Some odd-looking examples of the Rolls Royce and the BMW mini were on display in London this a week along with the now conventional view of your new car as driverless, bleached clean and of course shared with everybody else. Can’t wait.
Get your passport for today’s Leaside garden tour
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Hope and harsh reality for opponents of Sunnybrook towers
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About 40 residents of North Leaside met on the lawn at 281 Bessborough Saturday morning to hear messages of both hope and harsh reality around the approaching OMB hearing on the plan for high-rise towers on the Sunnybrook Plaza site. John Burnside (Ward 26) said planning decisions already made have provided the plaza’s owner, RioCan, with a wedge of precedent at OMB. While Sunnybrook was designated mid-rise (8 storeys or so) the deeper property owned by Metro Inc across the street was called suitable for high-rise. It is enough for aggressive developers to argue their case.
15 STOREYS
Mr. Burnside mentioned 15 storeys as possibly the lowest height for the higher of the two towers, now loitering in the 12 and 19 storey range in the proposal. Resident Wayne S. Roberts said the community could forget about eight storeys. He seemed to feel that 15 storeys was the lowest anyone could expect. And as Burnside made clear, the decision to settle before the OMB hearing is in the hands of the City’s planning department. The Councillor said such a settlement would be very difficult to fight. “They (the planning department) are working on behalf of the City, not us,” said Burnside. Ed: a reminder again that the municipality to which we pay taxes is seldom really in the hands of the voters.
GARBAGE?
The Councillor spoke in frank but dispiriting terms about the effectiveness of the City’s planning. He called the Eglinton In Focus paper “largely garbage”. He suggested that planning frequently inspires visions which are not good planning and set off a development frenzy like the one now seen across Eglinton Ave. The discussion raised questions about why the Bloor Danforth transit line has been in place for 40 years but has not seen the high-rise fever witnessed in Leaside. The answer seemed to be that there is land here and, foot for foot, it is probably worth a good deal more money at market.
SCHOOLS AND TRAFFIC
There was concern about crowded schools. One mother said Northlea Public School is bursting. Once again, Mr. Burnside was quite candid. He said TDSB “planning” was based not on forward-looking expectation of population but on how many portables had been thrown up behind the school. This was policy. Bessborough residents and others north and east of Sunnybrook were warned about the traffic associated with the Sunnybrook changes. They will see traffic on Bessborough from the north seeking to avoid the corner of Bayview and Eglinton. Burnside also spoke about attempting to maintain a right hand turn westbound on Eglinton Ave at Bayview. Fund raising appeal to stop Sunnybrook towers
City Hall seems to love this vague police task force report
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It might work, but it might not. The proponents of the potent but rather sketchy recommendations on how to save money by slimming down the police service say it will be just fine. Don’t worry. Fewer police stations, fewer police in cars, less intrusive anti-crime activity in high crime areas — the cops will get the job done digitally it seems. A slew of divisional stations will be eliminated. The task force report tabled with the police commission today says zero about what if anything might replace them. One of the stations set to vanish is 53 Division at Eglinton Ave and Duplex Avenue. Some at City Hall — like the mayor — are quite dismissive of the divisional concept. Maybe. But there is really no denying these buildings are well-used meeting places. Maybe they’re big but perhaps they’re too big to just vanish. University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley told the Star “there is a big difference between the vision that is outlined in this report and practically implementing it.” We would add that the vision is quite fragmentary too. And the optimistic talk downtown is not specific. Co-author of the report Andy Pringle speaks of “more community-centric policing.” Sounds nice but it could mean anything.
Russia banned from Olympics for extensive state doping
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Russia will be banned from track and field events at in the Rio Olympics because the country has not ended state-sponsored doping in the sport. The International Association of Athletics Federations delivered message Friday. “I don’t think on the face of evidence, they really had any other choice,” said Paul Melia, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which carries out all drug testing in Canada. “It would have been very difficult for them to defend lifting the ban.”
St. Anselm’s playoffs at Bennington, Rolph schools
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Playoffs in the St Anselm’s house league baseball are underway Friday at Bennington Heights playground (the girls) and Rolph Road School (the boys) The play goes all day and we hope to have a summary of the tourney from St. Anselm head coach Dave Nespolo later. Here’s the final out and sportsmanship handshakes between St. Anselm A’s and the Bennington Bulldogs.
70s rock phenomenon Meat Loaf collapses in Edmonton
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The 70s rock phenomenon Meat Leaf (Michael Lee Aday) has collapsed on stage in Edmonton during what fans said was a pretty difficult performance for him. Meat Loaf is 68. He had previously cancelled two concerts. The video shows the moment at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium when the singer bent over and knocked down his microphone stand as he fell to the floor. Audience members said he had been singing his classic “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” “He sounded terrible from the start,” wrote another. A fan said: “It was like he pushed through each song.” He is in hospital in stable condition
Young woman gravely hurt in hit-run on Danforth Rd.
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A young woman has been gravely injured when she hit by a vehicle on the darkened pavement of Danforth Rd. just before 3 a.m. Friday. The location appears to be between St Clair Ave. and Kennedy Rd. A passerby saw the woman, who is thought to be in her 20s, and called police. Const. Clint Stibbe told CP24 police are trying to determine what the woman’s actions were before she was struck.
Woman found lying on roadway at Danforth Rd at St Clair with critical head injuries. Road closed both ways. #Toronto pic.twitter.com/IYuXPyXeQe
— CBC Toronto (@CBCToronto) June 17, 2016
Rabies outbreak in Hamilton heading towards Toronto
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Raccoon-strain rabies has spread rapidly in southwestern Ontario and is now seen in the western reaches of the GTA. The outbreak which began late last year near Hamilton has seen 128 cases reported so far, says the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. As a result, the ministry will release as many as a million anti-rabies vaccine packets, or bait, through the Hamilton area. The plan will be complemented by so-called hand-baiting within 50 kilometres of confirmed cases. Another sweep in August and September will aim to vaccinate juvenile animals. The baiting will be done both by hand and by helicopter, and will stretch from parts of western Toronto, Mississauga and Kitchener-Waterloo.
Work on right-of-way puts St. Clair West streetcars in barn
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Here in Toronto we have learned to just accept the stream of impositions the streetcar places on daily life. Other cities avoid them altogether but, well, we’ve been through that before. Now its a cancellation of tram service across the whole St.Clair West line, and later partial disruptions, which will take us altogether to the end of the year. This is necessary because the new streetcars, which may or may not be delivered by then, don’t fit the big concrete right-of-way. The cars were ordered during the construction of the enormous concrete slab that runs the length of St. Clair West. The TTC has never said what if any thought was given to making the cars fit. But they don’t. There is lots of happy talk about how this disruption will not be nearly as awful as the actual construction. It’s hard to see how it could be worse. In the meantime, buses have already taken over and will run the whole St. Clair line.
157 Hudson Drive plan is before City committee Friday
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A plan to merge three ravine lots on Hudson Drive in Moore Park will be heard by the Toronto and East York Committee of Adjustment (COA) Friday, June 15, 2016. The hearing is set to begin at 2 p.m. The application technician is Bruna Nigro (416) 338-5917 bnigro@toronto.ca. Earlier story
Shocking ad worth a try but texting is the devil’s work
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We are a nation of creatures deeply absorbed in our cell phones even as we walk, drive, do business and try to perform tasks while ignoring just what it is we think we are doing. Texting while doing anything else is a calamity for sustained rational human behaviour. It is the devil’s work. Texting while driving or walking is profoundly more dangerous and commonplace than drunkenness. But we don’t care. We do it anyway and frequently — very frequently — it kills us. This arresting Ontario government ad may help, but as a society and people, we are in deep trouble from narcotic texting.