Author Sylv Chiang (left) with fan and mom

Artist Connie Choi

Large turnout of tweens and parents

Tournament Trouble

Adventures of kids playing digital games

Mabel herself

Author Sylv Chiang and illustrator Connie Choi were at Mabel’s Fables kids book store Thursday to promote their first book called Tournament Trouble. If the turnout at the upstairs annex to the little shop at 662 Mt. Pleasant is any indication, the two women are onto something. A good crowd of March-break tweens and parents checked publications and many kids joined Choi at a table to do some drawing. Ms Chiang is a teacher by way of a “day job” as she puts it. Ms. Choi is an illustrator of games as well as books. Tournament Trouble tells the story of the adventures experienced by children in their real lives while playing make-believe games.

Aisha Addo/AVNU

Safe trip

DriveHer app

Aisha Addo will launch her women-only ride service Friday. It is called DriveHer and the idea is that both the passenger and the driver are women. It’s easy to understand. She says it has taken nearly two years of groundwork navigating through the City’s bureaucracy, but now it is on. The idea is not new. Some versions of it have failed as was seen recently in Los Angeles. But many feel there is a need in the male-dominated options of Uber and Lyft.

OTHER NEWS

• Run-down Toronto row house, mocked on social media, sells for $675000
• Toronto transit plans get major boost from federal, provincial governments
• Toronto businessman’s companies owe more than $23M in mortgage, contracts, employee wages
• Toronto’s low-rise neighbourhoods losing density as ‘overhousing’ spreads
• Left, right eye challengers to Toronto Mayor John Tory with Doug Ford out of race

Toys “R” Us is headed toward shuttering its US and UK operations, jeopardizing the jobs of some 30,000 employees. It spells the end for a chain known to generations of children and parents for its sprawling stores and Geoffrey the giraffe mascot. CBC says the closing of the company’s 740 US stores over the coming months will finalize the downfall of the chain that succumbed to relentless trends that undercut its business, from online shopping to mobile games. In Canada, Toys ‘R’ Us Canada will try to carry on with CEO David Brandon telling employees Wednesday the Canadian firm will try to bundle its 200 store Canadian business and find a buyer. The company’s US online store would still be running for the next couple of weeks in case there’s a buyer for it.

See later post

Cambridge Rivulettes travelled to Leaside Wednesday and won game three in their quarter-final series with the Leaside Jr. Wildcats. The score was 1-0. The next game in the best-of-five Provincial Women’s Hockey League match-up is Friday night at Preston Memorial Auditorium.

Toronto Police are warning of a series of break-and-enters within the area of Avenue Road, Bathurst Street, Lawrence Avenue West and Eglinton Avenue West. They started March 7, 2018 and since March 12 have totalled four. They are overnight residential burglaries, one in 13 Division and three in 53 Division. All four entries are in close proximity to each other, and appear similar in nature. With all four incidents, it appears the suspects staked out the addresses prior to attempting to break in, say police. Further, in all four entries the suspects attempted to gain or subsequently gained entry via the rear backyard door, or front door, to the residence. The time of the entries has ranged from late evening to as early as 5 a.m. Residents are requested to be vigilant. The Toronto Police Service is asking residents to immediately report to police any activity they deem suspicious. Residents are encouraged to contact the 53 Division Crime Prevention Office at 416-808-5319 for crime-prevention strategies.

Some 223 employees of the TTC have been fired or left the agency because of an involvement of some type in the notorious scam to defraud the public with phony claims for orthotics. Two years ago TTC spokesman Brad Ross guessed that there might be as many 600 employees involved in some fashion. The racket was discovered in 2014 after a tip from an unknown source. It consisted of an offer from the owner of Healthy Fit, an orthotics business with locations in Toronto and Mississauga, to split insurance fees for nonexistent service with employees making a claim. Claims were submitted for items including compression stockings, sleeves, and orthotics, in addition to therapy services. Ten current and former TTC employees, along with the owner of Healthy Fit, Adam Smith, have been criminally charged in connection with the scam. Smith was previously found guilty of two counts of fraud over $5,000 and was sentenced to two years in prison. Of the 10 TTC employees who were charged, four have pleaded guilty and received a conditional discharge, probation, and community service. More than $82,000 in restitution has been collected from the employees, the TTC said. The charges against the remaining six employees are currently before the courts. The case stands as an example of the widespread capacity of public employees, and no doubt others, to commit fraud and in effect steal from the City.

Euba to perform at TOTES

Storage Wars?

Meeting March 20

March 31

Must close

Family Skating March 15

Upper left, say hello to Michela Comparey and her friends in the Euba Ensemble set to rock Lawrence Park Community Church Saturday. It’s the first Toronto Tuba Euphonium Symposium (TOTES) ever. Upper right, Leaside may just be ready for an episode of Storage Wars as the complement of storage locker companies seems set to expand forever. This is the enormous facility going up on Esandar Drive opposite Leaside Village shopping centre. It’s called Bluebird Storage. Below that, a meeting is set for Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles St, W. to discuss the towering project just down the street from Scrivener Square and the old train station. There’s more here. Centre left, the third annual Easter in the Village on Mt. Pleasant Rd. is set for Saturday, March 31. This is the event co-sponsored by Meridian Credit Union that runs a family movie at the Regent Theatre followed by an Easter Egg hunt at June Rowlands Park. Nice. And hey, there’s family skating tomorrow (Thursday March 15) at East York Arena, 888 Cosburn Ave. Finally, lower left, the Handy Book Exchange will close as renovations are imminent at the Avenue Road storefront. The rent will rocket up after that. Owner Carole Nelles says it will be impossible to carry on at rent of $6,000 a month.

Suspected shooter

Walked around before victim arrived

Dwayne Anthony Vidal, 31,

Detective Mike Carbone

Police are struggling with the shooting death of Dwayne Anthony Vidal, 31, outside his home in a townhouse complex on Mt. Olive Drive in Toronto’s 23 Division. It emerges that the cold-blooded shooting took place last Saturday afternoon without warning as Mr. Vidal came home from work. A man walking along the street produced a gun and shot him without interaction between the two. Police have released images of the apparent perpetrator and a vehicle in which it is believed he was a passenger. Detective Carbone said the suspect had walked around the complex for a period of time before Mr.Vidal arrived. Vidal had no criminal record and was not known to police.

Crash: Fairwind Dr near Bristol Rd in Mississauga. A man in his 20's suffered a leg injury and burns to his foot, after his vehicle crashed into a tree and caught fire. @MississaugaFES @Peel_Paramedics as well as Peel Police on scene. pic.twitter.com/ZdYP6L6zMg

— Tony Smyth (@LateNightCam) March 14, 2018

A young driver has escaped a fiery crash of his car into a tree in Mississauga early Wednesday. The collision occurred in the area of Fairwind Drive and Bristol Road shortly before 1:30 a.m.

A fire at the Canadian Tire in Ajax on Kingston Rd. is out, no injuries reported.
Photo credit: @cbenson765 Photo taken at 8:34 a.m. pic.twitter.com/IXOnHEyWHa

— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) March 14, 2018

This morning at Ajax Canadian Tire. pic.twitter.com/AZon9mbv3S

— Mayor Elizabeth Roy (@ElizabethJRoy) March 14, 2018

A fire at the Canadian Tire in Ajax is being called suspicious. Emergency crews were called to the store on Kingston Road aroud 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Officials said the fire broke in a fenced storage area next to the garage. Flashback to Leaside CTC fire of September 2012.