipei, Gdynia

I got 11/20 from my list - not too bad I guess! The game will be on sale starting August 26.

(Photo credit: Kris Abel/CTV)

Highlights from the Big Apple

August 19, 2008 - I'm back from spending three days in New York. As always, New York is just an awesome place to visit. It's every urban planner's dream of what a city should be like: the buildings, the crowds, the transit system. What I love most about New York is the fact that there is always something new to do. Despite my many visits to the city, I still have yet to visit the MET, or see a Broadway show, or go to the Bronx Zoo. It's a good thing that NYC is close by eh.

Anyway, Julie and I hit up the city - this time, it was more of a shopping trip. We are both broke now (she bought 3x as much as me though) but we had lots of fun. Here are some highlights:

- Shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue:

Normally I would not go inside this super duper expensive department store, but when you're shopping with someone as rich as Julie, 5th Ave is a must. Anyway, it was still fun looking and touching things that you can't afford. Favourite moment: the purple-suit salesman at the Prada section came up to me and said in a high pitch tone "'excuse me sir, THAT purse is $960". Err - thanks.

- Chanting USA-USA-USA in the middle of Times Square:

Turns out New Yorkers are watching the Olympics too. We were glued to the tv the whole time we were having dinner at Ruby Tuesdays near Times Square (we even cheered when Canada won its first swimming medal). As soon as we left the restaurant, we looked up one of those giant tv screens and saw Michael Phelps was getting ready for his last race (and to win his 8th gold medal). We stopped - and so did everyone: pedestrians, cars, buses - Times Square literally stood still. Amid chants of USA-USA-USA (we joined in too), flag-waving, and boos whenever the other countries were leading, we watched Phelps won his record-breaking 8th gold medal of the games.

- Getting stuck on the E train

We all bitch about the TTC, but honestly is the New York subway system any better? well yes and no - it's better cause it pretty much gets you to anywhere and everywhere that you want to go. Having said that, it's not like it's that much more reliable. There seems to be service changes on each and every single line and getting stuck on the train for whatever reason is part of the NYC subway experience. Then again, if the E train isn't running, you can always ride the A or the C - not like here, where if the Yonge train stops running, transit hell breaks loose.

- Grand Central Terminal

Wow. It's probably the most beautiful train stations I have ever been to (including the ones in Europe!). Absolutely stunning - the grand hall, with the sky ceiling, is breathtaking. It was my first time to Grand Central. The station puts our Union Station to shame.

- View from the Empire State Building

Yeah, I've been up the Empire State many times now, but the view is still spectacular. This time, we went at night to see all the lights. Personally, I thought it was a bit dark, but the view is still very cool.

That's it from NYC this year. Not sure if I will visit again next summer (this summer was the third consecutive summer that I visited NYC), but with so much still left to see, who knows?

Off to New York

August 15, 2008 - I'm off to New York for the long weekend! This is becoming an annual thing, as I have been going to NYC around the same time in August for the past three years now. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I wonder if the city is also caught in Olympics fever!

Watching the Beijing Olympics

August 13, 2008 - Unless you don't have own a tv, I would say that most people have at least watched parts of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. I mean, how can one not? It's on tv for hours every night; it's making headlines everywhere; and watching hunky swimmers and gymnasts and kayakers (Adam van Koeverden!) in action certainly beats the idiots on Big Brother 10 and whatever else is going in tv-land.

The biggest story on these Olympics of course has been how China will showcase itself to the world. There have been a lot of negative press of course (Western media will always find something to bash China with), but with the focus now on the athletes, there have been a lot of great inspirational stories as well (NBC is great with the tearjerkers on the athletes' struggle). What I know so far from watching these Olympics is that no other Olympics in the foreseeable future will be as grand, as spectacular, and as human-intensive as these ones. The Olympics are China's coming-out party - an opportunity for it to earn a place in the world, at all costs. Be it shutting down traffic and factories, changing weather patterns with their rain-prevention methods, or building the most stunning Olympics venues, these truly are China's games, and they will not be denied of their glory.

So having said that, here are a few things so far about the games that I made me go: "only in China would they do that..."

1) CGI'd Fireworks at the Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was probably one of the most spectacular live events ever in the history of television. That paper moving thing was stunning, though my favourite was the people dancing on those huge globes. What caught most people's attention was of course the stunning fireworks, which made me go WOW when I first saw it (and I didn't even sit through the entire ceremony!). Of course, now we know that some of what we have seen was actually fake - the part with the giant footprints entering the stadium was computer generated and inserted into the live tv footage. China was not going to let poor lighting and low visibility get in the way of wowing the world with its fireworks!

2) Lip-synching 9 year old girl

In addition to the fake fireworks, the opening ceremony also featured a lip-synching 9 year old girl. Olympics organizers loved the girl, but her voice was terrible. They found a 7 year old girl with a great voice, but she was deemed not "pretty enough because of her buck teeth" for the world. So when the 9 year old took the stage in front of billions around the world to sing "Ode to the Motherland", instead of her own voice that came out, it was actually a track recording of the7 year old. Wow. China was not going to let buckteeth ruin it's perfect Olympics!

3) The Bird Nest and the Water Cube

Olympics architecture have always been stunning but the Bird Nest and the Water Cube are now attractions in their own right. Only China would have the billions to spend on these venues that will no doubt become architectural wonders. So a dozen neighbourhoods got destroyed and thousands of people were forced to relocate - but to the Chinese, it's all for the common good of hosting the perfect Olympics.

4) The Fake Cheerleaders

In order to fill all the empty seats in all events, the Beijing organizers gave away free tickets to these professionally trained cheerleaders so that they could "liven up" all events. These cheerleaders, often women in their 50s, were taught how to cheer, clap, and use certain props (like air batons) at the right time. You see them in all sorts of events: women's soccer, rowing, beach volleyball - as they stand out in the crowd with their yellow and red uniform (yes, they wear a uniform). When CBC asked one of them if they know what they are watching and who's playing (it was a Canada-Sweden soccer match), the lady said she has no clue and was hired simply to cheer. Now that to me is a great part time job!

5) The (allegedly) underage gymnasts

Sure, all their documentations say they are 16, but to me, some of the members of the Chinese womens gymnastic team sure looks young. I mean, I know Asians look young generally (I'm a good example), but these girls just look a bit - umm - underdeveloped for 16. Whether they are 14 or 16, what's important I guess is that they are still kicking ass out there on those equipment.

More to come over the upcoming week with additional thoughts on watching the Beijing Olympics. Now if only Canada would win some medals, that would be great!

(Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Where Did The Summer Go?

August 3, 2008 - AUGUST 3rd? How could it be August 3rd already? seriously, where did the summer go? Looking back, I can't remember what I have done so far this summer. Well okay, I took a course in AutoCAD, I went to Seattle (but that was in May), and that's pretty much it. I guess it doesn't help that work has been insanely busy (for those who think government workers just sit around and work from 10-3, please come see me and work with me for a day). Honestly though, I feel like I'm wasting the summer by not being outside and enjoying the sun.

So for August, I'm vowing to spend as much time outdoors as possible and not have any weekend where I just bum around at home and not doing anything. The sun is too precious to just admire from inside. I have a couple of short trips lined up this month: NYC (again!) and Pittsburgh, plus a couple of other things like the Taste of the Danforth and the Ex. Not to mention the Olympics start in a couple of days and I know I will probably watch a lot of that too! I guess you can say I'm making one last desperate attempt to hang on to summer.

High-Speed Rail in California

June 30, 2008 - I recently discovered the official website for California's planned High-Speed Rail system through another transit blog. The site is very impressive, complete with visualizations of what it would be like sitting on one of these trains as you zip through the state from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It also has a few before and after animations as well - and it's great to see how they envision the landscape will change as a result.

The site also has everything from route maps, to costs, to the amount of CO2 saved, to how much you save compared to flying. It's a great marketing tool to sell the idea of public transit to possibly the most car-loving people on the planet.

The 2008 TTC Subway Map

June 24, 2008 - I first saw these maps on the subway over the weekend. Initially I thought my eyes were playing tricks since the map looks blurry and unreadable to me (it was right after my CADD class afterall). It wasn't until I read this blog that I found out that the map that I had seen was actually the 2008 version of the subway map, complete with a new font that bleeds into the background, making the map really hard to read. What were they thinking? or should I not even be surprised anymore.

Also, with regard to having the station addresses on the map, who in the world would care that Rosedale Station is actually at 7 Crescent Road? If the map is supposed to help people find an address (which I don't recommend, since the subway map is crap), wouldn't it make sense to locate the Station with a Yonge Street address, since the subway runs along (gasp!) Yonge Street?

Commuting Thoughts: 30 Days Later

June 21, 2008 - It has been about a month since I made that decision to move back to Markham for a few months until my condo is ready for me to be moved in. Moving home means a few things: living with my parents, free food, and a very long commute. I really did not want to start ranting on my commute, since I know from the date that I decided to move home, that the commute would be painful. Having said that, I have to admit that it has not been as bad as I envisioned it would be. Surely, there are bad days, but the majority of them have been surprisingly good. Of course, when it is bad though, it is really bad. Here's an example:

Saturday, June 21 @ 5:50 p.m.

Someone had jumped/fell/been pushed onto the tracks at St. Clair station. I was on a northbound train at Bloor station when they ordered everyone off the train. There was to be no subway service between Eglinton and Bloor. Sure, it's not the TTC's fault that a "track level injury" had occurred, but what came after really annoyed me. The PA system came on, asking everyone to take a shuttle bus to Bloor (this was in addition to the subway conductors yelling at everyone for not getting off the train fast enough). Past experiences have told me that shuttle buses do not work well in situations like this. As expected, hundreds of people gathered at the Yonge/Bloor intersection. There were no directions on where to wait, when the bus will come, or whether we need a transfer or not. Where were the TTC employees? could they not deploy someone from transit control to help organize the crowds or provide instructions? Ten minutes later, the shuttle bus was still nowhere to be seen, while the crowd at Y&B had grown much larger. It was chaotic and completely disorganized - you would think that TTC has a manual of some sort that actually guides emergency situations like this. I mean, what if it was a terrorist attack instead of an "injury at track level"?

Anyway, I ended up taking the Bloor train to St. George (got stuck at St. George because of "security reasons") and then up to Downsview, east to Sheppard on a bus, then up to Finch. By the time I got to Sheppard, trains were running northbound on Yonge again.

Time it took from Bloor to Finch: 1.5 hours

Really, is it that difficult for the TTC to improve its customer service? I know a huge emphasis is placed on track maintenance and making sure trains run on time, etc, but in today's day and age, you cannot treat your riders like cattles being shuttled to be slaughtered (that also applies to how airlines treat their passengers, but that's another story). At least pretend that you care, that's all I'm asking really.

Is the TTC Customer Service Challenged?

June 6, 2008 - This is probably one of the best Spacing blogs I have read in awhile. As we've all had our share of misery on the TTC, I definitely concur with what the blog says. Click on the link to read other readers' comments, including an official response from the TTC.

Collecting Flack
John Lorinc

The TTC doesn’t need to do drug testing on its drivers. For my money, I’d much prefer the Commission spend some time and capital on customer service training for its ticket booth collectors so that someday they may begin to treat customers — especially those who are young, brown or anglophonically-challenged — with a modicum of civility. While there are polite and professional ticket takers, riders for years have had to endure far too much surly or indifferent service from the members of the booth brigade, who always seem to be yakking on the phone or taking their sweet time making change. Isn’t it bad enough that a TTC ticket or token is perhaps the last commodity, other than dope, that can only be purchased with cash? Then there’s the culture of selective suspicion. Every teenager knows this story, and twas ever thus. But there’s no question that many ticket booth personnel save their most callous behaviour for non-English-speaking immigrants or tourists with the temerity to (gasp!) ask for directions. Sometimes, in fact, their behaviour verges on racist.

Exhibit A: I was in a ticket line at the St. George Street end of the St. George subway station last week. A university student was trying to make the automatic turnstile work but was losing the battle. She politely asks the ticket collector for help. He advises her to jostle it some more. She tries, to no avail, and then asks the man, quite reasonably, “Can I just go through?” He kind of rolls his eyes and mutters, “Well, I dunno.” He’s white, middle-aged, looking fed up. Was his reaction influenced by the fact that she had brown skin and wore a headscarf? Indeed, he only let her through when I and several others in line protested on her behalf, but not before interrogating us if we’d witnessed her inserting the token.

Exhibit B: Two TTC employees, also white-middle-aged males, were stationed at one of the portable ticket boxes at Union Station recently, grousing. One complained to the other that he’d just been assigned to Wheel Trans duty. The man pulls a face: “You know, it’s always, ‘Now, go pick up Mrs. Doodledypaddleypoo,’” he says in a mocking Indian accent. This, in a fully audible voice, at the entrance to the TTC’s busiest station. That such conduct continues to be tolerated defies belief.

The mayor is a self-described progressive who “gets” Toronto’s multi-culturalism. So, we’re told, is TTC chair Adam Giambrone. The commission itself services the most ethnically-diverse city in the world, and the face of the new Toronto is rarely more apparent than on the subway. Perhaps they’re all just afraid of taking on the union. In London, Tube attendants give directions and advise on fares without attitude, and they’ll even accept payment with those new fangled contraptions called bank or credit cards. Our tourism industry moans and groans about the homeless but I’d bet that curt and unhelpful replies from TTC personnel do way more to besmirch our reputation.Isn’t it time for the TTC to get serious about this embattled, unhelpful culture? Maybe the commission needs a bit of prodding. A few years back, Spacing asked our readers to submit their favourite streetcar driver stories. Today, we ask that you post your own ticket booth horror tales below.

Getting Rid of the Gardiner: It's About Time

May 30, 2008 - At a time when city building gets more attention than ever before, it should be of no surprise that the City now plans to remove the eye-sore that is the Gardiner Expressway from the DVP to Jarvis Street. This area east of downtown has long been considered one of the few areas of the city that's ripe for redevelopment and with the West Don Lands and East Bayfront neighbourhoods being built over the next decade, removing the Gardiner makes a lot of sense. The millions that are spent each year on maintaining the highway could go towards something that would be of better use, like fixing potholes or maybe, even transit operation costs. Removing the whole expressway will probably not happen for awhile, but is one of the essential steps in connecting our downtown to the waterfront again. Boston did it, so did San Francisco, and even Seattle will be doing the same in 2012. Isn't it time for TO to step up and become that "world class city" that we always strive to be?

Today, We're All Chinese

May 20, 2008 - The devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China has been making headlines for over a week now. It's especially touching to see the reaction from Chinese around the world, who have banned together to raise millions for the hundred of thousands of earthquake victims in Sichuan. While I'm sure we are guilty of making Mainland Chinese stereotypes (they crouch all the time; their dirty washrooms; the way they talk loudly on the phone), it is great to see Chinese around the world being so patriotic to their home country.

As in all natural disasters, the young, the old, and the disadvantaged are the greatest victims. In this case, school children made up a large proportion of those killed. The lax building code, poor design, and corruption all probably played a role - but the scene of parents mourning their kids near the ruins of school buildings is heartbreaking.

Donate to the Earthquake Relief efforts at: http://www.redcross.ca/china512

A Few More Thoughts About Seattle

May 19, 2008 - A few more thoughts about Seattle:

- The Experience Music Project: not my favourite Frank Gehry building, but I wouldn't say it's the worst building ever. I think the design of the building serves its function well (a rock-and-roll music museum). I do like the multi-colour blobs too.

- The Space Needle: we visited the Space Needle at least five times but we didn't decide to go up to the observation deck till our third day in town. The view from the top is spectacular (you can see the snow-capped Mount Rainier), so I'm glad we decided to go up! I also want to say that the gift shop bathroom isexceptionally clean (we used it multiple times).

- Seattle Center: the site of the 1964 World Fair feels sad and in major need of some revitalization. Aside from the Space Needle and the EMP, the whole site feels out of date and deserted. It could be the time of day/year that we were visiting but we were not impressed. Even the monorail feels old and in major need of an overhaul (the train may have been futuristic in the 60s, but now just feels ancient). At least there's now a public process in place to improve Seattle Center.

- International Fountain: kinda cool, but again, so much more could be done to improve this public space to make it more people friendly. I wish they would hire me to help them plan for this site. Anyway, while sitting around the fountain, someone's (will not mention any names, but you can guess who it is) nose mucus (aka booger) landed on my hand "accidentally". It was like the largest piece of booger I have ever seen in my life (it's like the size of a raisin). Anyway, now I will forever link the fountain to this incident. Thanks :)

- Pike Place Market: I really like public markets because I think they have more personality/character than your Loblaws or Dominions. The seafood stalls with the giant crabs were really cool. We also saw the first Starbucks, before it conquered the world.

- Seattle Central Library: a weird looking building that works and doesn't work in several aspects. I like the ramp design where you can go up several levels without going up stairs or elevators (and the fact that all the bookshelves continuous). I'm not sure if the building fits that well as a public space - libraries should serve more a community function but instead this library feels insular, isolated and strangely out of place.

- Boeing Factory Tour: it was super cool to see how planes are assembled though I wish we could get closer. I still can't get over the fact that when you sit on a plane, only about 30 cm separates you from the 40,000 feet below.

- United and US Airways: I was super duper impressed that both airlines did the job that they were supposed to do by 1) getting us to our destinations on time; and 2) not losing our luggage (I sorta expected them to and packed accordingly). Our flights on US Airways were just terrible. Our flight to Charlotte was scary with lots of sudden drops. I was ready to land half way through our flight. I was glad B was there or else I might have really panicked. Also, for a five hour flight, you would think they would at least serve water a few times, but nope, we got drinks once. No movie, no water, no blanket, no nothing. What did the flight attendants do the whole time we were on the plane?

That's it from our little Seattle adventure. Overall it was fun and not overly exhausting like New York was last year. We did everything we wanted to do, plus more (mainly cause there wasn't that much to do to begin with). I think we've done enough US cities for awhile, so for our next trip, let's aim for somewhere out of this continent!

Riding Transit in Seattle

May 17, 2008 - Bernard and I were originally going to rent a car for our trip to Seattle. We read that Seattle isn't the most transit friendly city in the world and the fact that we need to go up to Everett for the Boeing Factory Tour, we should really rent a car. After some research though, we found that it would be super expensive for us to rent one (not to mention the high gas prices), so we decided to take on the public transit system in Seattle and take the bus everywhere on our first three days in town.

First of all, I have to say that the transit system is not as bad as most people say and for a system that relies entirely on buses (the Monorail and the SLUT don't count), it's really not that bad (kinda reminds me of Ottawa, except Seattle has a transit tunnel that Ottawa is dying to have). With the arrival of the Sound Light Rail System next year, the system will surely improve. Anyway, a few highlights from my experience of riding Seattle transit:

1) The Downtown Transit Tunnel

The tunnel is currently used for buses in the heart of downtown. Instead of having surface bus routes running through congested downtown streets, the tunnel allows buses to run underground, thereby improving service reliability and avoid the bus congestion that you see in Ottawa. The tunnel was retrofitted last year to allow LRT service to run through the tunnel as well.

It would be interesting to see how the sharing of LRT and buses will work inside the tunnel. I should note that the buses don't travel that fast inside the tunnel, but that waiting for the bus inside the tunnel isn't that much different that waiting for an Ottawa bus on Slater Street for example. Buses still bunch up and it's hard to see which bus is coming up next. However, at least the buses don't get stuck in traffic.

2) The Downtown Free Zone

Transit is free in downtown Seattle during the day! We didn't take advantage of it though cause we pretty much just walked through downtown (it's not that big).

3) Pay-When-You-Leave

During certain hours of the day, you pay your fare when you get off the bus. I'm not entirely sure why they do that, especially since it really does add unnecessary travelling time: people could only exit using the front door, you can't board until everyone has paid. At least there are clear signs on the bus that tells you exactly whether you pay when you board or when you leave.

4) Direct Suburb-to-Downtown Service

Like Ottawa, the city provides direct suburb-to-downtown service on many routes (no wonder they need a tunnel downtown!). What I also liked as a commuter is that even though buses run every 20 minutes or so after rush hour, because of the fact that multiple routes go to your destination, you can catch a number of different buses, thereby reducing your wait time to 10 minutes at most (not bad for an American city). Routes 70-74 all serve the U-district for example.

5) The Orca Card

Seattle just introduced a smart card system for its transit system, but it's still on a trial basis and does not seem too popular with locals. Not all the buses have the system and I only saw 1 person use it the 3 days that I took transit.

Other things I like about Seattle transit: the neat trolley buses, the extremely friendly drivers (maybe we were just lucky?), the time-based transfers (would the TTC ever switch to those?), and the fact that people of all race and class seem to ride transit, which is not the case for most US cities.

We also saw the SLUT (South Lake Union Trolley) streetcars and I really do love their slogan (ride the SLUT, it gets around!). But because the system doesn't go anywhere that we wanted to go, we didn't get a chance to experience the SLUT first hand. We did ride the Monorail between downtown and Seattle Center three times though, but I wouldn't really call it part of the transit system.

Next blog, I'll talk about some of the other highlights from our trip, including an incident involving someone's nose mucus at the International Fountain at Seattle Center.

Blogging Seattle

May 14, 2008 - Bernard and I spent four days last week in Seattle! It was a fairly last minute trip, as we didn't decide to go until just two weeks ago. Anyway, we had a blast and I thought I would blog about some of the things I observed while in Seattle. This blog will focus on my general impressions of the city.

Seattle is the largest city in the State of Washington, but with a population of just over half million people (and a Metro population of 3 million), it is much smaller than most US west coast cities and even smaller than Toronto. The city itself is also not as spread out as one would think - it only took about 20 minutes by bus to go from Downtown to the city's north end. Seattle is also very multicultural, with a large Asian population. The city also has that "Toronto" feel to it - an up and coming city that is getting bigger by day, but still holding on to its small town values. Walking around Seattle actually didn't seem too different from walking around Toronto (though I think it's also because we kept seeing Asians everywhere).

Seattle is also not a dense city. There are not that many tall buildings outside downtown and it certainly does not have the 30+ storey condos that we have in Toronto. Construction seems to be everywhere though, but mainly in the form of office towers. Outside downtown, single detached home dominate, but I didn't really see the kinda of urban sprawl that we have here in the 905 region.

What I really liked about Seattle is its topography - the hills, the mountains (you can see snow-capped Mount Rainier from everywhere on a sunny day), Lake Union, and Elliot Bay are all spectacular. It's not Vancouver, but YVR doesn't have the islands of Puget Sound either. Having said that, with over 225 days of the year being a cloudy day, I really don't think I can live there (it was gloomy and cold the first two days we were there).

Seattle is also one of most educated cities in the US (which no doubt contributes greatly to the city's computer and aviation industries) and also one of the fittest (though we didn't really check anyone out since everyone was still wearing their winter jacket). It is also one of the gayest cities in America (just behind San Francisco apparently)!

In my next blog, I'll talk about riding transit in Seattle!

A Slap in the Face

April 26, 2008 - As I write this, the TTC is on strike, after its members rejected the latest deal that was negotiated between the Union and the City. That deal would have seen a 3% annual wage increase for three years, plus a "me-too" clause that would see the TTC drivers make the most out of all transit operators in the GTA.

The strike took the city by surprise as many had thought all strike threats were over after a deal was struck last weekend. Instead, the Union decided to go on strike at midnight, leaving the City with almost no warning and stranding thousands of people everywhere.

I'm not sure how negotiations will go - but the way the TTC walked off the job was a slap in the face to Torontonains. Their "48 hour" strike warning proved to be a lie - and worse, they couldn't even wait until most bus/subway service shut down at 2:30 am.

Though I'm sure the Province will step in and force the TTC back to work before Monday morning's rush hour, the fact that Union continues to hijack the city will not help with the Transit Union's image. If they are worried about insults and threats from passengers, just wait till they hear what people are saying on the street today.

Next week, should transit service returns, I will blog about the disaster that is our new cheesy and cheap looking Museum Station (which I finally had a chance to see for myself last week).

Earth Hour 2008

March 29, 2008 - Between 8 and 9 pm tonight, we are asked to turn off all lights and non-essential appliances to mark Earth Hour, an international event that promotes electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions. Earth Hour first began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, and this year, cities around the world are participating in this environmental clause (even google darkened its website to mark the cause).

Enviro-boy here encourages you to do your part by turning off all the lights in your house for just one hour tonight. While this one hour will probably not reduce electricity consumption by THAT much, it will at least be symbolic and raise more awareness on energy conservation.

I'm excited to see all the pictures from this event - it should be interesting to see what downtown will look like completely dark, the first time that it has been since our infamous blackout in 2003.

The New Eiffel Tower?

March 28, 2008 - In celebration of the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower, a French architect submitted his designs of a temporary addition to the Tower's top level observation deck that would dramatically change the shape of the tower.

Initially the media reported that Serero Architects have won the redesign competition and that the addition would be built relatively soon. However, it has been revealed that there was no such competition and there are no plans to redesign the Eiffel Tower. Phew - cause the that new addition (British newspapers called it a "hat") is terribly ugly and would have sparked outrage around the world if it was ever approved!