Leaside United Church auditorium

Comments on density

Laird Drive below McRae

A large crowd attended the City’s Laird in Focus feedback meeting Tuesday night in the auditorium of Leaside United Church. A previous meeting in June brought forward ideas from residents which were presented, along with some themes that seemed to originate at the planning department. But the magnitude of the consideration was overwhelming for many. Old concerns about height and density were present. The process hopes to create conditions on Eglinton east of Laird Drive and on Laird itself down to Millwood which sound dreamlike. One poster board welcoming residents said the purpose was to create “a high-quality and well-connected public realm, contributing to a walkable, cycle-able and beautifully landscaped neighbourhood.”  There was much other high-sounding intention, perhaps ideal when and if manifested.  Sectional diagrams of Laird Drive and Eglinton Ave showed streets with traffic, bike lanes, pedestrians and trees. It is proposed that there will be no parking on Laird from McRae to Millwood. What appeared to be an apartment and condominium projection east of Laird was fully written over by residents with concerns about tower architecture and density related to traffic and schools. It seemed an old story.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysek has scored the Ontario government for complicated bookkeeping used to hide the cost of debt and interest incurred by the Fair Hydro Plan. This is a scheme to borrow against the future to lower hydro rates now. Power bills skyrocketed in recent years, pushed through the roof by the provincial adventure into  green energy. Lysek calls the scheme “needlessly complex” and remarks tartly that it would not be seen anywhere else in the country. She says the government is “improperly” accounting for the $26 billion in debt the province is taking on to cut hydro bills in the short term. The $26 billion is being borrowed through Ontario Power Generation, so will not appear on the province’s books. Electricity customers will pay off that debt through rate increases spread out over the next 30 years. CBC

Sidewalk Labs, sister company of Google, is the winner of competition to build a new high-tech neighbourhood called Quayside on the east downtown waterfront. Waterfront Toronto, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Kathleen Wynne, Mayor John Tory and Sidewalk Lab officials made the announcement at Corus Quay today. The Star says the board of Waterfront Toronto, the federal-provincial-city agency overseeing the Quayside project, is expected to vote at an October 20 meeting whether to confirm the agency’s staff recommendation following a competition launched in May. The public relations vision of Quayside is envisioned as a “testbed for cutting-edge technology” which tells taxpayers something or other. It also will contain what the Star called a “bustling, functioning neighbourhood, with homes, offices, retail and cultural space” which is near Queens Quay E. and Parliament St. Sidewalk Labs is Alphabet’s urban innovation unit with a stated goal of “reimagining cities from the Internet up.”

The plan to get cars off King  St. downtown to improve the speed of streetcar service begins in November. It will require drivers to turn right at every intersection so that access by car will be one block at a time. This may well improve streetcar schedules and the TTC has said it will release monthly updates on commute times, streetcar reliability and ridership once the King Street pilot project launches next month. The one-block wonder specification seems likely to make drivers simply stay off King St. much as many avoid St. Clair Ave West because of the streetcar wall.

Rolph Road School Trailblazers/Heather Gershon

Leaside Presbyterian Merry Market

East York De-Amalgamation Party

The lovely tradition of men serving women dinner continues at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church Friday night at the Annual Women’s Dinner. The venue is Lamb Hall on St. Cuthbert’s Rd. and it gets started at 6.30 with dinner at 7.15. It is $25. All welcome. To the right is a wonderful picture taken a few days ago by Heather Gershon. It shows the Rolph Road School Trailblazers ready to head into the mist of a nearby ravine. Yee-haw guys. Go safely. Then below from left a reminder of the East York Presbyterian Church Merry Market on November 4 and the Manor Road United Annual Community Fall Fair October 21. Finally, Urban Geographer Daniel Rotsztain tweeted this artistic scribble of the East York flag apparently as a welcome from the East York De-Amalgamation Party.

Movember Babsocks

Coach’s choice

St. Pat’s Babsocks

Thomas McCole and Jake Mednick

Grow it

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock is teaming up with Babsocks, Movember and the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) to raise money and awareness for youth mental health issues. The Mt. Pleasant store run by Thomas McCole and Jake Mednick has supplied moustached versions of the celebrated foot garb whimsically named after the Leafs coach. They are on sale at a Movember pop up store at 588 Richmond St West from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday. They’re $20 a pair with $5 going to the Movember Foundation to support mental health projects. Or buy online

Reports hardly seem believable but the CBC says that Bombardier Inc. has sold a majority stake in its CSeries passenger jet business to European aerospace giant Airbus for “no cost” which is to say nothing. It is an indication of the competitive and regulatory hurdles faced by Bombardier from both Boeing and the US government. The move comes after lacklustre sales and the U.S. Commerce Department imposition of harsh duties on Bombardier. It accuses the Montreal-based company of selling the CSeries planes in the US below cost and receiving government subsidies. The Commerce Department recently announced it would impose an 80 per cent duty on top of duties of nearly 220 per cent. The case has been a win for US-based rival Boeing. Boeing has said it didn’t move early enough against Airbus subsidies in the 1970s. Airbus is now is a global giant.

BOMBARDIER JET WILL BE MADE IN ALABAMA

The Financial Post says that under the agreement, which was signed Monday, Airbus will acquire a 50.01-per-cent stake in the CSeries program and provide the Bombardier division with procurement, sales and marketing and customer support expertise. Bombardier will now own approximately 31 per cent, while Investissement Quebec will own 19 per cent. An Airbus assembly line in Mobile, Alabama will make the CSeries there to qualify it for sale in the US without punishing tariffs. Below is the French language news conference held late Monday.

Collision: SB DVP/ Bayview Bloor ramp.. 2 vehs involved. 1 veh has flipped over. No info on injs. Major traffic delay. #GO1876080 ^adc

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) October 16, 2017

Updating messages indicate there are no injuries at this location but traffic is slowed

At Yonge-Eglinton Centre

No turns at Mt. Pleasant/Eglinton until mid-November

Re-created 1920 bank

The Metrolinx show and tell in the rotunda of the Eglinton Centre Monday offered a warning that the single-lane status in all directions at Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton also prohibits turns for about a month. By mid-November, it appears that turns will be permitted again although single lanes will still prevail. The meeting reviewed aspects of the station locations at Mt. Pleasant and Yonge and Eglinton. The 1920s CIBC building will be recreated at Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton with many original elements although structurally it will be new. There will be three doors for the many passengers coming and going. They will be at the nearly-90 year-old portal on the corner, on Eglinton and on Mt. Pleasant. The depiction of the re-built bank continues to show the elegant Palladian window over the door. The LRT station at Yonge and Eglinton will be a new building west of Canada Square on the south side of Eglinton. Eglinton LRT station will sit to the west of Canada Square

I see the problem

Cracked but not down

Davey Tree at work

Don’t want to end like this guy

Merton blocked at Bayview

Power was off to residents of Merton Street between Bayview Ave and Cleveland St. Monday as Davey Tree Service worked carefully to cut down a broken branch at mid-block. It had cracked in Sunday’s wind. Those wires normally carry enough juice to kill so Hydro took no chance as the tree work proceeded.

The intersection of Yonge St. and Lawrence Ave was shut down for an hour at midafternoon Monday as crews repaired a gas main rupture. Traffic was diverted at Woburn, Jedburgh, Duplex and Cheritan. There were no injuries. The corner is clear of all obstruction now.

Centennial College at Mortimer and Carlaw Aves.

Happy pickets at Sir Sandford Fleming in Peterborough

Faculty at Ontario’s 24 colleges are walking picket lines today, with the labour dispute affecting more than 500,000 students in the province. The strike involving more than 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians began late Sunday, after the two sides couldn’t resolve their differences by a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday. Both sides say there are currently no talks scheduled to end the dispute. The colleges say they have put a four-year-agreement that offers a 7.75 per cent pay increase on the table which it would like faculty to vote on. The issue for OPSEU seems to be more permanent teachers which is framed as job security. Also this report with a slightly different skew from Ginella Mass. Quite touching attempt to grapple with this cultural oddity by a foreign student who has never seen such a thing in her homeland.