There have been several studies showing that teenagers are chronically sleep deprived. This is certainly not earth shattering news to any parents of teenagers, or to those of us who remember our own teenaged years. Studies have also shown that sleep deprivation can be responsible for a drop in grades – also not a surprise. The big surprise is what the Toronto District School Board is planning to do about it.

The TDSB is looking to set up a pilot project in one high school in the Greater Toronto Area where classes would not begin until 11:30 AM. The school has yet to be selected. This has been tried in several schools in the U.S. and they are reporting less absenteeism, fewer dropouts, and better grades. However they are not mentioning what time the classes started. As an example, there are schools in the U.S. that had 7:15 AM start times who moved to 8:30 AM – not 11:30 AM as planned for the school in the Greater Toronto Area.

I thought that the students in the GTA would be jumping up and down with joy at the thought of starting school so late, but many are concerned that this will interfere with their part time jobs. It will also be difficult to coordinate with teachers’ schedules, after school activities, and busing.
What do you think about this idea? Are we giving teenagers a scholastic advantage? Or are we giving them permission to go to bed too late and get up too late? What ever happened to “Early to bed, and early to rise……”?

Now that the weather has begun to get colder, many of us are cleaning out our closets and finding many items which we don’t, or won’t wear anymore. They may not fit or they may not be the height of fashion. Please don’t throw them away. Instead, think of donating your used items in Toronto to local charities that are always in need.

Before you decide on donating your used items in Toronto by dropping them off in one of the collection bins found all around the city, there are some things that you should know. Many boxes are run by for-profit organizations that are making over 3 million dollars a year by taking advantage of your kind generosity. As of January 2007 the City of Toronto has required that bins accepting donations of items in Toronto are required to be clearly identified as a legitimate charity or as a for-profit organization. Before donating your used clothing items, please check that you are making your donation to a charity and not lining the pockets of a for-profit company.

Below is a partial list of some of the legitimate charitable organizations where you can donate used items in Toronto with peace of mind.

http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf

http://www.bnaibrith.ca/foundation/foundn.htm

http://www.ofcp.on.ca/

There are many who feel that they most beautiful time of the year is the autumn. The air is crisp and clean, the sun is bright, and the fall colours are a breathtaking kaleidoscope of reds, yellows, and oranges that seem to repaint our streets in technicolour.

In order to enjoy the beauty of the fall colours, you don’t have to drive out of town. In Toronto we have an abundance of parks and green spaces right here in our own backyard.

Toronto gardens and conservatories are alive with fall colours. An invigorating hike is the ideal way to celebrate the season and take in the fall colours. Below is a link to a map of the trails and parks.
http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parks_gardens/index.htm

Don’t forget your camera!

The Greater Toronto Area has a well deserved reputation for its world class film festivals. But, did you know that we are hosting the 2nd Annual Made-For-Mobile Film Festival – Mobifest Toronto? Yes, there is sometimes truth in advertising and the name of the festival describes it to a tee. All of the movies are made for mobile.

November 4th is the deadline for entries and there are more than $5,000.00 in prizes waiting for the outstanding filmmakers. All submissions must be no more than one minute in length (not including credits) and each film must be made specifically for mobile. The esteemed festival jury will select 60 finalists. On November 20th at the Isabel Bader Theatre all of the 60 finalists will have their work screened and the awards will be handed out in 5 categories – Best Animation, Best Canadian, Caught on Treo, Eyeweekly Toronto Filmmaker Award, and Best of Festival.

When you look at the Toronto skyline and see construction everywhere in the downtown core, do you wonder who they keep building all of these condos for? The downtown core of the Greater Toronto Area is actually one of the fastest growing communities in the GTA, with no signs of slowing down.

The new residents are a condo developer’s dream – educated, well off, and childless. In the last 5 years approximately 17,000 new housing units were built to accommodate the over 165,000 people that have moved into downtown Toronto during that same period.

Surprising enough, most of the new downtown GTA residents have not arrived from the suburbs. They were already Greater Toronto Area residents, many of them moving within 5 kilometres of their previous address. What is not surprising is that the largest demographic moving into new downtown Toronto condos is the 25 – 39 age bracket. They are young, upwardly mobile, and childless. In fact only 4% of the newly built condos have children living there. Although families with children are living in the downtown Greater Toronto Area, they are moving into older condos, as are the seniors. As more and more people keep moving into downtown GTA, the building of more condos will continue as we watch Toronto grow higher and higher.

Every time you ride the Toronto subway system, bus, or streetcar, you will be photographed by one of 12,000 cameras. No, this is not a new reality television show, it is an effort to help stop crime. Cameras will be installed on the 800 Toronto subway cars, 248 streetcars, and 1,700 buses. Transit users will be photographed every time that they travel on the TTC or enter a maintenance yard

All of the photographs will be stored for use exclusively by the police in order to assist in the solving of crimes. In addition to the photographs, the system will allow police or a TTC command centre the ability to view the inside of Toronto subway cars during an emergency situation and speak to the passengers. Buses and streetcars will only be outfitted with regular cameras.

This project, which should be fully operational by June, is estimated to cost 18 million dollars, 6 million of which will be contributed by Ottawa. By and large TTC riders have been very enthusiastic about the installation of cameras in the Toronto subway and on the buses and streetcars saying that they will feel safer while using the TTC. However there are some who are yelling about “big brother watching”. How do you feel about the cameras? Do you find it invasive or applaud it as a crime deterrent?

The Rendez Vous With Madness Film Festival is now in its 15^th year. The short films and feature films shown from November 8 – 17 are much more than mere entertainment. These are ground breaking films that provide valuable information and dispel myths and misconceptions about mental illness and addictions – 2 subjects that we avoid at all costs and about which we are seriously misinformed. However, there is nary a family who has been untouched by mental illness and/or addiction.

Education and information are the first steps to understanding those among us who are suffering. Each program at the festival touches on a different theme and offers post film thought provoking panel discussions with professionals and/or people who have first hand experience with mental illness or addictions.

The Festival will be taking place at the Workman Theatre located at
1001 Queen St West. 

On October 28^th Sunday hours will resume at 16 Toronto Public Library branches that had been closed as a part of the Mayor’s ill conceived cost cutting measures. The sad reality of this is that the need for public libraries to remain open on Sundays and the public outcry as a result of the closure had nothing to do with the decision to reopen.

We can thank Local 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. They filed a grievance on behalf of the 188 library workers that were affected by the Sunday closings. The argument put forward by the union was that the Sunday library closures illegally laid off the library workers, contravening their collective agreement. And the arbitrator agreed. The union is still working towards recuperating lost wages and/or seniority that their members may have suffered during the closure. The library workers win and the public wins. At the end of the day, does it really matter how it all came to be?

The Barnes Dance may be coming to Toronto this spring. This is not a new artistic troop or new form of exercise. The Barnes Dance, named after traffic engineer Henry Barnes, uses red lights at intersections to stop traffic in all directions so that pedestrians can cross a busy intersection in any direction without dodging traffic.

Pending approval by city council, the Barnes Dance, also called scramble intersections, will be tried out this spring at Yonge & Bloor and Bay & Bloor. Scramble intersections are currently in use in many American and international cities. Japan has over 300 of them. The great advantage of scramble intersections is that studies have shown a marked decrease in the number of pedestrian/car accidents. The downside is there is increased wait time at red lights for drivers. However that should be offset by the fact that they will no longer have to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Have you been in a city that already has scramble intersections? What did you think of them?

If you have always dreamed of sending your son to Upper Canada College – the prestigious all-boys school in Forest Hill - but the $24,000 tuition fee for an elementary student made your dream unattainable, there may now be a possibility of entrance for your son. There is currently a student body of 1,130 students, with a mere 7% on some type of scholarship program. And these programs are not available until the 7^th grade. In an effort to open up UCC to a more diverse student body, they are embarking on a multi-million fundraising campaign in the hopes of being able to fund 25% its students.

UCC has always had the reputation of being an elite institution and trying to shed its elitist image will take some work. Working on the US standard where more than 20% of students receive financial aid, UCC will have its work cut out for it. Also in the plan is to phase out the boarding school in response to the continent-wide decline in boarding school enrolment. UCC hopes to appeal to a diverse group of students from all walks of life and different socioeconomic backgrounds. Would you know be interested in sending your son to UCC now that financial aid was going to be available? Or do you find it still too elitist?