The City of Toronto has named Gregg Lintern as the new Chief Planner. Mr. Lintern has a long history with Toronto and was most recently the director of planning for Toronto and East York Release
First foremost and always my journey has been about my @CityPlanTO team – the people who work hard every day to figure out solutions that make #Toronto better for everyone – today and for the future of this great city
— Gregg Lintern (@GreggLintern) March 28, 2018
A man has fallen to his death down a garbage chute at a building on Erskine Ave., an occurrence that stretches the imagination. It took place about 10 p.m. at the address. The man fell from the 9th floor and paramedics told Alanna Rizza of the Star that it was not clear whether the man was a building employee or a resident. They are investigating. A series of tweets Wednesday expressed surprise at how such a thing could happen.
How do you fall down a garbage chute…
— . (@lxelee) March 28, 2018
Councillor Josh Colle (Ward 11) and Mayor Tory show off a newly-installed sign embedded right in the pavement. It is part of a pilot project in ten school zones to see if these in-your-face warnings make the roads safer. Let’s hope so. Upper right, cyclists conduct a die-in at City Hall related to the traffic deaths of bike riders. Below that, a small group of TTC riders demonstrated and then boarded the subway posing as sardines. You get the idea. They want funding from an era some 20 years ago restored to the TTC by the provincial government. At lower left, a mural called The Light From Within by Rodney Latourelle will grace the lower-level LRT station at the Yonge-Eglinton hub when finished. To the right, yummy braised lamb shanks from Today’s Menu for Easter. Check it out.
China has confirmed that Kim Jong-un has met with Xi Jinping and released a picture of the two leaders for life. Both are under pressure from the US in different ways. The world has no way of knowing what they talked of and whether the Chinese put pressure on Kim behind closed doors. But the meeting would seem to forecast a new era in North Korean relations with the rest of the world. Some analysts said this was a bid by Kim for some sort of normalization. If so, those seeking the end of his mafia-like family-run state will see a glimmer of hope. They say the north as it now exists cannot survive openness.
There’s concern in Pickering Tuesday night that there may be a serial arsonist at work after a second fire seemingly set outside a home in the middle of the night. City News has a report on a fire early today. Next, a man in Manhattan who is seen crossing himself and saying a little prayer before smashing the window of a clothing shop and stealing several garments. What was his prayer, we ask? Below that, Cynthia Mulligan conjures up a picture of Tory Toronto, even in Don Valley West. We will see. And finally, a slick package from NBC outlining (if that’s the word) how a Facebook like for Hello Kitty means you’re a Trump voter. It’s a mystery to the Bulldog but have a look.
Charlie Lagarde, 18, has won the grand prize in Quebec’s provincial lottery Gagnant à vie lottery. Loto-Quebec says Lagarde, who is from a Montreal suburb, was celebrating her 18th birthday with a bottle of champagne and a $4 scratch lottery ticket purchased at a convenience store earlier this month. After winning the jackpot, she took a few weeks to decide on whether to accept a lump sum $1 million payout or the $1,000 weekly lifetime annuity. Charlie claimed her prize Monday at Loto-Quebec’s head office in Montreal, joined by family and friends. She says she hopes to study photography and one day work for National Geographic.
Premier Wynne says the Liberals will introduce full-day daycare free for children aged 2-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten should they form the government after the June election. The program would begin in 2020 and come at a cost of $930 million to taxpayers.
It is widely believed that Kim Jong-un is in Beijing Tuesday, called there by a Chinese government that wants to know what he is up to. At the very least, it is said, China wants in on the act if Donald Trump is really going to meet the little dictator from Pyongyang. In the US, the state department said it had no information but added tartly that it seems the free world is in a much better place with North Korea than it was a year ago. That’s because of the pressure being brought not just by the US and its allies, but China too, for Kim to renounce nuclear weapons.
As many as 50 businesses along King St. West are telling the City that its plan to speed streetcars along King St. while detouring cars off the street at every intersection is a failure. “We just don’t understand why they think this is a win,” said Todd Sherman, who is the resident of Gabby’s Restaurant. But the companies are facing rose-coloured versions of the scheme from Joe Cressy (Ward 20) This CBC story says more than 50 notable businesses, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Thompson Toronto, have joined the fight against no cars on King. The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA) released a letter from the businesses “fact checking” the city’s data and requesting changes to the project. It says there has been a 21 per cent decrease in restaurant reservations. They are calling for eliminating daytime taxi restrictions, accessible parking and limiting all traffic restrictions between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. CBC
2 Alarm Fire – @Toronto_Fire is on scene of a fire on Wiltshire Ave near Davenport Rd. The blaze has caused heavy damage to a semi-detached house. Minor injuries. pic.twitter.com/WuZjjAmGSf
— Tony Smyth (@LateNightCam) March 27, 2018
An early morning blaze has caused “extensive damage” to a home near the Junction, Toronto Fire Services said Tuesday. Firefighters arrived at the scene on Wiltshire Avenue, near Davenport Road and Symington Avenue, at 4:23 a.m. Everyone in the home made it out safely and no one was hurt, Stephan Powell, district chief for Toronto Fire Services said. Crews were still at the scene trying to extinguish the fire at 7 a.m — CBC
A meeting of Toronto District School Board officials at Hodgson Public School Monday night heard about “stop gap” plans to siphon students away from badly crowded Eglinton Public School. This summer two new classrooms will be built by methods known as “internal retrofits” of other space. And in 2019, the board proposes to send children in the Eglinton catchment east of Mt. Pleasant over to Maurice Cody instead. Cody school is close to capacity but officials feel sure they will not exceed 100 percent. The boundary shift was planned for 2022 but has been moved up in the face of the high-rise frenzy north of Eglinton. It is induced by the Crosstown LRT, a phenomenon seen right along the street, one that has many in Leaside weeping at the earthquake which is rocking their quiet world.
BANNOCKBURN SCHOOL
Longer term, the TDSB is putting its faith in the return of Bannockburn School from a private tenant in 2019. The school is off north Avenue Rd. There are, as officials made clear, a minimum of 300 spaces at Bannockburn. It is a long way from Eglinton and Mt. Pleasant but the scheme is to “domino” waves of students north through other north-end schools with the flow running towards Bannockburn. The plan will decrease the Eglinton school catchment north of Eglinton Ave. and lower the school’s population.
LINDSEY WALTON
Much of this is not enough for two Eglinton moms, Lindsey Walton and Michelle Fullerton. They call it a matter of fairness. Walton spoke to the meeting about the disproportionate overcapacity at Eglinton (probably 113 percent). The solution for 2018 of two additional classrooms is too little and too late. Eglinton PS is a postage stamp as TDSB schools go, maybe 1.6 acres compared to as much as five acres at Northlea Elementary and Middle School. The school yard is concrete with no turf and is used for parking on weekends. What the women call “catchment by income” is about low-income households. It is an issue that seems hard to fix. Walton says the TDSB should immediately rezone more of the Eglinton Junior catchment to the neighboring affluent schools that have more square footage. It’s a tricky job and quite possibly political dynamite. Foreign-born children represent 50 percent of the school’s student population.
CHILD CARE SPACES
Finally, Walton and Fullerton want a child-care enrolment of 63 children under four at Eglinton to find another home. It is, as they say, “valuable real estate” The TDSB could give them notice June 15 of this year and they would have to relocate for fall of 2019 but there are no such plans. Walton clearly feels stonewalled by the board on current capacity. She notes the imminent arrival of seven kindergarten classes for 2018 with 30 or more kids. The ministry’s hard cap is 32. The meeting was addressed by a number of TDSB personnel led by Superintendent Ian Allison. Ward 11 Trustee Shelley Laskin spoke as well. The principal and vice principal of Cody school, Robert Nigro and Adelia Vala were present as was Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow.
Try cooking dinner with just two hours of electricity a day maybe, running water for two hours every other day and no natural gas period. Toilet paper, medicine and mayonnaise? Don’t be silly. Then a peek back home where anonymous anti-Doug Ford types are making their own amateur posters downtown. Below that, the US, Canada and Europe have made the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the end of the Cold War nearly 30 years ago. Finally, looser drone legislation may be coming. Many say it can save lives but not, of course, if one goes into a jet engine of a flight landing at Pearson. Be careful.
