The South Bayview Bulldog

The toll road snowball is hurtling through City Hall Thursday morning with reports that Mayor Tory is in fact committed and all it requires is a perfunctory vote on council and the stroke of a pen by Transportation Minister Del Duca. The mayor opposed such a scheme during the election campaign. The excitement as reported on CP24 seems heady. There is talk about a $2 toll as just the thing to fix Toronto’s finances. So far no one has pondered that this price for a one way trip would cost drivers more than $1,000 a year to get to and back from work

SOUTH BAYVIEW SPILL?

It is by no means clear whether a toll on the Don Valley Parkway would cause much, if any traffic, to divert onto City streets. But at more than $1,000 a year to use the expressways for work, it is possible. And as residents of South Bayview know very well, the local roads are jammed on weekends when the parkway is closed. Those who care about the number of cars merely passing through — and especially on Bayview Ave. — may wish to ask whether a study is needed to examine this possibility. It is an interesting irony that many of these streets are in the Premier’s riding of Don Valley West.

BLAME GAME

Jennifer Pagliaro of the Star writes that City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat and James Pasternak (Ward 10) are among many people pummeling those who live outside Toronto for not paying their “fair share” of road costs. Keesmaat says 40 percent of drivers on the DVP are from outside town. That means 60 percent live here. In the same report James Campbell (Ward 4) says TTC riders pay 70 percent of the cost of the service. But he knows that drivers pay enormously more money in taxes than the price of a Metropass. Blame is the name of the game. Jennifer Pagliaro 

That uniquely Canadian vision of the Rocky Mountains painted in oil by Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris has sold for $11.2 million making it the most expensive piece of art ever to sell at a Canadian auction. Mountain Forms is a statement about the land known to generations of citizens young and old. The sale at Heffel Fine Art Auction House in Yorkville fetched a 9.5 in bidding plus an 18 per cent buyer’s premium bringing the total cost to $11.21 million. CBC

Lawren Harris's "Mountain Forms" has shattered the record for most expensive Canadian artwork sold at auction: https://t.co/fbSmBmIH7f pic.twitter.com/3SzKijs1vj

— Maclean’s Magazine (@macleans) November 24, 2016

The Toronto and District Catholic School board has re-drawn the boundary line between St. Anselm School on Bessborough Drive and Canadian Martyrs School at 520 Plains Rd in East York. The issue was crowding at St. Anselm which sits on property which will not permit much expansion. Parents voted Monday on the matter. The issue has stretched over four years. Kids who are already being bused to St. Anselm will now be bused to Canadian Martyrs. The issue for St. Anselm can only get worse as development in Leaside explodes. Canadian Martyrs has space available.

Shauna Hunt of 680 News is raising an alarm Wednesday afternoon about two 6-year-old girls who it is said wandered away from their unnamed East York school, or maybe just left it. They apparently found their way to the home of one girl but not before a local woman. identified as Deirdre, became alarmed to find the kids trying to cross a busy thoroughfare (unnamed) and spoke to them. Then she followed them home. Their mother was there, identified as Melissa. She is said to have been shocked to see her daughter and her friend and called the school. 680 News 

South Bayview is a hockey loving place in a hockey loving country, but for some parents, it seems, the cost of fitting out a kid for the ice is just too much. A survey done by Leger Marketing says as many as 34 percent of parents have removed their children from hockey because they just can’t make ends meet. The survey is called Beyond the Blue Line.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked bitter critic Nikki Haley, the South Carolina Governor, to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

https://twitter.com/pappscicle/status/801439998763499520

A fire-alarm fire is covering downtown Montreal with black smoke Wednesday. It is located in a vacant building at 3464 Parc Ave. in the Plateau neighborhood. “The building is considered dangerous, we have 120 firefighters working,” said Martin Farmer, Montreal fire department’s chief of operations, adding firefighters will not enter the premises for now. Some families have been taken in by the Red Cross but no one has been hurt, police say.

The 1926 oil-on-canvas Lawren Harris painting “Mountain Forms” goes to auction tonight (Wednesday, November 23, 2016) and expectation are high for a record price. Earlier, Heffel – Lot # 118

Highly infectious Norwalk flu is reported at Thornhill.Woods Public School at 341 Thornhill Wood in Thornhill. Parents are being urged to keep children with any symptoms at home. Some of the symptoms of Norwalk include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, cramps, muscle aches, fatigue and fever. Symptoms usually dissipate after 24 to 48 hours. The scientific name for this flu is norovirus. The annual flu shot is no protection for norovirus.. Vaccine and treatment research of this bug have been limited because of a lack of understanding of norovirus within humans, but recent discoveries in mice have identified that certain biological factors can slow down or kill the virus. “Up until now vaccines have exclusively been using virus-like particles, but some new developments may make it possible to generate a live attenuated vaccine, which is pretty exciting,” ” say Megan Baldridge, a physician familiar with norovirus. “Having animal models and cell culture models to grow the virus and study how it acts a little more closely will help us better understand the virus and also think more about vaccination strategies.”

The Annual General Meeting of the Leaside Property Owners Association Tuesday night heard Engineer Gene Chartier discuss traffic calming studies and plans for Leaside. Mr. Chartier is vice president of Paradigm Transportation Solutions Limited, the firm hired to complete a traffic study of the community. About 100 people, some standing, filled a room at the Trace Manes Park field house for the meeting. Following LPOA business, the meeting was turned over to Chartier. It was noted that plans to calm traffic and reduce speeds are in a wait-and-see period because of the confusion created by the LRT construction.

GATEWAY TO LEASIDE

Nonetheless, the planners have a number of ideas for the time when a clearer traffic picture is available. Mr. Chartier named the “entranceway” concept for the whole of Leaside. Drivers would find signs and “geometric features” like raised crosswalks and “curb radius reductions” to make a statement. He said drivers tend to respond at least for a time to the sense that they are crossing a boundary. (This idea may have tickled some ardent Leaside folk). Such things as speed  bumps, enhanced crosswalk markings like graphic “ladder rungs”  painted on the pavement and the raised crosswalk are on the table. Chartier also mentioned a seasonal feature called “speed cushions” which appear to run the length of the road in some places to narrow the pavement and thus slow vehicles. Speed cushions come out in winter.

ELECTRONIC ENFORCEMENT

Electronic enforcement has become the order of the day for City Hall where it is seen as a way to intimidate drivers without employing an expensive policeman to do so. Red light cameras — which issue a ticket photographically — would be suitable at Laird-Wicksteed/McRae and Millwood and McRae beside Trace Manes Park and playground. Engineer Chartier said education of all roads users — drivers, cyclists and pedestrians was needed.  He said these concepts will be uploaded in graphic slide form to the LPOA website in coming days.

SUNNYBROOK PLAZA

Those who had hoped this meeting might reveal details of the still secret arrangements worked out for the redevelopment of Sunnybrook Plaza were disappointed. Jon Burnside (Ward 26) said it may be December before such information is made public. This process will not please everyone but there is no doubt the City’s hands are not as free as might be wished because of the prospect of a hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board. RioCan, Sunnybrook’s owner, must feel the odds at OMB favour its first scheme to build towers 13 and 19 storeys. The meeting also heard a roundtable discussion of the City’s Committee of Adjustment.

The Atom A Leaside Flames are pumped for the PlayStation Platinum Cup this weekend https://t.co/jy6P2RYSEe pic.twitter.com/5YnU0UYPOE

— GTHL Hockey (@GTHLHockey) November 22, 2016

Go get ’em guys. We’ll be watching.