The South Bayview Bulldog

These interesting videos were released late Tuesday. The first concerns the outrageous collapse of neighboring residential lots on either side of a home replacement project in Etobicoke. Appalling really. Next to that is the gripping story of a lucky escape by all involved as flying ice off a tractor-trailer wipes out the windshield of a tour bus en route to the Niagara casino. If they have the same happy outcome at the table, these people will come home rich. Below that, the crap shoot called charter getaways to the south. Sunwing does have a way of dropping the ball on communication. Finally, a touching story of a fundraising effort to replace the hot dog stand of a vendor who works St. George St. at the U of T.

The forecast indicates better days ahead, and soon, as the City waits for the freakish ice and snow of mid-April to melt. The unheard of conditions created by potentially lethal falling ice from the CN Tower prompted police to enforce closures and traffic and pedestrian restrictions in the vicinity of Rogers Centre. Bremner Boulevard was closed Tuesday between Lower Simcoe Street and Rees Street as was the CN Tower, Steamwhistle Brewery (now reopened) Ripley’s Aquarium and the Rec room. Gates 1 to 6 at Rogers Centre were closed for Tuesday’s games.  Some of these restrictions were relaxed later Tuesday.

Immunotherapy is adding a powerful new punch in the drive to beat lung cancer. Most interesting. Then, one person has died in the explosion of a jet engine while in flight. The Southwest Boeing landed safely at Philadelphia in this hair-raising incident. Below that, the very well-intentioned but rather perplexing expectation contained within the current Blue Bin Blues. The advice is to do with less. Fine, but what about this habit we have called procreation? Finally, it’s certainly okay to snicker at Donald Trump for his pompous language. Nonetheless, it looks like he is presiding over the end of the Korean War. And that may very well bring about the end of North Korea. The Kim family will not be able to maintain its Mafia-style fiefdom in an economically integrated peninsula.

Louise

Kendrick Lamar

Jessica Brown Findlay

The Faces feature for Tuesday begins with Louise (left) a British prostitute featured in a BBC video. Are you 18 or over? Then, Kendrick Lamar (centre) should be smiling. He’s won a Pultizer Prize for his hip hop music. It may be an acquired taste. At the right, Jessica Brown Findlay (and others) discuss a forthcoming romantic film called The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.

Tim Hortons will move its headquarters from Oakville to the Exchange Tower at 130 King St. W the company has announced. Tim’s has been in Oakville since it was founded 50 years ago. All 400 employees will move to Toronto but a training facility will remain in Oakville. Tim Hortons president Alex Macedo says the move will bring it closer to business partners, enable it to better use technology to serve customers and help it keep abreast of industry trends.

STARBUCKS TO HOLD RACE MEETING

Starbucks said Tuesday it will be closing all of its company-owned restaurants in the US during the afternoon of May 29 to conduct a racial-bias education program. This follows the clumsy and obscure action taken by employees at a Philadelphia store when they called 911 over two black men who wanted to use the washroom but who had not purchased anything.

FIRE CALL TO BAYVIEW AND FLEMING

There was a fire call to the corner of Bayview Ave. and Fleming Cres. Tuesday but the call was cleared immediately. There may have been pizza burning.

Collision: Transway/ Eglinton Ave E.. a truck has struck the LRT bridge. Some damage has been reported. Engineers attending to assess. No LRT service disruption at this time. #GO685787^adc

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) April 17, 2018

Relocation of watermain and sewer faciliites is taking plce at the Kennedy Station site.

PetSmart Wednesday

Bike event

Soup, sandwiches and song

Dog park cleanup

Ben Lucier captures

Bayview Leaside Sweep

ABCRA

Upper left, the City has announced that its Chiptruck, the one that helps us track our loveable four-legged friends when they vanish, will be at the PetSmart store in Leaside Centre Wednesday. That’s at Eglinton and Laird. Then, get your old bikes over to the Davisville School playground on Saturday for the bike collection event. This is a very worthy project which brings joy to kids whose families cannot buy them a bike. Next, there’s soup, sandwiches and song next Sunday at Leaside United. At top right,  Jason Shelly and Sara Wickware are organizing dog owners to help clean up Sunnybrook Park Dog Park on Saturday. See Leaside Chit Chat for that notice. At centre, great video shot by East Yorker Ben Lucier of  his dog Sprocket escaping a large tree branch in the backyard. YouTube. At the bottom, a reminder of clean up events on Saturday. The  Bayview Leaside BIA will gather on the northwest corner of Bayview and Millwood at 9 a.m. ABCRA members can help smarten up Ramsden Park the same day. See all posters at the South Bayview Bulldog Bulletin Board.

Could sting

Ruptured roof

Junk, water and ice

Ice falling from the CN tower punched a hole in the roof of the Rogers Centre, broke windows on the RBC building and smashed a window of a bus being used by the Kansas City Royals. No one was hurt in all of this. Last night’s game was cancelled and a double-header Tuesday will make up the lost game.

New Bloor St. people-friendly space

The informative website Urban Toronto has published plans for a new people-friendly terrace and “plaza” to sit around the base of the contentious “Crystal” addition of the Royal Ontario Museum. The project is endowed by two families and will carry the names Helga and Mike Schmidt Performance Terrace and Reed Family Plaza. The details as offered by Urban Toronto are interesting but the comments at the bottom of the post reveal again how deeply offended many people are by the 2007 Bloor St. addition to the ROM.

This Leaside family is appealing for a good electrician after it was necessary for Toronto Hydro to disconnect the standpipe entry for power into the house so it could disentagle wires and branches laying on a car in the driveway. A surprise added cost to April in 2018. Leaside Community

Falling ice chunks off the CN Tower have punched a hole in the roof of the Rogers Centre and caused the cancellation of tonight’s game against the Royals. The CN Tower is also closed. The ice chuinks, which are occasional hazards at the tower, started to come doen about mid-morning. In this case they are said to come off the upper pod and antenna mast at the very top of the tower. Living memorory does not recall the cancelation of a game before for this reason. But the hole is big enough to permit water leakage onto the field, sources said.

Here we see Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, do what the Russians have done forever. Deny, deny, deny. Either that or there really was no chemical attack (again) on Syria like the US, UK and France maintain. Smooth.