Month: March 2011

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has shuffled top executives. The most important moves are the departure, unexplained, of Sonia Baxendale (right) who was the bank’s retail markets senior executive vice-president. The announcement said Baxendale had established a strong retail markets franchise with market-leading positions and a track record of innovation. She earned $4.44 million in 2010. Her replacement is David Williamson (left) who will now be in charge of personal and business banking. He had been the bank’s CFO since 2008. Kevin Glass replaces Williamson as CIBC’s chief financial officer and will report to the CEO under his new role on the senior executive team. He has worked at the bank since 2009. The changes are discussed in this Reuters story as they impact succession to CEO.

The residents of streets like Petman Ave (running between Eglinton and Soudan east of Forman) know the difficulty of residential parking. That’s why it seems a shame that what should have been an easy request to place a parking pad in front of a modest home should be turned down. The story is told by Sue Ann Levy in the Sun. She champions the right in local politics and blames anti-car members of the Toronto and East York Community Council for the tie vote (5-5) that killed the request from resident Wendy Hyman for relief from crowded parking and endless tickets. She told councillors that safety was a “significant concern” for her especially at night when she has to walk from whatever spot she finds in her neighbourhood. A poll of the neighbours in the area found some 80% were in favour of allowing Hymus to create the parking pad. She also promised to ensure the city tree on her front yard — a maple — would not be damaged in any way. Remarkably, the following month a neighbour who lives three doors down won his bid to install a front-yard parking pad. Levy said: “The bid squeezed through 6-5. Why? Because one of the anti-parking pad leftists had slipped out of the room to the washroom during the vote.”

The rapid pace of the changeover to e-books has prompted the president of Barnes and Noble to say that the landscape of the industry will be totally changed in 24 months. In fact, readers seem to be converting so quickly to Kindles and Kobos one wonders if will take that long. Marc Parrish quoted statistics which suggest that 30% of book readers are now using an electronic reader of some type. This coincides with the increase in e-reader sales. In 2009, some 900,000 were sold. In 2010, 14 million were sold with the 2011 estimate set at 18 million. All of this makes the changes seen on South Bayview at Sleuth of Baker Street more understandable than ever.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Kids don’t walk and text because they need to communicate as they walk. They do it because it looks cool. It’s visible daily on South Bayview as teens and twenties too act out the role of Texter in a Hurry. Well, it’s up to them until they get hurt. The invention shown on the right is designed (but not very well designed) to prevent text walkers from bumping into others, bouncing off cars or slipping under buses. Just a few of many possibilities. Google pictures.

An early sign of Spring is on sale outside Passion Fruit on South Bayview. The so-called pussy willow with its fur covered buds (catkins) has long been subject to a fanciful notion that the buds look like tiny cats (pussycats). As reported in Wikipedia, the Chinese appreciation of numerous blossoms on a branch, make the many buds of the pussy willow a favourite flower for Chinese New Year.

At 18 Lumley Ave. in Bennington Heights a spacious new structure is going up in the March sunshine. The poured concrete foundation was almost completely in place when these shots were taken Friday. Left, the wild device used to deliver concrete from the street to the farthest corner of the lot. Right, workmen begin removing hardware that holds the forms in place. Lumley Ave incidentally is notable as the street on which Margaret Atwood grew up.