Geoff Kettel reminds readers that the Homes and Haunts exhibit sponsored by the East York Foundation is in its final days at the Walter Stewart Library, 179 Memorial Park Ave. You can see it until May 31. And on Thursday, Untitled Films will be on Canada’s favorite street for shooting commercials, this time for the Bank of Nova Scotia. That street would be Bessborough Drive in Leaside.
Officials at the Steveston dock in Richmond B.C. are flabbergasted by the appearance of dozens of tourists to the spot where a young girl was pulled into the water by sea-lion Saturday. Signs have been posted warning people to stay away from the water and not to feed the wildlife. Bob Baziuk. the general manager, says he is stunned by the performance of people. “Unbelievably, last night there were about 100 people down there, mostly tourists, maybe some of them locals, picking up their kids and holding them over the water looking for the infamous sea-lion,” he told CBC News on Monday. Video of the child being yanked by the shirt into the grimy water has been viewed more than 14 million times. Marine experts and port officials have sent out a slew of warnings, reminding the public to keep a safe distance from the animals. Video — Girl dragged off wharf by sea-lion a scary moment in nature
A crowd of possibly 600 people watched the private fireworks display put on by David Bryant and friends at Leaside High School field Monday. Families lined the hills to the south of the field and applauded the display enthusiastically. Before the sun set, children entertained themselves by rolling down the hill in their dozens. The display is put on by Mr. Bryant and friends at his initial personal expensive said to be in the order of $1,700. He does however have community supporters who contribute to the cost.
Preparing the fireworks at LHS! Amazing display scheduled to begin at 8:45 tonight — always a good show. Video and event recap here.
This looks like an engrossing show. It has a trace of the medieval Cirque de Soleil style.
A group photo has emerged of the prime minister with kids on the Vancouver waterfront on their way to the prom. The PM was jogging by and things just happened. The video at the left updates the horrifying attack on pedestrians in Times Square. A huge memorial to Alyssa Elsman, the girl who died, has formed at the spot. And the back story to the sea lion leap that took a young girl into the water in BC. is to the right.
Urban Toronto has a lot of research in the linked post on the back-up French train maker Alstom, which has just been given a contract to make cars for Metrolinx. As reported at the time, these cars (designated the Citidis Spirit) may or may not run on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT depending on whether Bombardier can possibly fulfill its committment. (As the TTC chair has tartly remarked, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”) In any case, the Alstom cars are longer than Bombardier cars and if they run on the Crosstown, there may have to be changes so they fit. Read the comments. Take a look Urban Toronto
The heartbreaking case of a 90-year-old man from New Westminster who became a serial target of fraud perpetrators is told by the CBC. In all of Ron Jones dealings with scammers by mail and phone, there is a striking absence of any reference to those outside the scam who would have stopped it. Mr. Jones had a daughter nearby and access to the authorities. The final deceit involved the claim that there was an arrest warrant for Jones and that he should pay money to catch those who had previously duped him. It should cause anyone to call police when the idea of paying money to get rid of an arrest warrant are put together. In the end, banks and a lending firm forgave more than $100,000 in loans. CBC
The North Leaside Traffic Committee has recommended the one-year trial closing at Bayview Ave. of all three east-west streets north of Eglinton. These are Glenvale Blvd, Broadway Ave. and Craig Crescent. The NLTC has studied and rejected an alternative scheme for an elaborate one-way street system for North Leaside. The committee, which was created by Councillor Burnside in 2015, proposes to place so-called concrete Jersey Barriers at Bayview and the entrances to these three streets to stop traffic both ways. The scope of the committee’s recommendations is enormous. Members seem to concede there is little chance for them to foresee all the consequences of their recommendations nor the things which are likely to flow from the re-making of Eglinton Ave. after the LRT is built and running. Councillor Burnside has written a summary of the work and this analysis is worth reading. A visual spread-sheet of the two NLTC proposals is here. Residents are asked to fill out a survey.The survey is for every voting-aged member of a household. The survey is designed that way to mimic as closely as possible the City polling process, if required in the future, should the community indicate an interest in moving forward on a particular proposal.
INTEREST TO ALL SOUTH BAYVIEW
The potential impact of any traffic-calming plan has relevance to the broader area. The impact for those west of Bayview on Broadway and other streets of the dead-ending at Bayview and Broadway is unclear. The Leaside planning process has thrown up guesses about the numbers of people who will occupy new high-rise development such as that to be built at the Sunnybrook Plaza site. Some say there will be as many as 10,000 people added between Bayview and Brentcliffe alone. The future political impact of these residents seemed to weigh heavily on planning.
When Peel police we were called to a backyard party and rock session Saturday in Mississauga the teen band Vinyl Ambush feared the worst. But after discussing the noise complaint, a certain PC Clark got a hankering to play a set on the drums. He and his partner negotiated a curfew of 9 p.m. with the band. They left but shortly after Clark and his buddy returned to the home. Clark asked drummer Jack Laing if he could have a go. The result is the video on the left. The newly-formed band was in the yard to play at a birthday for the father of one of the band members. The arrival of the police made the young musicians nervous at first. “I dropped my guitar, put it down and moved away,” the band’s guitarist Pedro Alvarado told CityNews. “I thought he was going to give us a ticket or something for being loud, but then he said ‘rock on.’” “He played perfectly all the way through,” said lead singer Belle Matthews. “It was amazing, I was astounded” “I’ll probably remember this for the rest of my life,” bassist Corwin Bjelic told City.
The old Four Season Auto Glass and repair shop at Laird Drive and Wicksteed Ave has been boarded up and given a slap or two of white paint. It appears that the empty property may remain this way for a while. It certainly seems to suggest that demolition is not imminent, contrary to much speculation. Four Seasons Auto at 199 Laird sold for $10.5 million
The CBC has compiled a list of money paid to the heads of charities on the Ontario Sunshine List for 2016. These are organization getting at least $1 million in public money to support them:
