Working fire going defensive on Marmion in the Bathurst 401 Area. No injuries reported. @Toronto_Fire working #toronto @ChiefPeggTFS pic.twitter.com/oI0WIZthpY

— Andrew Collins (@ACollinsPhoto) May 17, 2017

Fire has destroyed a home on Marmion Ave. northeast of Lawrence Ave. and Bathurst Street between Melrose and St. Germain Aves. The spectacular blaze was recorded by neighbours and many overnight news photographers. No one was hurt. The fire is believed to have started in the garage and then spread to the home. Damage is estimated a $2 million.

.@Toronto_Fire on scene working fire response in a residential home on Marmion. Heavy fire conditions on arrival. No injuries reported pic.twitter.com/2hShOOmzNh

— Andrew Collins (@ACollinsPhoto) May 17, 2017

Shahid (Boom Boom) Afridi meets Premier Wynne

https://twitter.com/TPSVicentino/status/864684990885507073

There was a triumph of hard work and dedication Tuesday night as volunteers and players saw the new playing lights officially turned on at the Go Green Cricket Park on Overlea Blvd. The evening was illuminated by the presence of Pakistani Cricket legend Shahid (Boom Boom) Afridi. Many dignitaries including Premier Wynne, MP Rob Oliphant and Councillor Jon Burnside were present. Expressions of affection for Afridi fill Twitter at @GoGreenCricket

CP24/Twitter

Part of Bay Street was blocked off Wednesday beside the Four Seasons Hotel after glass has again fallen from a window in the north tower of the building. No one was hurt. Two years ago two people were injured after a window fell from the penthouse level of the Four Seasons. The hotel said it is taking the incident very seriously and is “working diligently to take all necessary precautions to resolve this matter as quickly as possible in cooperation with the local authorities.”

Minister Garneau

Please stay in your seats until you are dragged off

Crazy world of airline economics

The federal Minister of Transport Marc Garneau took a stab Tuesday at making things better when it comes to people getting kicked off Air Canada flights because of overcrowding. In the end, however, he seems to have hung his hat on the airline offering more money to get unwanted passengers to go away quietly. In the process he made some stern remarks about no one ever being forced off a flight against his or her will again. Maybe. But he may know better about the reality of too many people trying to board the same plane. No doubt his heart was in the right place. Garneau’s strongest promise was that he will make sure “travellers are treated like people and not numbers.” He did not talk about the wonky economics of the airline business. It horrifies airline executives that a plane might take off with an empty seat. We will see.

Cathy Hawkins of the Amsterdam Brewery at 45 Esandar Drive is the contact person for what promises to be an interesting evening Tuesday. It’s a screening of the film Forgotten, the story of 100,000 children who came to Canada as indentured labourers and domestics. This is a presentation of the British Home Child Group International. For tickets write Cathy at chawkins@amsterdambeer.com

Police frankly suspect arson at the scene of a tarpaulin fire Monday afternoon at Central Tech Stadium, 725 Bathurst Street. This is one location where the Toronto District School Board has leased its high-school sports fields to Razor Management which built a track and field all-weather dome. The TDSB gets a covered field in winter and Razor gets to lease it on off-hours. Some people didn’t like this. Cops find all that a possible motive for arson. In this case a large stored tarp was engulfed in flames, seemingly set on fire. Police are requesting assistance from anyone who may have been at this location and witnessed the fire, or anyone who may have recorded the fire on a cell phone or any other video recording device, to contact police.

This is the well-known On-the-Run convenience store at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Merton Street. But of course it isn’t. Like all properties of the Montreal mammoth depanneur and gas bar chain, On-the-Run is being tortured into a new life as Circle K. The Mac’s store chain will soon fall before this Texas stampede as well. As reported earlier,  Alimentation Couche-Tard (Night Owl) is very touchy about retaining its owlish name and logo in Quebec, but in Ontario– hey, it’s only Mac’s. One by one across Toronto, Mac’s signs are going black

The province is about to effectively get rid of the Ontario Municipal Board. This is said to be coming in a news conference Tuesday. Whether the change will be as great as is suggested in reports, remains to be seen. The OMB is a supposed appeal body which has exercised enormous authority in the actual creation of planning policy for communities. The origins of this power, often seen as pro-developer, seem to be related to fears in the early years of the 20th Century that municipalities would be anti-development.

BOOM TOWN TORONTO

Boom towns like Toronto have long since been overwhelmed by builders many of whom have no regard for planning. The OMB has been seen as their  friend. The enormous amounts of money to be made in high-rise development were unknown to those who conceived the OMB. Jennifer Pagliaro in the Star, says the OMB name and, more importantly, the existing process that has been called “seriously flawed” by residents groups will cease to exist if new legislation to be tabled this month is approved.

LET CITIES PLAN

The two biggest changes would include making good on a decade-old promise to cities to let them plan their own futures and helping citizens who have said they are “woefully unprepared” to participate on equal ground against developer interests. The CBC says it has been told OMB will be replaced by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, which will have less power.  The tribunal will only make decisions on whether or not a municipality has followed its planning process and land use plans. If it hasn’t, the issue will be sent back to the municipality for reconsideration. News release

Andrew R. Redlich

The credit card and debit payment system for Starbucks in the Toronto area was back up and running by about 11.30 a.m. But for most of the morning, coffee was free. (Tells you something about the margins).

Bell Canada says its customer subscriber database has been hacked, with the exposure of almost 2 million email addresses, 1,700 customer names and/or telephone numbers. “There is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed,” the company said in a news release. “This incident is not connected to the recent global WannaCry malware attacks.” Bell says it took immediate steps to secure affected systems. It has been working closely with the RCMP cyber crime unit in its investigation and has informed the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Bell guesses that the thieves will immediately run the email addresses against known databases of stolen passwords from other sites to see if there are any commonly used words, to try and crack the Bell email passwords. They will also run them against popular — and unsafe passwords such as “Password1,” “Password2,” “Monday1” etc., as well as dictionaries. It is not unusual for people to use the same password on different sites. Howard Solomon — IT World Canada

Bayview and Millwood had three service stations /Picture by rudy.ca

The  number of gas stations in Canada increased marginally by about 15 last year, bringing the total to nearly 12,000, or three stations for every 10,000 people. The numbers are a little misleading because the density of stations is much heavier in urban areas, There has been a steady decline in gasoline  retailers which started more than 35 years ago.  At one time there were at least seven gas stations on Bayview Ave between Eglinton and Moore and now there is one. The picture above shows three stations — Esso, Shell and Cities Service at Millwood and  Bayview in the 60s. The Bayview stations were at Eglinton (where the LRT station will be) Soudan, Millwood (three) McRae and Moore. Can you remember others? Only the Esso at Moore survives.

Yay or Neigh asks Aaron Legassy

As does Georgia’s swain

Jonny Jones and friend in Kansas

Legassy and rented steed

Aaron and Noy

A Thornhill high school student, Aaron Lugassy, has used horse sense (plus a real horse) to ask his girlfriend, Noy Amsterdam, to the prom at Westmount Collegiate Institute in York Region. He appeared before her on horseback with a sign which said “Prom, Yay or Neigh.” She said yes, or rather Yay. That’s the answer guys are looking for in what has become a popular gambit as recorded in the Twitter search of Yay or Neigh. It’s expensive to rent a horse. Friends chipped in the raise the $500 needed. Noy expressed herself to be “shaking” from the experience. Among other recent Yay or Neigh suitors was Jonny Jones in Kansas. A Georgia girl, Georgia Gibbons, was also asked to “saddle up” for the prom.