The South Bayview Bulldog

The City has published a useful map and cautionary points about staying safe and comfortable. Toronto Release 

The Toronto Star says Sunday night that Environment Minister Glen Murray will resign his portfolio Monday morning and further declare he will not run again in the riding of Toronto Centre. Beyond that, Murray’s plans are unstated but the Star says he is leaving to take a “high-profile” job. His decision comes at a time of shifting ground as redistribution reduces the size of Toronto Centre. At the same time, Catholic school trustee Jo-Ann Davis is making a run to snare the Ontario Liberal candidacy in the new riding of University Rosedale (which includes Moore Park). Davis represents the TCDSB Ward 9, a huge constituency holding the Ontario ridings of St Paul’s, Toronto-Centre and Trinity-Spadina. Murray, 59, is a former mayor of Winnipeg. He has been, says writer Robert Benzie,  Wynne’s point person on climate change. More

You could not make it up. Writers are calling the grand-slam homer and other heroic play the greatest 9th inning finish in the team’s history, and so it seems. CBC re-cap above speaks of Joy in Toronto.

Toronto Police will embark on a five-day campaign against cars found on rush-hour routes during prohibited hours starting Monday morning. The much dreaded “zero-tolerance” will apply but it’s hard to imagine that somewhere, somehow there might not be an exception. You can read about it here. TPS

Captures from a security recording on June 30 of an arson at a business on Scollard St. catches one of the two firebugs with his chin growth showing. Police are hoping others can see things that help identify the two. Video.

The YTB Gallery has an exhibit called From A to B isn’t always linear at the northeast corner of the East York Town Centre parking lot from August 3 to 5. There is an opening reception on August 3 from 4 to 7 p.m. with regular hours on August 4 and 5 from 2 to 8 p.m. Facebook

Everyone will have his own opinion about the strike by baggage handlers at Toronto Airport that is mainly prompted, the union says, by disrespect towards working stiffs by a callous management. Although there are no examples offered of the emotionally hurtful things done to employees, we are told these honest souls just can’t take it any more. “Our members have been so disrespected and I am just talking about common courtesies and simply being a human,”  said Harjinder Badial, vice president of Teamsters local 419. “It has gotten so bad that our members are fed up.”

Lawyer Boyd Balogh has died in Toronto at the age of 51. Mr. Balogh was a long-standing partner at the firm of Gowlings WLG. Friends are invited to call at Humphrey’s Funeral Home on Wednesday, August 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. A celebration of Mr. Balogh’s life will be held at Vaughan Estates, 2075 Bayview Ave (80 Armistice Drive), on Thursday, August 3 from 2 to 5 p.m. Obituary

Ghazal Rug Gallery

The Ghazal Rug Gallery has opened at 1693B Bayview Ave in the north block opposite Hillsdale Ave. Welcome to this new business. Ghazal is a word of Middle Eastern and Indian extraction meaning a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love, and normally set to music. Pleasant.

Toronto Police are seeking the identity of this woman who withdrew money from an ATM in Innisfil back in December using a card which had been lost by a 24-year-old woman in Toronto. The unknown woman is described as having long straight dark hair. She was last seen wearing a grey winter coat and prescription glasses with dark square frames. If you know her, call police at 416-808-1400,

Neither police nor health workers are genuinely surprised that drugs tainted with the rogue killer substance fentanyl have taken four lives in Toronto in something like two days. The peril is well-known to anyone who might be a street drug user. But the reaction to these deaths among some is that somehow the City has failed. Perhaps, but as usual the “root cause” solution is hopelessly vague. One worker said the City should have taken “more actions.” What does that mean? Seizing people off the street and jailing them to prevent their habit, or simple stupidity, from turning fatal? These heart-breaking cases are proof again that those determined to take dangerous risks will do so as long as they are free to roll the dice. We’re told that fentanyl is easy to make, quite often made in China and smuggled into Canada in personal belongings. Are the Chinese as responsible as they should be about exporting death to the streets of Canada?

De La Mer salmon burgers, dogs

But today we sit here for a while

Man vs Lobster

South Bayview was bopping right along this Saturday with word that 2 Bros Cuisine is working hard to get open by mid to late August. People at the parent store on Royal York Road say they cannot wait to serve you.  At Mayrick, the eastern Mediterranean restaurant coming to the former Vero’s location, the opening date is now Tuesday, August 8. They too are working to stay on schedule. The former Tinto bar Tapas at 1581 is telegraphed to be a salad bar. This bit of news is contained in Facebook writings of the estimable Chantal Vaillencourt. And at McSorley’s Saloon, staff is already promoting the annual Man vs Lobster evening on August 12 beginning at 5 p.m. Tell the lobsters to be on time. Finally, De La Mer was doing good business as usual with its summertime grill of salmon burgers and dogs. Man and family always win here too.