What’s the condition of your home condition?

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24 Sussex Drive
Sales of Toronto new condos are down 18 per cent in the second quarter over last year. Does anybody still want those glass balconied boxes high above the Gardiner Expressway? Gee whiz. Second, because the federal government seems to think that the housing market (that’s the one with a front lawn) is recovering pretty smartly. CMHC, the Crown corporation that insures mortgages will limit banks to $350 million of “new guarantees” under the National Housing Act mortgage program.  Let’s see how much that worries the market. We’re thinking South Bayview mud is still looking pretty pricey.  And lastly, the Ottawa media snoops are just scandalized that the prime minister doesn’t want to move his family out of 24 Sussex Drive so the old home can get an energy fix.  The place has 34 rooms and is 150 years old. It is said to be a mite drafty in the winter. The media is so thoughtful. Gary Marr in the Financial Post notes the Harpers could live in the government home at Harrington Lake. Of course Harrington is at least half an hour by car from Ottawa while 24 Sussex is two minutes from the House of Commons.  Hey listen, make them pitch a tent by the tulip beds on Parliament Hill. 

Megantic clean up a body blow for MMA

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The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway is filing for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada. It is the most unsurprising outcome of the Lac-Megantic disaster in which an MMA tanker train crashed and burned killing 47 people and incinerating a large part of the community. The MMA was formed from orphan-like rail lines which themselves were facing bankruptcy. It was and remains a case of the small railways being super-vulnerable to the risks of business. The Lac-Megantic catastrophe was a  business body blow by any measure. The CNR would gulp at the clean-up costs.    

Taste of the Danforth closures this weekend

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Toronto police are warning that there will be many closures on roads leading to the Danforth between Broadview Ave. and Jones Ave. this weekend.  From Friday, August 9, 2013 to Sunday, August 11, 2013 the Danforth BIA will run the 2013 Taste of the Danforth. Danforth Ave. will be closed but so will streets leading to the Danforth from intersections 30 metres north and south. The popular event will proceed regardless of weather.

Noisy and expensive — but is it all necessary?

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Things at King St. and Spadina Ave. were pretty awful Tuesday night and they will be that way for at least two weeks. The replacement of 15-year-old streetcar tracks in the complex pattern of rails on this corner is a noisy, dirty and expensive job. The roads are closed, traffic is a nightmare and people who work in the area are looking for ear-plugs. If you own one of those lovely condos on King — well — good luck sleeping. The work goes on at all hours. You will have seen this on the television news. It is the price we pay for what many people call the heart and soul of Toronto — the streetcar. Us? We’re agnostic when comes to the Gospel of the Steetcar. Just saying. 

Matlow removes signs for unapproved condos

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Josh Matlow (Ward 22)  is angry about condo developers who advertise and take deposits on units in buildings that have not been approved for construction. He has decided to act personally, removing sidewalk signs and tweeting the developer to come and pick them up. He calls the signs illegal. His complaint seems reasonable. Potential buyers are misled into thinking they are on their way to a new home. It is legal for developers to take a deposit and they’re required give it back if the development is not approved. The developer apparently has no obligation to tell the potential buyer about such pending approval at the time the deposit in made. The CBC has published a series of pictures tweeted by Mr. Matlow including the one inset. The sidewalk sign has been closed and placed behind a mailbox. CBC.  

The cozy game of Banksy’s secret identity

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By Banksy but not him
Tim Alaminciak has written about the secretive British graffiti artist known as Banksy. He apparently made a visit to Toronto in 2010 during which it is said he painted seven wall pieces, two of which survive. Banksy has an enormous Wikipedia entry and his work has fetched millions of dollars. Or at least it is said to have been Banksy’s work. It seems that it would be impossible to know if these valuable renderings are by some artist who is nick-named Banksy, or the output of a legion of people who have assumed the identity for business purposes. In all the circumstances, it is reasonable to ask if such a person really exists. The media everywhere seems to enjoy the intrigue so much it hardly wants to know. Mr. Alaminciak has zero curiosity. “Banksy is an international artist based in England whose true identity is unknown,” he says with a straight face. But can anyone believe that? Mr. Alaminciak may not know his name but it defies belief that this talented artist is not known to many members of the arts media.  We say that  Banksy no longer has any business demanding this type of secrecy. He is too important and there is too much riding on what he does for it to continue. He deserves his privacy but he should no longer be permitted to do business like a phantom. Which is what any journalist might tell you.  Toronto Star  Wikipedia

Amazon founder Bezos buys Washington Post

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U.S. newspaper artistocracy is to be sold to a kid from New Mexico who made it big on the web. Jeff Bezos, controlling owner of Amazon will purchase the Washington Post. The paper’s controlling owners, the Graham family, has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper for $250 million in cash. Bezos gets the The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and chief executive Donald Graham released letters to staff late today. Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, still-undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter. Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos (pronounced beɪzəs was born on January 12, 1964.

“At home” on Mt Pleasant north of Moore

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This homeless man was “at home” on Mt Pleasant Rd just north of Moore Ave. on the Monday holiday. He was sleeping on public grass just outside the cemetery fence. His belongings were piled on a wheeled dolly of some type indicating he is normally on the move in the nice weather. The presence of homeless persons in or near a cemetery is not very common in South Bayview but not unknown by any means. The report of  the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration released in July indicated the total homeless was 5,219. The information released last week was an interim statement. A full report is expected in September. Many homeless people say they prefer to be outside during the good weather. But 93% told city workers that they would like to have a home. Lifestyle can subvert that desire it seems. One woman said her shelter home was too far away from downtown streets where she prefers to drink wine with her friends. One index to look for in the full report will be that of seniors, defined as those over 61. The current preliminary data indicates that seniors make up 10 percent of the total which means there might be something in excess of 500 such seniors. This is said to be a doubling (from about 250) since 2009.

Mom dons burka to return daughter from Egypt

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Mona and mother

Good holiday Monday, South Bayview. A story that is both harrowing and heart-warming is breaking this lovely mid-summer day. It tells of a British mother who ventured all the way to Egypt to seize and return her three year old daughter Mona. The child had been abducted and taken to Egypt by her arab father. The mother, Alex Abou-El-Ella, 29, of Slough, Berkshire, enlisted the aid of a Scottish woman, now known as Dony al-Nahi, who has made a career of helping mothers of children who have been similarly spirited back to Arabia by their fathers. Ms al-Nahi is an author and is known in the media as “Jane Bond” for her exploits. The perilous rescue effort saw Ms. Abou-El-Ella dressing in full Muslim garb. She ignored warnings from the U-K Foreign Office that her attempts might go very wrong. The child had already been gone two years. With the help of Jane Bond and her trusted Egyptian contacts the mother found and laid in wait at a nursery in Cairo where Mona was enrolled. Early one morning, Mona appeared with an aunt and a boy just before 9 a.m. The desperate mother acted, leaping out the car and holding the long black dress so she could move, Ms. Abou-El-Ella felt herself  walking faster and faster. “I saw Mona’s hand a few metres away from me,’ she said. ‘So I grabbed her, pulled her into my arms and the lady looked at my face but all she could see were my eyes.”  Embracing her child tightly, she turned and fled as the other woman began to scream. Stumbling in her burka, the mother had only seconds to bundle the astonished child into the back seat of her car. There was further panic when she found the door locked. Jane Bond clambered over the seat to let her in. The confused child cried and referred to her aunt as “mother”. But after a few minutes of explanation she asked Alex Abou-El-Ella: “Are you my mum?”  It was necessary to bribe officials at the airport but the mother and child are now back safe in the United Kingdom. As of this morning,  it is 12 days since the pair arrived in their hometown of Slough.  Mona has not seen her mother for two years so they have had much catching up to do. But as the picture shows, their natural relationship is healing well.   Mailonline

Montreal mom fined $219 over exact-change rule

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Pauline Tantost and Xavier
A Montreal area woman has been given a $219 fine because she was unable to pay the fare for herself and her 2-year-old son with exact change. Pauline Tantost, 24, had been at Montreal Children’s Hospital with the toddler, who was suffering an infection. It was 10 p.m. She offered the bus driver a $5 bill for the $3 fare but he refused it. Ms Tantost sat down on the bus but within a few minutes two inspectors from the transit company, Société de transport de Montreal (STM) boarded the bus and in what other passengers call a targeting of the young mother gave her a ticket for $219.  Montreal media were pointing out this weekend that more than a week after the incident the STM had not interviewed the bus driver involved in the matter. Now they have promised to look into the case.

Pictures from across our midtown home

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Random pictures from our resources: Upper left, it’s an awful way to treat a perfectly good Toyota. But this is what happens when big bruising trees come down on Roxborough St. W. Upper right, a happy quintet brings some life to the corner of Bay and Bloor Streets. Lower left, Calgary-based Husky Petroleum pumps similar to those just installed at the station on Laird Drive tout “Mother Nature’s Fuel”. Those Albertans are cheeky! And high above Eglinton Ave. four tethered fellows try to figure how to safely bring down those heavy metal panels at sign-changing time. Top pictures and more may be seen at our sister blog Yonge and Roxborough News.