South Bayview Bulldog Admin

Media musings to fill your summer — don’t scoff!

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Here are a few media musings we can let wander around our noodles over the summer. You may say the Bulldog is on North Etobicoke Gold  but think of this.  If we had told you last week that Rogers would  throttle City News Channel after just 20 months in business, you would have scoffed. Scoffed!  Let’s start with an easy one. It cannot be that Christine Bentley wishes to live in quiet seclusion forever. We really hope not and assume that her absence from the public eye is all about a so-called no-compete deal that accompanied her generous settlement from CTV last September. Non-competes usually forbid a talented person like Christine from taking another anchor job within a year of her dismissal. So let the guessing begin. Where will Christine Bentley show up this coming fall? Which raises speculative question number two. Can CTV News Toronto long resist the success of CP24? You can be sure that the railroad builders are Bell Media have fully analysed the economics of folding the Agincourt newsroom into its all news local channel on Queen Street. The argument for the status quo may outweigh that for a change, but we’re not betting. Of course the CRTC would have something to say about. And finally, with even the Ford brothers wondering about the future of Toronto’s rickety newspapers, we’ll take this moment to say that the most money-losing of the lot is the National Post. Pity. The Fords say one or more of the four dailies will be gone within five years and that seems possible. 

Red, white and blue colours for Canada’s aircraft

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Canada’s official airbus has been given a new paint job and you have to like it. Until now, Canadian officials  — the prime minister, governor general and sometimes members of the royal family — arrived in foreign lands looking like mourners. The aircraft that was painted in two tones of gray. The new colour scheme is not only happier, it may suggest to those we visit that Canada is not quite as glum a place as the plane would suggest. 

Urban Nature has gypsy moth traps, spray

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Paul Oliver at Leaside’s Urban Nature store in the Dawsco Mall on Brentcliffe Rd. notes that Moore Park and Rosedale tree owners may wish to know about his excellent stock of gypsy moth traps and tree bands. The tree bands are very useful at catching the gypsy moth caterpillars. Urban Nature also sells the btk spray which homeowners can safely use on their own to combat this enemy of the neighborhood’s heritage of Oak trees.  You can give them a call at (416) 646-2439  

Happy Days! We create more than 95,000 jobs

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Canada created 95,000 new jobs last month, a huge gain over what was expected. It is, officials said, the biggest monthly gain in nearly 11 years, Even better, these were mostly full-time positions in the private sector. The jump in job creation is the largest since August, 2002, and sent the country’s unemployment rate down 7.1 per cent in May. The numbers come as a antidote to the persistent view that western economies were slipping into a “summer slump”. 

Home cited as scene of “crack” picture

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The excitement on the CBC tonight (Thursday, June 6, 2013) was the identification of a home in Etobicoke that is said to be the scene of the picture showing Mayor Ford allegedly doing crack cocaine. The home is owned by a family named Basso and the CBC says that the inset man, Fabio Basso, is a friend of the mayor. The house is on Windsor Road in northwest Toronto, near Kipling Avenue and Dixon Road. Reporters asked Ford about the house but he refused to respond. CBC said the beige brick bungalow appears to have exterior details that match those in the photo.

Repairs on Avenue Rd. between Lawrence-Bloor

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The city has issued news that road and sidewalk work will take place on Avenue Road, between Bloor Street and Lawrence Avenue from June 10 to September 15, 2013.  Repairs to utility cuts, road paving, line painting, and fixing sidewalks and curbs is among the work planned for the area. During construction, at least one lane of traffic will be open in each direction. However, there will be traffic restrictions at times and motorists should expect delays. This road work is the final part of the City’s overall construction work on Avenue Road which included watermain replacement and other infrastructure improvements. In addition, road and sidewalk repairs work will also take place on Lonsdale Road, from Avenue Road to Oriole Parkway; Oriole Parkway, from Lonsdale Road to Chaplin Crescent; and Chaplin Crescent, from Oriole Parkway to Avenue Road – south of Eglinton Avenue. City of Toronto 

Return of “local TV antenna” but not on the roof

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Will we soon see the return of the local TV antenna, but this time in the form of a signal over the Internet? In the U.S.,  millions of people are tuning out cable providers and signing up for Internet television. The rise of start ups like Aereo  is giving consumers more viewing choices. Broadcasters are gearing up for a prime time fight. In Canada, that would be  Bell, Shaw and friends. Now before the CRTC second attempt by Bell to buy  Astral with one of their reasons being that guys like Aereo are going to eat Bell’s lunch. And a  nice lunch it is. 

Dalton McGuinty’s staff erased gas plant e-mails

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Was it a coverup or were they just freeing up space on their hard drives? Conservative and NDP MPPs are saying it was the former as the provincial information commissioner reveals that McGuinty aides deliberately erased e-mails.  Senior political staff are said to have broken the law when they deleted e-mails that could have shed light on why the government cancelled two gas plants at a cost to taxpayers of $585 million.  Sun News 

6 dead as building collapses on S. A. Thrift store

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Crushed  Salvation Army Thrift store
Six people, one male and five females, were confirmed dead in the collapse of a building in downtown Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter reported Wednesday night at a press conference. Video footage taken at the scene Wednesday night showed authorities removing two body bags and loading them into ambulances. Fire officials say 13 people were injured in the accident. The four-story building collapsed Wednesday morning. Witnesses said they had been casting a wary eye on the demolition site and questioned how the workers were tackling the job. They say they heard a loud rumbling sound immediately before the collapse. The building once housed a first-floor sandwich shop and apartments above. Its collapse sent debris onto a Salvation Army corner thrift store next door. The two properties are adjacent to an adult bookstore and theater that had been taken down earlier. The accident happened at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at 22nd and Market streets, the western edge of downtown, between the city’s business district and the main train station at 30th and Market. ABC13 Phildelphia

Homes sales down but prices up 3.4 per cent

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The Toronto Real Estate Board says home sales were down 3.4 per cent this year in May but the average selling price headed higher. The board says there were 10,182 sales through the Multiple Listing Service last month, up 3.4 per cent from 10,544 in the same month last year. However, the board says the average selling price last month was $542,174, up by 5.4 per cent compared with $514,567 in May 2012. The board attributed the higher average price to a tight market for single-detached and semi-detached home sales in Toronto. Average condominium apartment prices were also up slightly. 

El Paso implodes City Hall, builds baseball park

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Your heritage is baseball

There is definitely something to be said for getting your priorities right. In El Paso, Texas the community agreed to implode the 34-year-old City Hall and build a stadium.The 10-story former City Hall came rolling down upon its foundation in a blinding cloud of dust and debris. The site of the former City Hall will become a new baseball park. Crews are now racing to build a $50 million baseball stadium for El Paso’s new Triple-A minor league baseball team, which is scheduled to begin playing games there next season. The stadium project has become the focal point of an urban revitalization effort, centered on the central business district but extending to other parts of the city. In November, El Pasoans voted nearly three to one to authorize $473 million in bond issues that will finance more than 85 public improvement projects. Those range from parks, pools and recreation projects to a children’s museum, Hispanic cultural center and multipurpose performing arts center. The baseball stadium isn’t part of the bond program, but voters approved a 2 percent increase in the city’s hotel occupancy tax to help pay for its construction. Your heritage is baseball. Any questions? 

Matlow seeks heritage status for 1894 building

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Bree Rody-Mantha writes this month in the Post Magazine about the motion by Josh Matlow to have the 1894 brick building on the northeast corner of Yonge St. and Davisville Ave. made part of the city’s inventory of heritage locations. Mr Matlow opined at the meeting of East York Council that there may well be a lot of development proposed for the east side of Yonge north from Davisville and he was trying to be “proactive.” The building is now a Starbucks but there is much else to distinguish it except its age.