Marcus Gee in the Globe and Mail has a seasonal accounting of some ice skating facilities in town.
LATEST: 12-year-old boy returned home safely
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Toronto Police say a 12-year-old boy who was reported missing has been found safe. Levi Moore-Gemon disappeared Saturday from the St. Clair Avenue East and O’Connor Drive. Police say he was located Sunday morning in East York and returned home safely. Toronto Police are thanking the public for assisting in locating the youth.
What’s the real return on a longer rush hour?
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Down at the venerable clam shell overlooking Nathan Phillips Square they may have a clear view of what makes Toronto tick. But the quietly legislated extension to rush hour — from 4 to 6 p.m. to 3 to 7 p.m. — seems ready to exact a price on the city’s economy that has not been calculated. Some say there’s so much traffic that rush hour needs to grow. Really? Why not a five-hour rush hour morning and night? Let’s see, that would be a 10-hour speedway heaven to boot the cars back and forth across town. It would also mean that there might be two hours left in a normal day to park on the street to do business at a specialty shop, drugstore, dentist, doctor or restaurant. Is this a city for people? Will rush hour drivers notice a whole lot of difference? .
Hot dog wieners found scattered in dog park
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Police have been alerted following the discovery of about a dozen hot dog wieners in the snow in a newly opened dog park near Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Avenue E. It’s not clear why but the park has not been named by police. The meat is being held in the event there are reports of dogs becoming sick. There have been other cases of meat, some contaminated, found in Toronto parks for dogs. In September, hot dogs with pills were uncovered at Oakvale Green Community Gardens near Danforth and Greenwood Avenues. Traces of acetaminophen were also later found. In October two beef patties were found here at Stanley Park on Wellington Street near Strachan Avenue. One was covered with a suspicious white powder while the other had metal pieces in it. No injuries or deaths have been reported in any of the cases.
Air travel: “Don’t complain, they’ll arrest you”
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There’s an airline Catch 22 at work in Canada that essentially prevents airlines from taking complaint unless you go to the media. Then you might get the attention of Air Canada, for example. But if you’ve been short-changed or made to feel like a nobody on board an AC flight, chances are you are never going to be able to say it to them privately. The government requires many industries to permit access to a complaint process. But airlines can still hide behind the Internet, and Air Canada does. You will fill out forms and guess at endless “capchas” before they even acknowledge you are a person. How about complaining on the spot. Better not. Flight attendants do not want to hear what you think. Just what you want for dinner. And if it looks like you are even slightly unhappy the captain is in touch with the ground. So it is that some passengers who lost luggage in the recent mob scenes at Pearson and elsewhere are saying Canada should be required to publicly disclose complaints about baggage, cancelled flights and tarmac delays, just like their counterparts do in the U.S.
Josh Matlow favours ranked rush hour routes
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Josh Matlow (Ward 22) says he would be in favour of ranked rush hour routes which permit some streets to remain with a 4 to 6 p.m. rush hour prohibition. City council is planning to extend rush hour from the present 4 to 6 by an hour at each end — 3 to 7 p.m. It is a move which would appear to have profound impact on the ability of stores and restaurants on city streets to do business. Mr. Matlow said he was not the author of the motion to extend rush hour and took objection to a previous headline which called the city’s new regulations “Matlow’s Law.” He suggested that South Bayview might reasonably be retained in a 4 to 6 class. He said that as a resident of South Bayview he had an interest in seeing that the business district thrived. The city has decided to increase rush hour no-parking fines (to $150) and extend the hours of prohibited parking where posted. Mr. Matlow is a leader in the move to increase parking fines and argues the higher fines will ease congestion. He said he did not believe that it would increase what The Bulldog has called the victimization of shoppers who over-stay their limit without an intent to do so. It is not clear to those at TPS Parking Enforcement just when and where this new prohibition on parking will take place. Friday night 53 Division said however that briefing has begun on the new regulations. There seems little doubt about the intent of the city government or the impact on store owners.
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