Expanding young minds

Town Hall

Lid-surfing

Today’s Menu Super Bowl Special

Davisville Park improvements

Carrie Laureola’s excellent school of Bamboo Bay is inviting parents to expand young minds with a Valentine’s card-making day at her Leaside classrooms. They run Saturday, February 3 and Saturday, February 10. To the right, Jon Burnside (Ward 26) is reminding residents of his town hall set for Monday, February 5 at the Lea Room. Centre right, the little-known but minor vice of lid-surfing has caused Starbucks to place lids for Short cups away from those of the more often-used Tall, Grande and Vente containers. There was too much waste caused by lid-surfing customers throwing away the Short lid when they picked it up in error. Only The Bulldog knows these important facts. Then lower left, check out the $88 Super Bowl Family Special at Today’s Menu at Millwood and Rumsey Rds. or call  416-698-8667. Good deal. And finally, off in the future (February 20) is Councillor Josh Matlow’s meeting to discuss further improvements to June Rowlands (Davisville) Park. Be there.

Wagner and Wood in 1970

Wood in Miracle on 34th Street

CBS 48 Hours says a sheriff’s officer has called actor Robert Wagner, 87, a “person of interest” in the “suspicious” 1981 drowning death of his then-wife, actress Natalie Wood. It is very unclear just what this might mean coming so long after the death and many investigations into what happened. Wood was a star from childhood. She appeared in “West Side Story,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” She was traveling on her family’s yacht, Splendour, with Wagner, the ship’s captain Dennis Davern and her friend, actor Christopher Walken. Wagner and Wood are said to have argued and Wood took off in a dinghy. The authorities say they have re-investigated the case over the last six years and now think of Wagner’s as a person of interest.

City Council has approved a bid to bring the 2026 World Cup to locations in North America, including Toronto. Expensive, but not the same open-ended sewer for money as the Olympics. Speaking of money, it seems the criminals’ choice, Bitcoin, is fully deployed in bringing death-dealing Fentanyl into Canada. When will we learn? Below that, women in Iran are demonstrating against the Hijab. One excuse offered by the government is that excitable Iranian men go nuts when they see a woman without the head covering. Hey, we don’t make this up. Finally, Lord Bates seems to be taking things a bit too far as he announces that he is quitting because he was late.

Writer Sandie Benetah at CP24 says she has been told that Caroline Mulroney’s nomination papers to run for leader of the PC Party are “going out this evening.” As this not unexpected news hits, Christine Elliott, widow of the late Jim Flaherty, has tweeted her intention to run for leader as well. Elliott had been an MPP for the Whitby area from 2006 to 2015. Mulroney is said by Benetah to have “significant support” from caucus and candidates who think she is the only one who can beat Kathleen Wynne. Mulroney must get 100 signatures to be a nominated candidate for the leadership. She is already the nominated PC candidate by acclamation for the riding of York-Simcoe.

I'm in! #pcpo #onpoli

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 1, 2018

1899 seat of government

Stairway to anywhere?

Toronto City Council voted 35-3 Thursday to study a scheme to turn Old City Hall into a municipal museum. The decision has prompted Ward 3 Councillor Stephen Holiday to say any such undertaking will leave the 1899 seat of government building “bleeding money.” Elsewhere, the idea has gone down very well. And at the bottom of some stories are apparent facts that seem critical to the process. Just 25 percent of the old hall’s 406,000 square feet will be a museum, says the CBC. At least 50 percent will be rentable. Possible tenants are not named. Is there a business which will generate real foot traffic up those daunting stairs on Queen Street? There’s 18 months to mid-2019 allowed to figure it out. In another matter, City Council has approved a 10-per-cent cap on property tax increases for businesses, following an outcry from shop owners on Yonge Street and elsewhere that were slapped with skyrocketing tax hikes based on soaring assessment values. Small mercies.

Should Old City Hall be used for a museum devoted to Toronto's history? Councillor @JoshMatlow thinks so, making an impassioned speech Thursday to city council, which backed a study looking into the idea. pic.twitter.com/ydeuByio3u

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) February 1, 2018

COUNCILLOR’S TWIN RECORDED

Lastly, John Lancaster of the CBC says the brother of Ward 5 Councillor Justin Di Ciano is heard on a recording offering to reimburse donors $300 in cash if they donated the maximum amount ($750) allowed to his candidate. The secret audio recording now in possession of provincial anti-corruption police. Toronto had a contribution rebate program for the 2014 election, whereby someone who gave the maximum $750 to a council candidate would get $450 back from the City. The donor would only be out of pocket for the remaining $300.

Select Invitational play/archives

Mayor Tory/archives

505 Balliol/Josh Matlow

Best street ever

Stanley Grizzle and family

Authors at Sleuth February 1

Leaside arena and area hockey palaces will ring today with the sound of boys, girls, moms, dads and others as the 2018 Leaside Select Invitational Tournament gets underway. Dignitaries like Mayor Tory (seen at upper right in 2015) are expected to catch a chance to celebrate this enormous event. Below that, at the right, Josh Matlow (Ward 22) has tweeted news that this little 1889 structure at 505 Balliol St. is about to be demolished. He will move a motion at Council to protect it under the Ontario Heritage Act. Then, The South Bayview Bulldog proudly says (yet again) that this vital, low-rise treasure of a street with sidewalks as wide and friendly as a walk on the beach should defend itself against the destruction of those precious qualities. A lament by Shawn Micallef in the Star about how low-rise sentiment is holding Toronto back from its destiny as a big concrete canyon is too dreary to read, but you can if you must. Lower left, Stanley E. Grizzle and his family are seen in a nice photo at the East York Historical Society meeting which celebrated black history month. Mr. Grizzle’s dad was a WWII veteran and judge of the Canadian Citizenship Court. And finally, a reminder of Thursday’s (today’s) appearance by mystery writers R.J. Harlick and Ken Ogilvie at Sleuth of Baker Street, 907 Millwood Rd. starting at 6 p.m.

Wires Down (hydro) [East York]Leacrest Road
b/w Rolph Road / Hanna Road
Dispatched: 01/02/18 @ 09:29 EST
[Stn: 321] Rescue-321
General Area: https://t.co/uVGgIyIuyJ

— Toronto Fire South (@tofireS) February 1, 2018

This was an incidental or perhaps planned occurence at a construction site on desireable Leacrest Road. where rebuilds and upgrades abound.

A CBC online story and accompanying video from television recounts one man’s “narrow escape” and updates the complicated investigation.

The Ontario PC Party will pick a new leader Saturday, March 10. five weeks from now. The announcement came Wednesday night after a committee spent the last few days drafting rules, a timeline for the race and how much it will cost. The general election is Thursday, June 7. Rules of the leadership contest will be released Thursday. The election will be on the basis of one member, one vote and use what is being called secure remote electronic voting.

OTHER NEWS

• Brown’s, Toronto store for shorter men, set to close after nearly 90 years in business
• Toronto city council under pressure from health-care workers
• Senate passes bill to make O Canada lyrics gender neutral
• Court upholds $700K libel award for relentless internet smear campaign
• Conservative MP Erin O’Toole considering run for Ontario PC leadership
• RCMP puppies need names from kids in annual contest

Mona Piper

Mona Piper, the faithful and vigilant crossing guard who manned the corner of Cleveland St. and Millwood Rd. for 43 years, has passed away at the age of 88. She was the longest-serving crossing guard in the City and might have been on the job to the day of her death had she not taken a fall last year. The news was passed on by Josh Matlow (Ward 22) who announced Piper’s death on Twitter Wednesday. Mona Piper was a legend in the area and lifelong friend to many students, parents and staff at Maurice Cody Junior Public School.

It’s not fun any more. Two years into the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and with three more years to go, Urban Toronto has published a feature on the conditions at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. which can safely be called dangerous to the health. That might also include the frayed mental state of anyone who has to confront the challenge of crossing Eglinton at any point, or worse, drive along it. Urban Toronto

Remember when?

Court documents seen by Canadian Press are said to show that the Federal Competition Bureau requested search warrants for premises of seven companies because it had reasonable grounds to believe they committed multiple offences. It says bread wholesalers Canada Bread Company Ltd. and George Weston Ltd.’s senior officers directly communicated with one another and agreed to increase prices. It claims the suppliers met with their retail customers named as Loblaw Companies Ltd., Walmart Canada Corp., Sobeys Inc., Metro Inc. and Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. to get their approval for the price increase. Late last year, Loblaw and George Weston admitted they sparked the investigation when they approached the bureau after becoming aware of an industry-wide arrangement to agree on retail and wholesale prices of some packaged bread products from late 2001 to March 2015.