Rocca onside as Longo’s takes over Zamboni ads

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Patrick Rocca tells The South Bayview Bulldog that he is a firm and continuing supporter of the the Leaside arena, personally and financially, as he has been for many years.  Patrick says the arena is part of  the fabric of the community. He made these remarks in the wake of a report from the Toronto ombudsman over the transfer of the right to advertise on the arena’s Zamboni, a right Rocca had had for many years. Longo Brothers (Longo’s) has been granted this right at a much higher rate and there were questions about the precise nature of their offer.  The arena board is said to have apologized to Rocca. The matter is described in a report by Paul Moloney of the Toronto Star

Values on Park Lane Circle seem down a bit

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It’s hard to feel sorry for a bank, but the saga of 40 Park Lane Circle in the Bridle Path makes you understand some of their worst moments. This country estate in the city started out for sale by the owner in the Spring of 2010 for $23.8 million.  Time went by and in December of the same year the price came down to $19.8 million. Speed over to early 2011 and the price is down to $17.5 million. Heading into Christmas 2011, 40 Park Lane Circle — all 18 rooms and the lot at 269 by 459 feet — could be had for a mere $15.9 million. Early this year the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank dropped the price to $13,980,000. In October 2013, HSBC threw in the towel and said this castle is going to auction — what’s your best offer. Mind, HBSC has faced worse issues. In 2012 it was revealed that staff at its global subsidiaries had laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states. The bank said it was very sorry about all that

Day Eight of the Crisis at Toronto City Hall

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Thursday was Day Eight of the Rob Ford crisis — eight days since Police Chief Blair’s news conference releasing court documents on the surveillance of the mayor and Alexander Lisi. The day was marked by further appeals and pleadings for Mr. Ford to step down temporarily or to resign.
  • The day began with the Toronto Star  posting a previously unknown  video showing the mayor in a drunken rant. It can be seen here. It is both comic and fearful — full of threats against someone or more than one individual. It has only two possible points of reference. Mr. Ford says “Randy walks…”  Shortly after, as the mayor insists he is going to kill someone, the voice of an unidentified person says by way of warning: “These kids are pros buddy.”
  • Councillor George Mammoliti announced that this video had prompted him to ask the mayor to step down to deal with his problem.
  • The mayor commented on the video but found himself largely at a loss for words. He said he had been inebriated but he did not answer questions about who he was threatening or to whom he was talking.
  •  Finance Minister Flaherty found himself choked up as he tried to deal with the mayor’s situation. Mr. Flaherty is a friend of the family from the time he served in the Mike Harris government with Mr.Ford’s father. 
  • In the afternoon,. Kevin Donovan, the Star reporter who has been in the forefront of the Ford investigation, said the paper had paid $5,000 for the video. Donovan said it had been recorded in the home of a businessman who was a supporter of Mr.Ford”s. But he provided no specifics nor did he name the businessman or the source of the video. 
  • Still later, Stephen LeDrew was invited to the home of Mr. Ford’s mother where he interviewed both Mrs. Ford and her daughter, the mayor’s sister, Kathy Mrs. Ford said of her son “maybe he does need some help in counselling”. She said if he did this he would stay “on the straight and narrow.”  It seemed like a mother’s charitable view of her son.  His sister called the mayor’s associates “sickening”  But they both insisted he did not need “rehabilitation.” Interview
  • Finally, the Toronto Sun saysa former common-law spouse of Kathy Ford who vowed to expose the Ford family to the media was savagely beaten in jail because he was a “bother” to the Toronto mayor, a judge told his sentencing hearing. Justice Paul French said Scott MacIntyre “was viciously attacked and severely beaten” by inmates on March 12, 2012, in a “jail-house justice” episode..  

McDonalds to be demolished for Bayview LRT

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A well-attended meeting at Northern Secondary School Thursday night saw pictures and diagrams showing the shape and location of LRT stations between Avenue Road and Bayview Avenue. Metrolinx personnel answered questions. The Bayview-Eglinton station will be built on the site of the McDonalds restaurant which overlooks Howard Talbot Park and the Sunnybrook Plaza (inset top). Kitty-corner from main station (inset bottom) will be a feeder entry station in the Metro parking lot on the northwest corner. Unlike stations in heavier traffic zones, the Bayview station will have only two entrances, one in the main station on the southeast corner and one in the entry station in the Metro lot. Travellers leaving Sunnybrook Plaza will have to cross either Bayview Ave. or Eglinton Ave. to get the LRT.  A nice bit of news on the northwest corner of Mt Pleasant and Eglinton where, according to Metrolinx information, the facade of the old building will be retained. Right now, that building houses a busy Second Cup franchise. At Yonge and Eglinton, the LRT will disappear from surface level because it has to be built under the Eglinton station of the Yonge line. Presumably entry will be made via the Yonge station. Over at Avenue Rd and Eglinton, the Mac’s store has been expropriated and that space will accommodate the LRT station. A secondary entrance to the station, which will run east from Avenue Rd. will be made through a converted storefront on the north side of Eglinton.

All welcome at re-dedication of LMCG tommorrow

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Ray White Board Chair of the Leaside Memorial Community Gardens invites all to join him tomorrow (November 8, 2013) for the service of rededication of the arena. As Mr. White points out, Leaside Memorial Community Gardens was originally built as a memorial to the 17 men from the Town of Leaside who died during WWII. A memorial plaque, that was originally dedicated near the entrance to the William Lea Room has been refurbished and remounted on the new building near the flag poles. Members of the Royal Canadian Legion Todmorden Branch 10 will participate along with a bugler from HMCS York and piper to play the last post, lament and reveille. Mr. White said the board is especially pleased that the children of St. Anselm’s School will be participating in the service. The  school choir will be singing and students will read the names of the men from Leaside who were killed during the war. Rev. Beth Benson from St. Cuthbert’s Church in Leaside will officiate. Elected officials and members from three of the families of the servicemen killed will be in attendance. There service will start promptly at 1 p.m. near the flagpoles. 

Yeh! Yogurt on Bayview closes — open just a year

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The yogurt bar known as Yeh! Yogurt at 1617 Bayview Ave. has closed. It is a sad end for a franchise which started with much promise, opening on a warm September 1, 2013. Today brown paper covers the windows and a for rent sign is on the window. This building is the north half of the double store belonging to the the owners of the Tru Value Hardware outlet at 1615. That portion of the store is also for rent,. 

Toronto Star pays $5,000 for 2nd Ford video

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The Toronto Star has paid $5,000 to unidentified parties for a video which shows Rob Ford in a fit of drunken bravado ranting against an unknown individual who is not present.  The location of this incident has not been revealed and it isn’t clear what anyone at the Star knows about it. The newspaper took the precaution of recording the transaction but will not release that video. As to the video purchased by the newspaper showing Mr. Ford, it appears to have been taken without the knowledge of the mayor from a low position. The deputy mayor, Norm Kelly, said it  looked like “a set-up.” It is very early in the public phase of this video and there may be some as yet unknown reason why the newspaper is keeping secret the circumstances under which it was purchased, and from whom. Mayor Ford told reporters that the video was”very embarrassing.” He said he was “extremely, extremely inebriated” when the video was taken. CP24 has broadcast a transcript of the mayor’s remarks on the tape. He is said to be denouncing someone with whom he has an issue. The mayor says “Ill ‘kill him” among other threatening things however the sense of Mr. Ford on the video is that his words are bravado.  

Now U.S. TV brains try to explain Rob Ford

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It’s come to this. Bill O’Reilly and Piers Morgan sitting with psychoanalysts and others to try to explain Rob Ford.  Some will consider it funnier than late night comedy. Surely the only thing left now is a question for Jay Carney as to what the president will do about the mayor of Toronto. The migration of our mayor’s pig-headed behavior to “analysis” at Fox and CNN was low on enlightenment. It centred mainly on the puzzlement of those at these all-news juggernauts to understand how such a thing could happen. “Can’t they get rid of him?” Bill O’Reilly asked reporter Martha McCallum. It did cause a cringe to hear Piers Morgan remark that one doesn’t often hear a man say he smoked crack cocaine while in a drunken stupor.  This is a vulgarity some will say is uniquely probable from the mouth of our embattled chief magistrate. Listen, maybe the president does have a solution.  It would be a nice break from the Obamacare shambles.

Three news women among those laid off at Rogers

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Three of Toronto’s best-known women broadcasters are among the 94 people laid off by Rogers Media this week. Left, Barb DiGiulio is a veteran of 22 years with Rogers. Her inside reporting for the Fan 590 earned her the station’s nickname Barb Wired. Also getting a pink slip was 680 News entertainment reporter Gloria Martin (centre) and news reporter Ann Doose (right).  Things must be tough at the Rogers broadcast shops. In May, Rogers made similar cuts, laying off more than 60 workers across its media operations and shutting down its 24-hour breaking news station CityNews Channel in Toronto. Recently, Rogers announced a digital all-you-can-read subscription service called Next Issue Canada that allows subscribers to pay a monthly fee for access to new and old issues of its magazines.  

Day Seven of the Crisis at Toronto City Hall

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Wednesday was Day Seven of the Crisis at City Hall. That’s our short hand for the collision between Mayor Ford with the entirety of city council since the revelations contained in Chief Bill Blair’s news conference on Thursday, October 31, 2013. Our story resumes following Mr. Ford’s admission Tuesday that he had smoked crack cocaine. 

  • Ford loyalists Frances Nunziata and Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly ask the mayor take a leave of absence. He refuses.
  • John Parker (Ward 26) expresses concern about the legal basis for the John Filion motion which would clip some of the mayor’s powers. 
  • In Ottawa, the Justice Minister, Peter MacKay and both opposition leaders ask the mayor to step down and get help.
  • A demonstration in Nathan Phillips Square calls for the Mr. Ford’s resignation
  • Premier Kathleen Wynne again expresses concern but says city councillors have “certain tools” at their disposal to deal with the crisis.
  • The Mayor’s brother, Doug, is uncharacteristically silent. It is said he was blind-sided by his brother’s crack smoking admission. 
  • Brooks Barnett, a policy adviser to the mayor resigned. He apparently left on his own advice. 
  • Finally, the Police Chief’s charity gala has gone ahead at the Liberty Grand event centre without the presence of the mayor. It just seemed a good idea for him to stay away. Organizers also pulled the mayor’s silent auction prize of dinner with Mr.Ford off the table.  

Haywire Wal-Mart website gives crazy low prices

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Wal-Mart sold kayaks for about $11 and computer monitors for about $9 on its website Wednesday. It appears the online sales site had a fit of technical  price-cutting that was totally unauthorized. The online store has now been shut down. Wal-Mart says that an error caused a number of products to be priced absurdly low or high. “We’re working quickly to correct” it, said Ravi Jariwala, a Wal-Mart spokesman, adding that there would be “intermittent site unavailability” until then. Jariwala said the company hasn’t decided whether it will honor prices for items already ordered.