Photo: "Polar Bear Dip - 2009 (6)" by HighPlainsDrifter Photography, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

Unsatisfied with the business as it was, Danforth residents teamed up to give Michael's Meat and Deli an extreme makeover yesterday. Good for the neighbourhood. Better to take gentrification into your own hands than leave it to the big chains.

With the strike at York U reaching two months and plans for making up time including things like canceling reading week and shortening terms and exams, both sides finally sat down at a table and made some progress. Education may be the only business where consumers demand less for their money, but York U students want more than this.

Could the train linking Union Station to Pearson airport actually be on an express schedule? First proposed 6 years ago, apparently the environmental assessment will be fast-tracked, which means we should see this rail line in no time. Oh, right. Details about cost, how to build the thing and if the final plan will differ than the Blue 22 plan (no, that's not an Argos play) proposed 6 years ago are still undetermined. But nothing can stop it now!

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In what appears to be Toronto's second homicide of the year, a woman was found dead in her SUV near Leslie & Lawrence. There was a gunshot wound, but police are being cautious, saying, "At this time it is still being treated as a suspicious death." I say call a spade a spade, police wouldn't be looking for suspects if they didn't suspect somebody shot this woman.

They will take even longer to arrive than the Queen streetcar, or even the new streetcars that might get ordered this spring, but new TTC shelters are coming to stops near you. Unless the shelter near you isn't scheduled for 18 years from now, then, well, happy waiting!

Here's some shocking news for you. The Raptors and the Leafs both won yesterday.