[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Some of the apartments hit by the Gosford apartment fire have been repaired and opened to their tenants again. Global News reports.
• Steve Munro maps the 70 O’Connor bus route in action as a case study, here.
• Condo developers have created the new neighbourhood of “West St. Clair West” out of, among other established neighbourhoods, Carleton Village. blogTO reports.
• The plans for the controversial new Pharrell Williams condo development at Yonge and Eglinton look interesting. blogTO shares.
• Should Toronto have free public mass transit? NOW Toronto makes the case.
• Brian Doucet at Spacing Toronto takes a look at the Toronto CLRV streetcars in their North American context, here.
• The repeated flooding of the Toronto Islands, as NOW Toronto points out, surely demonstrates the reality of climate change for Toronto.

[BLOG] Fifteen Toronto links

• blogTO reports that Toronto has been testing Eglinton Crosstown trains, here.
• What TTC routes might be changed by the Eglinton Crosstown? A map illustrates, over at blogTO.
• The new tower proposed for 888 Dupont, at Ossington, will even include a vertical farm. blogTO reports.
• Venerable Agincourt Mall is going to be a new condo development. blogTO reports.
• Is co-ownership actually the only way most people in Toronto will end up owning a home? blogTO considers.
• Residential tenants in a Leslieville building who complained about their landlord may end up getting evicted from a building never zoned for residents. CBC reports.
• The City of Toronto has taken over the deserted shopping arcade at Queen Street West and John. CBC reports.
• Katrina Onstad at Toronto Life tells the story of Katharine Mulherin, the Queen Street West gallery owner who changed her neighbourhood but was broken by gentrification.
• The bar Tequila Bookworm is closing, displaced by rising rents. NOW Toronto reports.
• NOW Toronto interviews night mayor Michael Thompson, here.
• Steve Munro considers the TTC’s express bus services, here.
• Terra Lumina, the nighttime cultural event at the Toronto Zoo, looks fantastic in these photos over at Toronto Life.
• Oh, what the map of Toronto subways could have been if only we planned! blogTO shares one.
• Steve Munro examines the TTC’s plan for 2020-2024, here.
• The TTC may not act to decrease overcrowding on some routes. blogTO reports on why.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Transit Toronto celebrates the life of photographer John Bromney, here.
• blogTO explains, with photos, the cause of the subway shutdown on Line 1 Wednesday night.
• blogTO notes that the TTC wants to create five transit corridor for buses, including one on Dufferin Street.
• Toronto is apparently the top tech city in Canada. blogTO reports.
• John Lorinc at Spacing considers what affordable housing actually is, especially in the context of real-world constraints less generous than often imagined.
• The displaced residents of Gosford have seen nothing from their apartment block’s owners about housing options. Global News reports.
• The TTC plans to have even more subway closures in 2020 than in 2019. Global News reports.

[PHOTO] Major malfunction, Presto card reader, 29 Dufferin bus

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC bull’s eyes, oversized homes, real estate, Unboxed Market

• Sean Marshall explores the origins of the “bull’s eyes” lights on TTC streetcars and buses.
• This Toronto Star article looks at how the construction of oversized homes is changing established Toronto neighbourhoods.
• Urban Toronto reports on a new high-end townhouse development set for construction in Long Branch, Longhaven Towns.
• Toronto Life shares the story of a young woman from Cambridge whose first Toronto apartment was a nightmare.
• Toronto Life profiles Unboxed Market, a zero-waste grocery store in Little Portugal at Dundas and Dovercourt.

[PHOTO] Racing for the northbound shuttle bus at St. Clair

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC fare, Bathurst Street, express buses, murder, #FordNation

• The TTC would like to increase fares by 10 cents a ride in the coming year, to help finance basic repairs and services. CityNews reports.
• Facing public furor, Metrolinx has decided not to try to close off Bathurst Street at Eglinton for seven months to try to speed Eglinton Crosstown construction. Global News reports.
• Steve Munro is critical of the TTC’s new express buses running on many major arteries, seeing them as mainly cosmetic in effect.
• Wendy Gillis at the Toronto Star writes about the reactions, one year later, to the murders committed by the Church and Wellesley killer.
• Richard Florida at CityLab summarizes the factors leading to the success of populist Ford Nation, first in Toronto and then in Ontario.

[PHOTO] 29 Dufferin passing under the bridge

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• James Bow makes the case for inexpensive regional bus transit in southern Ontario, beyond and between the major cities.
• D-Brief explains why Pluto’s Gate, a poisonous cave of classical Anatolia believed to be a portal to the netherworld, is the way it is.
• The Dragon’s Tales takes a look at the plethora of initiatives for self-driving cars and the consequences of these for the world.
• Far Outliers takes a look at how Persia, despite enormous devastation, managed to eventual thrive under the Mongols, even assimilating them.
• JSTOR Daily notes the connections between North American nuclear tests and the rise of modern environmentalism.
• Language Hat looks at Linda Watson, a woman on the Isle of Man who has became the hub of a global network of researchers devoted to deciphering unreadable handwriting.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the argument that the Russian hacks were only as effective as they were because of terrible journalism in the United States.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at an often-overlooked collaboration in the 1960s between New York poet Frank O’Hara and Italian artist Mario Schifano.
• Towleroad takes a look at out gay pop music star Troye Sivan.
• Window on Eurasia makes the believable contention that Putin believes in his propaganda, or at least acts as if he does, in Ukraine for instance.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: Scarborough Bluffs, waterfront transit, car dealerships, CityPlace

• Edward Keenan celebrates at the Toronto Star the belated arrival of TTC bus service to Bluffers Park, at the foot of the Scarborough Bluffs. Why did it take so long, I wonder? I have walked that long narrow road too many times. Climbing the Bluffs is almost better.
• blogTO notes how, despite official hopes, TTC funding commitments will limit the extension of new services on the waterfront.
• Christopher Hume considers the aesthetics of some of the car dealerships on the east side of the downtown, clustered around the Don, over at the Toronto Star.
• Justin Skinner looks in the City Centre Mirror at the extent to which the condo-dominated CityPlace neighbourhood, in the area of the old Spadina Yards south of the CN Tower, has thrived and come to cohere.