Belsize (later Regent) Theatre/Toronto archives

The Regent Theatre at 551 Mt Pleasant Rd. has been sold to Terra Bruce Productions for a reported $7,400,000. The old theatre was built as the Belsize in 1927 and is now set for “design and development” by Terra Bruce according to Alex Vaccari, vice president of Colonial House Capital Ltd. The two firms are at 17 Prince Arthur Ave. Mr. Vaccari said “we passionately believe that breathing new life into this historic space will be of huge benefit to our City, and to the arts community more generally. While it will be an enormous investment of time and resources to bring this beautiful building back to its former glory, it is certainly a project that we are all excited to undertake”. Terra Bruce is called the “creative force and employment generator for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador” and is responsible for the musical No Change in the Weather which played at the CAA Theatre at 651 Yonge St late last year.

Toronto’s police chief reiterated Friday that he will ‘not tolerate’ encampments or vehicles being used to block roadways during a possible convoy demonstration downtown this weekend but will “facilitate peaceful protest” as much as possible

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that police and all levels of government are preparing to take action against the demonstrators behind the blockades in Ottawa, Windsor and elsewhere.

Bayview Ave. at Soudan Ave. and Parkhurst Blvd.

Residents of Leaside are discussing the troubled corner of Bayview Ave and Soudan/Parkhurst again. It is a long thread and several of them wisely speak of using the traffic lights at Bayview and Manor Rd for making left turns and pedestrian crossing. Some say that traffic lights are needed at Soudan and this seems indisputable despite the resistance of many residents. Most accidents at this corner occur when drivers think they have a clear path around other vehicles but don’t. It’s called driving blind.

Former Staples, 1140 Yonge was a Pierce-Arrow showroom

Fancy flivvers of bygone days at 1140 Yonge

The ABC Residents Association in Summerhill has announced that it has been able to negotiate significant reductions in height and mass of the proposed building at the Staples site redevelopment at 1140 Yonge Street. ABCRA does not say the nature of the height concession but the original plan called for 13 storeys. Previously the old building at the corner of Macpherson was a CBC studio and before that a Pierce-Arrow dealership. ABCRA is hosting a Zoom information session on Friday, February 11, 2022 at 5:30 pm. To receive a meeting link send an email to abc@abcra.ca

Homemade cheesecake

Homemade dates squares

Our friends at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church at 1399 Bayview have called their current online adventure the Time, Talent and Treasure Auction. Why not? It runs until February 27 at 2 p.m. and yummy things like cheesecake and date squares are on offer. There are also things like piano lessons and games at Don Valley Golf Course.

Police cars block Avenue Rd at Bloor St

Toronto Police have again blocked road access to Queen’s Park in response to social media messages that some truckers occupying Ottawa will travel to Toronto. One of those convoy organizers is a man named Chris Barber, according to CTV reporter Glen McGregor. McGregor says the convoy bosses often post inaccurate information. Other tweets (below) say Barber called this threat “a game”.

Trees come down at Small’s Creek near Woodbine and Gerrard/Ellen Douglas

Residents of the Upper Beaches are distressed by the arrival of tree-cutting crews that have begun removing the tree cover in Small’s Creek in the Williamson Park Ravine to make way for the Ontario Line LRT. FB

• Metrolinx cuts down trees in ‘ecologically significant’ ravine despite outcry

Small’s Creek runs through Williamson Park Ravine

New retail building at Leaside Village

First Capital REIT, owners of Leaside Village shopping centre on Laird Drive have announced that two of the tenants in a new retail building will be Mary Brown’s Chicken and Pita Land Mideast Urban Kitchen. Leaside Village is known locally as Longo’s Plaza.  Instagram

A large middle-of-the-night power outage across central Midtown Toronto left an unspecified number of Toronto Hydro customers in the dark Tuesday. The blackout hit at 12:19 am on Tuesday and was related to “an underground cable fault”. The outage stretched from Spadina Rd and to Mt. Pleasant Rd and from Eglinton Ave to Bloor St. At noon, Toronto Hydro said it had completed troubleshooting and was “taking steps to bring power back. We’re aiming to have power restored early this afternoon”.

Outage update: We’ve been able to successfully restore power to the majority of customers. Crews continue to work as quickly and safely as possible to bring power back for the remaining customers.

— Toronto Hydro (@TorontoHydro) February 8, 2022