The South Bayview Bulldog

In street signs pilot in ten school zones (Twitter/@JohnTory)

Cyclists die-in at City Hall

Sardine subway riders

The Light From Within (Metrolinx)

Braised lamb (Today’s Menu)

Councillor Josh Colle (Ward 11) and Mayor Tory show off a newly-installed sign embedded right in the pavement. It is part of a pilot project in ten school zones to see if these in-your-face warnings make the roads safer. Let’s hope so. Upper right, cyclists conduct a die-in at City Hall related to the traffic deaths of bike riders. Below that, a small group of TTC riders demonstrated and then boarded the subway posing as sardines. You get the idea. They want funding from an era some 20 years ago restored to the TTC  by the provincial government. At lower left, a mural called The Light From Within by Rodney Latourelle will grace the lower-level LRT station at the Yonge-Eglinton hub when finished. To the right, yummy braised lamb shanks from Today’s Menu for Easter. Check it out.

Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping

Not so intimate scene

China has confirmed that Kim Jong-un has met with Xi Jinping and released a picture of the two leaders for life. Both are under pressure from the US in different ways. The world has no way of knowing what they talked of and whether the Chinese put pressure on Kim behind closed doors. But the meeting would seem to forecast a new era in North Korean relations with the rest of the world. Some analysts said this was a bid by Kim for some sort of normalization. If so, those seeking the end of his mafia-like family-run state will see a glimmer of hope. They say the north as it now exists cannot survive openness.

Prayers before a crime

Tory Toronto?

She knows how you’ll vote

There’s concern in Pickering Tuesday night that there may be a serial arsonist at work after a second fire seemingly set outside a home in the middle of the night. City News has a report on a fire early today. Next, a man in Manhattan who is seen crossing himself and saying a little prayer before smashing the window of a clothing shop and stealing several garments. What was his prayer, we ask? Below that, Cynthia Mulligan conjures up a picture of Tory Toronto, even in Don Valley West. We will see. And finally, a slick package from NBC outlining (if that’s the word) how a Facebook like for Hello Kitty means you’re a Trump voter. It’s a mystery to the Bulldog but have a look.

Charlie Lagarde, 18 (centre) accepts first cheque of many more to come

Charlie Lagarde, 18, has won the grand prize in Quebec’s provincial lottery Gagnant à vie lottery. Loto-Quebec says Lagarde, who is from a Montreal suburb, was celebrating her 18th birthday with a bottle of champagne and a $4 scratch lottery ticket purchased at a convenience store earlier this month. After winning the jackpot, she took a few weeks to decide on whether to accept a lump sum $1 million payout or the $1,000 weekly lifetime annuity. Charlie claimed her prize Monday at Loto-Quebec’s head office in Montreal, joined by family and friends. She says she hopes to study photography and one day work for National Geographic.

Premier Wynne says the Liberals will introduce full-day daycare free for children aged 2-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten should they form the government after the June election. The program would begin in 2020 and come at a cost of $930 million to taxpayers.

It is widely believed that Kim Jong-un is in Beijing Tuesday, called there by a Chinese government that wants to know what he is up to. At the very least, it is said, China wants in on the act if Donald Trump is really going to meet the little dictator from Pyongyang. In the US, the state department said it had no information but added tartly that it seems the free world is in a much better place with North Korea than it was a year ago. That’s because of the pressure being brought not just by the US and its allies, but China too, for Kim to renounce nuclear weapons.

As many as 50 businesses along King St. West are telling the City that its plan to speed streetcars along King St. while detouring cars off the street at every intersection is a failure.  “We just don’t understand why they think this is a win,” said Todd Sherman, who is the resident of Gabby’s Restaurant. But the companies are facing rose-coloured versions of the scheme from Joe Cressy (Ward 20)  This CBC story says more than 50 notable businesses, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Thompson Toronto, have joined the fight against no cars on King. The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA) released a letter from the businesses “fact checking” the city’s data and requesting changes to the project. It says there has been a 21 per cent decrease in restaurant reservations. They are calling for eliminating daytime taxi restrictions, accessible parking and limiting all traffic restrictions between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. CBC

2 Alarm Fire – @Toronto_Fire is on scene of a fire on Wiltshire Ave near Davenport Rd. The blaze has caused heavy damage to a semi-detached house. Minor injuries. pic.twitter.com/WuZjjAmGSf

— Tony Smyth (@LateNightCam) March 27, 2018

An early morning blaze has caused “extensive damage” to a home near the Junction, Toronto Fire Services said Tuesday. Firefighters arrived at the scene on Wiltshire Avenue, near Davenport Road and Symington Avenue, at 4:23 a.m. Everyone in the home made it out safely and no one was hurt, Stephan Powell, district chief for Toronto Fire Services said. Crews were still at the scene trying to extinguish the fire at 7 a.m — CBC

TDSB Superintendent Ian Allison speaks to gathering

Good crowd

Cody school vice principal Adelia Vala and principal Robert Nigro

A meeting of Toronto District School Board officials at Hodgson Public School Monday night heard about “stop gap” plans to siphon students away from badly crowded Eglinton Public School. This summer two new classrooms will be built by methods known as “internal retrofits” of other space. And in 2019, the board proposes to send children in the Eglinton catchment east of Mt. Pleasant over to Maurice Cody instead. Cody school is close to capacity but officials feel sure they will not exceed 100 percent. The boundary shift was planned for 2022 but has been moved up in the face of the high-rise frenzy north of Eglinton. It is induced by the Crosstown LRT, a phenomenon seen right along the street, one that has many in Leaside weeping at the earthquake which is rocking their quiet world.

BANNOCKBURN SCHOOL

Longer term, the TDSB is putting its faith in the return of Bannockburn School from a private tenant in 2019. The school is off north Avenue Rd. There are, as officials made clear, a minimum of 300 spaces at Bannockburn. It is a long way from Eglinton and Mt. Pleasant but the scheme is to “domino” waves of students north through other north-end schools with the flow running towards Bannockburn. The plan will decrease the Eglinton school catchment north of Eglinton Ave. and lower the school’s population.

LINDSEY WALTON

Much of this is not enough for two Eglinton moms, Lindsey Walton and Michelle Fullerton. They call it a matter of fairness. Walton spoke to the meeting about the disproportionate overcapacity at Eglinton (probably 113 percent). The solution for 2018 of two additional classrooms is too little and too late. Eglinton PS is a postage stamp as TDSB schools go, maybe 1.6 acres compared to as much as five acres at Northlea Elementary and Middle School. The school yard is concrete with no turf  and is used for parking on weekends. What the women call “catchment by income” is about low-income households. It is an issue  that seems hard to fix.  Walton says the TDSB should immediately rezone more of the Eglinton Junior catchment to the neighboring affluent schools that have more square footage. It’s a tricky job and quite possibly political dynamite. Foreign-born children represent 50 percent of the school’s student population.

CHILD CARE SPACES

Finally, Walton and Fullerton want a child-care enrolment of 63 children under four at Eglinton to find another home. It is, as they say, “valuable real estate”  The TDSB could give them notice June 15 of this year and they would have to relocate for fall of 2019 but there are no such plans. Walton clearly feels stonewalled by the board on current capacity. She  notes the imminent arrival of  seven kindergarten classes for 2018 with 30 or more kids. The ministry’s hard cap is 32. The meeting was addressed by a number of TDSB personnel led by Superintendent Ian Allison. Ward 11 Trustee Shelley Laskin spoke as well. The principal and vice principal of Cody school, Robert Nigro and Adelia Vala were present as was Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow.

Try cooking dinner with just two hours of electricity a day maybe, running water for two hours every other day and no natural gas period. Toilet paper, medicine and mayonnaise? Don’t be silly. Then a peek back home where anonymous anti-Doug Ford types are making their own amateur posters downtown. Below that, the US, Canada and Europe have made the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the end of the Cold War nearly 30 years ago. Finally, looser drone legislation may be coming. Many say it can save lives but not, of course, if one goes into a jet engine of a flight landing at Pearson. Be careful.

Margaret Alice Hurst has died over the weekend with her family by her side. She and her husband George have been pillars of Leaside for 50 years from their home on McRae Dr. Friends and admirers may pay their respects on Thursday, March 29 from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles–Newbigging Chapel at Bayview Ave.and St. Cuthbert’s Rd.  A Memorial Service will be held in Leaside United Church, 822 Millwood Road, Toronto on Saturday, March 31st at 2 p.m.  In lieu of flowers, donations in Alice’s name may be made to the Brain Sciences program at the Sunnybrook Foundation. Obituary

It was launched in February 2004 by a kid named Mark Zuckerberg and it was called Facebook. He invited anybody to make his/her own webpage really easily and plug in all sorts of information at their choice from their date of birth to pictures of the children. Who you loved, where you were going on vacation and how much you make a year. Now Facebook is used by 57 percent of Canadians every day and the Angus Reid Institute says as many as 73 percent say they will make at least some change to how they use the social media platform in the wake of a data mining scandal. That’s “data mining scandal” for anyone who hasn’t checked in since last week. What’s a data mining scandal?  It seems to be a lot like the contortions of businesses seeking your information since the day of the door-to-door survey.

WHO CHECKS THEIR CREDIT SCORE

A successful example of data gathering is the 21 Century phenomenon called the Credit Score. It is a bit of nonsense invented to get people to give over their personal information. Don’t ask where it’s sold. But back to Facebook. Angus Reid also says the survey found that one in 10 say they plan to abandon the platform, at least temporarily. Zuckerberg has apologized and outlined steps to protect user data in light of the scandal involving the Trump-connected data-mining firm. But such hopes seem vain. Protecting stuff out on a public highway called the Internet will be a challenge.