The Maple Leaf comeback win over the Columbus Blue Jackets really must be seen. Or watched again. Start near the end of the third period and gasp out loud as the Leafs score three goals in about four minutes to tie Game Four of the Stanley Cup qualifier 3-3. Then empty-arena heroics as Austin Matthews wins it for the Leafs in overtime. The series is being played at Scotiabank Arena with the deciding game on Sunday.
Work has begun in earnest on the main station for the Leaside stop of the Crosstown LRT at Eglinton Ave. and Bayview Ave. The video on the left is the action at a trench digging across Eglinton near Mann Ave which reduced traffic on Tuesday to one lane on the north side of the street. On the right, the chaotic scene down at Bayview and Eg where pedestrians were asking sewer workers if it was safe to cross the street. “Sure lady, go ahead”. Wild and crazy, you bet. There is more to come here because this stop will require excavation out into Eglinton and a covering of planks for a while.
There was lots fun of Friday midday on the southwest corner of Bayview and Eglinton Aves. as multiple bucket trucks from Hydro One performed unknown adjustments. On the ground however, there was a happy police presence for those heading to Tim Hortons. Coffee and doughnuts lunchers were practically under police escort as they approached. This to keep them out from under the constantly moving buckets. Once inside, coffee and doughnuts. Wild and crazy.
The corner of Bayview Ave.and Eglinton East is about to begin another convulsive adventure in building the much-loved (by politicians) LRT. Medians on Bayview are being demolished Tuesday to permit traffic to be switched back and forth from one side of the street to the other. A new maze of traffic lights to somehow or other control confused drivers is being installed. Thus it will not be long before work begins on the excavations into the street which are required to construct the Leaside Station facilities. As is known, this site is also going to be the scene of a high-rise condominium on Bayview Ave. built by Countrywide Homes. It will probably test the nine-storey bylaw again, just as RioCan is doing at the Sunnybrook Plaza site. Wild and crazy.
Work in the south side lanes of Eglinton Ave. (eastbound) has reached a point where one of the eastbound lanes has been opened. But one eastbound lane has been closed making causing motorists turning left into Eglinton to pause to make sure they are in an open lane and not a construction dead-end. Reader Gary Slippoy says he watched from his window yesterday after they opened the new lane. At least 12 cars stopped suddenly due to the change of lanes.(Thursday, January 21, 2016).
Construction “boulevard” in centre of Eglinton Ave. E. Photo: Bob Arsenault
The traffic accident at Eglinton Ave. and Banff Rd. tonight reminds us that the wild and crazy conditions existing at Eglinton and Bayview Ave have extended west. Metrolinx has constructed a huge “boulevard” down the centre of Eglinton between Bayview and Banff. This prevents all left turns onto Cleveland, Hoyle and Mann. So there is a lot of action centred on Banff and Eglinton where the accident occurred about 7 p.m. Tonight’s little smash-up required the detour of several TTC bus routes down Banff, east on Soudan and then north on Cleveland to avoid the obstruction.
The tumultuous corner of Eglinton Ave. E and Bayview Ave continues to be just that way. The beat goes on. The McDonald’s is gone but on the upside it is now much easier to get in and out of Metro. All that digging in the grocery parking lot last week was about removing the funny little lanes that used to slow things down so much when you went in there. There is still repaving happening outside the front door. Metro also has placed a sign board on the corner advertising a new Peller Estates Wine store inside.
WYNNE-A-BEER?
This has nothing to do with the Wynne-a-Beer project of the local MPP. Peller is part of a wine mammoth which somehow got itself endowed with the right to open retail stores all over the province, unlike other Ontario vintners. Also in the Metro lot, Tosto Quickfire Pasta Pizza is forging ahead with plans to open at the designated address of 609 Roehampton Ave. There is a sign in the window saying they are hiring. Kittycorner is the lifeless McDonald’s, except for the boys carting out bit and pieces.
SAY GOODBYE TO HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES
Big Mac himself has already taken the stoves and other useful stuff to storage. It is sad for some because as @idcvannessa said on Twitter: “Someone say goodbye to my high school memories.” Across the street is the Mac’s. It will soon become a Circle K (Yee Haw Leaside). This is because the owner of Mac’s Couche Tarde (Night Owl) had a funny daydream to re-brand all the Mac’s. Jeez. Why don’t they try sleeping at night? Down the walk at Sunnybrook is Gentry Menswear where the owner has announced his retirement. Reasonably, the sale will go on until Christmas. Nice clothes though.
Three people have been injured, two critically, after a single-vehicle collision in Etobicoke early Sunday morning. Police say the car shown in the City News video capture above was hurtling along about 3 a.m. when it struck a barrier, hit a pole and flipped. It seems remarkable that anyone survived. All of this at the corner of Islington Ave. and Dundas St. opposite Mongomery’s Inn. Video.
Bitcoin perps at it again
Who invented bitcoin? The best friend a conman ever had is once again the object in a crazy scheme to terrify and steal from people. This time anonymous letters are being sent in Halton Region and Toronto in which the bitcoin perps threaten to poison you and your family if you don’t go to your handy corner store and pay them some $1,500 in protection money. Fortunately, most people see through this dirty racket.
The RCMP in Nova Scotia has struggled with a dead-air response to just what happened last Friday during that all-day shooting rampage by Gabriel Wortman. Friday they finally offered a timeline for events as reported by CTV. The CBC National report below tells of how Wortman was captured more or less by chance. Next, an ITV report on how Greece got a leg up on COVID-19 because so many doctors there knew that the country’s broken hospitals could not possibly cope with an epidemic. How odd.
Below that, a wild compilation by the Toronto Sun on how whacky Internet influencers have been hit by the pandemic. Finally, video of that crazy 21-year-old, now in custody, burning rubber at Yonge and Dundas. Once again Dundas Square is revealed as a mecca for teeny people and slightly older lunatics.
Leaside Sr. Wildcat teams won gold in all three divisions of the senior women’s competitive tournament called the Golden Blades on Sunday. They are the Senior AA, Senior BB (at top) and Senior C team (below). At post time, the Senior AA ladies are being shy although a picture will be coming. As Wildcats president Jennifer Smith says it was a crazy day. The Golden Blades event is played at the Scotiabank Pond, a four-pad arena at Buckingham Arena in North York.
Posts to Leaside Community Facebook page tell of rowdy kids in numbers estimated at 200 roaming streets in South Leaside Sunday night. There was much disturbance and possibly damage done variously on Southvale, Bessborough, Sutherland, Leacrest and Rolph, to name five. Police had to be called to break up the carousing. One witness says it was “quite a mob scene at Southvale/Rolph and on Leacrest.” The post goes on: “I’ll bet the apologetic neighbour will be apologizing to his parents, bigly! It was a good learning experience for my tween to see what happens when this stuff gets out on social media. Michael Nourse said that 200 was not an exaggeration. Kate Craig wrote that on Friday “there was a car with about 30 kids sitting on top of it driving down Bessborough. Beer bottles in hands. Crazy.” Patrick Rocca said “idiots ran up the front hood of my convertible, literally, over the roof and down back..thank gawd no damage, just footprints…gonna check out my security camera film tonight..I know where the party was.” Vanessa Campbell agreed: “Yes crazy mob last night, I couldn’t believe how many kids were going into that house. I was curious if the party throwers themselves called the cops as it was getting too out of hand, and they needed help clearing all the people out!”
