Updating the “3 sisters” of Rose Park Drive

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On lovely Rose Park Drive in Moore Park between Mt. Pleasant and Welland Ave. these 80 year-old “3 sisters” are receiving loving re-makes and in at least one case, a large extension. Behind the common blue mesh fencing (left) they are 232, 224 and 222 Rose Park. At least one, maybe two of the homes are the work of the architectural firm of Bruce Studio. The construction is by Cornerbrook Construction. The third, 232, has a handsome new extension going on at the rear. These homes date from a time when the lots were seldom less than 180 feet and these might be longer. Very nice and a tip of the hat to the homeowners who are spending big-time to have their dream homes in Moore Park.  

Work underway on the “Towns on Rumsey”

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Work has begun on the town homes to be built on the southeast corner of Millwood Rd. and Rumsey Rd. This shot taken Monday morning by a South Bayview Bulldog contributor shows the new sign proclaiming this to be a Berkshire Axis Development. A backhoe and other equipment is now on site. Another sign  indicates the houses will be built by South Hill Homes. Okay, South Bayview meet South Hill. A nice feature of these homes will their “2 car garages” as announced on the sign. 

Whence NewsTalk 1010 under Bell’s tender hand?

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You don’t have to like the frequently outrageous things that are said on NewsTalk 1010 to understand how this radio station serves Toronto quite well. It’s purpose is to challenge the conventional view of the city on topics as diverse as the Caribbean Carnival to GO Transit. It may have only a minority listenership, but it is a philosophical minority, people who keep alive the need for a society to examine its prevailing shibboleths. Do the empire builders at Bell Media understand this? Do they care? One of the underground mumblings in the trade is that Bell will turn NewsTalk 1010 into an audio repeater of its popular CP24 television service.  As such, the station would be very profitable. A radio station with no staff.  It would presumably play its own commercials inserted into the CP24 schedule. The prospect would be tempting for anyone much less the railroad construction gang at Bell.  This humble blog can only hope that there is a greater sense of public service at Bell HQ than some people think. We are the heart and soul of private enterprise but it has always been clear that the purchase of Astral Media by Bell was not in the public interest and that remains as true today as it ever was, Verizon or no Verizon.  To show otherwise, Bell Media should say as soon as it can that it will leave NewsTalk 1010 alone. 

Survey hints expectation for Target was too high

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Forum Research, a Canadian firm, has done a survey relating to customer satisfaction at large retail stores. The results seem to suggest that Target has not fulfilled the high expectations that people had for it. At the  same time, the company has mounted a very large renovation of stores — some 68 so far,  including the outlet in the East York Town Centre on Overlea Blvd.  Target has also constructed from scratch a supply chain to Canada which includes three distribution centres. The main complaints from consumers are that goods sometimes seem to be in short or erratic supply and prices are higher than those paid in the U.S.  Globe and Mail.

Small town girl completes chilly lake swim

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Ashleigh Beacham, a 15-year-old swimmer from the southwestern Ontario town of Komoka, has swum Lake Ontario from Niagara-on-the-Lake in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Ashleigh touched shore at Marilyn Bell Park just before 8 p.m. Sunday night after being in the chilly waters since 1 a.m.  “It’s just unbelievable to think that a 15-year-old girl would spend two years training for this to send a little five-year-old boy with leukemia to Disney [World],” Elaine Blaney, Beacham’s grandmother, told CP24.  “We’re all so very proud of her.” 

When the chief justice sounds like Nancy Grace

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It’s a sad day when the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada comes off sounding like Nancy Grace. But the bleating of Madame Justice Beverly McLachlin. (inset upper) about access to justice does not become her.  “People just swallow their pain and their loss and live with it, I guess, in some unsatisfactory way feeling they can’t get justice,” she has been complaining. Her remarks come in the context of a report from the Canadian Bar Association about the seriousness of the same problem. All well and good if like the lawyers who authored this report you think that “justice” is like medical care. If our learned friends don’t understand that justice is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder, those seeking it may wish to look for help in the want ads. Which is not to say that people don’t face stress and disappointment because of delays in the court system. To deal with this however it would be well to appreciate how the rising expectations of society have led to an enormous bureaucracy that, in the end, will never grow large enough to meet our expectations. It may be sad. It may be painful. And it’s like looking for love in all the wrong places. The justice system was not created to soothe away sadness and pain. In court there’s almost always a winner and a loser. Much is made of the stress and pain people feel when families break down and they seek redress in the law. Stress and pain begins when fractious humans cannot resolve differences on their own. The author of the report is  Melina Buckley. She says one of biggest concerns is the growing number of people who represent themselves in civil cases. She says this happens because they earn  just enough money so they don’t qualify for legal aid, but they also don’t make enough to pay for a lawyer.   May we say Ms Buckley that increasing the amount of money paid to legal aid lawyers (and they may deserve a raise) is not going to eliminate a class of people who fall between the stools, so to speak. An increase will pay the lawyers better but it won’t help those who are still making just the wrong amount of money to qualify for one. 

Roof-top villa “not quite to code” is dismantled

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The wealthy Beijing doctor who built this fantastic “villa” atop a 26- storey apartment has had to bend to the will of the municipal authorities. The place is not quite to code. However the doctor, who is interviewed on the video at left, says some of that great mound of fake rock and greenery, is legal. He is making changes to parts that may not have approval. Stayed tuned. Maybe a James Bond villain will move in. 

What’s ahead for the girl from Wadena, Sask.

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It has been a kind of sainted life for Pamela Wallin. She started out as just a girl from the small town of Wadena, Saskatchewan (population 1300). She broke into journalism at the tender age of 21 when she was hired by CBC Radio. Along the way,  Ms Wallin worked for CTV, the Toronto Star and in 1992 was famously hired to try to fill the void left by the death of Barbara Frum. It might be said it was here that the first bit of rain began to fall in Ms Wallin’s professional life. Her efforts did not fare too well and in 1995 she was replaced by Hanna Gartner and dismissed. But she bounced back, starting her own production company which created a show called Pamela Wallin Live. It found a spot on the CBC and she continued with this work for four years. Subsequently she moved on to cable-TV and in 2000 hosted CTV’s Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?  Her first political opportunity came in 2002 when Jean Chretien appointed her counsel general to New York,  a very plum position. Her stature in the public eye continued to grow with the flattering elevation in 2007 to the chancellorship of the University of Guelph. Along the way, Ms. Wallin was made an honorary colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The girl from Wadena also acquired several important board memberships and in 2009 was appointed to the Senate by Stephen Harper. Now, in what must seem to her as quite a fall from high, she is largely in disgrace as accusations of irregular expenses from her tenure as a senator are made public. The CBC has this quite good review of what’s ahead of her now. 

St. Catharines street cameras a resounding asset

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People may wonder if we will ever see surveillance cameras on South Bayview. The city is seemingly paralyzed on the issue, perhaps influenced by the odd thinking of some who believe authorities are spying on them. Paranoia. The news from St. Catharines tells a different story where the community is marking a productive year following the placement of 26-closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) on utility poles at downtown locations last August. It was a move roundly endorsed by the business associations and police. Predictably, it has proven what is already known in towns and cities all around the world. CCTV cameras make the streets safer for everyone. And, as the St. Catharines police found recently, they make it much easier to administer policing. Did the cyclist or the driver run a red light? The cameras tell all.  It is a such sensible and benign contribution to our general well-being. Children, seniors, businesses — just think of the people who are safer with CCTV. When will neighborhoods like ours benefit from this useful and relatively inexpensive form of protection?  

Housing continues to sell briskly say realtors

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These two Edwardian beauties on Roxborough Ave. are getting full makeovers as new owners move in. As a local resident told us: “The first thing people want to do is take them all apart.” This activity seems to be in keeping with a brisk trade in Canada’s re-sale housing market. Homes sold well in both Vancouver and Toronto in July with prices continuing to rise. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) takes this to mean that the market overall is beginning to stabilize after a decline earlier in the year. CREA says resales edged up 0.2% from June on a seasonally adjusted basis and up 9.4% from July 2012, when tighter rules put the brakes on lenders and buyers. Despite the recent uptick, the total of 284,865 homes that traded hands in the first seven months of 2013, is 4.6% fewer than the corresponding period last year. “Canadian home sales have staged a bit of a recovery in recent months after having declined in the wake of tightened mortgage rules and lending guidelines last year, but the numbers for July suggest that national activity is levelling off at what might best be described as average levels,” said Gregory Klump, the real estate association’s chief economist. The national average home price was $382,373, 8.4% higher than a year ago, although Klump said that was mostly because sales were concentrated in expensive major markets. Excluding sales in Toronto and Vancouver, the national average price would have gone up only half as much and sales volume would have been down from June, the CREA report notes. Pictures courtesy Yonge and Roxborough News

Hazel and Rob at the Great Salmon Derby

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Here are three captures from the Canadian Sportfishing video of Hazel McCallion working to land a 17-pound salmon during the Great Ontario Salmon Derby on Lake Ontario near the Credit River a few days ago. The story is told by all  that  Mayor Ford saved the 92-year-old Mrs McCallion from being thrown into the lake as the salmon struggled to escape. On the video, which may be seen in the column at the left or on YouTube, the Mississauga mayor is buffeted about as Mr. Ford grips her in a bear hug and anchors the fish landing with his weight. At the  left, a look of fierce determination burns in the face of  Mrs. McCallion  (this is not unknown). Centre, she gets a peek at her pending catch in the water and then begins to reel it in furiously. Right, having offered Mr. Ford a loud “Thank you Rob”  she receives a peck on the cheek from the Toronto chief magistrate. They say the Chinook was very tasty. 

Oh to live in “Casa Loma” or “Mt. Pleasant East”

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We’ll give the dreamers at Toronto Life credit for admitting that their ranking of the city’s neighborhoods was somewhat unscientific. In fact, once you get past the Rosedale blubber it was a lot like throwing darts at a map. Davisville Village and Leaside appear to have been lumped together in “Mount Pleasant East”  Forest Hill is called “Casa Loma”. What city are these guys living in? The South Bayview Bulldog’s scientific method for defining Toronto’s best neighborhoods is to stretch a long string from the centre of the intersection of Millwood Rd. and Bayview Ave. Once you go past Avenue Rd. heading west, you drop off the map. Don’t go there. Same thing with similar results in the other directions based on your agility at the edges. Fill in the blanks. Mainly understand that TL knows that everyone can relate to this stuff.  If they could publish the household income of every family on Airdrie Dr, they would do it. Buy a magazine lady?

Top 10 neighborhoods
1. Rosedale-Moore Park
2. Banbury-Don Mills
3. High Park-Swansea
4. Mount Pleasant West
5. High Park North
6. Wexford-Maryvale
7. Mount Pleasant East
8. The Beaches
9. Mimico
10. Casa Loma (Forest Hill)  

Bottom 10 neighborhoods:
131. Ionview
132. Elms-Old Rexdale
133. Brookhaven-Amesbury
134. Oakridge
135. Maple Leaf
136. Clanton Park
137. Rustic
138. Beechborough-Greenbrook
139. Etobicoke West Mall
140. Mount Dennis