South Bayview Bulldog Admin

Old Leaside PO painted a “whitewash” white

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The old Postal Station R, now known as 2 Laird Drive or site of the new Upper House Condominium, has been painted a strange whitewash white. The red-brick building is slated for demolition as soon as an application finally emerges from the Ontario Municipal Board. The developer, Knightstone Capital, has approval to build to a height of seven storeys, the top level said to be a mechanical room. So why the white paint job?  Some think the old post office will soon blossom with signs and become a sales and presentation site. It’s our best guess. 

Quebec Liberals look good to win Monday’s voting

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The Quebec Liberals could be set to defeat the Parti Quebecois in Monday’s general election. It seems as if a moment-of-opportunity call to the polls has backfired on PQ leader Pauline Marois. A Leger Marketing poll released today gives the Liberals 38 per cent support compared to 29 per cent for the Parti Quebecois, 23 per cent for the centrist Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), and nine per cent for left-wing separatist party Quebec solidaire. 

Towns of Rumsey model suite shown online

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The U.S. home building publication BuzzBuzz has published pictures of the model suite at the Towns of Rumsey. This five town home development is nearing completion at the corner of Millwood Rd. and Rumsey Rd. In December The South Bayview Bulldog described the interesting alternative form of construction used in the project. The Towns of Rumsey have been being built by the Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) method. As explained by Don MacDonald of South Hill Homes here in Toronto the concept provides extra solidity to the home plus considerable improvement in heating and acoustical insulation. ICF building features pre-formed interlocking wall sections which create a cavity between them into which concrete is then poured. Neighbors were certainly curious about the concrete being poured into wall forms that extended to the upper floors of the town homes. The forms remain in place as part of the structure over the cured concrete and are typically finished in brick on the outside. Inside, the forms are cut and shaped as needed to accept electrical and plumbing lines. When the utilities are fully installed, the interior walls are finished in the normal fashion and decorated. This alternative method of home construction found its beginning in post-war Europe as a quick way of re-building the vast areas of bombed-out housing.  BuzzBuzz 

Leaside dining landmark closes in Sunnybrook

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Uptown Restaurant in the Sunnybrook Plaza has closed. The location will re-open shortly under new management as a Sushi outlet. The Uptown existed for most of its life as the Sunnybrook Restaurant and must be fondly remembered by many. It underwent a Food Network makeover and name change in October 2012. That didn’t work. Business operators in the plaza say the rent increase which came due recently was pretty stiff. As to Sushi, it’s hard to imagine that the appetite for that dish hasn’t been well sated by the many such cookeries in Toronto, but presumably the marketplace will tell us. The fixed menu pan-Asian idea would seem to be less expensive structurally and the ingredients cheaper. Still, the competition must be wicked. When Tokyo Sushi first opened on South Bayview it was not uncommon to see the manager outside trying to lure customers from the next-door Fukui into his place. Elsewhere in Sunnybrook Plaza, we have late word that the UPS store has changed hands. We’ll have more on that. At the location formerly occupied by Source Electronics, the windows are papered over but there is no leasing sign posted. This suggests that the store has been taken. Photos: Uptown Restaurant, Unoccupied store formerly housing Source Electronics. 

Chinese hear “pings” like jetliner’s black box

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China’s official news agency says a Chinese ship that is part of the multinational search effort looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has detected a “pulse signal” in southern Indian Ocean waters. The report says a black box detector deployed by the vessel, Haixun 01, picked up a signal at 37.5Hz per second Saturday at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude. The report said it was not established whether that the signal was related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Attack makes you want to vote for Tory #TOpoli

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This attack ad on John Tory is the work of Olivia Chow supporters, they say. Jamey Heath, Chow’s communications director admits however “I’m not going to pretend it’s totally removed [from our campaign]. It’s not.” The ad excoriates the former talkshow host and life-long Progressive Conservative for saying young women should learn to play golf as a means of socializing, for being on the Rogers board, for having supported Rob Ford in a past time and for being vague. Okay. If women (or men) want to call Tory sexist for giving women and girls advice on how to play the game, go for it. But it’s silly. And trivial. As for the rest, it depends on where you want your candidate to be on the political spectrum. Thousands of people supported Rob Ford before he was exposed as a public drunk, crack smoker and friend of trashy people. It’s fair to say “Who knew?” The Toronto Star didn’t run stories before the last election. Vagueness? Olivia Chow didn’t make any announcements about privatization of garbage collection until Tory smoked her out. The fact is, both these candidates have their work cut out for them. The never-say-die Ford brothers are loving the afterglow of the OPP’s unintended “endorsement”.  Ford is pumped. If he can keep his alcoholic consumption confined to the home he might have a shot at re-election. Amazing but true. 

Matlow ticks off council over food truck freedom

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City Council stopped short of making customers report to their local councillor within 15 days as to just what they had for lunch. Seriously, there were 20 separate motions over two days  including an attempt to keep the trucks a measurable distance from the curb. What did pass? So far as one can sift through the materials we see a requirement for a limit of two trucks per block and a buffer zone of no less than 50 metres between a truck and a restaurant. Business Improvement Areas will have a lot of say in where trucks may sit. Josh Matlow (Ward 22) says in his newsletter that many concerns were not based on evidence. “While there certainly will be more mobile vendors on the streets in new locations this summer, I believe Council could have gone even further to free the food trucks,” Matlow said. He is more likely to hear about the trucks from his constituents than Karen Stintz, John Parker or Jaye Robinson, for example. The decisive vote was 34 to 3 to adopt the expanded rules. Eight members were absent for the 6.10 p.m. division Thursday night. Only Denzil Minnan-Wong, David Shiner, Adam Vaughan voted “No” and it isn’t clear what these gentlemen of varying political sympathies were concerned about.  The subject will be reviewed next year Council decided. 

South Bayview Ave, needs some clean up TLC

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One stereotype of  small business owner is someone who sweeps the sidewalk in front of his shop. It’s a good one and at Spring cleaning time, we should remember it. Public spirited people on Bayview Ave. can register a Community Clean Up event by April 23, 2014. It helps the city to arrange pickup of bagged rubbish. Clean up events will be held during Earth Week, from April 22 to 27. The Corporate and School Cleanup Day will be held on Friday, April 25. Students and office workers are encouraged to clean the area around their schools or workplaces. On Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27, everyone can join the Community Cleanup Days. This is an opportunity for groups, associations and organizations to clean up a street, park or other public space in their local neighbourhood. The deadline for organizations and groups to register for their event is April 23. Register

Canada sees job growth of 43,000 in March

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Canada’s economy added 43,000 jobs in March as young people found work, Statistics Canada said today. The country’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 6.9 per cent. Growth was best in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Quebec. Job levels were fairly flat elsewhere. CBC

Parker guest will be Chief Planner Keesmaat

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John Parker (Ward 26) has scheduled a meeting for next Wednesday, April 9, 2014, where the City’s Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat will speak and answer questions. The councillor waxes philosophical as he observes that the growth of Toronto “is challenging the assumptions many of us have grown up with as to the kind of city we are and should strive to become.”  Right you are sir. Anyway, this will take place between 7 and 9 p.m. at Leaside Gardens.  

Cookware, kitchen store at Yonge and Manor

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Cookware and kitchen store Peppermills will take the large space most recently occupied by Timothy’s Coffees of the World at Yonge Street and Manor Road.  

4000-volt giants carry hydro flow west of Bayiew

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Belsize and Boyton

Residents between Bayview Ave and Mt. Pleasant Rd. are witnessing the installation of soaring new hydro standards as the utility prepares to remove the 50-year-old concrete poles. Those cracked and teetering cement standards have carried the neighborhood’s 4,000-volt lifeline for a long time. The solid looking fir poles should be good for quite a few decades as well. Workers were doing their work carefully Thursday as they attached the lethal flow of hydro to the timber at the corner of Belsize Drive and Boyton Rd.  Homeowners will be glad for the renewed service. It will come with a number of new transformers. They should make service a little more reliable. For many, the work will remind them of the early hours of December 22, 2013 when rain and ice began to quietly turn the city dark. Utility poles and tree branches collapsed under the enormous weight of the thick ice accumulation. At the height of the storm there were over 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers that were left without power or heat. Many of them were right there in South Bayview where the tree are. The City of Toronto simultaneously opened and operated 13 community reception centres and 13 Toronto police facility community warming centres, providing temporary sleeping accommodations,food, water, hygiene kits and other resources. The warming centres were running around the clock, offering those who lost their power a warm place to sleep and eat until their power was restored. By Christmas Eve, four days after the storm, there were still 69,800 customers without power across the city.