Looking for leadership in the oddest of places. NYCC members finally produce a 3-3 COSTCO tie at NYCC. What this seems to mean is that five members of the Council were absent or abstained. Odd leadership indeed. Story here (corrected)
ALL-NIGHTER WOES? Scotia cancels Nuit Blanche money
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Scotiabank has decided to set Nuit Blanche free. Bank spokesperson Sean Hamilton said the all-night art festival (which has seen more than one street fight) is off its sponsorship list, telling the Toronto Star that Nuit Blanche organizers were informed of the decision in February. He said the move had nothing to do with reports of troublemaking in the early hours of Sunday morning, when crowds of art crawlers advanced on police and threw bottles at Yonge-Dundas Square. The amount of money spent by the bank on Nuit Blanche is secret but shareholders might cheer the news that Scotia is trimming its sails in the giveaway department. It sponsors many arts and entertainment festivals (we like Buskerfest). It could also doubt do without the tedious moaning of people like Dave Meslin in the Torontoist who just can’t stand seeing a bank associated with artistic purity. Pooey pooey, Dave.
Nanos, Mainstreet polls offer radically different results
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The media love affair with polls is just a headache for voters as they look at radically different results from Nanos Research and Mainstreet Research. Nanos is running a rolling poll in which it posts an average of the latest three days each day. This morning (Tuesday, October 6, 2015) it revealed the Liberals with 35% of the public support nationally and the Conservatives with 31.5%. But the Mainstreet poll, done September 30 and October 1, 2015 shows the Conservatives with a magic-figure lead of 37%. It would almost enough to expect a majority. The Liberals are shown with 29%. Election day is October 19. CTV Toronto Sun
NYCC chokes on COSTCO decision, produces 3-3 tie
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The decision on whether there will be a COSTCO store on Overlea Blvd will be decided by City Council after North York Community Council voted in a 3-3 tie today (Tuesday, October 6, 2015) Council will meet November 3, 2015 The issue is the heritage status of a vacant former office building of the Coca Cola Company at 42 Overlea Blvd. Speakers opposing the store at community council today were particularly against the prospect of a service station on the site. The store, located at 42/46 Overlea would include 625 parking spaces and the gas bar. COSTCO also offered plans which retain the office building, designated as historic, as part of the new store.
THORNCLIFFE VOTERS WILL BE BITTER
The voting split by name will be available in due course but the shape of the dilemma for Councillors was the deep divide between old Leaside and the equally eligible voters in Thorncliffe Park. There are more of the former than the latter but the Thorncliffe residents will probably be deeply bitter over a rejection of the store. Many are counting on it to put more money in their personal bank accounts and their small businesses. COSTCO is known as a generous paymaster. Employees can earn as much as $15 an hour, an amount unheard of at Walmart and other big boxes. The presence of a COSTCO would help rejuvenate the East York Town Centre which is languishing with empty space including the former Target store. MORE
FLEMING CRESCENT
Council also had on its agenda a total ban on stopping on Fleming Crescent just off Bayview. This is a common practice for various reasons, some good and some terrible. But it looks like the practice is over. (Item NY9.28) NY Council Agenda
Man, 50, dead after car rear-ends a bus on Morningside
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Police say a man is dead in the rear-end collision of his car, said to be a Jaguar, and a TTC bus on Morningside Avenue near Sheppard Avenue East about 6:30 a.m. Police say the man, 50, may not have been wearing a seat belt. They are also looking into the possibility of a medical or mechanical issue as a cause, said PC Clint Stibbe of the traffic division.
Canadian professor co-winner of Nobel Prize for Physics
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Arthur McDonald, a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston and the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in northern Ontario, is the a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics. Professor McDonald, 72, and Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita, were named for the discovery of allusive neutrino oscillations and their contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities. “The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in announcing the award early Tuesday. McDonald called the accolade a “very daunting experience, needless to say.” Speaking to reporters by phone he said “Fortunately, I have many colleagues as well who share this prize with me.” McDonald will. split nearly a million dollars in prize money with his co-winner. McDonald said there was a “eureka moment” when they were able to see that neutrinos were able to change from one type to another in travelling from the sun to the earth. “Neutrinos are among the fundamental particles (which) we do not know how to subdivide any further. Therefore, their position within the models of physics at the most fundamental level is very important,” he said. “When you do not know whether they have mass, it’s otherwise difficult to understand how to incorporate them into those theories that give us a more complete understanding of the world of physics at the most fundamental level. Discovering this property helps us tremendously in this regard.”
Semi ploughs through deep flood water in S. Carolina
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A semi truck driver is seen ploughing up a flooded portion of South Carolina Highway 15 yesterday. The video shows the semi truck submerged to half way up the doors in the community of Sumter as it is filmed from a car on the opposite side of the highway. A child in the car labels the driver “big and bad” for daring to drive through the deep water. “If he makes it, I give him all the credit in the world,” a woman’s voice says. Watch to the end it appears that he makes to a dry portion of the road.
Ontario reverses itself on unlimited in-vitro fertilization
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The Government has re-thought the idea of free in-vitro fertilization for all, regardless of age. Today it was made clear that the costly science of in-vitro will only be free for women 42 and under. The National Post is taking some of the credit. It says the decision to limit coverage comes two days after it revealed the province was planning to reject expert advice and open up the service to all women, regardless of their age. But the plan for free in-vtro for all was on the table for many weeks before the minister, Eric Hoskins, intervened. Evidence is clear that there is much less chance of a successful pregnancy beyond the age of 42.
Scary sidewalk on Eglinton opposite Leaside High School
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It takes a brave pedestrian to venture onto the broken and patched sidewalk on the north side of Eglinton Ave E between Donlea Drive and Hanna Rd.
New concept McDonald’s open at St. Clair and Victoria Park
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McDonald’s first Create Your Taste push-button restaurant is at the corner of St.Clair Ave and Victoria Park Ave. But it seems a tentative opening as customers are still able to order at the counter as well. McDonald’s president had exuberantly said that the new choose your own burger concept was about “blowing up the counter.” Give him an A for enthusiasm. The new experience includes delivery to your table and self-serve kiosks. Employee titles reach lofty levels with the appearance of Guest Experience Leaders who greet patrons, help them find a seat and walk them through using the self-serve kiosks. There is also a new premium burger unlike previous offerings at McDonald’s, the Create Your Taste burger. Analysts have said Create Your Taste will bring new interest to McDonald’s and perhaps cause patrons to create burgers that cost more.
ALL DAY BREAKFAST IN U.S.
Starting Tuesday in the U.S., McDonald’s will offer all-day breakfast. It seems like a no brainer. The chain began testing the extended breakfast menu in March.
Underwhelming peace offering from Raising The Roof
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The now rather notorious address of 1591 Bayview Ave. has a new message on the plywood hoarding It is signed by the charity Raising The Roof and it says:
You told us you don’t want a shelter here. Neither do we Support us in creating long-term solutions Let’s end homelessness.
This sign seems to be a form of peace-offering from the charity, and whoever else it employed, for staging the “homeless shelter” hoax on South Bayview residents and businesses last Friday. It may be a peace-offering but it is a quite underwhelming one. There is no expression of regret. Raising The Roof clings to a doubtful moral high ground that it agrees with the hapless people it duped.
Look, Raising The Roof has surely done good work and will do so again. We wish them well. But there has been a colossal failure of judgement which ought to be acknowledged. Beyond this, residents of South Bayview are not unfamiliar with the realities and human loss created by the so-called homeless. We say so-called because in this City, and right here on Bayview Ave., many of the homeless are homeless in name only. They are not without shelter — some are said to have owned property — but they prefer life on the street (or in the alleys). There is nothing good about this but it reveals a problem that is enormously more complicated than the building of shelters, as important as that may be There are said to be about 5,000 officially “homeless” people in Toronto. They are tracked as best they can be and receive attention from municipal Outreach workers. Angels, all of them.
TIME MATTERS: Will Twitter abandon reverse chronology?
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Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey has been confirmed as the permanent CEO of Twitter. In keeping with his rainmaker persona the new CEO is talking about his ideas to challenge every feature of the messaging phenomenon. He is said to be willing to throw out even the most core features of Twitter in an attempt to push the company forward (whatever that may mean). It may include moving beyond the 140 character limit and reverse chronological format which define Twitter for many, and which Dorsey himself originally established. “You will see us continue to question our reverse chronological timeline and all of the work it takes to build one by finding and following accounts,” Dorsey has said. Those who love Twitter rely on it to tell them quickly not so much the news, but whether there is news in their specialized fields of interest. Much of the tough talk is about making money. Twitter users can see the service rooting around for ways to get people and their businesses to advertise.