Toronto and East York (in pink)

Bylaw amendments that will permit the construction of laneway suites in residential neighbourhoods in Toronto and East York have been approved by City Council. Such neighbourhoods as Davisville Village, Deer Park, Moore Park and the many residential areas east of Broadview Ave. across the Don are included. Some areas don’t have many lanes, however.  T and EY contains the Wards of 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. Support was substantial, with Council voting 30-5 vote on Thursday morning. Apparently the changes do not effect Leaside, which is represented at North York Community Council. Conditions for applications by homeowners to build are said to be strict. Entrances to suites must be no more than 45 metres away from a public street for access by the fire service and others. That rule, in theory, will prevent laneway suites from being built on some properties that are located on dead-end laneways.

SET BACKS, PARKING

Suites themselves must be no more than two storeys or six-metres-tall and can contain only a single unit. Suites must be separated from the rear of existing homes by a distance of 5 to 7.5 metres, depending on their height. They must be set back from the rear property line by at least 1.5 metres with dimensions that do not exceed eight metres in width and 10-metres in length. Between 100 and 300 laneway suites are expected to be constructed each year now that they are permitted, according to staff. As to parking, there appears to be an optimistic view that a supposed decline in the ownership of cars will make this potential issue irrelevant. Time will tell.

Speeding car leaped narrow sidewalk at Balmoral Ave. in November, 2016/Bulldog

Outside Brown School 2015/Jack Lakey, Star

Avenue Rd. south from St. Clair in 1937 when it was a pleasant, treed street

The narrowness of sidewalks on both sides of Avenue Rd. south of St. Clair Ave. is a longstanding issue. Residents groups and City staff struggle with the reality that there is no simple solution. Widening of the street nearly 70 years ago turned it into a speedway. Photos show (left) a frightening 2016 crash of a car onto the east sidewalk at Balmoral Ave, (centre) safety fences outside Brown Public School, 454 Avenue Rd. and (right) traffic looking south on Avenue at St. Clair in 1937. We don’t have much to say about streetcars that is very nice but there’s no doubt they slow down traffic. City News takes up the issue (below) as ratepayers complain.

Facebook Canada will launch a third-party fact-checking program to root out fake news and provide users with more context on articles they read on the platform. The program is a collaboration with newswire service Agence France-Presse, which will have fact-checkers in Canada to review stories from local news outlets and rate their accuracy. Hope they look at Facebook ads too. But what a difference two years makes as we flash back to a Bulldog post from November 2016 (below)  The apparent death notice (with bloody blotches yet) was one of several ads/news insertions on Facebook that had people inquiring why FB was announcing the deaths of perfectly healthy people. Facebook ads (booga booga) are mighty strange, weird

Dave Bryant and family

Meridian Credit Union staff on Mt. Pleasant

De la mer, 1543 Bayview Ave.

David Bryant has posted news of his intention to again produce a fireworks show on the Canada Day weekend. This year it will be held on Monday, July 2 beginning at approximately 9.30 p.m. Last year’s show drew a large crowd. As in the past, Mr. Bryant is asking those who are able to make a donation to the cost. The show produced for the 2018 Victoria Day weekend had a bill of nearly $3,500. Bryant says donations can be made to bryantdavid@live.ca  or in person to a donations jug at the setup table on the track by the field on the day. Bryant reports that both Meridian CU at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Soudan Ave and Dave Owen and Blake Edwards of the seafood shop Del La Mer (1543 Bayview) will support the program. Shirley Breen is manager of  Meridian. Below is the finale to the Victoria Day weekend show at LHS field.

Chris Murray

Oversaw 7,800 employees in Hamlton

City Council has appointed Hamilton City Manager Chris Murray to the same position in Toronto. Mr. Murray is a long-time Hamilton civil servant. He will assume his new job August 13. “The City Manager is responsible for leading the women and men of the Toronto Public Service as they work on behalf of Toronto residents,” said Mayor John Tory. “Chris brings to this position a deep understanding of the complexities and challenges of municipal service delivery and I look forward to working with him as we continue to build a modern, motivated and effective City government focused on the people’s needs. He knows how to use positive change to make us better and I know that’s what he will do.” Murray said he was thrilled at his appointment.  Murray has been Hamilton City Manager since 2009 and oversaw 7,800 employees. He managed projects like waterfront development, LRT planning, Tim Hortons Field, GO service expansion and the negotiation of the development of a downtown McMaster Medical Campus.

Strong competition among radio stations and alternates to conventional TV are said to be a major reasons behind a stunning loss of some $4.49 a share at Corus Entertainment Inc. The first quarter (ending May 31) loss sent Corus reeling on the TSX. The stock was down 11 per cent early Wednesday after the company announced a $935.9 million loss tied mostly to a devaluation of its broadcast licences. The firm, which owns Global Television among many other TV franchises, also slashed its dividend to accelerate debt reduction. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 36 cents a share. Corus has a large presence in Canadian broadcasting apart from Global. It owns 39 radio stations and a portfolio of 45 specialty television services. Corus is especially prominent within the children’s television market, through its ownership of the domestic YTV, Treehouse TV and Teletoon/Télétoon networks, the animation studio Nelvana and book publisher Kids Can Press, and localized versions of the Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Nickelodeon brands. Corus Entertainment’s voting majority is held by the company’s founder J R Shaw and his family and a 40% stake of Corus stock is owned by Shaw Communications.

Chloe Gong, 5/Family

Tiffany and daughter Chloe/Family

The woman and child who drowned in Collingwood Tuesday have been identified as Tiffany Gong, 34, and her daughter Chloe, 5, of Markham. The drownings occurred at the outdoor swimming pool of the Mountain Springs Lodge Resort in the town of Blue Mountains around 7:30 p.m. The husband, Yiting Gong, said his family and his parents had been at the resort for a two-day vacation. Mr. Gong said his wife and daughter went to the pool by themselves but 10 minutes later he went to the pool and found people from the resort trying to revive his wife. He said his daughter must have jumped into the pool and his wife went to help her when they both went under. He believes someone from the resort pulled his daughter out but didn’t notice his wife had gone under.

• Former reservist not guilty in shooting of Indigenous man stealing truck

Billboard workers have come across a 31-year-old billing for the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs. If born, where were you? Then, the remarkable story of Sakina Rizva, youngest graduate ever at the U of T, as told by City News reporter Ginella Massa. Below that, Ben Stein tells the US to lay off Canada. Stein, an intellectual gadfly well-remembered for his role as Ferris Bueller’s economics teacher, is also an eminent economist. Lastly, the City News business report which recounts a demand Tuesday by Donald Trump for allies to stop importing oil from Iran. That drove the markets, and oil prices, higher. Time for Canada to build some pipelines. Please!

Hot summer days are predicted this weekend with a pinnacle of sorts occurring Canada Day weekend. The forecasters at the Weather Network are in a lather about humidex readings, calling them “about as hot as the humidex can get.” We should all be cautious but also maybe try to keep our cool as the warnings sound quite fearful. They go on to say “one of the most extensive heat waves of the summer is almost upon us, and it’s set to spike over the holiday long weekend. Heat lovers may be rejoicing but this weekend’s temperatures may be a shock even for those of us who soak up the sun like cold-blooded animals. Canada Day weekend’s sky-high humidex values will be taking a stab at all-time summer records for cities like Ottawa and Montreal.”

PARK TO BE NAMED AFTER ELIJAH MARSH

A park in North York will be renamed in honour of a three-year-old boy who froze to death on a bitterly cold night in February, 2015. While his family slept, Elijah Marsh slipped out of his grandmother’s apartment on Neptune Drive, near Bathurst Street and Highway 401, in just his diaper, boots and a T-shirt  Temperatures were below -20 C at the time. He was found nearby during an intesive search but it was too late. The tragedy touched many across the country and prompted a Toronto man to start a crowdfunding campaign that raised tens of thousands of dollars to pay for funeral costs and support the family.

401 CLOSURE: #OPP CLOSED all lanes EB #Hwy401 btwn Winston Churchill Blvd & Msga Rd after a fatal collision -deceased 45 y/o truck driver fm Richmond Hill, crash invl 3 transport trucks – end of queue type crash – CLOSURE expected for most of aftn. ( OPP twitter pic) pic.twitter.com/fIftaUlX06

— Graham Paine (@GPmedia_24) June 26, 2018

Signs opposing closures

Barriers would close off Broadway, Glenvale and Craig

Voting in North Leaside on the plan to ultimately, after a pilot trial, permanently close off all roads into the neighborhood at Bayview Ave. is in its last four days. Voting continues for those eligible at this site  The streets to be closed are Glenvale Ave., Broadway Ave. and Craig Crescent. In recent days, scattered signs opposing the so-called cul-de-sac scheme have popped up on streets like Glenvale, Tanager Ave. and Broadway. There is no available barometer of feeling except a poll taken a year ago that some 69 percent agreed with the idea. The current vote, which ends June 30,  will require half of those eligible to vote, and of those, 60 percent will be required to vote in favour of closure in order for the pilot to proceed. At the end of the pilot, another vote will take place to either scrap the plan or make the barriers permanent. Further hurdles may await at Community Council with caveats about traffic obstruction which such closures might cause elsewhere. The pilot, if approved, would last nine to 12 months.