The alarming frequency of fatal gas-and-dash crimes seems to be statement about how easy it is to steal gasoline but also about the perilous impulse of conscientious gas station attendants to try to physically stop the thief, even at the risk of their lives. Many say gasoline should be pre-paid and maybe so, but petroleum firms can surely do better at educating their employees not to try to stop such thefts. In past decades police and bank staff used to shoot it out with bandits. Now common sense reigns. No amount of money is worth it. City News reports here on a notorious local trial and a new fatal case of gas-and-dash near Edmonton.

City Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Justin Di Ciano along with members of the public at the Ontario Municipal Board fighting the City’s plan to expand the number of wards from 44 to 47. CBC

I have news

Child’s joy

Tannah Butterfield

The joy of a child is caught on camera as she learns that she and her younger sister and brother will be adopted by the foster parents they have come to love as mom and dad. The girl seen here is Tannah Butterfield, at school in South Utah when she was told the news that the Fishers were approved in court as her adoptive family.

With mom and dad Fisher

Her sister and brother

Sears Canada said Tuesday it plans to seek court approval to begin liquidation of all of its remaining stores and assets. “Sears Canada, with the recommendation of its advisers and approval of the monitor, FTI Consulting Inc., is seeking an order to commence a liquidation that would result in a wind-down of its business following court approval,” Sears Canada said in a release. “The company deeply regrets this pending outcome and the resulting loss of jobs and store closures,” the retailer said. While most of the 12,000 employees will be let go over a 10-to-14-week period as the liquidation sales wind down; most of the 800 head office jobs in Toronto will be eliminated next week.  CBC

Becky Tyler

Awesome Sale this weekend

Laird in Focus

Condo and retail proposal

Hall of Fame synchronized skater Becky Tyler will be giving weekly off-ice training lessons starting on Tuesday (October 10) for the East York Skating Club. They will take place at Stan Wadlow Club House, behind East York Memorial Arena. More here. Upper right, get ready for the Leaside United Church Awesome Sale this weekend. It plays out with huge crowds Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Centre right, Geoff Kettel kindly sends the time and place of the next Laird in Focus meeting. It is Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at the Leaside United Church gymnasium, located at 822 Millwood Road, between 6:30 and 9 p.m. There will be a presentation and open house to review alternative development options for the Laird in Focus Planning Study. Lower right, Beach Metro reports that the rezoning application for a seven-storey development  at Kingston Rd. and Main St. will be debated at Toronto and East York Community Council on Tuesday, October 17. The application, for 650-652 Kingston Road and 2 Main Street (the northwest corner of Kingston and Main), would contain 56 residential units. Beach Metro also notes an application for a new co-op apartment building at Coxwell Ave. and Gerrard St. E. on the agenda of the T&EY meeting.

A widespread power outage in Leaside has been fixed, according to Toronto Hydro. The lights went out sometime after about 7.25 a.m. and effected homes and traffic lights from Bayview and Eglinton to Laird Drive. No cause has been stated. Dozens of residents commented at Leaside Community.

A halfway house for federal penitentiary inmates will open shortly on Eglinton Ave. West at Glenholme Ave. At the rear, the two-floor building overlooks St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Elementary School on Glenholme Ave. The CBC is saying Tuesday that area residents have been caught off guard and are concerned. Some say they should have been consulted. It appears the John Howard Society has occupied the building at 1669 Eglinton Ave. W. for three or four years but has not housed former inmates there until now.

View of halfway house and school

The well-known equestrian and philanthropist Walter Patrick Shanly has died at age 58 on September 28, 2017 at his home in Sunnybrook Park. Mr. Shanly was the founder of Sunnybrook Stables Ltd. He also established the Loblaws Classic, a spectacular show jumping competition in Sunnybrook Park which set the standard for innovative equestrian competitions in North America. He was Chairman of Dressage Canada and instrumental in the management of the Canadian Dressage Team during the period before and at the Atlanta Olympics. He was a supporter and patron of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. Among his community and public interests was Youth at Risk for which he organized programs with the Toronto Mounted Unit at The Riding Academy at the Horse Palace. Mr. Shanly was deeply passionate about the Canadian military and those who sustained life-changing visible injuries   A celebration of Mr. Shanly’s life will be announced at a later date. Obituary

More than a dozen wildfires whipped by powerful winds have swept through northern California’s wine region. The flames have destroyed thousands of homes and forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate.

Coca Cola building reduced

Pink Checker

Ivy Glen on Donegall

East York Community bus

Yes, that’s the first few yards of the old Coca Cola building at the upper left about to be integrated into the new Costco on Overlea Blvd. Construction is speeding smartly toward a February opening. To the right, a pink Checker if you please is for sale at the Angelo Auto Repair, 548 Dupont St. and below that the prolific builder Vince Le Donne, owner of Ivy Glen Homes, is busy on Donegall Drive. Then at the bottom the new 404 Route Community Bus has gone into service. Anyone can ride. Schedule is here.

Digger was much-loved by owners

Digger has died. The 17-year-old horse rescued Friday from a filthy sewage hole succumbed Sunday to what his owners suspect was a stroke. He had been in the hole for six days. “We honestly don’t know what happened. He took a turn last night and was distressed, finally collapsed at 2 a.m. and passed away in my mom, dad’s and sister’s arms in my mom’s backyard in Waskatenau, Alta,” Kristiana Klause told CBC News in a Facebook message Sunday. She said she was glad the animal did not die in the sewage hole. Digger survives six days in filthy sewage hole before rescue

Peter Knox

280 Coxwell

Throwback

Five-pin salute

Toronto real estate agent Peter Knox is trying to find a tenant who wants to run the 1950s Shamrock Bowl bowling alley at 280 Coxwell Ave above the Goodlife Fitness. Mr. Knox discovered the third-floor business, deserted by the operator when he and his girlfriend were walking in the neighborhood recently. Shamrock Bowl appears from time to time in media recollections of quaint spots around town. It was built in 1952. As reported by the CBC this week, Shamrock Bowl still has all of the same mechanisms in place making it a fully functioning retro bowling alley. But the truth must be told there does not seem to be much interest in it. Shamrock Bowl has been on the market ever since a makeover six years ago.