Photo: "In there?" by seanorr, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Metropass Hot Dealz are gonna make this summer a sizzla, yo! A cross-promotional effort between the TTC and a number of Toronto touristy businesses (like the CN Tower, Casa Loma, the Toronto Zoo, and more) means that Metropass holders will be get discounts when they visit certain city attractionz. Seems like a more appropriate promo to run on weekly passes to me. Tourists don't buy Metropasses, and people who buy Metropasses are generally residentz that have been-there-done-that. Yo.

Not so fast, Ossington. City council voted last night to impose a 1-year moratorium on the opening of new restaurants and bars on the too-trendy-for-its-own-good strip between Queen and Dundas because noise complaint issues amongst residents are on the rise.

Here come the toilets, people! City council also voted on a proposal to make it mandatory for large retail stores to provide the public with washroom facilities. The TTC was also pointed out for its lack of public facilities, and may be affected by the proposal as well.

The Ontario Provincial Police are reviewing their own protocols and conduct after it became clear that Victoria Stafford was abducted and murdered with no Amber Alert issued. An alert wasn't initially issued because police deemed that the case "didn't fit the criteria" which in hindsight was a serious error.

Someone, somewhere, wants to buy our old subway cars. The TTC plans to replace the aging fleet with newer, far more spiffy trains, and a buyer is interested in taking the old ones to use on another transit system (if contracts get approved). I wonder what percentage of the cost of the new trains will be mitigated by the sale of the old ones? Any guesses? I'll throw a number out there - 10%.

And Union Station has a new, secure parking facility for bike commuters, complete with a changing room, vending machines, and air pumps. Membership runs at $20/month (after an initial $25 setup fee) for 24h/day access, or you can opt to use it for just $2 per day as a non-member for 7am-7pm access. It'll be interesting to see if/when demand exceeds the 180 spaces currently available.