Did this dentist buy all that candy?
Y
es, Dr. Bradley Lands, of Midtown Orthodontics on Bayview, bought 105 pounds from parents and their kids who brought him their leftovers from Halloween. He was paying $5 a pound, and then donating an equal amount to help renovate the playground in Trace Manes Park as part of the memorial for Georgina Walsh, the young Leaside girl who died in a traffic accident at McRae and Millwood. It cost him $510 to buy the candy, instead of $525 because some of the candy was donated. He sent $600 to the park project and donated the candy itself to Sarah’s Food Drive.
Streets covered with wet, slippery leaves are a special hazard around Leaside these days, especially in heavily travelled areas near schools.
Residents are asked NOT to sweep, blow, rake or dump leaves from their driveways and sidewalks onto Leaside roads.
“It is illegal,” says Patricia Barrett of City Hall. “(It) can cause slippery road conditions and lead to flooding.”
Offenders can face charges. A few city neighbourhoods with lots of trees and heavy accumulations of leaves are offered a service known as mechanical leaf pickup explained a city spokesperson, but added: “Leaside is not one of those areas.”
Leasiders are expected to put their leaves “in paper bags or reusable, rigid, open-top containers on regularly scheduled yard waste collection dates.” Or, better yet, compost them.
Traffic can grind street leaves to a soggy pulp that can clog storm drains, create black ice or dangerous surface ponding and can even lead to nasty basement backups.
House-hunters in Leaside are writing personally to homeowners to ask: “Want to sell?” A recent letter read: “We are a young couple looking to buy a home in your area. We are not builders or real estate agents. We just love the area and are looking to privately purchase a home in which to live and start a family . . .” The Idler has received three such letters in recent months. It is a growing trend.
Mitch Koyama is pleased the half-finished house at 73 Donegall Dr. is emerging from its legal limbo and may face demolition. A large (and likely aged) dead raccoon – believed to have lived in the eyesore house beside him – was removed by the city.
A consulting engineer, who is withholding his name, is attempting to calculate the height of low-flying jets over Leaside. “The frequency of flights is increasing while their altitude is decreasing,” he noted, but declined to elaborate.
Chocolate-maker Ferrero Rocher has (tastelessly to some) joined the ranks of door-step marketers in Leaside. “We knocked on hundreds of doors and gave away chocolates,” said Alessia Pham, one of several people who promoted the confectionery on Remembrance Day.
A house on Bessborough Dr. was decorated with Christmas lights while carollers sang the following day. More chocolates were handed out.
A $1.15 million McLaren P1 supercar has been seen in the neighbourhood. (Only 375 are expected to be built.) The exotic car reportedly belongs to the music producer/DJ known as Deadmau5.
Several tons of stone dumped on Sharron Dr. near Cameron Cres. baffled homeowners and raised concerns about safe driving at night. No one had claimed the pile after a month; there was no contractor work underway nearby, and City Hall had no roadworks planned. Was it a case of illegal dumping, or a project hit with an unforeseen delay?
