Hear the one about the guy who waited so long at Starbucks that he lost the coffee habit? Well, Starbucks retiring CEO Howard Schultz has heard it. Today he told Starbucks shareholders that he is disappointed by sales growth and admitted that “congestion” in its stores is prompting some people to leave without buying anything. Starbucks said the popularity of its mobile order-and-pay option, which was supposed to make getting a drink easier, has caused bottlenecks at the areas where people pick up their drinks. No doubt but Starbucks staff has had a hard time working their way through a long lineup for many years. Schultz is leaving in April to become executive chairman.

These two  women are suspected of at least one of five distraction crimes between Sunday, December 4, 2016, and Thursday, January 5, 2017. In some cases the thief will push a chair up against the victim’s chair in a restaurant as if getting up but then put a hand in a coat pocket of a jacket on the back of the chair. It is similar to picking up a purse placed on the floor. These crimes require two people. One distracts, the other steals. The women here distracted a shopper in the Cloverdale Mall by dropping papers in front of her and then stealing her wallet when she tried to help.

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Jr Choir rehearsal tonight 630. All new voices warmly welcomed. "If music be the food of love, play on" #Shakespeare #Leaside #singing #kids pic.twitter.com/L35dTgJ7RL

— Leaside United Church (@LeasideUnited) January 26, 2017

There is much fanfare out of police headquarters Thursday about the action plan to change the service and make it more efficient. With all of that however comes little detail which neighborhood residents could use to assess what it will mean. There is again talk of eliminating divisions, but no specific information. This aspect of the proposed modernization of the TPS has been among the most resented. Some points in the linked CBC story.

• Embedding officers in neighbourhoods for three years at a time.
• Equipping police officers with smart devices, including so-called “eNotebooks” that will allow them to spend more time out of their vehicles and stations.
• Reorganizing “outdated” divisional boundaries so they better line up with the city’s neighbourhoods. This will also result in closing some stations.
• Enhancing human resources efforts to make sure officers have “emotional intelligence” and that when a hiring freeze ends in 2019, the force hires in a way that reflects the city’s diversity.

The business distress (more or less) of Canada’s newspapers has been turned into an appeal for federal government money — as much as $400 million — to sustain “democracy and trust” by an Ottawa think tank. The Public Policy Forum recommends that the CBC online news service be stripped of advertising and that it be required to engage in “civic-function journalism” whatever that may be. At first blush it really does sound like people complaining about the competition. Are the old newspapers the guardians of democracy? Can we bring back all the newspapers that died because of television news? There doesn’t appear to be any suggestion in this report that Twitter and Facebook go away.  Public Policy Forum

https://twitter.com/tpscalls/status/824638039418867712

COLLISION
Laird Dr and Millwood Rd, report of a pedestrian struck, no info on injuries #160060 ^cb

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) January 26, 2017

Ladies Night at @GearsBikeShop Leaside was a BLAST! Thank you @pearlizumi for providing the kits! #mgcc #cycling #Toronto 🚴🏼‍♀️🎉 pic.twitter.com/pMRjczrLft

— Morning Glory C. C. (@MGridetoronto) January 26, 2017

Here is the scene at the Gears Bike Shop, 109 Vanderhoof Ave. Wednesday evening. There was some fun alright as the Morning Glory Cycle Club women had a social night.

An apparently unbiased report has concluded that the big three wireless network firms — Bell, Rogers and Telus — are fairly evenly matched in the quality of their service. The CBC publishes a story Thursday that the wireless-mapping company OpenSignal thinks that while there are differences that all three providers “were equally strong performers.”

The Dutch man accused of cyberbullying the ill-fated B.C. teen Amanda Todd also targeted a second Canadian victim, prosecutors in the Netherlands said Wednesday. Todd, 15, took her own life in 2012, apparently in distress over her folly with Aydin Coban, 38.  He  faces charges in Europe in the alleged abuse of 34 other young girls and five gay men. The enormity of the crimes and stunning vulnerability of the victims strains the imagination. The crimes as described in the linked story leave almost everything undescribed. The nature of offenses like “co-perpetration of rape”  among many others can only be guessed at.  CBC

Staff Sergeant Matt Moyer

Honouring Northlea crossing guard

Town Hall

The Ward 26 Town Hall meeting held Wednesday evening at Leaside arena heard Staff Sergeant Matt Moyer speaking on policing matters. Staff Moyer, a Leaside resident, said that the task force seeking new efficiencies and improvements has concluded that the TPS should not be in the school crossing guard business. It was one of a number of things that could probably be done just as well by civilians, he said. Moyer noted that the important crossing guard service is done largely by elderly people and that in cold weather they are frequently unable to work  When they are absent, the police fill in. He said his youngest crossing guard passed away in the fall at the age of perhaps 70. In future, the TPS hopes to see this job assumed by school boards.

NOISY PARTIES?

Staff Moyer said police should not be sending “two officers earning $90,000 a year each to go and investigate a noisy party in Leaside.” He cited such things as neighbour disputes over minor matters like where a repairman placed his ladder and accident reports just so an insurance company can allocate a claim. He said the task force will report to the police board Thursday and there will probably be announcements made Friday or over the weekend on these and similar reforms to policing.

PARKING PERMIT PROJECT

Moyer said he has a two-man task force checking the validity of handicapped parking permits in and around Leaside. He recalled how young people using the permits dash into the beer store in Leaside Centre or the Tim’s at Merton and Mt. Pleasant. Unlike his disabled grandfather who had only one leg, Moyer is unforgiving of this conduct and said he is seizing permits when they have been misused and fining the offenders $400.

OTHER SPEAKERS

Other speakers at the Town Hall, which was organized by Jon Burnside (Ward 26) were Stephen Conforti, of the City budget office, Jon Gaitanakis of the volunteer North Leaside Traffic Committee, Erica Cooke of the South Leaside Traffic Committee (also volunteer) Jamie Robinson of Metrolinx, Shawn Dartsch of Transportation Services and Michael Sraga of Planning Partnership, the Laird Focus Study Consultant.

A proposal has come forward for little house that remains on Yonge north of Davisville Ave. when people lived in low-rise single-family homes on the busy thoroughfare. Urban Toronto

Mary Tyler Moore’s portrayal of a single career woman, Mary Richards, in her eponymous 1970s show arrived alongside the Women’s Movement, making her a role model for generations of women, has died at the age of 80. She was with her husband of 33 years at the time of her death.