Month: September 2016

Toronto’s new cruiser revealed, in fashion forward grey

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Toronto Police will progressively change the colour of police cruisers to grey apparently because they are easier to keep clean and have a higher re-sale value. It is truly a sign of these cost-conscious times when the colour of police cars has more to do with resale value of the vehicle than the visibility of the uniformed patrol. Chris Nielsen, of Fleet Management, insists the patrol cars will maintain high visibility, although it seems doubtful they will be as obvious as the present white cars with blue and red trim. In the 70s and 80s, Metropolitan Toronto Police cars were chrome yellow, an expensive but dramatically visible statement. Chrome yellow was a costly and specialized process however and was finally abandoned for white cars. The new grey Ford Interceptors are now being rolled on city streets as vehicles are replaced. Each scout car has a lifespan of about 4.5 years, so it will take about four years to change the look of all cars so that there is no additional cost to the Service. About 80 cars are slated to be replaced this year. Toronto Police Service News Release

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Chrome yellow was seriously visible

Pedestrian struck at Millwood/Sutherland Tuesday morning

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At approximately 8:30am on Tuesday, Toronto Police were on scene investigating an incident at the corner of Millwood Road and Sutherland Drive.  Millwood Road was closed in both directions from Randolph Road to Airdrie Road. The road was re-opened before 10am.

Filming notice for Best Buy ad on Bessborough Drive

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Some residents on Bessborough Drive in South Leaside have received notice that there will be a Best Buy commercial being shot on Thursday, September 22nd, 2016, between the hours of 7am – 11pm.  Surprisingly, none of the dozen production vehicles will be parked on Bessborough Drive, instead they will be seen on the south side of Rolland Road (between Bessborough and Hanna), on the North side of St. Cuthbert’s Road (between Bayview and Bessborough) and on the west side of Berney Crescent (150 meters from the corner).  Circle Productions has noted that a donation of $1000 is being made to the Trace Manes Playground Rejuvenation Project as a thank you for having their production in our neighbourhood.  Very nice indeed.

Private enterprise green hornets for your parking pleasure?

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The Toronto Police Service will ask for proposals from private firms who want to assume the job of handing out parking tickets It’s part of a plan to implement the 24 recommendations outlined in the Transformational Task Force Interim Report, which was released June 17 and aims to address a range of issues, including ways to curb the $1-billion-plus police budget and to foster public trust. How would this scheme benefit the public? Bluntly put, it might not, but the most obvious guess is that a private firm would employ fewer ticket hornets and drive them to issue just as many tickets for less pay. That prospect has raised the concern that the already aggressive ticketing process in Toronto will see cars plastered with citations. The 394 civilian employees of the parking authority are said to be worried for their jobs.

 DIGITAL EFFECT

When digital parking (and ticketing) expands to street parking, there is a potential for the number of tickets issued to drop drastically. Drivers who merely misjudge their time will easily avoid them. With cell phones warning motorists that time is expiring, and the capacity to top up from a distance, drivers can reduce violations. Of course there are still people who purposely offend and hope to escape. They would be the intense focus of private hornets who might simply camp out at Starbucks.

Friends mourn St. Anselm School guard Boris Cherkassky

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Boris Cherkassky

Friends and admirers of the long-time crossing guard at St. Anselm Catholic School on Bessborough Drive are mourning the loss of Boris Cherkassky. He collapsed and died Friday while at work. Several tweets remark on the wonderful legacy of service performed at Post #5 (Bessborough Drive and Millwood Rd). One person wrote: “We are all so blessed to have known you.” There will be a memorial mass for Boris Cherkassky on Friday, September 23 at St. Anselm Parish at 9 a.m. St. Anselm is at 1 Macnaughton Rd., Leaside.

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Memorial created by school kids, loaded with condolence messages for Boris.

Police say 53 Division is in need of school crossing guards

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South Bayview and other Midtown neighborhoods need school guards, according to the 53 Division Community Response Unit. Applications are being accepted now for the important job of keeping the children of the City safe while going to and from school. For more information, or to apply, please contact Constable Wai Lau, 416-808-5327 Or by email, Wai.Lau@torontopolice.on.ca  Police are asking that people who might apply, are encouraged to try this useful job and of course earn extra money.

FBI wants to know who made crude, damaging bombs

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Police have wounded and placed in custody the man believed to be responsible for the explosion in Manhattan on Saturday night and an earlier bombing in New Jersey. He is Ahmad Khan Rahami, of New Jersey, a naturalized Afghan immigrant to the U.S. The New York Times reports the dramatic episode occurred on a rain-soaked street in Linden, N.J. Two police officers were hit by shots, one in his bullet proof vest and another in the hand. There is remarkable video from ABC News as broadcast on CNN (below). Photos from the scene showed a man believed to be Mr. Rahami laying on the sidewalk, hands cuffed behind his back and his shirt pulled up exposing his stomach and chest, with a police officer standing over him. The Times quotes witnesses who said they saw police shoot at a man who was running away. One person who was too rattled to give his name said the victim appeared to have been shot more than once and was “still twitching.”

Star writer ponders appeal of Loblaws, asks “Is it just me?”

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Jennifer Wells

Toronto Star feature writer Jennifer Wells has assayed the past and present of Loblaw — the place most people call Loblaws. After an estimable traipse through the ups and downs of the family business she asks: “Is it just me?”  No, she decides. In the end, Loblaws is not without merit but it is dull. Her review was written as Galen G. Weston took over the chairman’s job at George Weston Ltd. Locally, Loblaws exemplifies many of Wells criticisms. The stores at 301 Moore Ave. and the misplaced giant tucked away at the end of Redway Rd. are dull but reliable. Moore is smallish but many people like the efficiency and location. Longo’s in the exquisite old Canadian Northern Railway Eastern Lines engine repair building is exciting. But a visit to this enormous place is a bit like a day-trip with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Is there finally an end to wind farms blowing in the breeze?

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Wind farm opponents in Southwestern Ontario have got a strong feeling that clear public anger — demonstrated at the polls — will spell an end to any further expansion of the ugly, expensive and inefficient alternative energy source. The London Free Press says that after a long losing streak before environmental review tribunals and courts, activists trying to halt industrial wind farms say they sense the political ground is shifting in their favour. They say power rates have become a hot urban issue and the Liberal government is taking notice. “It looks like this will be the last. I don’t know how the government could possibly justify more (such contracts),” said Jane Wilson, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of groups opposed to industrial wind farm development in the province. She’s talking about the byelection loss for the Liberals in Scarborough Rouge-River. Accountants blame the government’s headlong plunge into expensive wind energy with driving up the cost of power in Ontario at least 70 percent in less than a decade.

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