The Bulldog

Coffee-pod wars brings $600-million legal action

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Canadian coffee pod maker Club Coffee is suing Keurig Green Mountain Inc for $600 million. It’s all about the new Keurig 2.0 machine that has a “lock-out” technology that interacts only with Keurig-licensed and approved K-Cup packs. Reuters says Club Coffee’s suit comes more than a week after a U.S. federal judge refused to block Keurig from selling the Keurig 2.0 machine, Reuters

Whitney Public School Harvest Fest is today

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Family, friends and Moore Park neighbors of Whitney Public School will want to drop in at the school’s Harvest Fest today (Wednesday, October 1, 2014) between 5 and 7 p.m. at Rosedale Heights Drive and Carstowe Road. No doubt parents are aware of this event but it looks like fun for other Moore Park folks as well. There will be burgers, hot dogs, vegan burgers and other food and drink. There is also a receiving place for donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Website

Ford Motor lands on the right side of the news

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The Ford Motor Company of Canada has landed squarely on the right side of the news this Wednesday, October 1, 2014 by announcing it will add 1,000 jobs at its plant in Oakville to build the 2015 Ford Edge crossover SUV.  Two days after the misbegotten plan to change the name of Maple Leaf Square to Ford Square, the Detroit automaker is putting it back together. Reporters made much of the confusion in the minds of people between Ford cars and the Ford brothers. But the real problem was that MLSE  had begun to mess with stuff that is sacred to ordinary Torontonians. Now Ford just has to wait out the election to begin to reclaim its name in the public mind. Other companies have had far worse problems. How must they feel at Magnotta Winery (a perfectly respectable family business) with that wretched misfit Luke Magnotta in the news all the time. Please send him away forever

Moore Park residents work to save old lamp posts

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Residents of a Moore Park neighborhood are fighting to save the nearly 90-year-old architectural lamp posts that adorn a short length of Rose Park Drive. Electricians were working Tuesday to repair again one of the old street lights but they have warned homeowners that the wiring system needs to be replaced. The wires are made of lead and the lamps do not meet code. City staff has recommended that the lamps be retro-fitted but this can only happen if they are in good enough condition for this work. A big safety concern is that none of the poles are grounded. There are ten of the lamps on Rose Park between Welland Ave and Hudson Drive. The Moore Park Rate Payers Association and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam have been asked to throw their weight behind the effort to save the lamps. In other parts of Toronto, like Rosedale’s Chestnut Park Drive, historically correct replacement lamp posts have been installed. They make a magnificent contribution to the neighborhood. Previous post

Hey Joey, will this old bank be a Local Pub?

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Work is going ahead at the old CIBC building at 180 Laird Drive with the expectation that an established restaurant and bar will take the location in the near future. A building application which was accepted on August 27, 2014 shows the name Local Public Eatery under the heading for “description”. That’s not where one would expect to find the applicant’s name on a City permit but it is the name hanging over five trendy dining and drinking establishments in B.C., Alberta and Toronto’s Liberty Village. The Toronto Local says on its website that its “kind of like your living room, with better food and people to serve you beer, fanatical about craft beer and rotating new selections, passionate about great food and the best ingredients.” Back at 180 Laird Drive however workers at the old bank building say they’ve been told the tenant will be a Joey restaurant. Joey, as dining cognoscente will know, is a lush, chandeliered and inventive dining place with valet parking at several locations here. Curiously, Joey also has a very strong western presence and its owner, a dynamic businessman named Jeffery Fuller, is headquartered in Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver. It has some locations in Washington State too. The little two storey building on Laird is smaller than many Joey restaurants. It was built in the heyday of industrial Leaside by the Imperial Bank of Canada before it merged in 1960 with the Canadian Bank of Commerce to form the CIBC. Many changes are required to fit it out as a restaurant. One document at City Hall reveals that a “retractable cover for a second floor patio” is under review. In any case, the large interests behind the plan are not not readily available to explain just what name will go on the building when it is done. The owners, First Capital Realty, did  not respond to an inquiry by post time.  Photos from top: 180 Laird as seen in 2012 before the bank moved to Leaside Village, construction on the east face of the building now and the elegant Imperial Bank crest over the front door.

“Mid-air Skypark” in new offices, GO bus terminal

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Sky park links towers

Metrolinx and real estate company Ivanhoé Cambridge say there will a new development over the GO rail yard west of Bathurst Street which includes a new GO bus terminal. The project involves an office centre with two towers to be known as 45-141 Bay Street, a larger GO terminal and an elevated park above the rail corridor.  The new elevated “Skypark” will link the fourth floors of two new 48-storey office buildings constructed on the north and south sides of the rail corridors, and connect to Union Station. The terminal is said to boast more options for commuters and tourists alike traveling across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The project will be built in partnership with real-estate firm Ivanhoe-Cambridge and through Metrolinx. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2015 and completed in three years.  

“A bit of mud” on tracks created subway chaos

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One of the largest passenger backups is occurring this afternoon on the Bloor subway between Keele and St. George stations because of what was first called “a bit of mud and water” on the tracks. amazingly, TTC officials said they had no idea how it got there. This down under the street in a place not accessible to the public. The line was shut down with “no expected clearing time” stated. Several stations were reopened by 9:30 a.m., though service was still suspended between Keele and Ossington stations. TTC spokesperson Jessica Martin said a subway operator reported debris on the tracks at Dundas West station, leading transit control to cut power and send investigators to the scene. Investigators found “a bit of mud and water” on the tracks, Twitter is crammed with complaints about what seems like a piddling reason to stop the trains but also with beefing, as always occur, of so-called shuttle buses that was unable to deal with the crowds. More like scuttle butt buses. 

Sober-spoken Ford finds motherhood in the arts

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The ArtsVote mayoral debate revealed a Doug Ford of much more subdued behaviour Monday afternoon at the TIFF Light Box. It was a surprise to see Mr. Ford there much less hear his sobre support for this motherhood issue. In fact, no one is against the arts per se. The only issue is how much public money will be spent and where. In any case, the rather boisterous host of the debate, Damian Abraham, was more reminiscent of Ford Nation than anyone else in attendance.  From reading BlogTO we know he is the lead vocalist of a group whose name can’t be printed in stuffy publications like The South Bayview Bulldog.  Its vulgar shock schtick is to be found in BlogTO however.  Proof again you can say anything in polite company as long you claim its the name of a musical group. The candidates included more than the TCF (Tory, Chow, Ford) bunch. Pleasant outliers Ari Goldkind and teen-wonder Morgan Baskin, a woman mature beyond her years, were also there. One of our favorite Leaside  people, Rudy Limeback was present and said the following. “It was the most civil debate so far this year. Even Dougie was on his best behaviour. Tory tried hard, didn’t register. Olivia lost a lot of points when in her summation she whipped out a napkin with Tory’s transit plan sketched out on it, showing the mistakes. Ari made many points that scored well with the audience. Morgan, in my opinion, had the best performance.” You can see that embarrassing ploy by Ms. Chow at 1.28 on the tape — Ed.  ArtsVote is a volunteer coalition of non-partisan artists, arts workers. The YouTube video below catches the flavour of the event.