The South Bayview Bulldog

Maëlys de Araujo

Wide search underway

Pont-de-Beauvoisin.

A man has been detained by French police as a huge search continues in eastern France for a 9-year-old child who vanished from the scene of a wedding at Pont-de-Beauvoisin.near Chambery. Maëlys de Araujo was last seen Wednesday at a children’s area of a reception hall. The are conflicting reports as to whether the 34-year-old who is said to be known to police was a wedding guest. He has given an inconsistent account of his whereabouts. Maëlys had gone to the wedding with her parents and elder sister as well as other members of her family. Some 180 guests tried to find her before police were called and a search began. Local police, search and rescue teams, divers and cavers have been searching the heavily wooded area but have so far failed to find a trace of her. Sniffer dogs lost the scent from Maëlys’s cuddly toy in a car park outside the wedding venue, AFP reported, suggesting that she could have been taken away by car. The search was continuing in driving rain on Thursday but a policeman told French TV that the prospect of finding anything was becoming less and less likely.

It is the chance of a lifetime to make fun of a woman who is the often aloof author of novels for the intelligentsia This would be Bennington Heights own Margaret Atwood. She has long ago left Bennington and now she, her husband Graeme Gibson and others like grocery store magnate Galen Weston Jr. are objecting to an eight-storey condo development that would apparently have balconies overlooking their Admiral Road backyards. Members of the anti-NIMBY warrior brigade are out in force joined this time by “shocked, shocked” members of Atwood’s own progressive issues elite. How could their darling be so, well, so not in my backyard. In fact it’s easy. We wish to defend the right of Atwood to resist the violation of the privacy of her backyard. Why should she not complain. It seems entirely reasonable. No one will starve because of it. We suspect eight storeys with  balconies in Bennington Heights would mean war and rightly so. Atwood out of touch with condo complaint Observers taken aback by Margaret Atwood condo development controversy in Toronto

A post shared by Ray (@raytheniceone) on Aug 30, 2017 at 7:20am PDT

Don’t worry, these child-sized figures are not aliens or something from another dimension. They are part of a marketing stunt for the upcoming Stephen King movie, It. Much of the movie was filmed in Toronto and is scheduled to be released September 7th. The stunt has its own hashtag: #WheresGeorgieTO. The Warner Brothers Canada Instagram account states, “Have you found Georgie? Post your photo with #WheresGeorgieTO for a chance to #WIN a private screening of #ITMovie!” Get snapping Toronto. If you dare.

A post shared by Eava-Kay (@preshotmess) on Aug 30, 2017 at 6:24am PDT

Exceeding ridership projections

More seats than a streetcar?

Toronto Transit Commission says their new express bus routes have been more successful than anticipated. Of the five new express routes that were added in March 2016 —  185 Don Mills Rocket, 199 Finch Rocket, 188 Kipling South Rocket, 24E Victoria Park Express, and 186 Wilson Rocket — four have either met or exceeded their ridership goals, Mayor Tory said Tuesday. CBC

The driver of a car that slammed into a concrete utility pole at St. Clair Avenue East, east of Andrew Avenue last Saturday has died in hospital of his injuries. He was 33. The vehicle was a 2000 BMW 323i which for reasons unknown left the roadway in an unusual mid-morning occurrence.

Sarah Purves

Her work

An Apple/TTC collaboration

The razor takes a vacation

At the top of this Wednesday medley, Sarah Purves writes to the Leaside Community about her painting. Check link. Mid-right, Apple Music reaches into the Davisville Station to promote Tracks on Tracks with a concert this morning by Shawn Hook. Quite a secret event until it was over but you may choose to buy in. Below that, facial hair on Ward 22 member Josh Matlow with daughter Molly and the walking strawberry (who may deserve a better name). Compliments to all.

CTV/Twitter

CTV/Twitter

CityNews/Twitter

Vaughan maintenance staff was busy Wednesday putting railing and guard rails back in place after the high-speed demolition done by a car before dawn. The driver is in serious but non-life threatening condition.  The hurtling vehicle took out a stretch of railing along the railway bridge on Keele Street near Steels Ave. it is used daily by pedestrians. By mid morning the bridge was still not ready for traffic.

Upper left a compilation by Euronews of the top five dancing policemen seen on video around the world. Number three is Jarrod Singh of the Durham Police who negotiated a noise complaint with a neighbourhood party by joining in. To the right, is a very adept Caribbean style copper at the Beach Jazz Festival in 2014. Stay with it. He just gets better and better.

You may have to struggle (we did) to figure out just what went wrong in this case of the Royal Bank demanding the return of money received by a man who says he got it legitimately from customers by Interac transfer. The bank seems to say the senders were at fault, or maybe compromised somehow. Who had what to gain here? Troubling.

Coxwell and O’Connor/City News Twitter

This is the messy evidence of that rear-ender tweeted last night by TPS Operations. It occurred at the top end of old East York Village at O’Connor Dr. and Coxwell Ave. Police believe one driver was impaired.

Air Canada Centre will become Scotiabank Arena when a 20-year agreement between the bank and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment takes effect next July 1. “It will be a change,” said Dave Hopkinson, MLSE’s chief commercial officer. “It will be a change to the landscape of Toronto.” The building has only had one moniker since opening its doors in 1999.

WHAT AM I BID?

The sides declined to reveal the financial aspects of their agreement, but it’s safe to assume its worth astronomically more than the $30-million Air Canada paid on the original 20-year deal. Recent naming rights for Citi Field in New York and Barclays Center in Brooklyn sold for $20-million per year, according to a report in the New York Times.