[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Guelph, Innisfil, Montréal, Asbestos, Québec City, Alberta, Richmond

• Guelph will be holding an open house to see what development will replace the Dolime Quarry. Global News reports.
• The town of Innisfil has extended its Uber subsidy program for people in need of transit. Global News reports</u.
• Archeologists in Montréal have found a mass grave of Irish famine victims. CTV reports.
• The Québec town of Asbestos is changing its name so as to avoid the link, in English, with the toxic mineral. CTV reports.
• A subway, alas, would be too big for Québec City. Streetcars would work better. Le Devoir reports.
• Can a hyperloop be built to plug Edmonton together with Calgary? Global News considers.
• Richmond, British Columbia, has unveiled a cultural harmony strategy to help its diverse population get along. The National Post reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Gatineau, Montréal, Halifax, wild turkeys and monk parakeets, Venice, Kamza

• The city of Gatineau is going to take land with constructions devastated by flooding and make it into a buffer zone. CBC reports.
• There is controversy around the idea of naming a REM station in Montréal’s Griffintown neighbourhood after Bernard Landry. Global News reports.
• Halifax has a third heritage district. Global News reports.
• The wild turkey is now thriving in many American cities, in New Jersey’s Toms River and even in Washington D.C. CityLab reports.
• The monk parakeet is thriving in European cities like Madrid and London. CityLab reports.
• The Conversation suggests that Venice may yet benefit from the attention brought to its problems by the recent flooding.
• Guardian Cities looks at the remarkably rapid construction of the city in Albania of Kamza, driven by (among other factors) remittances from emigrants.

[NEWS] Five Window on Eurasia links: Estonia, eugenics, empire, demographics, Old Believers

• Window on Eurasia notes how Russia continues to oppose the recognition of the 1920 Treaty of Tartu as the basis for Russia-Estonia relations, here.
• Window on Eurasia reports on how, and why, Stalin cracked down on eugenics as a permissible theory in the Soviet Union, here.
• Window on Eurasia reports on polling suggesting Russians are more interested in their country acting as a great power than as an empire, here.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, in the space of the former Soviet Union, population growth in the six Muslim-majority republics more than compensates in absolute numbers for declines elsewhere.
• Window on Eurasia notes the resettlement of a couple hundred Old Believers, part of a diaspora of perhaps seven thousand, in the Far East of Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city notes: Montréal, Bronx, Nashville, Chicago, London

• People in Montréal will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk over the Champlain Bridge, scheduled for demolition in the near future. Global News reports.
• The Conversation looks at the mass tourism, after Joker, directed towards a flight of stairs in The Bronx, and what this means for cities.
• CityLab notes the deep upset of the numerous and influential Kurds of Nashville with Trump.
• CityLab looks at how a Chicago magazine reflects the gentrification of large parts of that metropolis.
• Guardian Cities takes a look at what maps of Victorian London, mapping disparities of wealth and social dysfunction, reveal about the city now.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Jamie Bradburn shares photos from his neighbourhood’s East Lynn Pumpkin Parade, here.
• Sidewalk Labs is going to release details of all the data it wants to collect. The Toronto Star reports.
• NOW Toronto reports on the controversy in the NDP riding association for Parkdale-High Park over the nomination, here.
• There is a napping studio in Toronto, offering people the chance to nap for 25 minutes at $10 per nap. The National Post reports.
• CBC reports on a film about Little Jamaica, a neighbourhood along Eglinton Avenue West that might be transformed out of existence, here
• Daily Xtra looks at the legacy of the Meghan Murphy visit to Toronto.
• Spacing notes that the Toronto Reference Library has a large collection of Communist newspapers available for visitors.
• The idea of Metrolinx paying for the repair of damaged Eglinton Avenue does make a lot of intuitive sense. CBC reports.

[NEWS] Thirteen #cdnpoli links for #elxn43

• CTV News notes that election day is here in Canada.
• CTV News shares a list of answers to frequently asked questions about #elxn43 requirements.
• Philippe Fournier at MacLean’s notes that #elxn43 is shaping to be perhaps the most uncertain federal election in Canada since 1979, at least.
• Kai Cheng Thom at Daily Xtra addresses the despair of a voter wondering if they should vote at all. Even in dark times, there must be some room for hope, for creative responses.
• Andrew Coyne at the National Post points out the obvious, that Canadians should not feel smug about dysfunction in the US and Britain.
• Chris Selley at the National Post argues against electoral reform.
• CBC shares stories of Syrian refugees, now citizens, voting for the first time in #elxn43.
• The diffusion of extremist sentiments in Canada in the past few years is a real concern. NOW Toronto has it.
• This CBC opinion suggests that expatriates from Canada, non-resident in the country, should not have a right to vote.
• Andrew Scheer, once notable for his vocal support for Brexit, is now much quieter about the issue. CBC reports.
• Peter Henderson at NOW Toronto argues that Ed the Sock has become the voice of a responsible conservatism.
• The claims of Andrew Scheer that the political party that wins the most seats gets to form the government in the Canadian system are obviously wrong. Global News has it.
• Who, exactly, forms the middle class in Canada, that demographic that Trudeau and Scheer have been claiming to address? CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New Orleans, Berlin, Hasankeyf, Hong Kong

• Why not build a public beach in the Montréal neighbourhood of Lachine? Global News considers.
• The Vietnamese cuisine of New Orleans does look good. VICE reports.
• CityLab describes an effort to build a smart city in Berlin, in Siemensstadt. I wish Berliners better outcomes than what Toronto seems to be getting in the Port Lands.
• Guardian Cities reports on what seems to me to be a terrible plan to flood the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf in Turkey for dams.
• Saša Petricic at CBC looks at how the political consensus in Hong Kong has broken down, perhaps irretrievably.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Toronto Queer Theatre Festival, Junction, Shevchenko, 1926, suicide

• Drew Rowsome reviews the offerings at the Toronto Queer Theatre Festival, here.
• blogTO notes the displeasure of the Junction at the removal of a wooden train platform, become a community hub, for condo construction.
• Bloor West Village, blogTO notes, hosts a museum–newly reopened in a new location–devoted to the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at vintage Toronto ads, these from the parties contending 1926 federal election.
• In this long-form CBC feature, Ioanna Roumeliotis writes about the new things the TTC is doing to try to prevent suicides on the subway tracks.

[MUSIC] Five music links: Lee Hazlewood, Massive Attack, Lana del Rey, One Love, Pet Shop Boys

• Dangerous Minds shares vintage demo recordings from Lee Hazlewood, here.
• NOW Toronto looks at the influence of the Massive Attack album Mezzanine on the Toronto music scene, here.
• NOW Toronto reviews the new Lana del Rey album, Norman Fucking Rockwell.
• NOW Toronto looks at the One Love Festival, expanding the connections of the Toronto scene to Caribbean music.
• Towleroad shares a lyric video for the new Pet Shop Boys single “Dreamland”, with Olly Alexander of Years and Years.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten city links: Montréal, Lac-Mégantic, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton …

• Tracey Lindeman writes at CityLab about how Montréal is trying to keep the redevelopment of the Molson-Coors Brewery site from killing the Centre-Sud.
• In the Montréal neighbourhood of Park-Extension, evictions–renovictions, even–are on the rise. Global News reports.
• Lac-Mégantic now has a train depot that bypasses the heart of this traumatized community. CBC Montreal reports.
• Halifax is now celebrating the Mosaic Festival, celebrating its diversity. Global News reports.
• Jill Croteau reports for Global News about Club Carousel, an underground club in Calgary that played a vital role in that city’s LGBTQ history.
• This business plan, aiming to bypass long lineups at the Edmonton outpost of the Jollibee chain, is ingenious. Global News reports.
• The Iowa town of Pacific Junction, already staggering, may never recover from a recent bout of devastating flooding. VICE reports.
• Avery Gregurich writes for CityLab about the Illinois town of Atlas, a crossroads seemingly on the verge of disappearing from Google Maps.
• The proposal for Metropica, a new sort of suburb in Florida, certainly looks interesting. VICE reports.
• Guardian Cities shares a cartoon looking affectionately at Lisbon.