The South Bayview Bulldog

Predicting the future is usually not very rewarding but as 2014 wanes and the weather stays nice, The South Bayview will stay optimistic and chance a guess on three items. The spacious Second Cup shop at 1585 Bayview Ave. will “go corporate” in 2015 as popular former franchisee Hong Ngo will depart for other fields. No doubt there is a major face-lift coming for this location as head office takes over. A Bulldog flashback link summarizes the fortunes of three local Second Cup shops. The year 2015 will see political boundaries re-drawn that may rattle a few cages. They are quite historic. For the first time in maybe 150 years, Bayview Ave. will cease to be the federal dividing line between Leaside (and East York) and that part of the the city known as Davisville Village. This decision by the federal redistribution committee eliminates the federal riding of Don Valley West and lumps most of it into the riding of Toronto North. Equally ground-breaking, the riding of Toronto Centre will be broken up, detaching Rosedale and Moore Park. The riding name will survive however for those parts to the south of Rosedale Valley Rd.  Moore Park and Rosedale will find their way into what will surely a political unknown to be called University Rosedale. U-R, as the new riding is being called, seems to be a compromise place. It was created when opposition to a proposed new riding of Mount Pleasant was revealed. Among the ferocious opponents of that idea was St. Paul’s MP Carolyn Bennett. It is important to keep in mind that these are federal changes and it remains to be seen whether they will be adopted for provincial and municipal boundaries. The Mike Harris government unified the Ontario and municipal boundaries along the same lines as federal boundaries as an efficiency. And finally the LRT.  By the end of 2015, it is the undertaking of Metrolinx that the Eglinton Ave. E. tunneling will be at least half way from Brentcliffe Rd. to Yonge Street. Construction may begin on some of the stations. 

Toronto Hydro is reminding customers that if the power goes out on Christmas Day, there is a plan. They ask that any outages be reported to  416-542-8000. 

There is a serious outbreak of finders keepers on this Hong Kong Street as pedestrians and motorists scramble on their hands and knees to grab bank notes spilled from a van involved in an accident. It’s all quite illegal but no word on that aspect of events as authorities say that as much as $15 million Hong Kong dollars disappeared. That’s about $2.5 million Canadian.  

Keurig Green Mountain will recall 564,000 Keurig MINI Plus brewing machines in Canada after reports of  people being burned by water overheating and spraying out of the machines. As many as 6.6 million machines are recalled in the U.S.  There are said to have been 200 reports of such instances in both countries after reports of people being burned by hot liquid that sprayed from the devices. Some 90 incidents caused burn-related injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The item has been sold since 2009 for about $100, the CPSC said today  The recall comes  two days before Christmas. Many units will be sitting under Christmas trees and the recall makes for an un-merry Christmas. Last month, the company said it had set aside an estimated $22 million for sales returns on “certain MINI Plus brewers, where in very rare cases hot liquid could escape the brewer.” Keurig said it expected to receive insurance money related to the defective machines and recorded a charge of $10 million in its fiscal 2014.