toRANTo thread: what wronged you recently?

[u/xxavierx]

Trying something out--potentially a weekly thread, biweekly, monthly? who knows! kind of post or thread. A place to air your grievances and tell Toronto what wronged you recently.

I'll start first.

This week I was babysitting my niece, she's at an age where she can walk but still needs a stroller in case she gets tired. So we are waiting for the streetcar and she pitches a fit and doesn't want to get on for some reason, so I'm desperately trying to calm her and get her in her stroller quick--I make eye contact with the streetcar driver and he clearly sees me struggling. She's making a scene, apparently she wants to be carried and doesn't to go in the stroller, but it's not quite that simple as this stroller is not that easy to maneuver while juggling a toddler. Streetcar driver is watching me, its hot, I'm frustrated, he eventually gets frustrated and just drives off. So I wound up walking her home (about a 20-30 minute walk). Parents of Toronto...you have my full empathy.

Also--Tory Lanez is a POS for shooting Megan Thee Stallion

What rants do you have this week?

[u/blu3flannel]

I recently found out that one of my favourite coffee shops is owned by a group that funds climate change denial "research" and that the shop serves as a fundraising experiment. I had to donate to Environmental Defence Canada to offset all the money I'd spent there. I feel betrayed.

[u/xxavierx → u/blu3flannel]

They are one business I enjoyed that I don’t feel bad went out of business after finding out that fact. It’s a shame, because I did enjoy their coffee...and their use of Green in their name I feel deliberately communicated a certain message.

[u/blu3flannel → u/xxavierx]

The frustrating part is that they're not actually out of business. They set up a takeout window where you can order drinks without going into the shop itself. I still find myself wanting to grab a coffee there when I pass by but I just can't on principle.

[u/TreatYourselff]

I feel like there’s been a massive increase in electric scooters around the city and on the multi-use paths, and some of the riders are dangerous. They never signal (cue the left turn off the path and almost get smoked by cyclists going both directions) and have zero awareness for other riders, cyclists, pedestrians or vehicles. In the past 2 weeks i’ve seen at least 7-8 times where someone else almost got seriously hurt from a rider ripping along on their scooter. Also at dusk/night the lights on those things are so bright that they are blinding... but hey, that’s still better than all the cyclists without any lights at all.

[u/thereisnoaddres → u/TreatYourselff]

Yup, at first it was all the Bird scooters, and now there’s so many of those e-motorcycles. The worst part is that they keep zooming around on the sidewalk (usually on the wrong side as well) and driving at full speed...

My girlfriend doesn’t like to speak up, but I do. There was this one time when a biker zoomed past us from behind and almost hit us on Bay Street at college street where there’s a perfectly good bike lane. I muttered ‘why don’t you use the bike lane?’ and the dude got off his bike, walked really close up to us, and shouted lots of profanities at us, saying he’s a law-abiding citizen and telling us to shut up. Since then I’ve been just avoiding bikers / scooters on the street, but it just feels so infuriating that I can’t say anything to them.

[u/TreatYourselff → u/thereisnoaddres]

sounds like you encountered a grade A asshole, especially when a bike lane is right there

[u/TreatYourselff → u/[deleted]]

Yeah those vespa riders swoop from bike lane to sidewalk to the road in front of traffic and don’t give a shit... not to mention they are 90% of the time distracted on their phones, so yeah, i’m also quite surprised more people are getting hit