Bay will make Yonge-Bloor Saks Fifth Avenue

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Quite sane
As recently as November 30,  2013 the The Bay was saying it was certainly taking a close look — yes sirree — at putting a Saks in the huge Bay store at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Sts. Yes, said everyone from the smallest shopkeeper to retailing tycoons, and if they don’t, Bonnie Brooks will have to declare temporary insanity. Ms Brooks is the 60-year-old president and CEO of the Bay and helped engineer the staggering $2.9 billion  U.S. takeover of Saks by The Bay last fall. Well, guess what?  Bonnie Brooks is not insane. Not even temporarily.  Thus the flossy story in Toronto Life that the great gray whale of a building sitting at the crossroads of image-refined shopping in Toronto is going to be a Saks.  Also in the cards but not previously telegraphed, Saks Fifth Avenue will get a face lift worth some $1.25 billion. It will include new labels from Britain and France, luxurious merchandise like runway fashion and exotic skins. Woo-hoo. Skins. We love it. Stand by.  

The Mad Italian gelato on Bayview Ave. is closed

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Alana and Allesandro on opening night 2010

The Mad Italian at 1581 Bayview Ave. has closed. It appears that two other locations on College Street and Danforth Ave. have also closed. The locked doors suggest a distress shuttering of the four-year-old gelato, coffee and Italian food restaurant  It was a business born in much excitement and colour, the creation of Allesandro Settimi and his Canadian wife Alana. They were assisted by Mr. Settimi’s father and mother. Both men were genial examples of their national extraction with the older Settimi, Aldo, having been an influential Italian legislator at one time. The whole family plunged into the project and it was not uncommon see to Aldo Settimi vigorously handing out samples of the gelato on the Bayview sidewalk. His wife was a talented cook and her porketta roast sandwiches developed a noticeable clientele. The atmosphere seemed infections. The puckish name was easy to remember. So it was that in August of 2011, about 18 months after the business opened, Allesandro Settimi received an offer to buy it outright. By that time, Settimi had started a second location on College Street in Little Italy. It is rumoured that the buyer offered the family a sum in excess of $800,000. In any case, the Mad Italian changed hands with the new owner opening a third location on the Danforth. The stresses of what is, in the end, a summertime business began to show.  Attempts were made to broaden the off-season appeal. It is said on the street that the rent was being paid month to month at the South Bayview location. Whether it can be said that Mr. Settimi was the business, remains an open question. Nonetheless, the atmosphere at the Mad Italian was not the same without the gregarious owner greeting patrons at the door.  Photo South Bayview Bulldog 

Northern blows through U-W fundraising record

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U-W Co-chairs Vucetic and Phung
The annual renewal of the charitable spirit at Northern Secondary School is just amazing. In 2013 the school broke its own stellar record by collecting $43,200 for the United Way. This breaks last year’s record of $34,000. It is a wonderful example of how each new generation of students will accept the challenge of those who have gone before. Lori Moulton is the staff advisor for the school’s United Way committee. With student co-chairs Andrea Vucetic and Natalie Phung on the job, the team inspired some 300 members of the Northern enrollment to raise pledges in the CN Tower stair climb. That was 50 more participants than last year. The result was a big increase in donations —  some $9,000 more. Of course there was much work done elsewhere as teachers and student ran a talent show and collected pledges for dares and all sorts of academic (and non-academic) challenges. Never one to refuse a dare, Principal Ron Felsen dressed in a cat costume for the cause. Northern has an active chapter of the Helping Hands Foundation led by Claire Chen. This 85-member group also went to work for the United Way.  Photo NSS

Iran hangs 40 people in just two weeks: Amnesty

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Tehran is a long way from Toronto but it’s still close enough to feel the chill of the blood-thirsty judicial system in that Islamic state. They are said to be so busy perfecting the human race over there that they have executed a total of 40 people since the beginning of 2014, with at least 33 executions carried out in the past week alone. The report comes from Amnesty International. Many of these were people accused of using drugs. Sometimes the death penalty in Iran takes place in public with the condemned person being yanked up by a crane.  

Cash up front for cab may target night club crowd

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City of Toronto staff have laboured long and produced a body of recommendations to improve taxi service. The proposals seems to come in two parts — those effecting cab users and those that will impact drivers and big taxi companies  Staff is suggesting that cab users be prepared to pay as much as $25 up front for a ride and that cabbies be authorized to demand a clean up charge if a passenger fouls the car  with vomit or in some other way (too much information). It seems likely these rules are going to apply to fares picked up outside night clubs on Friday. Either way, it might be hard to identify and collect from someone who is sick in a cab. The second bundle of proposals deals with the time-honoured issue of taxi haves and have-nots. It’s a bit murky. The Globe and Mail makes a stab at explaining it here. 

Sharon. Lois and Bram honour is approved

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The playground in Toronto’s June Rowlands Park at Davisvile Ave. and Mt. Pleasant Rd. will be named after iconic Canadian children’s entertainers Sharon, Lois and Bram. The Toronto and East York Community Council approved a proposal from Josh Matlow (Ward 22) yesterday (Wednesday, January 15, 2014). There will be an unveiling ceremony in the  Spring. Previous posts

Amaya co-founder starts Pukka on St. Clair W

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Some may recall the Indian food entrepreneur who helped establish the South Bayview dining room. Amy Pataki

Canada to U.S: Cancel Keystone if you dare

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The foreign minister, Mr. Baird, has made a plain-spoken speech in Washington telling the U.S. to build the Keystone XL pipeline or officially say no to the project. It is a clever manoeuvre by Canada to attempt to call what many think is a bluff on the part of Barack Obama. John Baird told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:  “The time for Keystone is now. I’ll go further — the time for a decision on Keystone is now, even if it’s not the right one.” Obama need not and probably will not respond to the dare – but that’s what it is. Canada is saying “Cancel it if you dare.” World conditions and public opinion seem to form an unstoppable force for the construction of the pipeline, certainly for those who believe in it.  

Verdi on Bayview joins Winterlicious festival

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A happy winter consolation is the prix-fixe lunch and dinner promotion known as Winterlicious. It’s underway with participating restaurants across town taking reservations today (Thursday, January 16, 2014) for this affordable way of dining out. City-wide, more than 200 restaurants are participating and on South Bayview Verdi, at 1566 Bayview Ave. will participate for the first time. The excellent interactive map shows Verdi will offer lunch for $15 and dinner for $25. Others in South Bayivew who are part of the Winterlicious program are Kamasutra at 1522 Bayview and Amaya at 1701 Bayview. On Mt Pleasant the handy map shows Cafe Pleiade at 557 and Celestini at 623. The Granite Brewery at 245 Eglinton Ave. E. is also in. Let us know if we have overlooked anybody. The three-course prix-fixe lunch menus are priced at $15, $20 and $25, while the dinner menus are priced at $25, $35 and $45.  Note: the map may take about 15 seconds to load but it’s worth waiting for. 

Some fear this is the end of Sears in Canada

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Sears Canada is cutting 1,600 jobs in Canada this year including the closing of its call centre in Belleville which currently employs 527 people. An agreement has been signed with IBM to outsource internal work which will eliminate another 1,345 jobs. Anyone wondering about that shocking figure of 39,000 lost jobs in Ontario can begin to see evidence of it here. The economy has not recovered and the retail malaise is seen in the Best Buy figures. That company said today that intense competition and weak traffic in December led to disappointing results. Some analysts wonder what’s left for Sears as their outlets dwindle and contact with consumers seems more and more tenuous. 

Here comes the Summer of ’14 on Eglinton East

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The summer of ’14 is likely to be a turning point in how residents feel about the length of Eglinton Ave E from Brentcliffe over to Mt. Pleasant. Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency charged with planning and building the Crosstown LRT, says preliminary construction such as the relocation of utilities and the building of so-called “headwall” supports. Work will also proceed to create access points for the introduction of those enormous boring machines that will create the track tunnels east to Yonge. 

Many would trade places with Jeffrey Boucher

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The women who are waiting for Jeff Boucher to come home seem as decent and good as any man might wish. Boucher’s wife, Kirsten, says of him that he is a good husband and good father. She knows that her husband’s age, 52, represents a kind of statistical red flag in the life of many males. And she is able to understand. His daughter Bettina, 17, seems like a dutiful child who is deeply concerned for her dad. And his mother Mary has spoken compassionately about her son and her hope that he has just chosen to seek a little distance from everyday life. And there seems nothing seriously awry. This tall, fine-looking and athletic man would seem to have everything. Many would trade places with him in a flash. But the workings of the middle age mind and inevitable mortality can invade the most secure corners of paradise. There was money ($3,500) found in his filing cabinet at school but there is no reason to think there was the slightest impropriety. It was collected for a student ski trip yet to come and that bond of trust with the kids is fully in place. Indeed it is the perception of such an apparently satisfying life that makes the story of Jeffrey Boucher’a  disappearance so painful.  CBC