Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

I’ve been busy for the past few days. I have a lovely new 64 bit dual core lots of ram no more gerbil power for me laptop! I’ve spent an embarassing amount of time playing around with it. Oh dear, I am in love! Fast and powerful.  Too bad it couldn’t organise me and make my bed in the morning. Maybe next purchase.

Now… this doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my favourite hobby horse – TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) incompetence, tomfoolery and idiocy. The web is thick with stories from very, very unhappy riders. I hope the TTC management and city politicians are taking note of what is being said. We aren’t just unhappy – we are furious about the mismanagement and/or surly service. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are entire studies devoted to managing crowds in time of crisis – there was not excuse – let me repeat that – NO EXCUSE – for the fiasco that happened when the St. Clair station was shut down.

I applaud the TTC for taking quick action in ensuring the tunnel safety. And to those who have blogged they don’t believe it was an outside contractor – I live on the street where the nightmare on Jackes Ave has been going on for something like 3 years of half assed construction.  Yea.. the TTC was innocent this time.

The problem was not in the tunnel closure, but in how badly it was handled. Oh and to rub salt into the wounds of all of us who were left confused and bewildered while underground – TTC chair Giambrone had the unmitigated nerve to say gee didn’t we handle the crisis well. Hmmm.. well.. to be honest … no. It was a nightmare of miscommunication, misdirection and bad crowd control. I have a hard time believing there are no contingency plans on hand to handle something of this magnitude. Toronto should thank the gods in heaven no one was crushed or trampled. Yea… you handled the problem… but not well.

Paul W. Homer, who writes a blog called Irrational Focus has written on this topic. You think I’m angry? Read his entry on the TTC fare hike and conditions of the TTC and you’ll get an inkling of how angry many TTC’ers are. He has an excellent idea – demand an audit of the entire system to find out where all the money is, why the subways are not being cleaned anymore, bad service and more.

If you’re fed up like me and you want to do something about it, then we have a very simple, tangible and achievable goal. We need to demand an audit. It’s our right. Spread the news, tell your family, friends and co-workers.

Well said Mr. Homer. I agree with you. Let’s find out why there is such bad service, why our stations are becoming increasingly dirty, why TTC operators treat us like we are a massive inconvenience, why there was no coherent plan to handle a fare hike, why TTC operators were invisible during the breakdown, why so many of us were left in the dark, why did so many booth attendants let people enter stations where there was no service.. oh the list is long and getting longer. Let’s throw a very powerful light onto this essential service.

Conservative MP (Member of Federal Parliament) Gerald Keddy will definitely be getting a BIG lump of coal this Christmas. The Nova Scotian MP put his foot in it when he refered to Halifax’s unemployed as “no-good bastards”.

He offered this apology:

“I would like to offer a sincere apology for remarks I made regarding the unemployed in Halifax. These comments were insensitive, and for that I am truly sorry  … In no way did I mean to offend those who have lost their job due to the global recession, nor did I mean to suggest that anyone who is unemployed is not actively looking for employment.”

You forgot to add “it was a really, really stupid thing to say too”.

I’m trying out a new blog design. I’ve been playing around with the nuts and bolts of how blogs etc look in an attempt to create a fresh new look. The design I’m currently using is excellent,  I’m just itching to create my own. So…that means I’m about to inflict some aweful things upon you. Although I have all the software etc on my computer to test, design etc, there really is nothing like loading the site up and test driving it on-site to really understand what the viewer sees. If you happen to log on and some images are missing, or the site has slightly bizarre look, that’s me on the other side of the computer poking around.

The worse of my design excesses will be hidden away from view so don’t worry. I won’t slap up one of those aweful “Under construction” signs and disappear for weeks while I labour over the site.

It was either birds or more moaning and complaining about the TTC today – I decided you needed a break from my mutterings and rantings and opted for a bird:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

Periodically I’m nice.

Couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t attach the link so you can see the bird just now. Kept trying and nothing was happening. Took 4 or 5 minutes to figure out what the problem was. Damned cat keeps sitting on the wireless receiver for the mouse and keyboard and guess what? Wireless waves can’t make it through a big furry butt! You came within a whisker of not seeing anything today. Live long enough and you will be amazed at the odd bits of knowledge you pick up.

Anyway… the pretty little boy in the picture above is a Beswick wren doing his best to attract a female. Typical isn’t it – the display some men will put on just to catch a bird’s eye. After nearly 2 weeks of really awful birds, I finally was able to draw again. I’ve been struggling with mixing the mechanical pencils with more traditional sketching pencils to achieve a smoother look. I’ve also been trying to get more of the bird’s pattern down, less heavy with the lead. Interesting and frustrating struggle, but this drawing is pretty good. I think I may be onto a technique that will allow me to have the lacy feathers mixed with the firm markings that make each bird distinctive. The other woeful birds are heavy looking and I’m not fond of them. I may load them up just to show the progression of my confidence in using mixed pencils and techniques.

Well I’m chuffed now! Happy as a lark? Contented as a cat asleep on your arm? I’m off to have a latte and sit in a bright window seat for awhile.

Don’t forget – send your letters to Santa soon. Send your letters to

Santa Claus
NORTH POLE H0H 0H0
CANADA

The jolly old elf and his minions will read your letter and reply – last year over 1.6 million letters were answered. That’s a whole lot of ho ho ho’s…

Oh and you don’t have to be Canadian to send your letters – Santa is international, not Canadian. It’s just that his mail drop off box is sitting on Canadian soil so the Canadian Post Office has assigned him a Canadian address and postal code. His reindeer fly out to the mail box and get the letters for Santa and bring them back to his workshop.

Don’t forget the H0H oHo – that’s a postal code (like a US zip code). You don’t want your letter misdirected!

P.S. I’m still stewing over the TTC’s mishandling of the shutdown and fare hikes. I just thought it would be nice to think positive thoughts for a change… ttc .. fare hikes .. think nice thoughts nice thoughts … think positive… fare hikes… surly… no … think positive thoughts… oh darn… time to abdicate responsibilites and go draw birds …

[We] apologize for all the delays. There’s really no way to deal with hundreds of thousands of people converging on one transportation corridor
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone November 19/09

hmmm… the TTC has never dealt with any halts on the system before yesterday? They never had to deal with massive crowds? Service has been perfect up until yesterday? I find this notion rather curious.

Mr. Giambrone might I suggest you give your head a hard shake! Your statement suggests the TTC has NO plans for crowd management. I find this as hard to believe as the one about the contractor who didn’t know there was a great fricken subway tunnel under the road he was cutting. This also suggests you are NOT doing your job in ensuring such plans are up-to-date, and staff know how to use the plans.

The TTC was surprised there were so many people at the Eglinton and Bloor stations during rush hour.  What kind of little ivory tower do you people live in. The platforms see thousands of people pass through them. It doesn’t take a degree in crowd management to spot a potential problem if one of the stations is closed. Hell it happens on a regular basis here in Toronto.

Mr Giambrone let me help you out with a few tips and facts:

The TTC moves approx. 466,700,000 bodies last year. That’s a lot of people using public transit. From your own TTC website, I found the following statistics on the number of people who move in and out of the main subway stations daily:

• Bloor (Yonge-University-Spadina) – 191,800
• Yonge (Bloor-Danforth) – 188,600
• St. George (Bloor-Danforth) – 122,000
• St. George (Yonge-University-Spadina) – 121,100
• Union – 95,300

That’s a whole lot of humanity. If, as you state, there is “no way to deal with hundreds of thousands of people converging on one transportation corridor” then might I suggest the entire TTC management structure resign forthwith because you are endangering our lives.

During the power outage a few years back when the ENTIRE city was blacked out, the TTC did an amazing job marshaling buses and getting us around the city. Sure it was miserable, but we still managed. Oh and there were NO trains or street cars running then.

Subway stations are closed because of accidents on occasion. Sometimes during rush hour. I have seen staff – in what seems to be the distant past – down at platform level ensuring people knew where to go and that there was a problem. This time staff were conspicuous in their absence. I hit 6 subway platforms yesterday (I do a lot of travel on the TTC – it’s my primary mode of transportation in getting to appointments around the city) and did not see a single TTC employee giving instructions on what to do. NOT ONE. No, on the contrary, all we heard were muffled or distorted announcements (only on the trains, not on the platforms and I hit 6 platforms yesterday). The announcements were (as it turned out) telling passengers to avoid the Bloor/Yonge station but nothing about avoiding Eglinton.

Mr Giambrone, this was an emergency situation. Why weren’t TTC employees on platform level telling people about the problem and advising people of alternate routes. Why is every situation dealt with as though it were some state secret? Knowledge is a powerful weapon. Why weren’t we told what the problem was and that it was unknown at that point how long it would take to repair. Leaving us in the dark ensures a couple of things: tempers flare and people become agitated with the growing crowds.

And please don’t hand me anything about that’s what the public address system is about. It is difficult to hear it on a crowded train, half the time it isn’t even used, or the person is so distorted we can’t understand them. Also, the address is for broad announcements. A few staff members at platform level directing us to alternate routes would have moved all of us along much quicker.

You and the TTC staff were shocked at the volume of people getting off at Eglinton? Stop playing silly buggers with the politicians and start travelling to the stations. It is always busy. At rush hour it is a nightmare. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? Eglinton is a major transfer hub. Of course there is going to be thousands of people there. Ask anyone who rides the TTC and they could have told you this would happen.

Believe it or not there are books out there on crowd management theory. Buy some…or if, as you would have us believe the TTC has no plans to deal with large crowds – hire a firm that deals with crowd flow management. Or better yet, look around your office and see if there is a binder collecting dust that deals with this issue. I’m sure if you looked real hard you will find it.

The primary problem was the TTC treated us like we were unimportant. Staff didn’t help, didn’t care. A few were out there doing there best, desperately trying to control the pushing, angry crowd of people trying to get on the shuttles. I applaud them. They were the inadequate few. The endangered few. The situation could have gotten completely out of control in a snap. It is amazing no one (including the few staff sent out into the nightmare) could have been trampled to death.  There should have been dozens of employees out there on street level directing people as well as on platform level.

I’m fed up with the TTC… I’m going to abdicate my responsibilities as an adult and go draw pictures of birds for the afternoon.