South Bayview Bulldog Admin

MLSE to build Raptors practice centre at CNE

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Toronto will permit MLSE to build a $30-million practice facility for the Raptors on the CNE grounds. In return, the City will own the facilities and MLSE will pay for upkeep, maintenance  and capital upkeep. Could be fair. Members voted 38-2 in favor at today’s last meeting before the October 27, 2014 general election. Only the Ford brother opposed the motion.  The space used for the centre will eliminate 200 parking spaces so MLSE and the City will split the cost of a $400 million parking garage. MLSE has promised to permit use of the facility to community groups for camps and tournaments as well as to Canada Basketball. NewsTalk1010

“Bully Offer” sweet deal to Leaside homeowner

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81 Bessborough 
So you have owned a home for most of your life and you’ve never heard of a Bully Offer. Maybe that’s because a real estate “bully” has to lay down a lot of cash for the title. We think it’s more like upping the ante in the game of buying and selling of homes. All sellers would like an over-listing bid on their home but the bully offer comes from a buyer with an offer that is way over listing. A bully buyer adds to the urgency of acceptance by setting a deadline, sometimes a really short one. And so we have the case of a 81 Bessborough Drive. It was listed for $1,199,000 and, as reported by Toronto Life, the For Sale sign “went into the ground at 10:30 a.m. Within eight hours, the buying agent had emailed a firm $1,305,000 early bid with one caveat: it would expire in three hours. Immediately, the selling agent called the seller, who was interested. Other potential buyers couldn’t be contacted because of the calculated dinner-hour deadline, so the seller accepted the deal by 8:30 p.m., after the home had been on the market for only 10 hours.”  Hey, bully me. 

Eat the Beltline comes with a southern drawl

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Those who Tweet in and around Davisville Village will probably be aware of the perilous mixture of entries that can appear. Who knew that the City of Atlanta had both a Beltline and a Davisville and that well-meaning Twitterbugs would mix up news from down there with up here. But thus it is that the hilariously named Georgia business venture known as Eat the Beltline would be tweeting pictures of the TTC track work at — um — Davisville Station. Yes. Eat the trackwork.  Good reason to add the word Village to your search  

Pals as kids, Ottawa men learn they are brothers

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An astonishing tale of how two boys, both adopted, were childhood friends and classmates 70 years ago — and now have learned they are in fact biological brothers. The picture shows Duncan Cumming, now 72, and Ron Cole, 71 when they were pals in Ottawa’s Glebe neighborhood never knowing they shared their birth mom. As reported by the Ottawa Citizen Monday (August 25, 2014) an organization called Parent Finders Ottawa put the pieces together. A coordinator with the organization got in touch with both men to share the news. Ottawa Citizen 

Coffee and burgers: It’s all about the taxes

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It’s an eye-catching headline that Canada-based Tim Hortons might be purchased by the U.S. chain Burger King and headquartered in Canada. It would create an enormous fast food company, the third largest in the world. But the stories from the U.S. today make it clear that it isn’t about the food as much as it is the taxes. Canadian taxes would be lower for such a new company. Reuters excellent account goes on for three pages talking about comparable deals and non-deals. Walgreen had a chance to “invert” its taxes when it bought a European drugstore, says Reuters. Inversion is the name for grabbing the cheaper tax rate. But it didn’t happen because Walgreen got cold feet about what the U.S. government might do. Walgreen would still have to do business with Uncle Sam. So nobody at Tims or Burger King is really thinking about what a new fast food mammoth would look like at the counter. Rather, they’re counting the dollars and the political impact to see if makes sense for Burger King to kiss off  its American status. Sorry to be so unromantic about your friend Tim.  Reuters

Where is debonaire Harrison right about now?

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Early readers of The South Bayview Bulldog will remember this memorable young man. He is Harrison, aged nine months, photographed in the Homefront Shop at 1579 Bayview Ave. on May 15, 2009. That’s all we know about Harrison except that his sunny disposition when he visited with his mom was enough make him a notable guy even at that age. We must suppose that today Harrison is six years and in school. We also received a very nice comment to the original story from his proud grandmother. Perhaps she is still a Bulldog reader and would like to give us a brief update on Harrison’s journey. This long ago post came to light as we reviewed the selections made by the many readers who roam the Bulldog archives. 

Why Yonge subway was closed this weekend

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Our fantastic five-day a week subway has been out of service for another of its regular weekend repair jobs. Kris McCusker of 680 News shows us a picture looking north at Merton Street It shows work in the Davisville station which fits with the story that the line was closed between Bloor and Eglinton stations to do signal upgrades and track work. The subway will re-open at 6 a.m. Monday, August 15, 2014. Nice shot Kris. 

Parker circling the Leaside wagons on Twitter

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The Bulldog is on Twitter watch in these quiet closing days of August and notes that Councillor John Parker (Ward 26) has re-made himself with a logo that evokes a certain circling of the Leaside wagons. Mr. Parker’s new brand on Twitter is Let’s Stick Together. This new logo in seen in the Leaside search with some pleasant pictures of the Leaside Lawn Bowling Club. The Councilor’s previous depiction of his Twitter self was as a character from the Charlie Brown comic strip. Whatever, we now have the Let’s Stick Together motto out there for readers to make what they will of it. Are the forces of Josh Matlow (Ward 22) forming up on the frontiers of Leaside? Will the worst occur? Will public opinion shape the naming of the new BIA? Right now the Mssrs. Parker and Matlow see that issue differently. Matlow says the proper name for the as-yet unformed BIA is the well-known South Bayview. Mr. Parker is going with the name chosen by the BIA steering committee by a 3-2 vote. That would be Bayview Leaside.  You can vote on which name you like here.