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.
Nine more sleeps! It is almost back to school for the students at Children’s Garden School on Eglinton. CGS Staff is busy getting the school ready to welcome everyone on Thursday, September 7. You may have noticed their playground under construction as you drive along Eglinton, just east Bayview. The playground is looking great and Don Bates, head of operations at the school, is looking forward to putting the finishing touches on the space this week. Interactive fence panels and the pieces for an outdoor learning space are arriving soon.
31ST YEAR IN LEASIDE FOR CGS
This is the 31st year in Leaside for CGS. Leaside residents are very fortunate to have such an exceptional private school option right in the neighbourhood. If you are looking at options for your Preschool-Grade 3 child, give them a call today. Spaces still available in select programs. Contact Kelly Scott, Director of Admission, at kscott@cgsschool.com. 416 423 5017 x 43.
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.
Several blocks of south Leaside were blocked off from traffic Tuesday and many people were evacuated when crews replacing the water main broke a natural gas line Residents said the people in the block of Rumsey Rd. between Crofton Rd. and Parkhurst Blvd were ordered out of their homes. One woman, the owner of 182 Rumsey, was walking her dog only to hear sirens and rush home. Police would not let her into the street until she told them her ten-year old son was still in the home. She said the rupture occurred outside her front door. Police ordered a large bus to the scene to accommodate those who needed to rest for the estimated three-hour repair job to be done. No injuries were reported.
GAS LEAK: Rumsey Rd + Crofton Rd~Leak is capped~Homes still are evacuated & road closures still in effect till further notice #GO1562846
— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) August 29, 2017
The 18th annual Toronto International BuskerFest for Epilepsy is at Woodbine Park Labour Day weekend starting Friday. Three of the more than a hundred performers from around the world are shown above. BuskerFest used to play on Yonge Street til 2015. That venue ended when Scotiabank stopped funding. This year CTV (Bell) The Toronto Star and Metro Inc and others are sponsoring BuskerFest, which is in aid of Epilepsy research and assistance. This year’s festival will feature more than 100 world-class performers including acrobats, comedians, jugglers, fire manipulators, musicians, high-skill circus performers and others. Woodbine Park is at 1695 Queen St East at Coxwell Ave. Be generous when artists pass the hat.
Toronto school boards say that 21 of their school-bus routes are without permanent drivers just a week before students are to go back to class. There seems to be lack of interest in the work. The boards say that two of their school bus carriers, Sharp Bus Lines and Stock Transportation, have notified them of driver shortages. There is a “spare complement” of staff to cover daily absences. The report does not specify further numbers.
Political leaders are keeping a straight face as they announce that all things named after or representing John A. Macdonald will not be expunged from public sight Not this week anyway. Premier Wynne waxed on about learning from history — good and bad — when she demurred to changing the name of who knows how many schools named after the first prime minister. Justin Trudeau has also said that the statue of Macdonald in Ottawa will stay. However shameful Indigenous activists may find Macdonald, the spectacle of elected leaders having to address these things is humiliating to the country. They might just as reasonably have said that they won’t be demolishing the Ontario Legislature or the Parliament Buildings, scene of much cockeyed “colonialist” behaviour.
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UPDATE – COLLISION
Coxwell Ave and O'Connor Dr, one in custody for impaired driving #GO1560110 ^cb— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) August 29, 2017
Whole Foods stores in Toronto were decked out with signs proclaiming reductions in everything from ground beef to dinner buns Monday, an apparent effort by the new grocer in chief, Jeff Bezos, to shake up the industry and critically, to change the perception of Whole Foods. Who knows where it will go. And while prices have been lowered, they aren’t so low that Whole Foods can’t make money if it can improve traffic. And that may be the key. WF needs more customers. Of course no one knows the secret dreams of the Emperor of Amazon. Does he want to corner the grocery industry? The fear expressed in the media seemed to suggest this is exactly what Bezos wants. Does he have that much money? What about Competition and antitrust law? Time will tell. But Monday we saw the prices of ground beef and Atlantic salmon cut down to what a customer might pay at Loblaw. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of leads at Google News about this story.
