Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

* On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room to place the attached sidebar. The actual article appears above (scroll up) 7 Things To Do At the College Park Block • Renew your driver’s license in the giant ServiceOntario Centre -- basement of 777 Bay • Witness people loose their driver’s licenses in provincial criminal court. Justice system at work on the 2nd Floor College Park • Photograph the Three Watchmen Totem Poles carved by Haida artist Robert Davidson in 1984 to mark the city’s Sesquicentennial year. The work is made up a 50 foot and two 30 foot totem poles – center mall 777 Bay Street • Do something nice – dig deep and take in a charity event at Carlu • Get off the subway buy dinner in the College Park Dominion Store (soon to be Metro store) and get onto the College streetcar before your transfer times out • Dangl

* Rent a Piece of the Block In addition to the condos already built on College Park, there are over 400 apartments available for rent in the old Eaton building. Great Western Life’s College Park Suites has bachelor, 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom units for rent. • Two bedroom apartment rent starts at $2,250 a month • Parking for residents is $85 per month. • 24-hour surveillance and monitoring • When residents take the subway late at night, they can have a security guard meet them at the station and escort them to their suite.

* Who Lives Where 777 Bay Street • Retail, service and office building, built in 1983 • 30 floors. 898,060 sq. ft. College Park • Built between 1928 and 1930 • 7 floors of offices, Provincial Courts, retail stores, rental apartments • linked to College Park subway station • 1979 – reconstruction completed, 210 rental apartments added Approximately 400 residents Residences of College Park • Two buildings -- 51 and 46 storeys high • 10-parkside townhouses. • Approximately 2,600 residents The Liberties • The complex has two 20-storey towers and one 19-storey tower. • Two towers are on Bay (711 and 717) and the third is on Gerrard. • Approximately 1,000 residents. Similar Sized Communities There are an estimated 4,000 people living in the College Park Block. When the Aura skyscrapper is completed the Block population will be an estimated 7,000 people. According to StatsCan, Ontario towns with similar population include: • Alymer 7,126 • Crystal Beach 6,686 • Essex 7,002 • Kincardine 6

Noreen Taylor and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction help promote Canadian books in the United Kingdom The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is giving the nation's book industry assistance in marketing Canadian literature to the people of the United Kingdom. At the International Festival Of Authors (IFOA), held in Toronto over the past two weeks, Noreen Taylor, the founder of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, donated nearly 140 non-fiction books to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), to be used by the Canada High Commission in London, England. The books, all non-fiction titles, were entered for the 2008 Charles Taylor Prize. On stage at IFOA Ms Taylor presented a signed copy of the winning book, Richard Gwyn's "John A.: The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of John A. MacDonald, Volume One: 1815-1867 to John Bonar of DFAIT. Pictured left to right are: Authors Lewis Desoto and Richard Gwyn (sea

There is an art to every Ottawa trip It is Roger Rabbit. It is 50. It is 100. It is timeless beauty Toronto, September 6, 2008 – There is always something artistic happening in Ottawa. Depending on one’s taste, this fall you can spend an animated weekend in Ottawa being Goofy (and Porky and Bullwinkle), plus you can see how photographers snap the moment, and, admire the traditional beauty of sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading cartoon events providing first class screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment for both the entertainment industry and visitors alike. This annual festival is one of the biggest of its kind and attracts artists, production executives, students and fans into the city September 17 – 21, 2008 in Ottawa. Visitors are welcome to take part in many of the festival’s activities. Staged at the Chateau Laurier in downtown Ottawa, the OIAF has a number of public screenings of both new, ex

Wreck to be sunk at popular dive site - story written for divermag.com. A 63-year old decommissioned US Naval vessel will soon be acquired by the government of the Cayman Islands and is slated to become Grand Cayman’s newest dive attraction. At a recent press briefing held in Toronto, Tourism, Environment, Investment and Commerce Minister Charles Clifford told Diver Magazine that he expects the USS Kittiwake to be sunk off the popular Seven Mile Beach in June, 2009. Just a few days before speaking to Diver Mag, Minister Clifford signed an agreement on behalf of his government with the Cayman Islands Tourists Association. The agreement formalizes the government's plan to acquire the decommissioned naval ship in order to create a new dive site and give “desired relief for some of our frequently visited dive sites.” For years the Tourist Association has been trying to acquire a US navy ship to sink off Grand Cayman. Spearheading the campaign to find and sink a ship is Canadian diver

Above: the island of Nevis Below; Diver Travel News ß The Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, once a favoured holiday retreat for Lady Di, and now a popular Nevis hotel for divers, is offering a $500 Airline Credit this fall. Nisbet Plantation Beach Club will reimburse hotel guests up to $500 toward the cost of their vacation. From October 10 through December 1, 2008 the Nevis property will apply a $500 credit at check out to help offset the cost of airfare. This 36-square-mile Caribbean island lies a couple miles south of St Kitts near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. ß The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group in September left hundreds of British divers stranded in the dive resort city of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and thousands more in England holding unusable tickets. A statement on the now bankrupt XL Leisure Group's website said the closure was “a result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding.&quo