The South Bayview Bulldog

LCBO under construction last year

Wide sidewalks of South Bayview

Dylan Reid notes “terrible planning”

Dylan Reid @dylan_reid of Spacing Magazine has posted a photo of the lamentable encroachment of an LCBO built last summer out onto the sidewalk on the east side of Coxwell Ave. south of O’Connor Drive. The way the building steals space for people just makes you wonder what on earth they were thinking at City Hall. It recalls the bitter battle to save the wide sidewalks of South Bayview Ave. at a time (1960s) that “planners” wanted them reduced to about three feet. Legend has it the broad walkways on our favorite high street survived because at that time Leaside was still a separate municipality.

Perils of not wearing seat belt

The flight that many passengers said was pure hell last December also had many aboard who did not fasten their seatbelts when warned to do so at least twice by the captain. The Transportation Safety Board released a video and other material Monday in which it warned air travelers of the importance of wearing seat belts as directed by cabinet crew. The December 2015 flight from Shanghai to Toronto put down at Calgary after 21 people were injured, one seriously. “Most of the passengers who were physically injured were aware that they were required to wear their seatbelts, but chose not to,” the TSB said. “The injuries resulted from passengers coming into contact with aircraft furnishings, the ceiling, and the floor of the interior.”

Movie harvest selections

CBC

At busy commercial corner

Rollover!

The busy commercial corner of Eglinton Ave. E and Brimley Road in central Scarborough was shaken up Monday afternoon with a collision resulting in a rollover. Shoppers and Family Day groups were flooding Twitter with questions about the cause. It does not appear if injuries were too serious. Some took pictures as shown above.

Bob White, former head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, has died at the age of 81. White died Sunday in Kincardine near Owen Sound. He called a maverick by fellow unionists and his signature accomplishment was the breakaway of Canadian autoworkers from United Auto Workers in the US. White’s death was announced by Unifor — the union created in 2013 from the combination of the CAW and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union — which said he “passed away peacefully” without specifying the cause of his death.

City News

https://twitter.com/ToLiveInToronto/status/833719960610414593

Mayor with some present-day knight

1911 Deer Park jewel

Mayor Tory has visited the Balmoral Ave fire hall near Yonge St to thank the firefighters who fought the conflagration at the Badminton and Racquet Club on Tuesday. Those who are assigned to the historic 1911 architectural jewel in Deer Park are known as the Knights of Balmoral. The name was perhaps never more fitting although Station 311 has seen a lot of history. The mayor had a handful of “Tim Horton tickets” given to him by a coffee manager as a token of respect to those at the Balmoral hall  A sour note was raised on Twitter (as it often is) by cynics who saw this as an “ethics breach” or as some sort of insult to the fire personnel. Sigh.

Mayor John Tory @ Fire Station 311 thanking firefighters, handing out Tim Hortons cards, for the efforts in last week's Yonge/St. Clair fire pic.twitter.com/P0kSezQEZk

— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) February 20, 2017

A woman was rescued from an apartment fire with minor burns because a man who had just had breakfast at an east-end hostel across the street saw the smoke and ran to the rescue. He is identified by the CBC as Leo Meawasige. He was came out of Margaret’s east end drop in centre at All Saint Church to see the apartment at Dundas and Sherbourne Streets. His dramatic tale is told in the video below

Dundas and Sherbourne by Google

Top floor fire

Skate today

EYTC closed

Summerhill open

The well-known closures on Family Day are in effect — banks, government and big supermarkets — are shuttered. The movies are open and there will be skating available free at the Leaside Arena. Summerhill Market will be open on Mt.Pleasant and on Summerhill Ave. Monday.

Let’s make sure these medals are real!

Here we see the victorious Atom B girls of the Leaside Wildcats Association ‏@TorontoLeaside proudly chomping down on their gold medals after winning the Orangeville Tigers Tournament over the weekend. Nice going ladies.

Adolf Hitler’s personal telephone, which he used to dictate many of his deadly World War II commands, has sold at auction in Washington on Sunday for $243,000. The auction house of Alexander Historical Auctions kept the name of the buyer secret. And in Russia, the deepest freshwater lake in the world hosted a freezing endurance race on Sunday. More than 40 Russians and 30 Dutch nationals competed in an ice skating and cycling contest at Lake Baikal in Siberian Russia.