to move up and down
The adventures of Spidey Steve: City Hall wall crawler
When the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked National Post illustrator and humour writer Steve Murray if he would like to rappel off the top of city hall, he agreed, on one condition: that he be allowed to dress as Spider-Man.
Illustration by Steve Murray. Rob Ford has had a very bad few days, leaving us all with the question What the #!%* did Rob Ford say to the 911 operator?
Friends? Jack Layton had a few
Life for hundreds came to a standstill Tuesday afternoon in sunny Nathan Phillips Square as passers-by stopped at the perimeter of a growing sea of chalk graffiti messages written in honour of Jack Layton, the former NDP leader who died Monday.
A bucket bore a sign “Chalk 4 Jack,” and people added their own messages: “Jack Layton was the reason I started voting,” and “Live by Jack’s example. Don’t agonize — organize.”
The graffiti has spread up the ramp to City Hall’s green roof (Layton would have approved) and now fills perhaps 100 of the square’s two by two-metre concrete paving tiles. Only the journalists walk on the chalk; at 1:30 p.m. about 100 people stood, some eating hot dogs or drinking Pepsi, some on bikes, many with cameras, one with a parasol against the hot sun, reading the hundreds of sendoff notes. Others took up the orange, blue, yellow and green chalk and added their own wishes. (About 50 people were lined up inside City Hall to sign a condolence book, but the graffiti seemed to fit more with the public and effervescent nature of the late leader).
(Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post)
Trouble in the skies
It’s been a turbulent, and surprisingly political, year for competitive kite fliers in Toronto, who have brought the popular South Asian and East Asian pastime of duels in the sky to city parks. After years of quietly tangling with opponents and slicing each others’ strings, the kite fighters made headlines last August when Councillor Chin Lee exposed the dangerous side of a seemingly inoffensive activity, its leftover twine strewn all over Scarborough’s Milliken Park, neighbouring homes and schoolyards. Having seen photos of how the nylon string, coated with glass fragments, injures wildlife, Mr. Lee’s concerns led the city to ban kite flying altogether in Milliken Park, unleashing the scorn of kite enthusiasts across the city.
City staff are now floating new regulations that differentiate between “kite fighting,” which uses abrasive string, and “competitive kite flying,” which employs a biodegradable, cotton string. The proposal is to ban the hazardous material used in the former, while issuing permits for the latter, and restricting it to certain of sites.
The Week That Wasn’t by Sarah Lazarovic
Frustrated by street food bureaucracy, TO foodies took their cause underground.
National Post front page for April 15, 2011
PQ plans to make next pm’s life hard
Genre’s demise hastened as ABC pulls All My Children and One Life To Live
It’s hot dogs or bust at City Hall
Pressing Questions: Advice to the Media for Handling Rob Ford
There are grumblings in the City Hall press gallery about Mayor Ford’s communication. We asked our star advicist, Steve Murray, to help his fellow members of the media.
1. Dear Steve,
Me and the boys were given priority seating by the Mayor and now everyone else in the press gallery is bitching. We can’t help it that we’re awesome. Can you recommend some noise cancelling headphones to drown out the uproar?
Nobody pouts and moans quite like a jealous journalist, so I feel your pain. Fortunately for us, no one accepts free gifts quite like a journalist, either!
Photo of the day: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford takes questions from media at City Hall, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011. “I’m always available. It’s pretty hard to hide 300 pounds of fun.” (Brett Gundlock/National Post)
Arrests made as OCAP protest shuts down Toronto budget meeting
Protesters with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty disrupted a meeting of Toronto’s budget committee, demanding that Mayor Rob Ford reverse cuts they say target the poor.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Heather Schofield entered committee room demanding the attention of councillors who had been listening to a presentation about the city’s financial future. Budget Chief Mike Del Grande quickly recessed the meeting, as the procession of activists neared.
“We’re here because the proposed cuts that they’re making are devastating,” Heather Schofield told reporters after. “This is a crisis, we’re not talking about can we politely please ask sir for a little more food. People are dying on the streets of Toronto, that’s what we’re talking about. And if you want to tell us to stand in a queue and wait and speak politely, that’s bogus.” (Photo: Brett Gundlock/National Post)
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