Photo: "Parkdale on television" by Kyra Savolainen, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

"We must remain vigilant when it comes to public safety," says Mayor David Miller, in an interview following the broad daylight shooting of a teenager on the TTC yesterday. How exactly do we do that, sir? If we can't expect people to resolve conflict without firing guns, how can we expect to confine these altercations to places that don't include public endangerment? On a related note, the 401 was the scene of some bullet spraying last night as well. in both incidents, the suspects are yet to be apprehended.

What was a highly controversial development in the Queen West neighbourhood, may now end up being much less a problem for detractors. Home Depot has pulled out of plans to build a large retail store at Queen and Portland, and the developer may choose to divvy up that large space into a number of more traditional (i.e. smaller) retail spaces. Wouldn't it be sweet if Walmart did the same and pulled out of Leslieville plans?

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After a balmy break from seriously frigid weather last week, the cold will return tonight and the weekend will once again be nearly unbearable. It's time like this that I find myself asking "why do we live here?" I have to remind myself just how awesome this city is for 6 months of the year when we're not bundled and shivering our way through another Toronto winter.

If you haven't already joined the Toronto Twitterverse, it may be that you're not aware of its benefits. Shawn Micallef (an active Tweeter, of Spacing and Eye) wrote up a piece on Toronto Twitter that may give skeptics reason to give it a whirl. There's lots going on on Twitter throughout the day and evening that isn't on the web, and blogTO is keen to be an active participant in the community. Check out the blogTO Twitter feed, and feel free to shoot the breeze with us, and send us tips, suggestions, and feedback.

And Scarborough native and MLS superstar De Rosario has signed a 4-year deal with the Toronto FC. This is pretty big for the team, who with the addition of De Rosario may now be a contender in the playoffs.