Doug Ford sees highly developed waterfront

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The CBC website has an informative story on the vision for Toronto’s waterfront now being put forward by the Ford administration at City Hall. The mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, discussed the plan. A staff report to be considered by Toronto’s executive committee will recommend that the city take control of the port lands from Ottawa and the province. The early sense of the plan is of a highly developed waterfront with, among other things, a capability to dock boats at a waterfront hotel. The picture above from Waterfront Toronto shows children playing in what appears to be a stylized fountain. Read the story.

City prunes trees slated for removal

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We waited a long time to have some of the trees on South Bayview pruned. And now it’s finally happening (left). Problem is, within a few days those trees will be ripped out by sidewalk re-construction. As published earlier, the work scheduled for South Bayview includes removing the old concrete containers which now hold the trees. This seems reasonable because planting Maples this way is simply stupid. But that was a long time ago. Work on the sidewalks has now begun (today) at Millwood and Bayview (right) with new sections of sidewalk. Within a day or two, it seems certain that those newly pruned Maples up the street will be removed.

Dolphins dine out on their intelligence

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Proof of just how clever are dolphins. Smart as most South Bayview dogs it seems. Researchers in Perth, Australia say the bottlenose dolphins found near Shark Bay have devised a method of trapping small fish in shells. They then take the shell to the surface and shake, causing the fish to fall into their mouths. The behaviour was spotted first in 2007 and there is hope that scientists may see the practice spread as other dolphins learn it.

Price of parking is total confusion

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The price of parking on South Bayview these days is several minutes of total confusion. The parking meters have been removed from the east side for sidewalk construction (yet to begin). This has resulted in an unofficial free zone for shoppers, but the closest we got to confirmation was a sotto voce by the superintendent of the work Bruce Shaw. Here we see a woman, one of countless parkers, heading off on a fruitless search for a parking meter. Good luck everyone. Previous post: Email parking court will decide disputes

Australian boy beats death by centimeters

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Dramatic footage of the moment where a young boy narrowly avoids death while running across the tracks of a Sydney railway station has been released. The 12-year-old boy is seen to jump onto the tracks and run across to the other platform, reportedly to talk to a girl who caught his eye. He dashes back across in order to catch what he thinks is his train, but which is in-fact a through train which does not stop or have a chance to slow down. The train speeds through the station travelling over 60mph and pins the boy between the train and platform wall, before he is seen to slip down out of sight. Miraculously the boy survives after falling into a small cavity under the lip of the platform. Telegraph

Return to Lumley and Heath

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We were here at the intersection of Lumley Avenue and Heath Street East last month and showed you the start of this rebuild in a prime area of Bennington Heights. The new home sits in a leafy corner of the area right beside the footbridge to Moore Park. As you see it will be a good size and those roof supports piled up on top certainly look impressive. Previous story.

We seem set to miss Irene completely

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Those concerned about the possible repercussions of Hurricane Irene may wish to reassure themselves by looking at the Weather Channel forecasts for the next few days. You do this by clicking on the temperature in the weather bar above. The forecasts appear to be quite pleasant with a little rain but also much sunshine.