A poll by Nanos Research places John Tory in the lead for the job of Mayor of Toronto. For the first time since polling began early this year, Rob Ford is in a third place. The numbers: Tory 39.1%, Chow 32% and Ford 21.7%. The also rans are Karen Stintz, 4%, Sarah Thomson 2% and David Soknacki, 1%. It’s wise to remember that merely a week ago a different poll, but no less reputable, had Chow in the lead, Ford a challenger at number two and Tory well back in third spot. Makes you wonder.
Tropical pet craze goes of the tracks again
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Human Society animal rescuers captured a species of alligator known as a Caiman from Cat Fish Pond in High Park this afternoon (Monday July 7, 2014). Who knew? The creature was spotted by park goers who sent out word that this tropical denizen was swimming in a place where kids and pets also played. It is seemly half alligator half crocodile — an Alligatorid crocodylians, if you please. It is judged harmless and many commentators have gushingly pronounced it cute. It’s thought the exotic pet craze produced another victim (the Caiman) when the reptile proved to be just too much trouble to handle. It is about as bizarre as keeping a tropical snake in the city. Both phenomena speak of the disregard people have for nature.Thank heavens there are no Caimans in South Bayview. Or are there?
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Metrolinx will open office in Sunnybrook Plaza
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Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency charged with managing the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, will shortly open an office in the Sunnybrook Plaza. The information was confirmed by Metrolinx Monday (July 7, 2014) to the South Bayview Bulldog with an undertaking that more information is on the way. The building permit in the window of the former Source Electronics space at Sunnybrook is dated July 3,. 2014, so Metrolinx may not be quite ready for its formal public announcement. The location is next door to Home Hardware. It appears from the look of the work done so far that Metrolinx will be able to accommodate members of the public in semi-private spaces. One can imagine discussions about issues related to the multi-year construction now underway on Eglinton Ave. East. As is known, the intersection of Eglinton and Bayview Ave. will see the building of the main LRT station for this corner at the site of the McDonald’s across Eglinton from the plaza. Another entrance to the LRT will be built in the Metro parking lot on the northwest corner. There will be surface work related to the tunneling as well with all the traffic delays that this may entail. Stations will also be built at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Eglinton and at Laird Drive and Eglinton. All this work will disrupt the rather easy way Leasiders and others have been able to get about their neighborhood. Also this week Metrolinx has published a diagram-map showing how the traffic on Eglinton east of Brentcliffe Rd. is being reduced to one lane each. This week’s squeeze is temporary but will be followed by many more as work continues to bore the tunnels west to Yonge Street. The diagram (below) shows the location of the tunnel work in beige and the traffic pushed to the north side of Eglinton.
New website lists construction on major roads
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This is an idea which seems so obvious one wonders why no one did it earlier. It is a website that lists daily changes to construction on major roads in Toronto. City Toronto Road Construction
Eglinton re-make plan comes to Council this week
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The Toronto Sun’s feisty Sue-Ann Levy has discovered the fancy plans that City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat has for Eglinton Ave once the LRT is in. Levy doesn’t like them. The South Bayview Bulldog mentioned in April that the Toronto Star’s Tess Kalinowski was fairly swooning with joy at the ideas put forth by Keesmaat. Will the street be wide enough for all this stuff? Will there be any traffic at all, or just bicycle racks? You can decide Link to Bulldog and Star story Sue Ann Levy
Lightning show at CN Tower as you tried to sleep
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Here’s the visual evidence of that bumpy night we mostly slept through. Wonderful pictures from Twitter of some lightning hits to the CN tower. Lightning is a benign thing if you are in a modern building with a metal structure. All that otherwise fatal voltage goes zipping right into the earth. From the perspective of the inset picture, it might have been snapped off the brow of the height at the end of someone’s garden in Bennington Heights, Moore Park or South Leaside.
Twitter-trove of Leaside fancy and wacky cars
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Twitter lit up over the weekend for those on the Leaside search where Maradene Wills posted several pictures of the wildly painted Cadillac she saw in the Loblaws lot on Redway Drive. It’s plate is So Wacky attesting further to the owner’s sense of humour. And dear friend Rudy Limeback was briefly out of the ravines and river beds of Leaside to snap a very nice 60s Buick. Thanks all.
Lady Ga Ga’s Clamshell Girl has talent
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Magdalena Kincaid was picked out of the audience by Lady Ga Ga during her performance at Ottawa Bluesfest yesterday (Saturday, July 5, 2014). Ms Kincaid swears she didn’t expect to pulled up and asked to sing but as this video attests she exhibited a strong seemingly well-trained singing voice and a most impressive self assurance. Kincaid is 18. She will be a student at Ryerson this fall pursuing fashion design. Her talent is evident there too as she appeared in an alluring costume of white floral underwear, a see-through pink latex skirt and a pink and silver bedazzled seashell bra, which has given her the nickname “Seashell Girl.” She designed it all herself. Canada has talent!
Den Tandt: Media is addicted to Ford faux news
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National Post columnist Michael Den Tandt diagnoses the media — as do many — as hopelessly addicted to the empty, self-pitying “disease” talk of the mayor. Rob Ford’s rehab hitch was two months long, but it took the media mere seconds to fall off the wagon. It was a brutally swift relapse, says Den Tandt. He asks: “Can anyone, honestly, be truly surprised – as opposed to the faux shock and wide-eyed, studied consternation that has characterized much of the coverage of Ford’s return – at anything Toronto’s chief magistrate has said and done since Monday?” No. Reporters are behaving like shivering supplicants in front of their trafficker, fools begging for a fix.
How Others Live: Skin-whitening in Pakistan
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It is a sharply mind-expanding moment to see the importance of whiter skin to Pakistani women. This BBC report tells us graphically in a video about How Others Live.
Jaw-dropping $6.5 million for Jackes condo
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This was published June 24 online by Toronto Life but it is yet more area real estate with absolutely jaw-dropping money at stake. It is a 4,000 square foot condo in the well-known and private 33 Jackes building for $6.5 million. Toronto Life
City ponders raising road to avoid DVP flooding
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The City of Toronto is pondering the cost and disruption of raising the road level of the Don Valley Parkway to reduce the pattern of flooding. Metro