The South Bayview Bulldog

Metrolinx has settled a challenge from builders of the Crosstown LRT — at least for now — which it says will get the enormous project finished by the target date of late 2021. In July, the consortium of companies working on the LRT filed a legal notice of action seeking more money and time for the $5.3 billion project. In a statement Friday, Metrolinx says it has achieved “a revised production schedule and accountabilities” with the companies. It also says the details are “commercially confidential,” a limitation that is raising eyebrows on social media. The Eglinton Crosstown was first scheduled to be completed by 2020 with that date later pushed backed to September 2021. In its statement, Metrolinx said that the construction consortium “has the ability” to finish its work and meet that deadline. ”The paramount objective for the Province and Crosslinx Transit Solutions is to open this new and exciting transit line for customers in September 2021, on time and on budget,” the statement says. The murky circumstances of the legal action and its settlement relate to events beyond the control of builders including delays in the completion of work by utility companies and in the issuance of “permits, licenses and approvals.”

Niagara Regional Police say three people have been injured in a shooting incident in St. Catharines. Police say they were called to the area of Niagara Street and Church Street around 3:45 p.m. Thursday where they discovered “multiple shooting victims.” They have all been transported to area hospitals. The extent of their injuries is unknown at this point. Unconfirmed reports say the victims include two men in their 20s and a 17-year-old. Police say there are “multiple scenes” in an area that covers Geneva Street, Queenston Street, Niagara Street and Church Street. “We are actively searching for armed suspects in the previously mentioned area,” read a tweet from Const. Phil Gavin — City News

Niagara regional police are asking members of the public to stay out of the area of Queenston St. and Geneva St. https://t.co/tTpZS9hfCb

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) September 6, 2018

Burt Reynolds has died at age 82. He is remembered for many show business guises but his epic outdoors portrayal in Deliverance made him truly famous first. Next, a court appearance for the couple who raised $400,000 on GoFundMe for a down-and-out veteran. But where’s the money? Then, more than a century ago organized criminals called the Black Hand (Mafia) would roam modest neighborhoods telling retailers “It would be awful if something happened to your nice store.” But the age of the security cameras and honest cops  has cast a new light on such perps. Lastly, a fascinating pursuit by a civilian of a drunk driver in New Jersey. Scary stuff.

A ten-minute power outage Thursday morning across South Bayview has residents guessing. The brief blackout occurred moments after 10 a.m. It struck businesses on Bayview Ave. as well as homes south of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Moore Park and Bennington Heights. It appears the outage occurred on a corridor of unknown width up and down Bayview Ave.  Lights stayed on at businesses on Laird Drive by contrast. Nearing 11 a.m. the Hydro Outage Map showed a cluster of no more than 50 customers in the dark on Mt. Pleasant Rd. between Davisville Ave and Merton  St.

Painting the road red/City News

The redesigned “multi-model” road on Queen’s Quay may well stand as the most unfortunate planning blunder by the City in recent years. It has confounded motorists and pedestrians alike since its opening in 2015 and now the TTC has been given permission to paint the road red to try to keep motorists off the streetcar tracks. It is the kind of curious contortion brought about by Toronto’s apparent need to have streetcars lodged on tracks rather than maneuverable buses.

• New Queen’s Quay is grand but maybe sort of dangerous
• Training needed? 2 streetcars collide on Queen’s Quay

Moment of shooting

Nissan prowling the area

Police have released video of a terrifying drive-by shooting Campbell Ave. in the Junction. The gunfire is heard at two minutes and 20 seconds into a YouTube video posted by the TPS. The full video shows a Nissan Micra driving around the streets near the scene of the shooting apparently in preparation for the attack. This occurred about  8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 8. No one was hit but the video is particularly disturbing because of the distress cries and weeping of those under fire.

CAR SHOT AT

Shots were fired at a car in the City’s east end on Wednesday night. Police responded to a call from a person who said his vehicle was shot at in the Cherokee Boulevard and Navaho Drive area around 9 p.m.They say six to ten shots were fired at a vehicle but the man inside was not injured. The suspect vehicle is a black truck and there were two people inside at the time of the shooting. The truck was last seen northbound on Cherokee — City News

The ownership of Canadian telecom and media interests by Canadians has been raised for the first time in public by the prime minister. Mr. Trudeau is talking tough this week about the current negotiations with the US. He said there will be no deal if protection is not granted to Canadian cultural interests. He did not name them but they would include presumably both broadcast and telecom interests of Bell Canada, like CTV, and media firms owned by companies like Rogers. Nor did Trudeau mention the CBC. He sees it as a matter of sovereignty. The seemingly out-of-nowhere issue is said by Global News to remain an outstanding matter with the US. Some skeptics wonder if the prime minister has chosen to raise it as a hot-button way of preparing Canadians for a failure in negotiations. At least for now. At the very least, Trudeau seems to be playing a good-cop bad-cop routine worthy of Donald Trump. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland pops in and out of talks in Washington to say that there is a co-operative spirit inside the meetings. It’s interesting to contrast Trudeau’s concern for sovereignty with the US position that the NAFTA trade dispute clause is a violation of US sovereignty.

Here are road closures planned for this weekend as issued Wednesday by the City:

Toronto International Film Festival – Festival Street
TIFF’s fourth annual Festival Street initiative will run from Thursday, September 6 through Monday, September 10. Festival Street events will result in the full closure of King Street West to traffic between Spadina and University Avenues from 5 a.m. on Thursday, September 6 until 5 a.m. on Monday, September 10. John Street between King Street and Wellington Street will also be closed during the five-day period. A map of the above road closures is available at http://bit.ly/RoadClosures_TIFF2018.

Information about TTC service changes for Festival Street is available at http://www.ttc.ca/Service_Advisories/Route_diversions/TIFF_2018.jsp.

Taste of the Kingsway
Bloor Street West from Prince Edward Drive North to Montgomery Road will be closed from Friday, September 7 at noon to Sunday, September 9 at midnight. A series of full and partial road closures will also take place in the surrounding area to accommodate this event. A map of the above road closures is available at http://bit.ly/RoadClosures_TFKW2018.

The Festival of Praise
The formation of the parade and festival area will result in all northbound lanes of Queens Park Crescent East being closed between College Street and Bloor Street West on Saturday, September 8 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with southbound traffic maintained on Queens Park Crescent West. A map of the above road closures is available at http://bit.ly/RoadClosures_FOP2018.

The Cabbagetown Festival
Parliament Street from Gerrard Street East to Wellesley Street East and Carlton Street from Ontario Street to Exchange Lane will be closed in both directions from Saturday, September 8 at 6 a.m. to Sunday, September 9 at 9 p.m. A map of the above road closures is available at http://bit.ly/RoadClosures_CF2018.

Bang and Olufsen Yorkville 5K Charity Fun Run/Walk and Canadian 5K Road Race Championship
A series of road closures will take place in the area bounded by Davenport Road to the north, University Avenue/Queen’s Park/Avenue Road to the west, Dundas Street West to the south and Bay Street to the east on Sunday, September 9 from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. A map of the above road closures is available at http://bit.ly/CdnRoadRace2018.

Toronto 5k for Sick Kids Hospital Foundation
A series of road closures will take place in the area bounded by St. Clair Avenue West to the north, Christie Street to the west, Davenport Road to the south and Russell Hill Road/Boulton Drive to the east on Saturday, September 8 from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. A map of the above closures is available at http://bit.ly/TO5K_SickKids2018.

Campaign barbecue Sunday

Councillor Burnside

Jon Burnside and friend Charlene Kew in 2014

Councillor Jon Burnside has issued an invitation to his campaign barbecue Sunday, September 9. It will be held at 206 Parkhurst Blvd. east of Laird Dr. Mr. Burnside will run in the new Ward 15 against Jaye Robinson and Tanwer Khan.

The New York City mayor’s office says a plane has been quarantined amid reports of numerous ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai that arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport. The Emirates flight landed at about 9:10 a.m. Wednesday. Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by emergency vehicles and ground control personnel. One report said as any as 19 people may be sick.

All the passengers are off and have been evaluated. 19 sick. 10 to hospital and 9 refused medical attention. Health officials are processing tests now to determine the cause. Symptoms still pointing to the flu. https://t.co/ZWURgb68bJ

— Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) September 5, 2018

Elon Musk has once again attacked a British man who helped rescue a boys’ soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, calling him a “child rapist.” In an email to BuzzFeed News, the Tesla chief executive launched a third attack on cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who called Musk’s idea to rescue the trapped boys and their coach with a miniature submarine a “PR stunt.” Musk accused Unsworth in the email of being a “child rapist,” in the strongest words the billionaire has had for the explorer since referring to him as a “pedo guy” in July. Last month, Musk tweeted that it was “strange” that Unsworth had not sued him for the July comments. Business links.

• No one available to work’: How labour woes are crimping our economy’s prospects
• Bank of Canada holds rates steady as it eyes NAFTA fallout
• Canada’s trade gap shrinks in July, surplus with U.S. highest since 2008
• Cohen: Singlehandedly and stupidly, Trump turned free trade with Canada into a crisis
• Taxpayers in Trump’s America prop up milk prices, yet Canadian supply management always cast as villain

Finally re-decorated thus year

Sitting room

Dining room

Family room

Kitchen

Master

2015

The 135-year-old pioneer home of the Elgie family at 262 Bessborough Drive has been placed on the open market with an asking price of $3.7 million. The agent is Jerry Hammond of Hammond International Properties. Those interested in such things will be able to calculate how builder Matthew Garnet has done. He purchased the home and land in 2013 for $2.5 million and subdivided the land to ultimately build a home on either side. The process was no doubt expensive. Preservationists objected to the new homes (they lost) and to moving the house closer to the street (they won). At the time, The Bulldog called this an odd bit of “heritage punctilio”  Thanks to Ann Brown of Leaside Chit Chat for bringing this to our attention.