Sleuth will move on Sunday, March 20

The Sleuth of Baker Street, 1600 South Bayview, will be carrying out books and other inventory on March 20 and taking them to its new location on Millwood Ave at Sutherland. The plan is to re-open at the new location on March 24, 2011.

Changing the face of Walder Ave.

Walder Ave, the short street running north from Eglinton Ave E. to a cul de sac north of Broadway, is being re-made. As in the general area, modest bungalows and smaller homes continue to be bought up, demolished and replaced with larger, two storey structures. Three such homes side by side are awaiting Castleton Homes to change the face of this part of Walder.

Billboard to kick off fund-raising campaign

Brooke Biscoe of the arena board has messaged supporters that the campaign kicked off today to raise the $2.5 million community portion of the cost of building the second rink at Leaside Gardens. At the meeting Expansion Committee Chair Paul Mercer and Councillor John Parker summarised the long journey from the time the idea of building the second rink was first discussed in 1998 until today. Thanks were expressed to the many people who have been helpful. To help raise awareness of the second rink the board has installed a billboard on the north-bound face of the billboard along Millwood in the Arena parking lot. Check the Facebook page. Stories from today’s meeting filed by the Sun and Star

24th of May target for Shoppers Drug

Word around the Shoppers Drug Mart is that the store will open at its new location up South Bayview on the 24th of May weekend. This year the holiday falls on Monday, May 23, 2011.

Tsunami unlike any you have seen before

At about 15 seconds into this recording a sequence of the most graphic tsunami flooding begins. This of course is from among the many pictures coming from Japan this morning where an 8.9 earthquake has struck.

Canadian money to be made of plastic

The Bank of Canada has announced that it will soon start to make Canadian currency out of plastic. The new banknotes will have a markedly smoother feel from traditional paper money and will be harder to counterfeit. Most interesting CBC.ca story here.

Water repairs come back to Millwood

Work has moved south as workers make yet more repairs to the water system on Millwood Road. Earlier this week when these pictures were taken, the street was fully blocked between Bayview and Donegall. Even the east lane way was blocked (upper right) by the contractors, Rabcon. The best information we have is that it remains only for natural gas lines to be installed on Millwood before it can be restored to its proper condition. But apparently there has also been a need for water connection repairs. Check previous.

RBC finds homeowners are confident

The Royal Bank has injected what appears to be a bit of common sense into the worry about whether homeowners can afford their houses. We have seen many recent alarms about an impending collapse of the housing market because people won’t be able to carry the interest. It all seemed rather overdone and now the RBC’s annual outlook suggests that Canadians agree. The bank’s survey suggests 85 per cent of respondents think they are doing a good job of paying off their loan obligations, and 73 per cent think they are well positioned even if the housing market were to drop. Maybe homeowners are too optimistic but there can be no doubt that they are a good deal more serious than many U.S. buyers about holding their homes and paying off the mortgages. The ethic is different. History may be helpful too. The story of the housing market in Canada includes the 1980s when interest rates rose to astronomical levels. That certainly slowed down purchases and depressed prices but did not collapse the entire market.

March Madness Hockey begins tomorrow

Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association launches a huge March Break Madness tournament tomorrow. Story indicates more than 100 teams will participate.

City dissolves TCHC, installs Case Ootes

A resolution of sorts to the unfortunate impasse at the public housing board. National Post.

Baby you’re the Top (Shop and Man)

Word that The Bay will introduce both TOPSHOP and TOPMAN (see below) has been of great interest today. They are British chains of women’s (SHOP) and men’s (MAN) belonging to the Arcadia Group. Arcadia owns Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, British Home Stores and Dorothy Perkins. The chain was founded in 1964 as Peter Robinson’s Top Shop, a young fashion brand within the Sheffield branch of the Peter Robinson Ltd ladies fashion store chain (former department store chain). The first standalone Topshop store was opened in 1974. In 1978, Topman was created as a spin-off brand to cater for male customers and is now run as a separate chain, although some stores are co-located. The British retailer is represented in 20 countries.

Topshop, Topman coming to The Bay

The Bay has confirmed to the Toronto Star that it will bring British fashion retailer Topshop and Topman to Canada. The Bay plans to open the notably young-oriented shops in its department stores as well as at stand alone locations.