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| 87 Airdrie today and (inset) original |
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| Proposed levy on bank accounts |
Banks stocks in North America were under moderate pressure today in the wake of the stunning proposal by EU leaders to tax bank accounts in Cyprus as part of a bailout program to save the island country from bankruptcy. Across Europe, depositors recoiled at the idea and there were fears of runs on the bank — the panic-stricken withdrawal of funds that can cause the economy to collapse. The surprise decision by Euro zone leaders to part-fund a bailout of Cyprus by taxing bank deposits is a totally unforeseen and for most people incomprehensible seizure. Some speculation ran to the amount of Russian mafia money stashed in Cypriot banks. The EU struck the deal on Saturday to hand Cyprus rescue loans worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion), but defied warnings – including from the European Central Bank – and imposed a levy that would see those with cash in the island’s banks lose 6.75 percent on deposits under 100,000 euros and 9.9 percent for deposits over 100,000 euros. Parliament in Cyprus put off a vote on the measure – which has shaken depositors’ confidence in banks across the continent Those who favour the plan point to the “unique” conditions in Cyprus where the banks have made loans totalling more than eight times the country’s national output.
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| University-Rosedale |
The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission has re-made the political map of South Bayview. The commission’s final report released last week pushes the proposed western boundary of Don Valley West all the way over to Mt Pleasant Rd. Don Valley West had been slated to vanish in a merger with Don Valley North in earlier proposals made public last fall. But now the riding, held by John Carmichael for the Conservatives, lives on and no longer does it stop at Bayview Ave. Bayview has been the traditional dividing line for everything for more than 100 years. To the south, the riding of Toronto-Centre has been shrunk to a rectangle generally south of Bloor Street. It appears one of the considerations was to maintain the integrity of the Gay and Lesbian Village. Most dramatic is the entirely new riding of University-Rosedale. It cobbles together Bennington Heights, Moore Park, Rosedale, Yorkville, Queen’s Park, the University Ave. hospital alley, Chinatown and points west all the way over to Ossington Ave. It is an extraordinary melange of neighborhoods, businesses and peoples. There’s no way of guessing what type of consensus on anything may come out of this new riding. Earlier plans to create a riding to be known as Mt. Pleasant were shelved. It would have placed Bennington Heights, Moore Park and Rosedale together with a chunk of St. Paul’s in one riding. Resistance to this was heavily organized and led by St. Paul’s incumbent Carolyn Bennett. The redistribution is supposed to be effective for the 2015 federal general election but if events follow tradition, boundaries for both provincial and municipal districts would be made to conform with the federal boundaries. It is easy to imagine the distress or pleasure this might generate as candidates ponder whether the changes will help or hurt their chances. Maps and boundaries street by street.
School Board trustee Irene Atkinson is in critical condition in hospital after a fire in her west-end home Saturday night. The news has shaken educational circles where Ms Atkinson has been an important influence for many years. The two-alarm blaze is said by firefighters to have started in the kitchen of the house on High Park Blvd.around 7 pm. Ms. Atkinson was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, while another woman had to be rescued off the third-floor balcony because the smoke was too thick to come down through the house. She was treated on scene. There was very little damage beyond the room where the fire started, fire sources said. There are comments of good wishes in the Toronto Star: “On behalf of all trustees, staff and students at the TDSB, our thoughts are with Irene and her family at this difficult time,” TDSB director Donna Quan and vice-chair Shaun Chen wrote in an email, on behalf of chair Chris Bolton. Mayor Rob Ford also sent his good wishes. “Our thoughts are with Trustee Irene Atkinson. We wish her a speedy recovery.” Story
An application to construct a four-storey building at 416 Eglinton Ave. W will be heard Wednesday March 20, 2013 at 10 a.m. at North York Council 5100 Yonge Street. It is expected to be a lively meeting. Sources say the plan involves adding floors to the present structure, which was built as a grocery store in 1936 at the same time as the Eglinton Theatre. 416 Eglinton sits at the T junction of Elmsthorpe Ave and Eglinton. There is a four storey residential building which also houses a Bank of Montreal branch on the southwest corner of that intersection at present. Although a variance from the present city plan will be required, it may be tempting for councillors to support the request. There is much talk now of “building up” Eglinton Ave. in keeping with the arrival of an LRT. 
The CRTC has told Corus Entertainment to fall in line with an educational mandate for OWN Canada, or face losing its broadcast license. That call came via a rarely-issued mandatory order from the regulator to ensure that the Canadian version of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network complies with an original 1996 licensing mandate for Canadian Learning Television to “provide formal and informal educational programming and learning opportunities” that generally focus on adult education. Corus subsequently rebranded CLT as Viva and then as OWN Canada, to bring Oprah Winfrey’s female-skewing network to Canada. Corus issued a statement in the wake of the CRTC decision indicating it was “pleased” with the decision to allow OWN Canada to continue operating as a category A service. “Corus will work within the guidelines set out by the commission and will ensure that OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada) continues to provide a compelling service to its viewers,” the broadcaster said. Corus gave no details on how it will meet the guidelines and monitoring requirements imposed on it. Today’s events follow a December 2012 hearing where Corus argued it was acting in good faith and complying with the educational mandate of OWN Canada, and the CRTC finally ruling it remains in non-compliance with the nature of service definition.
The boarded up windows of the last few street level homes on Roehampton and Redpath Aves can give the area a kind of creepy feeling. But the promotion for new condominiums (in this case 155 Redpath) is giddy by comparison as it extols the value of owning a unit next to the Eglinton LRT. These townhomes of relatively recent construction will soon be gone to make way for the glass walled high-rise which is now selling units on the basis of “incentives.” The 155 Redpath website offers “free first year rental management free, a free iPad or iPad mini, free lawyer contract” with more incentives coming, it declares. Picture inset into yesterday’s photo is a Google picture is from 2011. 
This magnificent car is a recreation — not a restoration — of the 1935 Bugatti coupe. It is the work of a Toronto area firm Guild of Automotive Restorers. The staggering challenge of creating a car which quite literally no longer exists just makes the mind swim. In fact, the one-off original appeared in public but once at a car show in the United Kingdom and underwent a single road test and then, for reasons not exactly known, the prototype vehicle just disappeared. The story of how the recreation occurred is told by Nicholas Maronese on the Sympatico site. Inset are the black and white snapshots which represented a major source for the recreation along with some rough blueprints of the day SympaticoToronto Police Service report: A resident of St. Cuthberts Road reports that between 1800 hours, March 8, 2013 and 1640 hours March 10, 2013, entry was gained into the premises by unknown means. Removed was a quantity of jewellery, an iPod, an iPad and cash.
