Loblaws will build a new store and condominium towers at the corner of Bathurst Street and Lakeshore Road retaining the facade of its original 1928 head office and warehouse. Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust will partner with Wittington Properties to do the job.  The new deveopment will be known as West Block. It is described as an urban community that will combine retail shops anchored by a Loblaws store with office space and two residential towers. The property is comprised of approximately 3.5 acres of land located on the northeast corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and Bathurst Street. It was last used by Loblaws in the 1970s. “In preserving the original façade of the building, we are honouring the proud heritage of this important piece of Toronto real estate,” said John Morrison, President and CEO of Choice Properties. “We’re very excited to share our modern vision for the future West Block using the building blocks of the past.”  Below, we see what Loblaws stores looked like when the warehouse was built.

It seems fairly elementary when you think about it. Engineers (or somebody) tried to lift parts of Juliana Bridge in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands with the crane sitting on a barge in the canal. But wait, as the load moves it has the capacity to tip the barge. That would make the cranes slide. And so this spectacular accident played out Monday with two cranes falling across row houses in the town. As many as 20 were injured but it appears not too seriously. And the Dutch are supposed to be so smart.

Andy Elder, genial owner of Grilltime on Laird Drive, confesses on Twitter today that the traffic lights at McRae (Wicksteed) and Laird qualify for a City News contest to find the most infuriating lights in the GTA. Andy’s tweet was sent to Kevin Frankish who wanted to know more about the intersection. This corner is in and out of the news because of the hockey stick curve that happens when McRae meets Wicksteed. This has prompted an elaborate set of signals mainly to control the left hand turns north and south. The wait time is reminiscent of what Snowbirds call Florida traffic lights. They are forever. The north turn signal from McRae onto Laird is useful however because a driver can’t easily anticipate speeding vehicles westbound on Wicksteed. So those cars have to stop for the left turning traffic off McRae. It’s a bore.

Councillor Josh Matlow, his daughter Molly and SERRA president Geoffrey Jones behold the wonder of the locally produced board game SERR-OPOLY at the Farmer’s Market in Davisville Park on Tuesday afternoon (August 4, 2015)  For those from distant places, SERRA is the South Eglinton Residents and Ratepayers Association.  SERR-OPOLY.

Toronto Star

AP writer Ian Harrison caught the spirit of a wonderful baseball day for Toronto fans. Harrison observed that David Price was blown away by the reception he got in his Civic Holiday sold-out debut at Rogers Stadium. Then, said the AP scribe, Price blew away the Minnesota Twins. Blue Jay’s brass were more than ready to agree. The team tweeted the above photo with the new man’s statistics for the day stamped right on it. How impressive is that scorecard fans?  Price struck out 11 over eight innings to win his first Blue Jays start, Josh Donaldson hit a tie-breaking home run and Toronto beat Minnesota 5-1 in the opener of a four-game series between AL wild-card contenders. And this as Price has hardly time to unpack. He got here Friday from Detroit. The crowd basked in fine weather as they stood to give him a ringing welcome. The turnstiles said 45,766 had bought a ticket.  For his part, Price was gracious and, it seemed, genuinely impressed. “That was the best atmosphere I’ve ever been in,” he said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”