Damage estimated at more than a $1,000,000

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An early morning fire on South Bayview has left Leaside Cleaners and The Flower Nook badly damaged. Smoke damage is noticeable to adjoining businesses although McSorley’s Tavern has already re-opened. The NIMA currency exchange will be closed for a period.. There may have been smoke damage to other businesses as well. An adjuster on the scene said the cause was probably electrical and appears to have started in the cleaning store.. He agreed that damage could well exceed a million dollars. Several people were forced out of their upstairs homes. No one was hurt.

School uniforms advice from principal

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Students wearing school uniforms in our area may be targeted because they are thought to come from affluent families and to carry cash, credit cards and expensive cellphones, according to Allan Hardy, principal of Greenwood College at Davisville Ave and Mount Pleasant Rd. Advice to the effect that girls may not wish to wear uniform skirts on the TTC was given by the police and passed on to the students. But Hardy said the advice was not intended to be sexist and was directed at all students. Two girls wearing uniforms on the TTC had complained to police about how a man was behaving towards them.

Sobeys splits up its grocery businesses

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Some analysts may wonder what Sobeys is doing as it announces that it will split the grocery chain into two business units, IGA Operations and Multi-Format Operations. Part of the speculation will flow from the brevity of the statement. The IGA Operations business unit includes the banners IGA and IGA Extra, Les Marches Tradition, Marche Bonichoix, and Rachelle-Bery in Quebec. They will continue to be led by Marc Poulin. The Multi-Format Operations business unit includes the banners Sobeys, Thrifty Foods, Sobeys Urban Fresh, Foodland, IGA stores in Western Canada, FreshCo, Needs, Fast Fuel and Sobeys’ liquor operations.

Nov 30 new date for Pottery Rd opening

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A brief news statement tonight says the City now expects that Pottery Rd. will be re-opened on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Pottery Road has been closed since May 24 and was expected to open Sept. 5. But, as reported here, the opening was delayed because of what appears to have been a miscalculation in the construction of the expanded roadway. A retaining wall designed to hold up the earthen side of the ravine near Broadview Ave. wasn’t quite up to the job. A check of the calendar will show that repairing or re-building the wall will take six weeks. Previous story.

Yogurty’s comes to Sunnybrook Plaza

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The spot in the Sunnybrook Plaza previously occupied by Paws and Claws has been taken by a large chain of franchised frozen yogurt outlets named Yogurty’s. Yorgurty’s apparently started in Toronto in 1987 and in recent years has seen considerable expansion. There is a list of shops on its website both operating and planned almost entirely in Ontario. They number some 25. There are also shops, again both open and planned, in Mexico and Costa Rica. Clearly Yogurty’s is on a roll. The product is said to be rich and creamy frozen yogurt that tastes like ice cream. Meantime, Paws and Claws has moved to South Bayview in the block north of Fleming Cres. .

RIM hits You Tube to apologize for outages

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In a video apology posted Thursday morning RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis apologized to customers, saying “We’ve let many of you down.” He said email and texting services are returning to normal, but cautioned it’s too soon to say whether the outage has been fully resolved. Later, the company announced that the service is now up but there is no full explanation yet of what went wrong.

Biker mowed down by African Hartabeest

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They are closing on six million plays of this truly fascinating video of a mountain biker, Evan van der Spuy of Team Jeep South Africa, as he gets taken out by a Red Hartebeest. This happened during the Time Freight Express MTB race at Albert Falls Dam in South Africa. Note with the video says it was taken by his teammate Travis. Did the animal think Evan was lunch or what?

Will Toronto really have a surplus this year?

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It’s hard to believe but it appears the City of Toronto will have a $140 million surplus this year. The surplus comes as a result of a number of things but is thanks in large part to greater than expected revenues from the land transfer tax. Much is being made of the fact that Mayor Ford wants to get ride of the tax. Does anybody really want to keep it? But never mind, there are a number of reasons apparently why we may have a surplus. They are in general: An intake of $79.5 million more than expected from the municipal land transfer tax, $22.5 million more than expected from supplementary taxes, $15 million in interest and investment earnings, Internal services that came $5.4 million under budget.

Charming story on Leaside’s Sarah Jordan

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Linked here is a charming story on Sarah Jordan, a nine-year-old who did outstanding work in the annual food drive. She set a goal of collecting one tonne of food and actually doubled her goal, collecting more than two tonnes of food (4664 pounds) and nearly $2,000 in donations. This was the Leaside students fourth year holding the food drive to collect donations for the Daily Bread Food Bank and this year she expanded it to every class at Northlea Elementary and Middle School and the community with a bin at Tremlett’s Valu Mart. There is a very nice picture by Dan Pearce of Sarah and her sister Claire in Inside.Toronto.com.