Starbucks is touting the addition of the New York Times to its app but what about South Bayview news? Well, we’re going to tell you. The local news in digest form is posted on the Starbuck’s Bulletin board at Bayview and Belsize. Through the kind auspices of the manager and staff, coffee fans can now get a quick, regularly updated digest of news from the South Bayview Bulldog. We thought you’d like to know. Love the espresso.
This is a very moving story of a mother who took her son to the emergency department at Barrie’s Royal Victoria Hospital and as she waited to see a doctor realized time was ticking by for her car. She posted a message with a local mother’s group on Facebook asking if she would be towed. In short order, many people offered, and did, top up the meter. Bless them all. Hamilton Spectator
Loblaws has issued a statement Thursday morning (July 23, 3015) saying it will close 52 unprofitable stores in Canada over the next year. Loblaws has more than 2,000 stores and its locations include Loblaws, Provigo and Extra Foods. It also owns Shoppers Drug Mart. It did not say where the closures might occur but there are unlikely to be many in the Toronto area. In South Bayview, the Redway Rd. store has always seemed under-patronized and it is well off the main street. This is not an asset. Still, it is full of goods and Loblaws has seemed committed to it. Loblaws said the closures will cut its annual sales by roughly $300 million a year, but will result in an improvement of $35 million to $40 million in its operating profits. As reported by Canadian Press, the statement said the closures are expected to cost the company a total of approximately $120 million. Of this amount, a charge of $45 million was taken in the second quarter ended June 20, including $30 million for severance and lease termination costs.
CONSOLIDATED SALES
The release shows the grocery retailer’s consolidated sales rose 2.2 per cent to $10.54 billion from the same quarter last year. The firm said it made a second-quarter profit of $185 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a loss of $456 million or $1.13 a share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, it said it earned $350 million or 85 cents per share in the quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $297 million or 74 cents per share a year ago. “Looking ahead, the grocery industry remains highly competitive and health-care reform continues to put pressure on our pharmacy business,” company president and executive chairman Galen G. Weston said in the statement.
You’re likely to enjoy this well-produced story about Jaxon Cota, an unassuming kid with an IQ of 148 from McKinney Texas. He is staggeringly smart but he just wants to be a kid. His parents agree. Nice.
Cuban athlete Dailenys Pacheco, a participant in the jumping events at the Pan Am Games, is seen with Toronto cabbie John Strickland after he returned Ms. Pacheco’s wallet which had been left in his taxi. The woman had picked up the cab outside the Gerrard Square Walmart and proceeded to her Pan Am Games home in the Athletes Village at the foot of Bayview Ave. As told by Toronto police, Ms. Pacheco paid her fare, gathered up her belongings and went on her way. But she had overlooked her wallet. It was loaded with her identification and a “significant sum of cash”. The upset Ms. Pacheco approached nearby police at the village but just as the story was being relayed from Spanish to English, Mr. Strickland arrived back at the village having discovered the wallet in his car. He is an independent cab driver who has been working in Toronto for more than 35 years. To quote Detective Sergeant Ian McArthur, one of the investigating officers, “Mr. Strickland deserves a gold medal for his honesty. He is a true ambassador of our city”.
Premier Wynne has announced that HOV lanes will soon become toll lanes. Driver-only cars will be able to skirt the HOV requirement for multiple passengers by paying. This concept will be called HOT. That cute name is said to stand for “high-occupancy lane tolls” although it might seem a misnomer. Never mind. In this era of provincial debt that is scaring the pants of mere mortal credit rating wonks, the Cabinet is forging ahead with new and unique methods of “revenue.” The news conference at which this arose did not generate questions about the government’s pledge to remove the HOV lanes slapped onto the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway for the Pan Am Games. Does that still apply? The closest the Premier got to straight talk was this quote from the Star: “Whether the configurations that have been put in place on provincial roads for the Pan Am Games are exactly what will transpire when we put in place the HOT lanes, that’s not our plan at this moment,” she told reporters after the meeting with Mayor John Tory.
PLEASE DON’T SCREW US AROUND
The Star noted that Mayor Tory had to listen quietly to this bolt from the blue. He later said. “If there’s any frustration that I’ve heard, it’s that the HOV lanes during Pan Am have been underutilized … the lesson for us all now is to take lessons,” the Star quotes his worship. Translation? In Bulldog parlance that’s “please don’t screw us around like this Premier.” BNN
Ann Anderson (born Korol)
ANN ANDERSON (nee KOROL) Artist, teacher, Apollonian seeker of the true path, Ann’s glowing life was cruelly cut short on Wednesday, July 15, 2015 in Toronto. Her absence is felt every day, in a hundred ways, by those she has left behind: husband Don, son Timothy and daughter Elizabeth. They and other members of her extended family will remember this unique being who for a time visited their lives; whose daily awareness of the divine found expression in the seclusion of her beloved garden; whose generosity of spirit did not dilute her insistence on excellence in the classroom; whose swooping, impressionistic painting style co-existed with a meticulous talent for Eastern icon painting, symbolic of the powerful Ukrainian heartbeat in her artistic soul. Funeral Mass on Thursday, July 23rd at 11 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church, 24 Cheritan Ave., Toronto. Interment Mount Hope Cemetery.
A study produced by Re/Max Hallmark Realty says that homes along and near Scarborough’s pleasant Lake Ontario waterfront have become hot sellers. The study found that as the average sale price of an existing detached home in Toronto crosses $1-million, the biggest profits are being made in houses selling for less than a million. It said that neighborhoods in southern Scarborough are gaining the most. Birchcliffe/Cliffside led the city with a 25.4 per cent increase, with the average home in the area climbing $724,187 as of the end of June, compared to $577,567 from one year ago. “The Scarborough community — nestled between the popular Beach area and the Scarborough Bluffs — has experienced a serious upswing in demand due to affordability and close proximity to Toronto’s downtown core,” said Re/Max in a release.
There was a natural gas scare on Manor Road Tuesday (July 21, 2015) when several people were forced from their homes between Forman Ave. and Boynton Rd. Crews were called to 300 Manor around 2:20 p.m. Police say a construction worker severed a gas line while digging in the area. The leak was repaired without incident.
Rent of $3,795 a month will get you this 820 sq ft. shop which astute readers may recognize as the place where Whatever Lola Wants lived for a few years. Seasoned retailers will know that one would need a pretty hot business to make the rent every month on that space. Still, it is the picture shown on Twitter that is the eye-opener. It must be ten or twelve years old. When Paradox finally expire? And look at the old East York iron bench.
This really good-loking Jamis TrailX bicycle is at 53 Division. Question is, who owns it? Get in touch with police if you know. (416) 808-5306
Reader Matthew Bishop has been keeping track of complaints about traffic caused by construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. At a meeting Tuesday it was said that Metrolinx is unaware of traffic problems in Leaiside. Mr. Bishop is about to change that by sending Metrolinx more than 50 emails he has received about traffic. Says Matt: “I was informed (by Councillor Burnside) that the Metrolinx representatives informed him that they were unaware of any traffic problem in North Leaside (and I believe South Leaside as well) as they have yet to receive a complaint from any resident in the community related to traffic. Although I find this extremely hard to believe, the Councillor has asked me to communicate that on any emails we send to his offices with regards to traffic that we also copy Metrolinx on those emails (Email: crosstown@metrolinx.com). Please continue to send me your complaints as well to matthewmbishop@gmail.com as I have been logging and sharing with the Councillor the growing level of frustration and concern in the community on all things traffic” .
