[PHOTO] A look at the #PianoTowns site, Dupont and Westmoreland, 2011 and 2017 and 2020

The Piano Towns development, on the southeast corner of Dupont and Westmoreland, is nearing completion, units selling at more than $C 1 million each.

I photographed the site in 2011, just another empty lot left after a 2009 fire.

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I also photographed the place in 2017.

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[PHOTO] E Condos, vanishing into fog, Saturday afternoon

[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] Six Toronto links

• The Pilot, in Yorkville, celebrates its 75th anniversary as a venue. Global News reports.
• Some immigrant businesspeople recently bought an old Toronto Hydro building in the north of the city as a shelter for immigrants. Global News reports.
• The backlash against the proposed condo tower at Yonge and Eglinton branded by Pharrell Williams has been swift. blogTO reports.
• Urban Toronto notes that a 13-story mixed-use building has been proposed for 888 Dupont Street, at the corner of Dupont and Ossington.
• A TV crew in North York last week cancelled its shoot in North York, near the site of last year’s ramming attack on Yonge Street. CTV News reports.
• A poster on r/Toronto noted last week the six-year anniversary of the admission of then-mayor Rob Ford that he smoked crack.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• blogTO notes the maps made by artist Peter Gorman showing the strange intersections of Toronto.
• This imagining of a wholly pedestrianized lower Yonge Street looks attractive. blogTO has it.

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• Jamie Bradburn tells how couples in Toronto during the Second World War expressed their love, here.
• This condo at 701 Dovercourt Road looks amazing. blogTO reports.
• Toronto Pearson Airport failed in its obligation to provide services for French-language travelers, the Official Languages Commissioner has ruled. CTV News reports.
• So-called “unicorn poutine” is offered for sale at a north Toronto restaurant. Global News reports.

[PHOTO] 11 Wellesley West, from an angle

[PHOTO] Looking down at E Condos

[PHOTO] Looking up at E Condos, Yonge and Eglinton

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Toronto Monopoly, signs, public art, Portlands, Union Station

• blogTO notes that there is, for a short while, a Toronto-themed version of Monopoly available for sale.
• The iconic Toronto sign in front of City Hall is set to be replaced with a more cost-effective one. The Toronto Star reports.
• I like the controversial statue of a man 25 feet tall placed in front of a new condo development on St. Clair Avenue West. The Toronto Star reports.
• The National Post reports in depth of the plans of Google’s Sidewalk Labs to transform the Portlands.
• Sean Marshall looks at how the concrete barriers put up in front of Union Station disrupt, particularly, non-car traffic there.