News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.
Greenland Farms has sprouted some new signage on its windows. Work is going on inside to renovate the building and apparently it will reopen as a retail entity later this year. The final incarnation of the store is still unclear but this is a promising sign.
The building will eventually make way for development but in the meantime Weston residents may have fresh produce once again within walking distance. Thanks to Suri at Squibbs for the information.
Builders have announced development plans for the area of Weston and Lawrence. Responding to community concerns about yet another high-rise in Weston, they have said that they will be building their ‘tower’ underground in an innovative plan they are calling “basement dwelling”.
In a meeting late last year, residents expressed concerns that the site would contain too many rental apartments too close to transit, which could cause falling rents. There were also concerns that the site would draw more visitors to Weston, leading to changes on the main street.
In an admirable response to the community, Dingleberry Developers have promised that the the 13-storey inverted rental tower will have ample above-grade parking in a 4-level parking garage, but no residents above ground.
The building is expected to connect to the to-be-buried UPX stop, announced by Premier Ford, when the station is complete in 2050.
Shakespeare in Action has announced its inaugural Weston performances, and they sound just up my alley: short and punchy!
Tickets are $15.
Finally, it wouldn’t be summer without a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The dates and times haven’t been announced, but Shakespeare in Action will be performing it in Little Avenue Memorial Park in July.
Shakespeare in Action moved into Artscape Weston Common from downtown late last year.
The dispute between St John the Evangelist and Metrolinx has reached City News.
City says the school is empty because Metrolinx and the TCDSB can’t agree on—of all things—construction of the playground.
The school was supposed to be finished by September, 2018. If an agreement is not signed by tomorrow, the school’s opening may be delayed again.
St John students have been bussed out of town for the past 8 years.
Doug Ford’s government has announced plans to mess with transit in Toronto. Again.
This time, instead of as well as messing up the Scarborough subway, they’re going to mess up the Eglinton West LRT in Mount Dennis.
In a letter to the city, the province said they would like to bury the Eglinton West Extension, which will go from Mount Dennis to the airport. They also say that this had never been considered before.
This, of course, is nonsense. It’s astonishing nonsense. It’s mental. It boggles my mind to think that:
In a subsequent letter, the province said so. (They did not explain, however, how a part-time blogger knew more about transit planning than the Ministry of Transportation.)
Where this leaves us with respect to transit planning is anyone’s guess. But the Globe has a few choice things to say about the letters:
They reveal a provincial blueprint that will result in less new transit, built more slowly and more expensively.
What’s more, they suggest a provincial scheme so ill-considered it could have been developed between courses of a boozy lunch, and so thin it could fit on the back of a cocktail napkin.
What does the province want? Basically, to rip up years of Toronto Transit Commission planning and restart at zero.
Premier Doug Ford has returned from Florida with some new inspiration provided by Canada’s ‘11th province’. Doug seems to take his cultural lead from either Chicago where Deco Labels has a branch plant, or his Florida compound (Mar a Fordo?). According to rumours, the premier wants to truly make his mark on Ontario by re-jigging our licence plate motto. Some of us oldies can remember when it was ‘KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL’ and then the current, ‘YOURS TO DISCOVER’. Hell, I can even remember when we had to change the damned plates every year – everybody at the same time, front and back – in the middle of winter! Imagine the line-up at the liquor store on Christmas Eve – changing plates was similar, except people had to line-up outside and there was no booze at the end.
The trial balloon floated on Friday indicates that Mr. Ford is keen to change the slogan to a more capitalist, ‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS’. He also wants to get rid of that pesky front licence plate (just like Florida). One immediate benefit will be to give parking officers a little more in the way of exercise.
Perhaps readers can help Mr Ford come up with a better and more creative slogan for our car’s er, plate. Kindly place your suggestions in the comments section here, or on Facebook. Remember to keep it beautiful clean.