By Darcy Higgins, Sustainability is Step One
Please see this note from Hollie Pollard who I’m helping to organize a fundraiser Thursday evening for the displaced from the 200 Wellesley Fire. Thank you.
From: http://commoncentsmom.com/2010/09/29/an-invite-wellesley-fire-fundraiser/
Himy Syed (yes that one, the one who is one of the darkhorse canidates for mayor of Toronto), I and a few other great volunteers are organizing a fundraiser for the residents of 200 Wellesley. We invite you to come and hear the stories of residents of 200 Wellesley this Thursday Septemeber 30th at 519 Church Street at …

Interview in Dandyhorse Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 // Fall 2010

SWEET (BIKE) DREAMS
Himy Syed, mayoral candidate

What role does the bicycle play in your life?
Bike, foot, transit, taxi. In that order, is how I prioritize how I choose to move about this city. The bicycle for me is what shoes are to most people. It’s my feet. When duties demand I be in and around the downtown core, being on a bike is much faster and more convenient than depending on the ever-increasing iffyness of our subway or streetcars. A quick …

From Dandyhorse Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 // Fall 2010
Rob Ford
“Working for the People”
Age 41, High school football coach, City Councillor for Ward 2 North Etobicoke, helps run the family business Deco Labels and Tags.
robfordformayor.ca
OLD QUOTE: “I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” — 2007
NEW QUOTE: “I will guarantee to trim the fat…at City Hall.”
BIKE LANES: No
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: A 2007 city council video (now a …

By Mike Adler, InsideToronto
There was one question everyone came to ask – the one about money.
And yes, the leading candidates to be Toronto’s mayor – save one – seemed to promise the arts community will get a lot more.
That one candidate, for those familiar with the city’s mayoral race, was no surprise.
“I would love to be able to promise it, but we’re $3 billion in debt,” Rob Ford told 400 artists, art patrons and arts workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The Etobicoke councillor voted this year to support a …

Cycling advocates aim to grow awareness amongst candidates of cyclists’ concerns with current conditions.
By Yvonne Bambrick, Toronto Cyclists Union
Toronto, September 27, 2010 – In an effort to share the daily experience of thousands of cycle commuters, the Toronto Cyclists Union led 8 of the Mayoral Candidates on a 30 minute rush-hour commute by bicycle this morning. Candidates were invited to share their experience & plans with the media at a 9:15am press conference following the ride.
Yvonne Bambrick, the Toronto Cyclists Union’s Director of Communications led today’s 20 person ride …

By Caitlin Orr – Rye Here, Rye Now
Normally, someone walking through St. James Town encounters a bouquet of scents from diverse residents’ cooking. Yesterday, the acrid smell of smoke overwhelmed all else within blocks of the neighbourhood in every direction. The source was a six-alarm blaze that spread to at least three apartments in 200 Wellesley, a high-rise managed by Toronto Community Housing. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but it was very difficult to put out because of a lot of combustible debris in the …

From rtlechow’s posterous

By Steve Kupferman, Torontoist
Today was Toronto’s tenth annual iteration of World Car Free Day. This year, for the first time, the event was held in Queen’s Park North, where roads were blockaded to car traffic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Few people turned out for the event, making it less a celebration of pedestrians and cyclists than a massive, desolate mid-day auto traffic obstruction.

Dan McDermott, director of Sierra Club Canada’s Ontario chapter, which orchestrated the event in partnership with the City, told …

By Tomato Pretz, YummyLocal
TTC Wednesdays are back where you can get a pizza square for only $1.
Every Wednesday from now to November 3rd,  starting at noon to six so you can get one for lunch and one for a snack on the way home.
Now you won’t have to wonder why your subway car smells like pizza….
Duration:  September 22 – November 3.2010
TTC Booth:  Link
United Way Website:  Link

Photographs by:  HiMY SYeD / photopia

From All Fired Up In The Big Smoke
This one’s mine.
My colleagues here at All Fired Up in the Big Smoke are too compromised. Too caught up in the race. Too waist deep into the mindset of strategic voting and settling for A.B.F.
I am an old hippie. It’s not a label I shun. In fact, I embrace it.
As an old hippie, I retain a mighty mistrust of institutions, especially those ones that influence us greatly but seem impervious to our presence. Those we can only ignore as …

Produced by calixtube
Do you vote for millionaires?
Give your head a shake!

By Kelly Grant, The Globe and Mail
Well, this is guaranteed to be a time-sucker inside at least five campaign offices in Toronto.
OneStop Media, the company behind the TV screens in TTC stations, has unveiled a new game called Mayoral Munch. It’s Pac-Man with a political twist.
Players select one major mayoral candidate to be Pac-Man, which automatically turns the other four into baddies.
The candidate picked most often sits atop a constantly updated poll that will be displayed on OneStop’s screens across Toronto.

HiMY SYeD – Fast forward to the 3:17 mark
As of …

By Mike Adler, InsideToronto
Avvy Go, a lawyer working with Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrants, follows Toronto’s race for mayor and for a month she’s felt depressed.
Ever since Rob Ford spoke of his desire to close the door on newcomers – saying the city can’t take care of the people it has – “it seems like everybody else is trying to race to the bottom along with him,” Go told a mayoral debate this week.
Members of her own community have echoed Ford’s comments, said Go, representing the Colour of Poverty campaign …

In a bid to get a full list of the debates, his volunteer e-mailed 3-1-1. The city’s advice? Contact Rob Ford. Mr. Syed is livid that, in his view, 3-1-1 is stumping for a mayoral contender.

By Josh Hume, NOW Magazine

An incumbent councillor is harder to get rid of than a pool shark hogging a pub’s lone billiard table, dispatching all comers before they have a chance to sink a single shot.
To …

By Katie Daubs, Toronto Star
Ken Wood can’t afford glitzy t-shirts. His campaign office is his basement apartment and his best asset is his colour printer.
“I’m the poor people’s candidate,” Wood told a group of would-be councillors, adding that he lives off a disability allowance.
Mayoral candidate HiMY SYeD, (who spells his name with lower-case vowels in homage to a former teacher) held a gathering for “unincumbent” candidates like Wood at the Dovercourt Baptist Church on Monday. Since nine councillors are retiring or running for mayor this year, …

Yesterday was a decisive day in the 2010 campaign for mayor of Toronto because September 13th will be seen as the moment we finally achieved critical mass for crazy. In taking the battle for the Spadina Expressway underground, Rocco Rossi firmly confirmed his divisive status, going for broke with a full frontal assault on the downtown core in an effort to endear himself to those dwelling both physically and psychologically in Ford Country. We wish Mr. Rossi well in whatever future endeavours he pursues after …

By Mike Adler, InsideToronto
Underdogs and also-rans take heart: more change than usual is coming to city council, a gathering of non-incumbent candidates heard Monday, Sept. 13.
It’s normally “near impossible” to defeat a city councillor, and some can be with us for decades, but on Oct. 25 nine of 44 council seats have no incumbent running, said Himy Syed, a mayoral candidate who called council challengers to a Bloor Street church to help shorten their odds of winning.
In the front row was Daniel Murton, running to unseat Pam McConnell in Ward …

By Matthew Woolley, blogTO
A gathering for “unincumbent” council candidates organized by mayoral candidate HiMY SYeD was held at Dovercourt Baptist Church yesterday.
About a dozen participated in the underdog’s pep rally – with nine city councillors retiring or running for mayor, it is an unusually open year for council candidates from any background or experience level.
But unlike their more visible, mayoral counterparts, these DIYers came out to encourage each other and swap stories.
“We’re all coming at you like vultures,” one candidate said.
When they’re off …

By Kelly Grant, The Globe and Mail
Update: A white knight has emerged! It’s Weizhen Tang, the alleged ponzi schemer who calls himself the “Chinese Warren Buffett.” He just registered for mayor.
It’s 2 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2010. If you’re one of those white knights Torontonians have been begging to jump into the mayor’s race, you have exactly 24 hours to make up your mind. Registrations close tomorrow at 2 p.m. David Miller? Adam Vaughan? Bueller? In the likely event that a hero doesn’t emerge, the field is set. Thirty-eight people …