Close enough for jazz? Maybe not say festival purists

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The Toronto Jazz Festival, set to unfold Friday, June 24 at Nathan Phillips Square, is taking heat for a lineup of musicians who may or may not actually play jazz, depending on how you look at it. As reported by Joshua Errett of the CBC this year’s lineup of artists like Sarah McLachlan, Grace Potter, Sharon Jones, KC and the Sunshine Band is causing some people to complain. The Toronto Jazz Festival is different from the Beaches Jazz Festival, which typically see players who represent fairly authentic jazz genres.  “Our mandate is to book jazz, jazz-influencing and jazz-influenced music,” says Josh Grossman, artistic director, as quoted by Errett. “Most of the artists fit under that umbrella, but every year one or two artists do slip outside of that.” CBC 

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Sweltering Sunday predicted with heat warning in effect

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Toronto has issued a heat warning for Sunday. It comes as Environment Canada is predicts a high of 33 C today and a humidity reading that will feel closer to 38. “During a Heat Warning, the public is encouraged to call or visit family, friends and neighbours, especially isolated adults and seniors who are at greater risk of suffering from heat-related illness, to make sure they are cool and drinking plenty of fluids,” a statement from David McKeown, the city’s medical officer of health, reads.  “Other groups at risk include people with chronic illnesses, individuals with limited mobility or certain mental health illnesses, infants and young children, people on certain medications, and those who are homeless.”

Games well played at St. Anselm softball tourney

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Officially it was the first annual Leaside softball tournament with St. Anselm inviting area teams. Good fun.

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Futuristic car models rolled out at BMW show in London

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Some odd-looking examples of the Rolls Royce and the BMW mini were on display in London this a week along with the now conventional view of your new car as driverless, bleached clean and of course shared with everybody else. Can’t wait.

Get your passport for today’s Leaside garden tour

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Details here

Hope and harsh reality for opponents of Sunnybrook towers

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About 40 residents of North Leaside met on the lawn at 281 Bessborough Saturday morning to hear messages of both hope and harsh reality around the approaching OMB hearing on the plan for high-rise towers on the Sunnybrook Plaza site. John Burnside (Ward 26) said planning decisions already made have provided the plaza’s owner, RioCan, with a wedge of precedent at OMB. While Sunnybrook was designated mid-rise (8 storeys or so) the deeper property owned by Metro Inc across the street was called suitable for high-rise. It is enough for aggressive developers to argue their case.

15 STOREYS

Mr. Burnside mentioned 15 storeys as possibly the lowest height for the higher of the two towers, now loitering in the 12 and 19 storey range in the proposal. Resident Wayne S. Roberts said the community could forget about eight storeys. He seemed to feel that 15 storeys was the lowest anyone could expect. And as Burnside made clear, the decision to settle before the OMB hearing is in the hands of the City’s planning department. The Councillor said such a settlement would be very difficult to fight. “They (the planning department) are working on behalf of the City, not us,” said Burnside. Ed: a reminder again that the municipality to which we pay taxes is seldom really in the hands of the voters. 

GARBAGE?

The Councillor spoke in frank but dispiriting terms about the effectiveness of the City’s planning. He called the Eglinton In Focus paper “largely garbage”. He suggested that planning frequently inspires visions which are not good planning and set off a development frenzy like the one now seen  across Eglinton Ave. The discussion raised questions about why the Bloor Danforth transit line has been in place for 40 years but has not seen the high-rise fever witnessed in Leaside. The answer seemed to be that there is land here and, foot for foot, it is probably worth a good deal more money at market.

SCHOOLS AND TRAFFIC

There was concern about crowded schools. One mother said Northlea Public School is bursting. Once again, Mr. Burnside was quite candid. He said TDSB “planning” was based not on forward-looking expectation of population but on how many portables had been thrown up behind the school.  This was policy.  Bessborough residents and others north and east of Sunnybrook were warned about the traffic associated with the Sunnybrook changes. They will see  traffic on Bessborough from the north seeking to avoid the corner of Bayview and Eglinton. Burnside also spoke about attempting to maintain a right hand turn westbound on Eglinton Ave at Bayview.  Fund raising appeal to stop Sunnybrook towers

City Hall seems to love this vague police task force report

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It might work, but it might not. The proponents of the potent but rather sketchy recommendations on how to save money by slimming down the police service say it will be just fine. Don’t worry. Fewer police stations, fewer police in cars, less intrusive anti-crime activity in high crime areas — the cops will get the job done digitally it seems. A slew of divisional stations will be  eliminated. The task force report tabled with the police commission today says zero about what if anything might replace them. One of the stations set to vanish is 53 Division at Eglinton Ave and Duplex Avenue. Some at City Hall — like the mayor — are quite dismissive of the divisional concept. Maybe. But there is really no denying these buildings are well-used meeting places. Maybe they’re big but perhaps they’re too big to just vanish. University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley told the Star “there is a big difference between the vision that is outlined in this report and practically implementing it.” We would add that the vision is quite fragmentary too. And the optimistic talk downtown is not specific. Co-author of the report Andy Pringle speaks of “more community-centric policing.” Sounds nice but it could mean anything.

Russia banned from Olympics for extensive state doping

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Russia will be banned from track and field events at in the Rio Olympics because the country has not ended state-sponsored doping in the sport. The International Association of Athletics Federations delivered message Friday. “I don’t think on the face of evidence, they really had any other choice,” said Paul Melia, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which carries out all drug testing in Canada. “It would have been very difficult for them to defend lifting the ban.”

St. Anselm’s playoffs at Bennington, Rolph schools

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Playoffs in the St Anselm’s house league baseball are underway Friday at Bennington Heights playground (the girls) and Rolph Road School (the boys) The play goes all day and we hope to have a summary of the tourney from St. Anselm head coach Dave Nespolo later. Here’s the final out and sportsmanship handshakes between St. Anselm A’s and the Bennington Bulldogs.

70s rock phenomenon Meat Loaf collapses in Edmonton

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The 70s rock phenomenon Meat Leaf (Michael Lee Aday) has collapsed on stage in Edmonton during what fans said was a pretty difficult performance for him. Meat Loaf is 68. He had previously cancelled two concerts.  The video shows the moment at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium when the singer bent over and knocked down his microphone stand as he fell to the floor. Audience members said he had been singing his classic “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” “He sounded terrible from the start,” wrote another. A fan said:  “It was like he pushed through each song.” He is in hospital in stable condition

Young woman gravely hurt in hit-run on Danforth Rd.

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A young woman has been gravely injured when she hit by a vehicle on the darkened pavement of Danforth Rd. just before 3 a.m. Friday.  The location appears to be between St Clair Ave. and Kennedy Rd. A passerby saw the woman, who is thought to be in her 20s, and called police. Const. Clint Stibbe told CP24 police are trying to determine what the woman’s actions were before she was struck.

Rabies outbreak in Hamilton heading towards Toronto

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Raccoon-strain rabies has spread rapidly in southwestern Ontario and is now seen in the  western reaches of the GTA.  The outbreak which began late last year near Hamilton has seen 128 cases reported so far, says the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. As a result, the ministry will release as many as a million anti-rabies vaccine packets, or bait, through the Hamilton area. The plan will be complemented by so-called hand-baiting within 50 kilometres of confirmed cases. Another sweep in August and September will aim to vaccinate juvenile animals. The baiting will be done both by hand and by helicopter, and will stretch from parts of western Toronto, Mississauga and Kitchener-Waterloo.