August downpour floods many streets, Union Station

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Lower Simcoe
Union Station rain through roof (Twitter / @femwriter)
Concourse flooded (Twitter / @TJ_Smizzy)
Note kids playing in the flood (Twitter / @akpat_)
Sewers erupt at Queen’s Quay/Snita@snitabalsara

https://twitter.com/akpat_/status/1030584647145553920

Heavy thunderstorms flooded areas along the lake shore and forced the closure of one subway line while affecting access to Union Station during the busy rush hour commute on Friday. GO Transit was telling commuters to enter and exit through the main station building as pedestrian walkways south of Front Street between Bay and York had to be closed due to flooding. Train service continued. But Line 3 in Scarborough was shut down because of flooding at Midland Station. Shuttle buses were operating in the area. The heavy rainfall also caused some minor flooding at other TTC stations but trains continued to run on both Lines 1 and 2 without disruption — City News

Wheels on the Danforth an arresting event this weekend

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Ray and Clayton at Wheels on the Danforth/Bulldog
Denise Wilson and Anna Postill,/LHS
Mike Barrington/Larry Miller MP
Poplar Plains Rd/CBC
Leaside Gardens September 27

Wheels on the Danforth rolls out this weekend with the Classic Car Show Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Upper left, we see an arresting father and son, Ray and Clayton Price, who dressed up last year to complement the style of their “police car.” Bulldog flashback. Upper right is Denise Wilson, Curriculum Leader for Guidance, and (right) Anna Postill, 17, at Leaside High commencement. Anna is the recipient of a $100,000 scholarship to study engineering at the University of New Brunswick. You may read about Anna’s extraordinary accomplishment here. Centre right, Mike Barrington of East York is a happy man as he lands this big salmon during a day on Georgian Bay recently. Lower left, a hilarious response from homeowners on Poplar Plains Rd. in Summerhill to a long unfixed pothole. They’ve grown tomato plants in the broken road and harvest is near. Hold off on the road repairs. Finally, an important seminar on concussion is set for September 27 as hockey season is just around the corner. Make it a point to attend at Leaside Gardens.

Councillor, staffer nearly struck by truck while canvassing

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Tire marks show where vehicle jumped curb
The truck
Jon Burnside

Councillor Jon Burnside and his campaign worker Michelle Stewart narrowly escaped injury or death this week while canvassing at Laird Drive and Broadway Ave. A black Chevrolet pickup truck jumped the curb and nearly hit them. The driver, it is reported, appears to have been impaired but police were not able to respond before he left the scene. There are pictures of the vehicle and its plate. The Councillor is quoted as saying: “It sure was close.Too close. The guy didn’t have much to say. From my experience, I noticed he seemed under the influence of alcohol and perhaps narcotics as well.”

Election deadline, Tesla sues and day off for unreconciled

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The new deadline for filing papers to run in the Toronto General Election is September 14. The election is October. 22. The change was necessary after the  Ontario government shrunk City Council from 47 wards to 25 and fix the ward boundaries to those used for federal and provincial elections. Also Thursday, a poll done by Navigator indicates that nearly half of Toronto voters favour a smaller City Council.

TESLA SUES ONTARIO

Tesla, Inc. will sue the Ontario government over what it calls unfair treatment in the cancellation of a program providing rebates to residents who bought electric vehicles. In an application for judicial review, Tesla Motors Canada says the decision by Premier Doug Ford’s government to cancel the program in July left hundreds of its customers no longer eligible for rebates they expected to get when they ordered their vehicles. It claims that Tesla was singled out and that purchasers of other brands will still get rebates during a transition period.

GUILT HOLIDAY COMING

The federal government will move forward to create a statutory holiday dedicated to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.  The holiday will be aimed at remembering the legacy of residential schools and reflecting on a path toward reconciliation, he said in Saint-Eustache. If Parliament does approve a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday, it would only apply to federally regulated workplaces — the civil service, marine ports, airports, airlines and telecommunications companies, according to Canadian Press.

 

Lifestyle videos begin with a taste of Mayonnaise ice cream

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Lifestyle news begins Thursday with a scoop or two of Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise Ice Cream. Then City News at the CNE press day. It’s about food. Below that, a new animated series from the creator of The Simpsons. Lastly, it’s not nice to laugh but you may in fact as a high-spirited couple bounce right off the dance floor and into Boston Harbour.






De Baeremaeker disowns subway he once hotly defended

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Glenn De Baeremaeker
Josh Matlow
Paul Ainslie

Ward 38 Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker has made an astonishing repudiation of the proposed one-stop subway, a project of which he stood as the City’s most ardent supporter. De Baeremaeker was fond of attacking “downtown elites” for concern about the notoriously inefficient One-Stop Wonder proposal. He engaged in heated debate with Councillors like Josh Matlow and Scarborough colleague Paul Ainslie.  At a public meeting last year De Baeremaeker said opponents of the subway scheme were prejudiced against Scarborough, mocking their arguments about money: “It’s Scarberia, nobody lives there, if I go there I might get mugged. You’ve heard all of that stuff all over the place,” he said.  But in announcing the end of his 15-year political career at City Hall, De Baeremaeker has told Metroland Media Toronto that in hindsight, he should never have supported the single-stop subway that he and Mayor John Tory spent the past three years defending. Talk about a conversion on the road to Damascus.

Would Your Child Benefit from Specialized Instruction?

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Local private school, Children’s Garden School (CGS) on Eglinton, has announed that its R+ Reading Clinic will be available during the school year. The Remediation + Clinic is intended for children, ages 4-9, who are experiencing particular difficulty processing language and require one-on-one, specialized, in-depth instruction based on the science of reading. (If you aren’t sure if this clinic would be appropriate for your child, CGS will arrange for an assessment.) Clinic hours are after school and on Saturdays. It is open to CGS students and students not currently attending CGS. Paula and Jordan, certified CGS Remediation + clinicians and classroom teachers at CGS, are looking forward to working with their clinic students this fall. If you would like your child to get a jump start on the coming academic school year, summer clinic hours are still available on Wednesdays between 9am-4pm. Please contact the school for more information at 416-423-5017 or info@cgsschool.com

Who could resist? Bell Media (CTV) to carry Vice in Canada

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Like Vice? Under 20? Your news is that Bell Media has rehabilitated the sometimes fringe media company Vice that brings its programs back to Canadian cable. Under the agreement, Bell will air series including The Hunt For The Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold, Munchies Guide To, Gaycation, What Would Diplo Do? and a raft of other programming across its portfolio of channels. Vice programming will also be available via CTV Super Hub and in a Vice-branded collection on CraveTV, while Vice shows such as Smoke Show and Teenage Exorcists will be available on Bell Media’s short-form video app SnackableTV. Who could resist?

You won’t know where to turn at Nightmare on Eglinton

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No left turn north at Eglinton and Don Mills

Readers at Leaside Community are commiserating about new turn prohibitions on Eglinton east of Brentcliffe.

Man dead in Rexdale plaza as killing goes on in Toronto

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A man is shot dead by someone who, it seems likely, knew his victim quite well. This occurred in the John Garland Plaza in Rexdale and as the gun curse rolls on, former police chief Blair talks about “supply and demand” of weapons on City.




Blackout across Davisville Village darkened Belsize, Manor

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Darkest Mt. Pleasant a section between Manor and Belsize

The power outage laying across most of Davisville Village ended just before 11 p.m. Wednesday  The three-hour blackout saw power out from Yonge St. over to Bayview as the evening wore on. Lights were out in homes on Belsize Dr. and Manor Rd. with Belsize seeming to get the worst of it. Traffic lights were out at Mt. Pleasant and Belsize but were working elsewhere. Heading west, the homes from Foreman Ave. to Mt. Pleasant were lighted. Lights were out for businesses on Mt. Pleasant between Manor and Belsize. On Bayview, lights stayed on although there was a lot of flickering. Only Hollywood Gelato as the corner of Manor was dark. Business continued however.  The Toronto Hydro outage map showed a blackout stretching from Yonge St. to east of Bayview. It previously swelled north of Eglinton into North Leaside as well. Late in the evening, Leaside did not appear to be hit.

Trudeau day off to remind us of “genocide” on aboriginals

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According to the Globe and Mail, the federal government is going to create a statutary holiday called the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to achieve, apparently, the elusive goal of making aboriginal dissidents happy. Or maybe, as an aboriginal leader suggests, to ensure a kind of 24/7 guilt among Canadians about Canada. Sounds like a winner. The Toronto Sun quotes Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, as saying it will be a “day set aside so Canadians continually get it and will never forget the impact of genocide in the residential schools on Indigenous peoples.” Or maybe not. Some comment late Wednesday is that it will be thoughtlessly regarded by most people as just another day off.  Business interests are likely to worry about the growing number of don’t-go-to-work days in Canada. Productivity and all that. A Reconciliation Day will make 13 such days in Ontario.