During the last garbage strike in New York City, residents got creative. They wrapped up the garbage in gift wrap and left it their cars with the car doors unlocked. Clever thieves quickly stole the gift-wrapped garbage and their problem was solved. I haven’t heard of anyone trying it yet in Toronto.

In interesting times come interesting solutions. There are several enterprising people who have started garbage removal services for Toronto residents who don’t want to haul their garbage to transfer stations and temporary dump locations.

• Just Junk is in the business of removing garbage and you can book regular pick ups.
• Dave Batterson, a roofer, has expanded beyond roofing and is now in the garbage pick up business with his newly opened company aptly named Five Bucks a Bag. Dave is offering garbage pick up for $5 per 20 pound bag.
• Bill Hennessey started Toronto Same Day Garbage Removal. He employs students and independent contractors who will pick up your garbage for $50 per pick up and $10 per bag.
• I Am Junk offers 24/7 same day garbage removal service.
• Ryan Taylor, now known as the Trashman, will have your garbage picked up for $10 a bag, or $50 for six bags, take it to a designated drop site, and donate the money to War Child Canada.
• Rid-Of-It will pick up your garbage and recycling.
• Junk-Two-Go charges a minimum of $95 for a pick up but you can get together with friends and neighbours to share the cost.

Why doesn’t Toronto do what Etobicoke has done and hire a private contractor? Let’s get the City of Toronto out of the stranglehold of unions.

Toronto is becoming a giant garbage dump as trash and litter spills over on the sidewalks and streets. Parks are no longer refuges from city life where urban dwellers can take refuge among nature in one of the many parks and parkettes throughout Toronto. Instead the parks have become garbage dumps full of vermin and stench providing refuge to rats, mice, and raccoons seeking a full course meal.

Mayor Miller went on CNN and spoke of how well Toronto was coping with the garbage strike. I wonder if I live in the same city as Mayor Miller. He waxed eloquent about how American tourists should not cancel their travel plans to Toronto while American travel agencies have issued a travel advisory against visiting Toronto because of the garbage strike. Who will an American tourist listen to, their own travel agent or the Mayor of Toronto who is clearly desperate?

The City of Toronto has made a new offer to the striking workers, but the union doesn’t seem to be too impressed with the offer or the fact that Mayor Miller made it public. Torontonians are angry. They want this issue resolved and they want it resolved now. There is no sympathy for the strikers and in fact very few people understand why there is a strike. Some strikers are acutely aware that they are in a no-win situation and some have begun crossing the picket lines and have stopped enforcing the wait times to dump garbage. Perhaps the time has come for the City of Toronto to start privatizing services.

The Beaches International Jazz Festival from July 17 – 26, is now it its 21^st year. What began as a small, local event featuring an afternoon of jazz in the park has become one of Toronto’s favourite summertime festivals. Staying true to its roots, The Beaches International Jazz festival is FREE.

Featured Events:

• The Festival Kick-off July 17 – 19 at Woodbine Park located at Lake Shore and Coxwell.
• Streetfest July 23 – 25 from 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM on Queen Street East features 50 jazz bands along a 2 km stretch of Queen St. E. Over 1 million people are expected to attend.
• Main Stage July 25 – 26 11:30 AM – 6:30 PM at Kew Gardens features free concerts.
• Workshops & Lecture Series July 20 – 25 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM at the Mennonite New Life Center located at 1774 Queen St. East (Queen and Lark Streets, just west of Woodbine).
• Marathon/Walk July 26 – 20k at 8:30 AM, 10k at 9:30 AM, and 5k at 10:00 AM starting at the foot of Kew Gardens, out and back on the Martin Goodman Trail to Ashbridges Bay and Tommy Thompson Park.

Come early to stake out a place at the Main Stage concerts or to find a place at Streetfest. Bring along a chair or blanket and make your self comfortable. The Beaches will be teeming with people so please leave your car at home and take the TTC

• Take 92 Woodbine South Bus from Woodbine Subway Station
• Take 22 Coxwell Bus from Coxwell Station.
• Take the 501 Queen St Streetcar east from Queen or Osgoode Subway Stations

Heritage Toronto Walks is a fabulous program that operates FREE neighbourhood walking tours from April – October. The walking tours take place on the weekend and on the occasional weekday evening and you don’t have to make reservations to participate. The walks are led by volunteers from Heritage Toronto and from partner community organizations, museums and individuals who thoroughly research and design the walks. Depending on the walk, there could be as many as 80 people participating, but there is no minimum requirement.

Most of us don’t really know this fabulous city that we live in. We take great pains to learn about places that we travel to, but we tend to ignore what is in our own backyard. This is a chance to play tourist in your own city. Think of it as a mini-vacation without a passport and the costs associated with travel. Here is a list of the walks for the season. When you click on a walk it will give you the details on the start time and place, end time and place, what you can expect to see and learn, the focus of the walk - architectural, historical, archaeological, natural heritage, or a combination, and the degree of difficulty you can expect. Please wear comfortable shoes, even for the easier walks, bring along water, wear sunscreen and a hat, and dress appropriately for the weather. The walks go on rain or shine with the exception of thunder storms.

For up to the minute details on upcoming walks there is an information line 416-338-3886. The message changes weekly and includes full descriptions of the walks coming up that weekend.

The Toronto civic workers continue to strike and the garbage is piling up. There are now 19 temporary dump sites that are open from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM.

1. Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, 51 Beechgrove Dr.
2. Christie Pits off Crawford St. at Bloor at Christie Sts.
3. Moss Park, off Queen St. E. at Sherbourne St.
4. North York Centennial Centre, 580 Finch Ave. W.
5. George Bell Arena, 215 Ryding Ave.
6. Eglinton Flats, 101 Emmett Ave.
7. Eglinton Flats, off Jane St. at Eglinton Ave.
8. Sir Casmir Gzowski Park, south of Lake Shore Blvd.
9. Sunnyside Park, 1755 Lake Shore Blvd.
10. Earlscourt Park, on Landsdowne Ave., north of Davenport Rd.
11. Etienne Brule Park, Old Mill Rd. at Catherine St., on Humber River
12. Caledonia Park, 1135 Caledonia Rd.
13. North Toronto Memorial Arena, off Edith Dr.
14. York Mills Arena, 2539 Bayview Ave.
15. Villiers Street, between Saulter and Cherry Sts.
16. Taylor Creek Park, off Haldon Ave.
17. Ted Reeve Arena, 175 Main St.
18. Scarborough Arena, 75 Birchmount Rd.
19. Wishing Well Park, off Pharmacy Ave. and Sheppard Ave. E.

In addition, there are transfer stations:
A. Disco Transfer Station, 120 Disco Rd.
B. Dufferin Transfer Station, 35 Vanley Cres.
C. Scarborough Transfer Station, 1 Transfer Place
D. Victoria Park Transfer Station, 3350 Victoria Park Ave.
E. Commissioners Transfer Station, 400 Commissioners St.
F. Ingram Transfer Station, 50 Ingram Dr. (24 HOURS)
G. Bermondsey Transfer Station, 188 Bermondsey Rd. (24 HOURS)

What is to become of our parks which have now been turned into garbage dumps? Rats, raccoons, and insects are a certainty. What are the long term ramifications of these temporary garbage dumps and why should tax paying residents who live near these parks/garbage dumps have to tolerate vermin and stench? Since the city has closed all of its Green P parking lots, why weren’t they all simply designated as garbage dumps?

Counterfeiting continues to be a big problem for the TTC . Last year the TTC eliminated paper tickets and the tokens were changed to bi-metal in order to make counterfeiting more difficult, but I wonder how effective the new tokens really are. Considering that the TTC has $2 million in fraud-related losses each year, it doesn’t seem likely that it did the trick. Now it appears that fake Metropasses are the hot issue.

The TTC sells 260,000 Metropasses every month and they seize about 500 bogus passes every month. In reality there are many more fakes out there because they are almost identical to the real ones and many elude detection. This year to date the police have seized about 2,500 fake passes and arrested 500 people in connection with counterfeiting. What is the TTC going to do about this? They will be issuing new Metropasses in July that feature a hologram which is supposed to make them harder to counterfeit. This will cost the TTC approximately $250,000 annually. Considering the rate at which credit cards with holograms are faked, does the TTC have a reasonable expectation that this is a well advised course of action?  In addition when you buy a Metropass it will come with a yellow sticker that you must remove before you can use it. This sounds like the stickers that are on new credit cards that give you the instructions for activating your card. The TTC is clearly trying to emulate the credit card model for enhanced security. How long to you think that it will take before the counterfeiters have developed Metropasses with holograms and yellow stickers? Perhaps if the TTC made purchasing a Metropass cost effective, they wouldn’t have to be spending fortunes on enhanced security measures.

It appears that two enterprising fellows in Montreal have found a way to ease the pain of finding parking in Montreal, so why can’t it be done in Toronto? Philippe Guevremont and Dominic Chartrand founded Ma Place, a website that finds and reserves a parking space for you in downtown Montreal and near Metro Longueuil. It’s a very simple process. You sign up and enter where and when you need a parking space. The computer finds the parking space, reserves it, and takes your payment by credit card. So far approximately 700 people have signed up for the service.

Why don’t we have anything like this in Toronto? The closest is http://www.parkingspots.com/ which doesn’t help in your daily quest to find a parking space. What it does is help you find long term monthly parking, rent out your monthly parking space, and locate event parking.

Ma Place sounds like a great idea that could really work in Toronto. The amount of time wasted looking for a parking space, not to mention the frustration level, continues to escalate. In spite of the fact that the Mayor of Toronto and the current city council would like to see cars banished from our fair city that is not going to happen. Making the parking process more efficient would benefit the drivers, the city, and the environment. There would be much less gridlock and less idling, therefore less pollution. It seems that this type of parking system is a win-win for everyone. Why doesn’t the City of Toronto get behind a project like this and do something useful for a change?

Doors Open Toronto is returning from May 23 – 24 for its 10th year and it is bigger and better than ever with 175 buildings participating. Each of these buildings has architectural, historic, cultural and/or social significance. Admission is FREE in all participating buildings. Here is a list of the buildings that will be open to the public and the days and hours of availability. Be sure to check carefully as not all buildings are open on both days and the hours of availability may vary. The buildings are spread out all over the GTA so try to plan strategically in order to see as many as possible. The TTC is a much better option than trying to drive from building to building and locating parking each time.

New additions to Doors Open Toronto include the Albany Club, the Artscape Wynchwood Barns, Centre for Iranian Studies, the Deaf Culture Centre, Don Jail, the Wind Turbine Generator at Exhibition Place, the Factory Theatre, Fire Halls 423 & 425, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship York, Islamic Information & Dawah Centre International, Scarborough Masonic Temple, Shamrock Bowl, Textile Museum of Canada, Tollkeeper’s Cottage, TTC Greenwood Maintenance Shop, Variety Village, and the Westwood Sailing Club.

There are no tickets or pre-registration required. Make sure that you wear comfortable shoes, have sunblock, a hat, and water with you. It is not uncommon for some buildings to have long lines. Program guides will be available as inserts in the Thursday, May 21 edition of the Toronto Star, City Hall Doors Open Toronto Headquarters at 100 Queen Street West from Thursday, May 21, at the Royal Ontario Museum Friday night kick-off party from 4:30 - 9:30 PM., Access Toronto desks in all Toronto Civic Centres, and at All Doors Open Toronto buildings on the event weekend.

Why are President Obama and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty suddenly talking about regulating the credit card industry? Simply put, we are all getting taken advantage of – retailers and consumers alike. The bank interest rates keep going down and the credit card interest rates keep going up. There is no regulation and the credit card companies are free to do what ever they want to. It’s about time someone did something about it.

According to Stop Sticking It To Us, a group of Canadian associations led by Retail Council of Canada and backed by over 200,000 businesses from coast-to-coast, Canadian consumers paid over $4.5 billion in hidden credit card fees last year. What can you do about it? Contact your Member of Parliament and sign the Stop Sticking It To Us petition.

We may very well see higher debit card changes very soon. Interac is talking with the Competition Bureau of Canada about changing from a not-for-profit to a for-profit company and both Visa and MasterCard are planning to enter the Canadian debit card market soon. This will cost both consumers and merchants dearly. A Bank of Canada survey reported on the current cost of processing a transaction. On a $36.50 transaction the costs are:
•    Debit card - 19 cents.
•    Cash - 25 cents.
•    Credit card - 82 cents.

It’s no wonder that a Bank of Canada study from August 2008 found that 53% of merchants preferred debit cards, 30% preferred cash, and only 5% preferred credit cards.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty isn’t saying much about what we can expect in the form of regulations for the credit card industry. In all likelihood Canada will wait and see what the Americans are doing and then follow suit.

As of yet nothing has been carved in stone but Toronto traffic officials say that they will experiment with banning right turns on red lights at 10 intersections next year in an effort to make the streets safer for pedestrians. According to a City of Toronto study, in 2002 and 2003 drivers turning right on red lights hit 422 pedestrians trying to cross a Toronto intersection with the right-of-way. As a pedestrian who has almost been mowed down on numerous occasions by careless drivers turning on a red light I applaud the move. As a driver, I loathe the idea of sitting at a red light waiting for the light to change before I can turn.

The intersections under consideration for the experiment will be high foot traffic intersections. However, opponents of the idea say that this is just an underhanded way of introducing the ban on right turns on red lights, and that once this comes into effect it will spread. You may not be aware but there are already 98 places in Toronto where you can’t turn right on a red light including the scramble intersection at Yonge and Dundas Streets.

Most cities in Canada and the United States permit making right turns on red lights. Montreal and New York City are the two notable exceptions and if you ever experienced the drivers in those cities first hand, you would be very grateful for the ban. If indeed the ban would just effect intersections with high foot traffic, then I support it, but if slowly but surely Torontonians are going to lose their ability to make right hand turns on red lights, then I am against the idea. How do you feel about it?