fourONEsixSTYLE

It’s not often Toronto’s Terminal One at Pearson inspires me to break into song and dance. That might be different after watching Feist’s new video My Moon My Man. Next time I find myself strolling down the moving sidewalks looking at our sparkling city under a full moon I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold back. I just hope there’ll be a few others that join in.

The jetsetting Canadian singer songwriter has been away for awhile. I’m happy to hear she’s just moved back to Toronto where she’s filmed a few videos for her upcoming album The Reminder, scheduled for release in Canada and the US today. For now Feist is working solo but her past musical collaborations led her to work with with Broken Social Scene and former Toronto roommate Peaches.

My man Craig Williams, Location Manager on Feist’s recent videos which were shot over several nights at the airport, said they were ton of fun to work on. It’s a catchy song too. See what people are saying about the video on blogTO.

This photo is hands-down the most gorgeous photograph of Toronto I have ever seen, flickr buffs call it cloudporn. Local blog Torontoist (note lack of link) credits their reader Gareth for submitting it, but unfortunately they don’t offer a link to his site(s), as most blogs would do. So I’m left searching the back pages of flickr on my own just to find more of these delicious shots. I’ll share them with you here at fourONEsixSTYLE as I do.

air
Originally uploaded by 416style.

I’ve complained before about the ridiculously high landing fees at Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport. They’re higher than Tokyo’s Narita, and part of the reason why Hamilton and Buffalo’s airport are becoming more attractive transportation hubs to frequent travelers.

What bothers me even more is that our airport has no rail link to downtown Toronto. If we want to continue saying that Toronto is a “World Class City” we’ve got to be able to put our money where our mouth is. A cab to my home in High Park, 20 minutes away, costs about $45, and the Go train to me is ridiculous. If you wanna hop on the train at the Dundas West platform you need to go down to Union station to buy a ticket (I’ve been told by their staff). To me it’s really no wonder we didn’t get the Olympics. It’s a damn shame. If we can’t sort out our own citizens’ transportation issues how are we going to look to the rest of the world if they come visit? Certainly not world class. If it takes bringing in some European experts in transportation efficiency let’s do it. Nobody wants Toronto to be the next LA. We complain car culture is killing us but there are still so few alternatives. Let’s show the rest of the world we can do it, and earn the title “World Class”.

Unique
Originally uploaded by Irina Souiki / Riri.

News broke today that Toronto’s Pearson Airport, affectionately called YYZ, has now scaled to the top of the list of most expensive airports in the world at which to land. Tokyo’s Narita Airport was the previous winner, previously charging jumbos $9,400 to land at the facility while Toronto will now charge over $13,000 per landing, an exorbitant amount that will take a huge toll on Canada’s busiest airport as it is supposed to enjoy major growth.

Turns out the government in Ottawa is responsible for jacking up the rent disproportionately to other Canadian airports. In a few years time Toronto’s Pearson will pay 63% of all airport rent in Canada, while carrying only 33% of air traffic. Ultimately this price hike means fewer planes can afford to fly to and from the city, likely diverting instead through other hubs, while Torontonians wishing to travel will suffer the consequences. That doesn’t seem like a bright idea: fewer tourists (dollars) coming in to the city, and fewer people traveling abroad for business.

My concerns about Pearson don’t stop there. A lack of a high-speed rail link to our downtown core does nothing for our reputation as a world-class city, a title we all seem to strive for, and though it’s called Toronto Pearson, it’s not even in Toronto, nor the GTA. The airport is located in and governed by the suburb City of Mississauga. All we have is the Toronto Island Airport supporting regional travel. Since it’s about 6 blocks from my work I thought it might be nice to try it out and fly up to a friend’s cottage in Timmons last summer instead of driving 7 hours each way, but $600 was just too much to pay. So I’m feeling a little stuck here. Could try a Westjet flight out of Hamilton, Ontario next time and pay substantially lower flight prices, but it just seems so ridiculous to live in a city 5 million strong and not have a reasonable airport at our finger tips. So much for ‘Toronto Unlimited’.

tracks
Originally uploaded by Pritch.

About an hour and a half after Air France flight 358 crashed into a ravine at the Toronto Airport we started to hear news that there may be some survivors. Amazing! Then more and more reports came in. I checked the various news broadcasts, trying to get the best coverage. CTV had some good leads. CNN was pretty good too. CBC was doing something on rowing. Back to CTV.

So what caused the horrible fire? One witness CTV interviewed had seen lightening strike the plane. Then, today, I read that planes get hit on average once a year, that passengers wouldn’t even notice it, and that this wouldn’t have been a factor in the crash. It was suggested by CNN that stormy weather had caused the crash, but the papers again disputed this potential cause, saying that winds had not reached a severe enough speed to set the plane’s landing off course. So, it was the papers, The Globe and Mail, The National Post and Dose, that appeared to be ahead of the game, but of course they had more time to prepare the story. The papers were full of diagrams of the runway, the Toronto airport and chronology of the crash. Most stated that the plane had lost its front wheels as it crashed onto the runway. Hmmm…not enough info for me still.

After lunch I checked to see what images flick’r had of the incident (they had had the first widely available pics of the London bombing, taken by citizens at the scene) and so I found this great example of the aftermath of the crash. The picture shows that all the wheels touched down on the runway and carried the plane into the ditch, as evidenced by the skid marks coming off the runway. So the papers are busy with speculation too, and presenting it as fact. Well, good for citizen journalism-at-large and on-the-scene. So far flick’r is the source I give the most credit to. Though, we’ll all have to wait until a full investigation begins by officials on Wednesday. Until then, perhaps my firefighter friend Dust[in] can comment on the scene and rescue efforts, which were by all standards truly amazing.