As spinoff hype related to the Eglinton Scarboro LRT, this article is about average. And no doubt someday, the LRT will be completed and the condominiums now planned or under construction will reward their owners with excellent location and increased value. But the hype is intended to generate speculative dollars now. You decide. Epoch Times
Jaye Robinson removed from City Executive
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| Jaye Robinson |
Mayor Ford has removed Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West) from City Executive Committee. Ms. Robinson, a popular centrist had been the chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee. Within recent days she has said Mr. Ford should take a leave of absence to deal with whatever it is that is troubling him. Her once firm relationship with the mayor has frayed over a number of months and was particularly damaged by the Toronto Star story saying he was seen on video smoking crack cocaine. Tonight the Star focused almost entirely on the absence of women on the Executive Committee now that Ms. Robinson is gone. Jaye Robinson will be replaced by Anthony Perruzza (Ward 8, York West) on the executive. He has NDP connections. Ford also downgraded the position of Paul Ainslie (Ward 43 Scarborough East).
Feds to end pay for “saved” sick days
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The federal government has decided to progressively eliminate that 1970s sweetheart arrangement where employees got paid big time at retirement for sick days they didn’t use. To a lot of people the idea is irrational. They say it was done because employers thought people would take less time off if they knew they were going to be paid for the time they didn’t use. Maybe. But it seems certain at some point this bonus was also a heck of an incentive just to get the contract signed. The Treasury Board President Tony Clement calls the current system “archaic” and says it is a “dinosaur of disability management.” “The average…worker uses 18.2 days of paid and unpaid sick leave per year. When you add in the weekends that’s almost a month of the year off, and that is two-and-a-half times the private sector rate of 6.7 days.”
Christine Day will resign as boss at Lululemon
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“Black widow” guilty of poisoning new husband
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The Cape Breton ‘Black Widow’ has pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance and failing to provide the necessities of life to her new husband. In other words, she poisoned him and didn’t help him when he suffered from the effect of the poison. This lady, 78-year-old Melissa Ann Shepard entered the pleas in Nova Scotia Supreme Court today (Monday, June 9, 2013). Previous post tells story of unfortunate guys who made Melissa Ann their wife.
Costco making plans to open on Overlea Blvd.
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As rumoured earlier this year, Costco Wholesale Corporation, the famous membership-only warehouse club, has plans to open a store on property now owned by Coca Cola on Overlea Blvd. The plans have become public with the announcement of a meeting on Wednesday June 19, 2013 organized by John Parker (Ward 26) and comments made to the South Bayview Bulldog by Abbas Kolia, head of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association. The meeting is described in the notice from Mr. Parker’s office as an opportunity to discuss “possible redevelopment” of the Coca Cola site. It was vacated this spring by the soft drink maker to move downtown to new headquarters on King Street East. In the meantime, preservationists have persuaded the city to make the 1965 buildings part of the “heritage inventory”. This means the site is effectively frozen until and unless agreement is reached to change it. This move is seen less as an effort to save anything historic or culturally valuable at the site than to control what any new owner may wish to do. The Coke office building is frequently said to exhibit “Mad Men” (Madison Avenue) characteristics in the Mid-Century Modern style. Architects will appreciate this. As to Costco, it is said unofficially by Mr Kolia that the discussion so far suggests a new store with employment for as many as 150 people from Ward 26 (which includes Thorncliffe Park). One hundred of these are said to be planned as permanent jobs, 50 are said to be part time. The meeting is scheduled at the Jenner Jean-Marie Centre at 48 Thorncliffe Park Drive between 7 and 9 p.m. on June 19, 2013.
Garden Court tenants public meeting June 20
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Tenants of the Garden Court Apartments at 1477 Bayview Ave. are inviting local supporters to come to a meeting on Thursday June 20, 2013 to help them resist the landlord’s application to turn the rental properties into condominiums. The meeting will be held at St. Cuthbert’s Church, 1399 Bayview and begin at 7 p.m. The tenants say they need support from the community to stop the “Rental Housing Condo Conversion and Demolition Application For Garden Court Apartments”.
Hero or traitor? Tech leaker hiding in Hong Kong
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| Edward Snowden |
Is Edward Snowden a hero or a misguided traitor? The young American is just 29 and has so far led what must be called a rather undistinguished life. Fresh as this story is, millions will already have made their judgement on the former employee of the CIA. Last month, Snowden gathered up secret documents at the restricted premises of his current employer in Hawaii and communicated them to the Guardian newspaper in Britain. The paper’s story revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency was keeping track of phone calls and Internet traffic of all the customers of the wireless giant Verizon. It has since been revealed that the NSA monitors effectively all such transmissions in the U.S. The Government says the NSA does not listen to phone calls or record them. The purpose of the program appears to be to identify interaction between numbers that are known to be used by terrorists and others who may be communicating with them. A warrant is required to listen to any phone conversation. The video embedded on the special page called Snowden contains a sympathetic interview with Mr. Snowden by Guardian reporters. Tonight, it appears that the NSA is preparing to charge Mr Snowden with treason. If this is done, he will have to be extradited from China. In the video, Mr. Snowden says, “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant. I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in.” He added: “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” The U.S. Congress had been briefed on this program for some time. Video
Fewer, safer gas stations is a good thing
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| White Rose station in Toronto |
The completion of the renovation at the Petro Canada station at Moore and Bayview Ave. recalls just how useful this location is to local drivers. And an article by Jill McIntosh in Autos by Sympatico reminds us that the day of a gas station on every corner is long over. Some may remember when there were no fewer than nine stations on Bayview between Eglnton Ave and Moore. The most recent disappearances were at the corner of Millwood Rd and Bayview where a Cities Service, Esso and Shell station were all torn down in slightly more than a decade around the 1980s. Today there is but one, the Bayview-Moore Petro Canada. This is not a bad thing however as service stations, no matter how their owners may try, are seldom things of beauty.
“Pop-up” symphonic quartet on delayed jetliner
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Occasionally the uncertainties of travel deliver a welcome surprise. So it was in recent days for travellers on a Chinese flight from Beijing to Macao. It was stuck on the tarmac for three hours when members of the Philadelphia Orchestra organized an impromptu concert. The amateur video here shows this enchanting interlude. The orchestra’s nine member delegation was part of the 2013 Residency & Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China. It is 40 years since the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first American symphony to perform in China. Their visit was made possible by the historic diplomacy of Richard Nixon to the then-isolated land a few months earlier. This time a quartet of musicians decided to provide an on-board “pop up” performance. They played a selection from Dvorak’s “American” string quartet. Nixon incidentally is remembered fondly in China even today for his decision to reach out to the Communist government. Enjoy the concert. Don’t try to count the smartphones, cameras and blinking tablets etc. Video
Ford visits Thorncliffe to combat “cash grabs”
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Mayor Ford met with the members of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association Friday afternoon. A release from the association says that Mr. Ford listened to what appears to be long-standing complaints from the tenants including such things as extra payment for their conditioning, light bulbs, fuses and visitor parking. The buildings are privately owned. The association president Abbas Kolia calls the charges “cash grabs”. The release also says there are security issues and delays for what should be routine maintenance. Storage lockers for tenants have been removed without consultation. “Tenants deserve better and we thank Mayor Ford for his time and support,” added Mr. Kolia. “We went to the mayor because we don’t think there is anyone else at city hall that can help us.” This meeting, and others being held by the mayor, seem to go to his strategy of addressing his core supporters both as good government and an investment against the next election. Today (Saturday, June 8) Thorncliffe tenants demonstrated outside buildings that they are poorly maintained and not clean. They are threatening a “rent boycott” in which rent is not paid to the landlord but into some type of trust. Busy Cody Spring Fair climbs to new heights
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The Maurice Cody Spring Fair was mobbed today with kids, parents, bargain hunters and the plain curious. The flea market and ticket selling got underway at 10.30 and the Cleveland Street playground was still jumping by mid-afternoon. The event ended at 3.30 p.m. One of the most striking attractions was the climbing challenge in which harnessed kids got to clamber up the side of what appeared to a replica of an Easter Island statue, but maybe not. In the days to come, we hope to update the events of the Cody Spring Fair.