John Griffin
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jagrif.bsky.social
John Griffin
@jagrif.bsky.social
I live in a part of the city (St.Clair) that rarely has any bikes in stations and really wish Bike Share would implement a credit for redistribution,but that would improve the service as opposed to drive revenue. Good article on which way Bike Share is leaning.
My @thestar.com column this week: Bike Share Toronto is riding high but a new growth plan risks putting a proverbial stick in the spokes, with a big focus on extracting more revenue from users.

Let's not let enshittification ruin this ride.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Matt Elliott: Why dark clouds loom over Bike Share Toronto, despite its undeniable success
Adding more e-bikes certainly sounds like an admirable goal, but it comes with a downside.
www.thestar.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by John Griffin
"Opinions are like assholes -- financializable, tradable assets."
The co-founder of Kalshi says: " The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion."
December 3, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Incredibly accurate but at least Toronto has gotten this far with those folks. Those same people are what's holding other Canadian cities becoming big cities.
There's a lot to criticize about Toronto (waves hand broadly at my life's sad work) but like 50% of of it just people who don't like big cities & don't want to admit it.
October 10, 2025 at 11:00 PM
It's almost like providing more and improved services is a good revenue generation tool. I'll still expect the same raise in membership cost for the same craptastic service we get north of Bloor though.
Fun fact: the $1.7M in increased revenue generated by putting Bixi stands on Toronto island cancelled out a $1.7M loss in on-street parking revenues due to heavy snow in February
secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
Agenda Item History 2025.PA16.1
Agenda Item History 2025.PA16.1
secure.toronto.ca
October 9, 2025 at 1:44 PM
If it were up to the folks at the globe all government services would need to run a profit, except the military and police obvs.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
Globe editorial: The Liberals push the envelope, finally, at Canada Post
A decade after scuppering sensible reforms, the Liberals propose an overdue shakeup of the struggling Crown corporation
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 1, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by John Griffin
For those who missed it, Kneecap...wasn't banned.

MP Gasparro, Parliamentary Secretary for Combatting Crime, just said it on Twitter—which is worrying on many levels, incl that this is a big Privacy Act red flag. (Govt officials DO NOT comment on immig apps in Canada!)

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
September 27, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This.

The other impact of forcing all high density buildings on arterials is they share with commercial pushing costs to businesses up as well. It's absolutely bonkers to say "most of our people and businesses all have to share space on these few busy streets"
Bike / Park Oriented Development (BPOD?) !

A motion from OneCity councilor @lucymaloney.bsky.social aims to end the apartment ban next to bike streets and parks!

We need liveable density on quiet leafy streets. Don’t like arterial density? Want alternatives to towers?

Speak in support sept 17
September 13, 2025 at 10:43 AM
This is a good read for Canadians too, where for some buck wild reason the "paper of record" ran a piece similar to Klein's celebrating Kirk's legacy.

Kirk was a bad person.
In this week’s newsletter I have thoughts on Ezra’s Klein value judgements about the “right way” to do politics.
How to Canonize a White Supremacist
On the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk, the certain blowback, and this country’s raging gun problem.
www.thenation.com
September 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
I personally love when the two things that currently receive 100000% more funding then they should team up.
August 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
We've gotten to the point we really consider ourselves experts at beach in #toronto. Packed and biked onto the ferry to Hanlans + hotdog for the journey
August 22, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Data residency is no longer sufficient, next is the very hard job of untangling ourselves from the behemoth us tech giants, who are honestly shit regardless of this.
This article, by Carleton PhD student Alexander Rudolph, should be on the front page of every Canadian newspaper. It highlights how the US can access all data on the government and military’s Microsoft servers, Canadian laws be damned.

www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science...
Microsoft says U.S. law takes precedence over Canadian data sovereignty
Microsoft representative says US CLOUD Act comes before other country's sovereignty.
www.digitaljournal.com
August 22, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The police are a PR agency they are not an agency committed to providing useful accurate date. It's like asking the tobacco companies to report on the impact of smoking to your health.
why would anyone ever believe a word they say after all this

only a fool would trust the VPD.
August 21, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Didn't think it was a storm that warranted a power outage #toronto
August 20, 2025 at 2:25 AM
25 kg of cukes from PAT equals 36 jars of pickles.
August 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Walking through the already excellent Berczy Park the other day and remarked how a little kiosk serving coffees and cold drinks would be absolutely perfect.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Shawn Micallef: Ice cream in the park? Why Toronto can’t find the sweet spot on private businesses in public spaces
Finding the right line in a grey area is tricky. Surely the occasional private event can happen in public spaces, even parks, but how much is too much?
www.thestar.com
August 17, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I wonder what's going on here? Probably just speaks to how popular this is.
July 29, 2025 at 8:05 PM