The Jays home opener against the Tigers is Thursday at 3.30 p.m. at Rogers Centre and police have released traffic restrictions and security enhancements for the game and the season. To ensure the safe flow of pedestrian traffic road restrictions will be in effect:
Bremner Blvd will be reduced to one lane, in both directions
Rees Street will be available for those patrons parking at the Rogers Centre
For those requiring accessible entry, Rees Street, northbound from Lake Shore Boulevard West, will be available and a staging area for accessibility services will be set up on Rees Street at Bremner Boulevard, for Gate 7 access and Blue Jays Way, in front of the Marriott Hotel, for Gate 13. The public may notice other security measures in the surrounding area, including an increased police presence and/or the use of other public and private sector resources.
Dollarama, the place where everyone shops but no one wants to be seen, raised its dividend Thursday as it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $172 million, up from $162 .8 million a year earlier. Dollarama came within a penny of earning 55 cents a share. The retailer says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 4.4 cents per share, up from four cents. Analysts say Dollarama needs to charge more for some items but it promises to keep prices at a maximum of $4. It fears competition from Dollar Tree and others although Dollarama outflanks its rival with a huge number of locations. The closest Dollar Tree to South Bayview is Coxwell and Gerrard.
A man has been rescued from a 2.4-metre trench in Scarborough on Wednesday night. It appears shoring collapsed and was filling the trench making what police called a race against time. This occurred at Generation Blvd and Rainbow Ridge Ave near Sheppard and Meadowvale around 6 p.m. Special equipment was brought in to aid in the rescue, and Toronto Police Const. David Hopkinson warned that the situation could turn life-threatening if the trench fully collapsed. Around 8:30 p.m. the man was pulled from the trench. The worker is recovering.
Wednesday’s summary sees construction (upper left) of a new home on Southvale Rd. between Hanna Rd. and Rutherglen Rd. The confusion when trucks load mud at this site without a flag man is clear. Upper right, a reminder of the Leaside United Church talent show coming up March 29. Leaside has talent. Centre left, new benches bearing the Bayview Leaside BIA logo are being placed on Bayview Ave. Below that, the annual wax wonder known as the Downtown Record Show is on Sunday at Toronto Estonian House, 958 Broadview Ave. Centre right, please give blood at the Leaside Blood Clinic April 4. And send your strapping 17-and-over children there too. Lower left, the Old Book and Paper Show returns to the Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St. Sunday. Finally, carnations to you by all means (and lush crimson too) from Longo’s. South Bayview Bulldog Bulletin Board
There was no ransom demand made for Wanzhen (Peter) Lu by his kidnappers during the 72 hours he was held by them, police say. Nonetheless, the assumption seems easy that this was the purpose behind the abduction of the son of wealthy southern China parents who was living an ostentatious life of expensive cars and companionship in Toronto. CTV has spoken to the Gravenhurst man who came across Lu as he apparently stumbled along in the dark Tuesday night. There is no hint in the man’s experience helping Lu as to why the young man was released. York Regional Police are suggesting that the searing spotlight that fell on this crime may have helped. The kidnappers may have panicked for this and other unknown factors YRP vow they will apprehend the four men seen committing the abduction in Lu’s condo garage. CTV
Crosslinx Transit Solutions says the planned eight-week closure of Leslie St. at Eglinton Ave. in July and August is necessary to get the right-of-way and LRT tracks laid properly. To do the work over a longer period with Leslie open, says Crosslinx Communications Director Kristin Jenkins, would produce a flawed system. “There would be joints in the track guideway and the system would require more frequent repairs,” she said. There has been much concern expressed on social media such as Leaside Community Facebook group about the closure. Jenkins provided some details on what the closure may look like:
Leslie will be closed to vehicles at Eglinton but Eglinton will remain open throughout the work.
Pedestrian traffic will be maintained from Leslie to Eglinton. This will permit cyclists to walk their bikes across the closure and ride and to and from Sunnybrook Park
The 51 Leslie bus will loop at Eglinton.
The 54 Lawrence East bus will be re-routed to Don Mills Rd.
Jenkins said general north-south access in Leaside and to the east will improve by June as there will be no turn restrictions at both Bayview and Don Mills. All lanes will be open at Don Mills and additional southbound and eastbound lanes will open up at Bayview.
A plan has been filed at City Hall to uncover and save the facade of Chester Public School built in 1891 at 954 Broadview Ave. between Danforth and the Pottery Rd/Mortimer Ave. corner. The project is part of an 18-storey retirement home plan set on the high bank of the Don Valley. It is put forward by developer Revera Living and designed by Montgomery Sisam with heritage aspects overseen by ERA Architects and would reveal the old school for the first time since it was mostly hidden behind a 20th Century addition. Urban Toronto correctly calls it a forgotten heritage gem.
Wanzhen (Peter) Lu has been found apparently safe in Gravenhurst. Police say Lu, 22, knocked on the door of a home on Doe Lake Rd. in the Muskoka town and asked for help Tuesday night. “Shortly before 9 p.m. a man walked up to a residence on Doe Lake Road in Gravenhurst and he was looking for help,” Sgt. Andy Pattenden said. “He knocked on the door of the residence and a homeowner found him there and called police right away.” “I can tell you that officers with the Ontario Provincial Police attended and found the man and have identified him as 22-year-old Wanzhen Lu.” Pattenden said Lu was taken to hospital with minor injuries. “I can tell you that our investigators have been in very close contact with Lu’s family prior to their arrival in Canada from China and since they’ve been here our investigators have been able to provide this great news to the family, who I’m sure are sincerely relieved at this time,” he said. Lu is currently being interviewed by investigators as this case is “far from over,” Pattenden said. “Four suspects are still outstanding in this case,” he said. “We’re very concerned that they are still out there and I can tell you that our efforts are far from over.”
Police say that the man who was taken into custody yesterday on suspicion of being involved in the kidnapping has now been released unconditionally. It appears that police believe they were entirely wrong about this man’s involvement at any level. They say that the motive for this apparent abduction remains unknown but they hope to learn more from Mr. Lu. Gravenhurst is a town of some 12,000 people on the shore of Lake Muskoka. Doe Lake Rd. is a rural stretch with few homes. It seems at least possible that Lu was released by his kidnappers and walked some distance to find help. The CBC is reporting that it has obtained vehicle registration documents of a Range Rover used by Mr. Lu showing a lien put on the vehicle as of March 25. On Tuesday, the Range Rover remained in the garage from which Lu was taken. Pictures at what appears to be Lu’s Instagram account (@my.666666) depict great affluence.
The Ford government has sent two letters to the City essentially telling Councillors that it is going to take over the planning of four urgent subway construction projects planned for the near future. It says that the province is “committed to a three-stop extension” for Scarborough ending at the Scarborough Town Centre. This tosses out the much maligned one-stop wonder approved under the Liberal government. The PC cabinet letters say the government is also proposing that a significant portion of the Eglinton West extension to the Crosstown light rail transit (LRT) line be underground as opposed to a surface level right of way line as now planned.
Whither the tunnel
And the letters say the province wishes to co-ordinate work on the Relief Line South use “alternate delivery methods and an approach that would create such a free-standing project which would enable the procurement of a truly unique artery spanning the City that is not beholden to the requirements of the technologically-outdated Line 2.” Just what this means in specific terms is unclear to the lay reader. And finally the province wants work on the Yonge Subway Extension north to take place in tandem with the Relief Line “so that the in-service date for the extension is fast-tracked to the greatest extent possible.” The letters were sent to City Hall Tuesday. Province details plans to alter four major transit projects in Toronto
Metrolinx plans to close Leslie St. presumably near Eglinton for the months of July and August to permit construction of the LRT. There was a mailing or door to door delivery Tuesday in the area of Leaside telling of this plan. The Councillor Jaye Robinson, is aware and said that she will attend Metrolinx Community Meeting scheduled for April 4 at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Ct. There is substantial indignation plan on Facebook
Postcard delivered in Leaside and presumably elsewhere Tuesday.
Among the angry posts are appeals about the overall difficulty of exiting Leaside to the north. One says “Please do not let Metrolinx do this! If they block the road for cars, they will block the ONLY route for cyclists to get to Sunnybrook Park to access downtown since Wilket Creek is never going to reopen. We have no alternate routes for any form of transportation with this crazy idea.” Another says: “At times getting out of Leaside to go north on Bayview can be next to impossible during the evening rush hour, backtracking to Leslie was the only option to get out of town, now that option is gone.”
The charity Toronto Cat Rescue (TCR) has posted photos of a Toronto home where some 100 cats were being kept in what is said to be “hoarding” conditions. The location is not given. It says 50 cats were removed and it is asking for cat-lovers to adopt one or more. It also asks for donations. The limit by municipal bylaw is six cats per home. It’s not clear from the post if the other cats were left at the home at or placed elsewhere. Toronto Cat Rescue, a volunteer-driven group, was notified about the house by an online report. It then notified Toronto Animal Services and the Toronto Humane Society and the three groups coordinated a response. There is a long thread associated with this post. One says that the home seems very clean for that of a hoarder person. FacebookTCR principals
Inspector Sonia Thomas as a newly-hired WPC in 1986
Inspector Sonia Thomas of 53 Division recalls her mother worrying how she would ever get on by joining the police in 1986. As told by Thomas, they didn’t see too many black police officers when she was growing up near Oakwood Ave. and St. Clair Ave. W. Her mom, trained as a nurse in England, was concerned when she learned Sonia was joining the Toronto Police. “She had concerns about how I was going to rise through the ranks in an organization that didn’t have people at the top that looked like us,” said Thomas. Nonetheless, Thomas made history in 2010 by becoming the service’s first black woman senior officer. She retires on March 28. Thomas Legacy in Fellow Officers
