Two education reporters are fretting about the effect of voluntary giving on the part of parents in school areas where there is enough money in the home to do that.  For most families, it’s just a few dollars that can be set aside for this purpose, not hundreds. The implication of the article last week in the Globe and Mail is that somehow it would be better if every school received exactly the same number of dollars whether from taxes or those that are gift-given. Caroline Alphonso (above) and Kate Hammer say that a mere $45 per year was raised privately per pupil by Thorncliffe Park Public School. The two writers say this “raises questions” of equity in the public-education system. Alphonso and Hammer don’t mention — because they don’t know about — all the things rich parents do for their kids totally unrelated to school No doubt about it, it’s better to have money. But it’s mighty inequitable. The writers acknowledge that the Toronto and District School Board makes grants to high-need schools but they say this cannot “catch up with the hundreds of thousands of dollars schools in the city’s richest neighbourhoods raise.” Maybe not. But realistically lots is done to help poor schools (and possibly more should be done). As to Thorncliffe Park, it is closely linked to Leaside and Davisville Village. The connections are many and intimate. They range from charities that focus on that neighborhood to the enrolment of Thorncliffe kids at the the arena facility in Leaside. The country’s largest newly-opened kindergarten housing as many 700 toddlers sits beside Thorncliffe School. School gift-giving is also greatly supported by business, as was the case in the dirt-to-turf campaign at Maurice Cody. It is also Leaside business that funds much of the giving directed to Thorncliffe Park. 

A car and a TTC bus slammed into each other on Kipling Ave. north of Rexdale Blvd early Sunday (November 9, 2010) killing one in the car and injuring as many as nine others. It’s not clear why the crash happened but after the impact the bus hit a another car and then rolled what appears to be  maybe 100 feet across a small plaza where it smashed through the window of a branch of the CBIC. Two of the occupants of the car are said to be in critical condition.  The bus has a black box which should indicate what was going on with the operation of the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Many shoppers stopped to buy Lidia Bastianich’s cookbook at the Metro at Bayview Ave.and Eglinton E. today. This pictures shows the lineup for a personalized copy of Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cuisine. It was much nicer inside than out. 

Rosea Lonsdale

Donlea Drive resident Rosea Lonsdale has been blindsided by contractors employed to replace the aging watermain along her north Leaside street. Ms. Lonsdale told The South Bayview Bulldog that the city began ripping up the street outside her home without so much as a knock on the door this morning (Friday, November 7, 2014). The residents did receive a notice months ago saying the work would be done between May 20 and August 20, 2014. But all remained quiet through the summer and right up until 7 a.m. this morning, says Ms. Lonsdale. Then, out of nowhere, the digging began. By 10.30 a.m. there was a hole about ten inches deep in front of the driveway. It is, says Ms Lonsdale, a total lack of respect. This out-of-nowhere construction is not unknown. All sorts of things get in the way of contractors keeping to schedule. But that’s no reason why the real start date remains a secret. It is the surprise arrival — weeks, months and sometimes as much as a year after notice is given — that rightly infuriates homeowners. In this case, it looks like the work along Donlea Drive will not be finished until next Spring.