[PHOTO] Looking west towards Bloordale

[PHOTO] Dufferin and Bloor, under fresh snow, 11:25 am, Friday

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• Google has apologized for the negative shade its image search cast on Scarborough with a Twitter thread. Global News reports.
• The National Post looks at the story of the architecturally remarkable Integral House, on sale for $C 21.5 million.
• South Indian Dosa Mahal, a beloved Bloordale restaurant apparently displaced by landlords, has found a new home. blogTO reports.
• The infamous Parkdale McDonald, at King and Dufferin, has officially been closed down, relocated. blogTO reports.
• The Ontario Cannabis Store is experimenting with a same-day delivery program. NOW Toronto reports.
• Lia Grainger writes at NOW Toronto about how poor city planning has resulted in multiple dangerous intersections. (I know of two in my broader neighbourhood.)

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• Steve Munro looks at a recent examination by the Toronto auditor-general about the problems of Presto, here.
• blogTO notes that, on the weekend of the 22nd, the Toronto Reference Library will host another book sale.
• Spacing lets someone evicted for putting his apartment up for Airbnb tell his story.
• Global News tells the story of Charlie’s Friend Art Café in Bloordale, here.
• This Toronto Life account of the life and crimes of Alek Minassian remains authentically disturbing to me.
• The idea of a Toronto city charter, a constitution to protect the city’s prerogatives, does sound pretty good to me. CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Wallace Emerson, Dosa Mahal, Popeyes, Sam McBride, #nuitblanche

• Toronto Life reports on the successful conversion of a corner store in Wallace Emerson into a $C1.3 million home, here.
• Bloordale’s Dosa Mahal restaurant, sadly, is facing closure in the face of landlord pressures. blogTO reports.
• Popeyes in Canada lacks the chicken sandwiches that have gone viral in the US, and many in Toronto are unhappy. blogTO reports.
• Jamie Bradburn reports on how, in 1936, mayor Sam McBride lay in state at Old City Hall.
• NOW Toronto reports on the plans for Nuit Blanche 2019, here.

[PHOTO] Three photos of evening skies, Yonge and Eglinton and Bloordale/Bloorcourt

Yesterday evening–afternoon time in summer–was glorious, cold but for of bright blue skies. At yonge and Eglinton or at Bloor and Dufferin, I could look up and see light.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Eau du Soleil, Gooderham, Bloorcourt/Bloordale, homelessness, crime

• Urban Toronto takes a look at the Eau du Soleil condo towers in Humber Bay Shores.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the Gooderham Building through time, here.
• blogTO takes a look at the bars of Bloorcourt and Bloordale.
• CBC reports on a new group in Toronto formed to fight homelessness locally.
• The friends and family of Skandaraj Navaratnam, perhaps the first victim of the Church and Wellesley serial killer, have recently had the chance to mourm him, the Toronto Star notes.

[PHOTO] Some of what I saw on Bloor during the BIG on Bloor Festival (#bloordale, #bigonbloor)

I was on Bloor Street West, in Bloordale, on the 21st of July, when the BIG on Bloor Festival shut down the street between Dufferin and Lansdowne to make way for a pedestrian mall. The sky was cloudy and the light patchy, but the street was packed. The small vendors and and booths advertising plans for massive redevelopments of Bloor and Dufferin and the Galleria Mall were fun, as were established stores like antiquarian bookstore The Monkey’s Paw and the local outpost of Dead Dog Records. The RAGGA NYC exhibit currently playing at the Mercer Union capped things off nicely, on this venture into this familiar, gentrifying but entertaining, neighbourhood.

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[URBAN NOTE] TTC Line 1, Dufferin Street, Bloordale, #TheManWhoSoldParkdale, PR voting

• blogTO notes a closure this weekend of Line 1 between St. Clair and Lawrence for Metrolinx construction. Still, at least their post uses my photo!
• Urban Toronto notes that, the studios at 390 through 444 Dufferin Street being demolished, new construction is begin. I remember those studios from when I first moved to Toronto.
• Urban Toronto looks at the latest revision to plans to redevelop the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin, one intended to install a more human scale to the streetscape and skyline.
• NOW Toronto takes an extended look at the #TheManWhoSoldParkdale campaign against gentrification in Parkdale.
• CBC shares the argument in favour of giving permanent residents voting rights in municipal elections in the City of Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #yongeandstrong, Bloordale, rental housing crisis, Green Line

• Toronto Life has a nice photo-heavy feature sharing the experiences of some of the witnesses and survivors of the North York van attack.
• NOW Toronto reports on the discontent of Bloordale residents with the latest proposal for development on the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin.
• Prices for rental housing continue to rise beyond the city of Toronto, in the wider GTA. CBC reports.
• The idea of a crisis of affordability for Toronto renters, with one-quarter having to pay half or more of their income in rent, is very real. The Toronto Star reports.
• Public consultation on the plan for a Green Line network of parks, extending from Bathurst Street up to Earlscourt Park, will close on Friday. Submissions can be made here.