The South Bayview Bulldog

2017 triumph at Cody Spring Fair/Bulldog

American Goldfinch/John Burns

Howard Birnie/Susan Scandiffio

Garden Society Sale May 11

Family Wellness

Old Pottery Road looking north (top) and south (bottom)

Many will recall (top left) the Maurice Cody Spring Fair of two years ago when principal Robert Nigro agreed to get a cream pie in the face from his vice Adelia Vala. To say that it was a hit with the kids hardly describes the fun. The 2019 annual fair is set for May 25. Thanks to Mo Tantowi for the tip. Elsewhere locally, John Burns has posted this delightful American Goldfinch at the Leaside Instagram account. He reports they’re back at local feeders. Centre right, eminent Leaside baseball stalwart Howard Birnie has been inducted into the Toronto Sports Hall of Fame in the Community Sport Volunteer category. Across the bottom are notices of the Leaside Garden Society Sale May 11 and the Family Wellness Fair at Hodgson Middle School next Wednesday, May 8. Lower right, take a peek at old (and abandoned) Pottery Rd. It snaked its way down the valley before the Bayview Extension was built. Thanks to outdoorsman Rudy Limeback.

David Bryant fireworks at LHS

Leasider David Bryant is once again planning a fireworks display on Leaside High School field for the May 20 Monday holiday. He has started a GoFundMe account aiming to cover the $3,000 cost. David Bryant posts non-stop 3.27 finale to Monday’s show

The City has issued this list of road closures both full and rolling for the weekend of May 4 and 5.

Toronto Marathon
A series of full and rolling closures will be in effect at various times between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. to accommodate this event on Sunday, May 5.

The race will begin at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue and will initially include closures on surrounding streets north of the intersection. The race will then turn back south, eventually travel east towards the Don River and then come back west across the downtown to Humber Bay Park East.

Parts of many collector/arterial roads and local roads will experience rolling closures, including those noted below:
• Yonge Street at or near Sheppard Avenue
• Yonge Street between Sheppard Avenue and Davisville Avenue/Chaplin Crescent
• Chaplin Crescent between Yonge Street and Oriole Parkway
• Oriole Parkway between Chaplain Crescent and Lonsdale Road
• Spadina Road between Lonsdale Road and Austin Terrace
• Davenport Road between MacPherson Avenue and Belmont Street
• Belmont Street/Aylmer Avenue/Rosedale Valley Road between Davenport Road and Bayview Avenue
• Bayview Avenue from Rosedale Valley Road to Lower River Street
• King Street East between Lower River Street and Sumach Street
• Eastern Avenue between Sumach Street and Front Street East
• Front Street East/Wellington Street between Eastern Avenue and John Street
• John Street between Wellington Street East and Front Street West
• Front Street West between John Street and Bathurst Street
• Bathurst Street between Front Street West and Fort York Boulevard
• Fort York Boulevard between Bathurst Street and Fleet Street
• Fleet Street between Fort York Boulevard and Strachan Avenue
• Strachan Avenue between Fleet Street and Remembrance Drive

A map of the race is available at
https://www.racepoint.ca/maps/torontomarathon.html.

Toronto Raptors tailgate and viewing party
Bremner Boulevard from Lakeshore Boulevard West to the east side of the parking garage at 25 York St. will be closed on Sunday, May 5 from 7 a.m. to midnight. A map of the closures is available at http://bit.ly/MLSEPlayoffs2019.

Khalsa Day parade in Etobicoke
A series of rolling road closures will be in effect on Sunday, May 5 from noon to 8 p.m. to accommodate the Khalsa Day parade route:
• Humberwood Boulevard between Morning Star Drive and Humberline Drive
• Humberline Drive between Humberwood Boulevard and Finch Avenue West
• Finch Avenue West between Humberline Drive and Westmore Drive
• Westmore Drive between Finch Avenue West and Carrier Drive

A map of these closures is available at http://bit.ly/KhalsaDayEtobicoke2019.

Manulife Paddle the Don event
Bayview Avenue will be closed between Mill Street and Front Street East on Sunday, May 5 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. A map of these closures is available at http://bit.ly/PaddleTheDon2019.

MP Rob Oliphant (top) with young attendees at job fair. Below busy gathering of applicants and employers at St. Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Cathedral on Overlea Blvd/photos supplied

MP Rob Oliphant has released information on his third annual Youth Career and Job Fair held Friday, April 24. More than 300 young people and some 50 employers filled a large reception room at St. Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Cathedral on Overlea Blvd. The Don Valley West event was open to all youth between the ages of 15 and 30 who were searching for work, career advice or volunteer opportunity. Those looking for advice had the chance to engage one-on-one with employers and experts at the Employment Café, where they received support to improve their resumes, participated in mock interviews, and got employment counselling.

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS OFFERED

Attendees also had the chance to get professional photos taken at the free photo booth. Employers in attendance included Toronto Parks, Forestry, and Recreation; The Canadian Armed Forces; Service Canada; IKEA Canada; Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF); Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; CIBC; and many more. Partners for this event were Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation; TNO (The Neighbourhood Organization); The Centre for Education & Training; Labour Education Centre; and Employment Ontario — with release.

Bayview Ave south of Merton St.

A commercial for Coors beer is being shot at 1376 Bayview Ave south of Merton St. all day Thursday. The shoot is expected to last one day. Orange cones start at Balliol St. and traffic is a single lane southbound from there down to midway past the cemetery.

Jason Botchford

Well-known Vancouver sports reporter Jason Botchford has died at the age of 48. According to a statement released by his family Wednesday morning, the longtime Vancouver Canucks reporter died of apparent heart failure. Botchford was born in Aurora. He gaIned prominence in Vancouver for his coverage of he National Hockey League team, with bylines first at the Vancouver Province, followed by The Athletic Vancouver, TSN Radio and television. Among sports fans, he was widely known for his post-game stories – first called “The Provies” and then “The Athletties,” and his edgy commentary and plugged-in reportage.He leaves behind three children with his wife, Kathryn Botchford

Advertising assault at Mt. Pleasant and Merton Esso

Inside and outside Circle K

Vaping clicks?

Motorists at Esso stations operated by Circle K across Toronto find themselves inundated by advertising for the vaping product Vype, a creation of the British-American Tobacco Company (BAT) of London, England. Ads are found around and on the gas pumps. The promotion is present on the walk to the store, on the inside and outside of the door as well as on, around and behind the counter. Advertising for the Vype product, which contains nicotine, is said to be controlled to prevent lifestyle depictions. Just how that is defined seems an open matter to most laypersons. Health Canada shut down a Vype pop up promotion on Dundas Square on April 22 because it was deemed to be promoting vaping as a lifestyle.

MOORE PARK MOM COMPLAINS

Rani Jamieson, the mother of three young sons, believes the Vype campaign is designed to recruit impressionable kids into the habit. She has been told that vaping has appeared among seventh graders at Deer Park Public School. Ms. Jamieson has seen Vype advertising in bus shelters this week on Bayview Ave. The Moore Park resident says she finds the campaign unconscionable and is in the process of complaining to the Health Department.

• Models in silver suits promote vaping at Yonge and Dundas

Colleagues celebrate Tania Tiller’s honour holding up her badge number/TPS

Toronto police and friends of the 911 emergency response team have met to honour their colleague Tania Tiller as the service’s Comumnicator of the Year. Ms. Tiller was instrumental in getting police to the scene of a life and death crisis as two men faced certain drowning in a submerged elevator on Alliance Ave. last August. The elevator was stuck in the basement as Klever Freire and co-worker Gabriel Otrin desperately clawed at the ceiling of the unit to permit their cell phones to catch a signal. They had been unable to get the emergency hatch open. “As I was with him (Freire) on the phone, the water had risen to their waists,” recalled Tiller. “The call was sent right away and two officers were in the area. By the time they got there, the two men were standing on the top hand rail of the elevator. They couldn’t get the emergency hatch open and they were yelling and screaming for assistance.” Tiller kept police units and the Fire Department updated on the gravity of the situation until the officers arrived and started interacting with them. “The 9-1-1 operator was incredibly calm and level-headed when faced with our screams for help,” said Klever Freire in a letter to police.

The Ford goverment will introduce legislation Thursday to upload responsibility for many major transit projects in Toronto. This will make the province responsible for new subway construction projects, including the downtown relief line (Ontario Line) the Scarborough subway extension of Line 2, the Yonge-north subway extension and the Eglinton-West LRT project.

True conservative?

Premier Ford

Mayor Tory

Josh Matlow (Ward 12) told the South Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents AGM Tuesday that there are things to like about Doug Ford’s Ontario Line scheme for a downtown relief line. It makes sense, said the Councillor for St. Paul’s, to take the relief line up to Eglinton and build the line in one fell swoop along with the route downtown.  Elsewhere, Mr. Matlow was doubtful about the extension of the line out to Ontario Place and of the three-stop arm reaching into Scarborough. This option would add two stations to the infamous City-owned One-Stop Wonder plan. Matlow called Ford’s Scarborough plan “just as crazy” as the City’s. He once again proposed an LRT alternative to a subway that would be built along the Scarborough RT right-of-way and spread into northern Scarborough with multiple stations.

“TRUE CONSERVATIVE”

(Some think the subway option remains alive because of a macho-like demand by residents for the real thing. Ford won four of six Scarborough ridings in June.) A “true conservative” said Matlow would insist on getting as much as he could for the figure of $4 billion often cited as the cost. His six-year-old daughter understood such things. “Whether you love Doug Ford or don’t, whether you love John Tory or not, they cannot continue to advocate or promise plans for transit that are not evidence-based. I’m going to continue to challenge both of them on that,” he said to much applause. In closing, the Councillor offered an interesting glimpse of his transit thinking when he said the City should consider a “bus rapid transit route” for Avenue Rd. and/or elsewhere.

SERRA AGM at Greenwood College School Tuesday