One of the shortest and yet busiest little streets in Leaside has been re-paved. It is the remnant of Pottery Road, stretching a few metres from Moore Ave. on the north to the Bayview extension on the south. For decades it has been a bumpy, pocked section of road that was so painful to travel it made the speeding drivers coming off the northbound extension slow down and think. Pottery sits in its original place, a route that pre-dates practically everything in the neighborhood, including the Town of Leaside itself. In those days it was more of a path than a road. Before Bayview Ave. was extended south, Pottery Rd. travelled into the valley and picked up the other section of the road still extant. It runs from Bayview across the river and up the hill to Broadview Ave. It is said there are still bits and pieces of the abandoned Pottery Rd from the 1940s on the hillside above the Bayview extension. It took a meandering route down into the valley. The newly re-paved portion sits, as Loblaws shoppers will know, between the grocery store and the Pharma Plus-TD Bank plaza on the west. Reader Rudy charts what’s left of Pottery Road.
Pope goes to Calabria, excommunicates the Mafia
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Francis uses broad strokes against criminal families as he accuses of them of worshipping evil. Here
Three helicopter escapees nabbed in Montreal
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Police have re-captured the three men who escaped from a Quebec City prison by helicopter on June 7, 2014. A combined forces raid on a home in Montreal at about 1.30 a.m. Sunday morning resulted in the arrest of the three apparently without incident. Cops say there will be more arrests related to the escape. Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49, are due in court in Quebec City on Monday.The three had been arrested under Operation Crayfish in 2010, which had dismantled a network of drug traffickers.
Can 6-fingered family help Brazil win World Cup?
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Fourteen members of a Brazilian family, the Da Silvas, were born with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot thanks to a rare genetic condition called polydactyly. The family, who live near the capital, Brasilia, are staunchly proud of their additional digits, and say they believe they can help the national team win their sixth title in Rio de Janeiro next month.
Thousands at Pride live in the shadows at home
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There was a rather poignant moment on CP24 Saturday (June 21, 2014) which seemed to set the spectacle of World Pride Week in perspective. A resident of Barbadoes spoke candidly about the very different life lived by LGBT people in the Caribbean. “You still have to be very much under the table,” said the man as he was interviewed in costume and makeup on Church Street. A trip to that busy thoroughfare may or may not be in everyone’s plans but the people who will party there tonight do so in a special place. Many of them will return to places all over the world where they must live their lives in the shadows. You don’t have to celebrate World Pride to understand how much more decent is this place we keep here in Toronto
Twin towers at Yonge-Helendale go to OMB
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It is the fate of Yonge St. north and south of Eglinton Ave. E. that developers will be pushing the limits. Post Magazines
It was a great day for a BBQ on South Bayview
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It was a perfect day for hiking along South Bayview, checking out the shops and activities. Here is a sample of the early doings at Chad McDowell’s BBQ outside the Valu mart where the burgers and hot dogs were moving fast. That’s Chad himself at the BBQ.
37,000 celebrate sosltice at Stonehenge
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The BBC says an estimated 37,000 people gathered to watch the sun rise on the longest day of the year at Stonehenge today. There were few arrested made during the large event which featured Druids, drug users and pagans as well as more conventional celebrants. Just why the monument is open at all was the question from some commentators. It is almost always closed for fear of the damage people cause to the prehistoric site. But the gathering went peacefully today. “We are pleased that the solstice celebrations have been enjoyable events for the majority of people attending,” said a spokesman for Wiltshire Police.
North by northeast festival road closings
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Lower Yonge St. and other streets like Shuter and Victoria will be either closed or restricted this weekend because of the North by Northeast music festival. Police notice
City has traffic not gridlock and drivers know the difference
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This is gridlock
Here we have candidate David Soknacki joining the political pack yet again by re-defining words in the hope of getting elected. He insists that the thing everyone else recognizes as mere traffic is in reality a black beast named gridlock. The dictionary says gridlock happens when motion is locked, everything stops moving indefinitely because cars — or maybe bicycles — are arranged in such a way that none of them can move. The truth about gridlock? There is none in Toronto. There is gridlock in Beijing where they don’t know how to drive. In Toronto we have traffic. It may be heavy or light, annoying or unimportant but it’s traffic, not gridlock. In Toronto, everyone gets home at night without gridlock locking them out of seeing their families. In fact, where gridlock even threatens, well-trained Toronto drivers figure out how to make it go away. So David Soknacki is doing what municipal politicians typically do. He is seizing on an annoyance and trying to make it into an election issue. He says ban all parking on downtown streets. Get rid of the cars except for the ones speeding through. Oh sure, the parked cars will have drivers and passengers who are buying dinner or shopping in stores. If there is no traffic there are no people, no businesses, no payroll and no taxes from businesses that thrive from the people who arrive in cars. This is not hard to understand.
Leaside Magical Gardens open at 11 a.m. Saturday
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Jean Ko Din reminds us from her article in InsideToronto of the self-guided summer highlight known as the Magical Gardens of Leaside on Saturday. It is a nice little walk to ten residential gardens in the old part of the town and it takes place tomorrow, Saturday, June 21, 2014. As usual you need a $10 passport but they are easily found at the many local merchants who always sell them. Before you start off, pop into Gentry Clothiers in the Sunnybrook Plaza, Royal LePage, 1391 Bayview Avenue at McRae or the Urban Nature Store in the nice little plaza on Brentcliffe (the number is 939 Eglinton Ave East). Urban Nature has been a Bulldog advertiser for a long time. They carry a lovely selection of garden and outdoor necessities. The hours of the tour are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and you will find the gardeners who created locations available to educate you as you go. As Ms. Ko Din reports, there is tri-colour beech tree, a weeping larch, a 30-year-old caragana tree, perennials, peonies, hydrangea, trillium, and over 20 types of roses to be seen.
Love of animals leads to road death conviction
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A Montreal woman is guilty of negligence causing death and dangerous driving for stopping her car on a Quebec highway to “rescue” and take home some ducklings she saw by the side of the road. Her car was stopped in the left lane of a highway south of Montreal when a motorcyclist and his young daughter, riding as a pasenger, slammed into the back of the vehicle in 2010. They both died. The woman, Emma Czornobaj, has no prior record of any kind. She will be sentenced in August. Canadian Press