The South Bayview Bulldog

Good morning South Bayview. Here we go again with the shovels and the road salt. In fact, aren’t we glad to live in the inner city where there’s only a couple of centimeters of snow to clear.  Residents are finding a slightly slower commute caused mostly in the walking. Buses and subways are running fine, says the TTC. Rain and wet snow falling overnight formed a kind of spray paint for these trees in Bennington Heights. The curious pooch got  a faceful of snow too.Porter Airlines, which operates out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, issued a weather advisory Wednesday morning for travel to and from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax. Passengers are asked to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

Talk about Standing Up to the Big Guys. We may never know who miscalculated at Bell Media’s TSN. But you can be sure that if the right to be the Big Boss of hockey broadcasting in Canada is worth $5.2 billion to Rogers Media, it is absolutely worth that much to Bell. So what happened? Did Bell even get a chance to counter-offer and or did it foolishly think that the NHL would have to come back to Bell regardless? If this deal was the result of an auction — and that seems for sure — did Bell get over-confident about its pre-eminent position in Canada? One thing is clear, the NHL was big enough in its own right to stand up and say we’re going with the other guy. The fallout at Bell is yet to come. The company has written a gracious statement congratulating Rogers but you have to know that at the top, the Bell Big Guys do not like this. Remember how they chased the CRTC all over Canada after they were turned down for Astral Media? But now they are faced with less than the crumbs as the rest of Canada tries to analyse this seismic re-ordering of hockey broadcasting (and streaming) which even the experts are struggling to comprehend. The best information and some educated guessing comes from Cassandra Szklarski  of the  Canadian Press 

A fine new mansion is nearing completion on the wooded lot at 140 Dinnick Crescent in Lawrence Park. This highly-detailed and elegant residence is the work of designer Lorne Rose. It will become the home of a couple who were almost denied the use of the property. Tim and Charlotte Stanley bought the 1930 home on the site in 2011 after careful checking that they could demolish it. It was a run-down and poorly cared-for place that was barely fit to live in. But the day after the Stanleys were given a permit to knock the place down, North York Community Council snatched it back and called the property a heritage building. There was very little basis for this arbitrary and unjust act. The Ontario Municipal Board dismissed the preservationists’ claim and ordered the city to issue a demolition permit. Certainly, the appearance of the home that the Stanleys have built is a justification of their good taste and a big bonus for neighbors, who will doubtlessly see an increase in the value of their homes with the addition of the new 140 Dinnick.

The growing framework of the Wicksteed Business Park is seen yesterday. It is a nine-acre commercial condominium complex at 195-209 Wicksteed Avenue. There are as many as seven proposed commercial buildings in this development, one of which is said to be a Canada Post distribution centre. The buildings in the background are the Scenic on Eglinton. The developer of the business park is the Rockport Group. Rockport is also busy locally with a proposal for the redevelopment of Postal Station K at Yonge and Montgomery.  Yonge-Montgomery  Photo courtesy Rudy Limeback. 

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The four federal byelections on Monday produced enjoyable races but in the end, the outcomes were not very surprising. Here in Toronto, Chrystia Freeland defeated NDP candidate Linda McQuaig by a margin of at least 3,200 ballots or about 13 percent of the popular votes as counted at the time of this post. There were at that hour 205 of 268 polling stations reporting. That number showed 27 percent of the 91,000 plus of registered voters had bothered to go to the polls. It was after all, a byelection and the results really do show it. The Conservatives saw a fall in popular support from about 24 percent in the last general election to only nine percent (or 2,248 votes) at posting time. The candidate, Geoff Pollock was a late nominee and it was easy to conclude that he was, in the parlance of political parties, a “sacrificial lamb.” If the Conservatives hope to be taken seriously they may have to try harder. It was a jubilant night at Jack Astors cafe and bar where Liberals whooped it up. The party retained its seat in  Bourassa. Justin Trudeau made a gracious speech in that riding where he promised Western Canada that the Liberals would be responding to what they saw as renewed interest there. In the Conservative stronghold of  Brandon Souris Larry Maguire barely held the riding against Liberal Rolf Dinsdale. Maguire won by about 400 votes out of more than 27,000 cast. The other Manitoba seat, Provencher, was a cakewalk for Conservative Ted Falk who recorded a thumping 58 per cent of the popular vote. Back in Toronto, commentators John Tory and Steven LeDrew criticized Chrystia Freeland for falling into a personal attack on the prime minister, something they said might better have been left to the House of Commons. Such rhetoric was much in vogue however with MP Olivia Chow who had her anti-Harper script and seldom strayed from it, prompting reporters to “ask me about Harper”. Pundits Tory and LeDrew  had praise for NDP candidate and Toronto Star crusader Linda McQuaig. They found her speech gracious. They predicted a future for this stormy petrel of journalism in the new lower Toronto riding of Toronto Centre if she chooses to seek it after re-distribution.   

Toronto has announced the finalists of the Toronto Garden Awards 2013. The awards recognize residents, businesses and organizations for beautifying their non-public spaces. Most of the green space in Toronto is made up of front and back yards. The finalists for the 2013 awards were winners of local community garden contests during the previous year. In selecting the winners, the judges took into consideration the use of landscape, the condition and overall maintenance of the garden, the use of plant material, colour and texture, and the overall garden’s appeal. The finalist in the traditional residential garden is Lorenzo Ferrara of Strathmore Blvd off of the Danforth. Other finalists are Michael Fitzpatrick and Marilyn Ferely of Heathview Ave in North York for their environmental residential garden, where the homeowner uses environmentally-friendly garden practices and some or most of the lawn area consists of plants and/or ground cover