[PHOTO] “60 Years: The Art of Soup”

Campbell’s Soup celebrates Warhol.

[PHOTO] Looking up from the Walmart line-up at the Dufferin Mall on a blue Monday in spring

Today is a lovely blue-skied spring day.

[PHOTO] Dufferin Grove after the first snow last Thursday

Last Thursday after the first snow of fall, I took a walk down to Dufferin Grove Park. The snow, already beginning to melt in the relative warmth, dressed the park up nicely.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Zellers, Dufferin Mall, Toronto Islands, Japan, Guild Park

• Narcity notes the sad news that the last Zellers stores in Canada, including the one in Etobicoke, will be closed by January 2020.
• Tanya Mok at blogTO looks at the successes of the Dufferin Mall.
• blogTO looks at the William Meany Maze on the Toronto Islands.
• Jamie Bradburn writes of the early history of Japanese restaurants in Toronto.
• Melanie Zettler at Global News writes about the history of the Guild Park and Gardens, in Scarborough.

[URBAN NOTE] Nine Toronto links: TTC, Mount Duff, parks, Sully’s, Six Points, heritage, Port Lands

• NOW Toronto shares a report from an anonymous TTC fare evader who argues for free transit for the poorer of Toronto.</LI.
• blogTO notes that the famous wintertime snow pile of the Dufferin Mall parking lot, Mount Duff, is back!
• I am very pleased to learn of the impending plans to make the Humber Bay Shores Park better than ever. blogTO reports.
• Neighbourhood establishment, Sully’s Boxing Gym, is facing eviction from its Dupont Street home in the very near future. Will it figure out a new deal with its landlord? Will it survive to make it to a new location? blogTO reports.
• Transit Toronto notes that the infamous Six Points intersection of Etobicoke is going to be involved in a transit schedule-confusing transformation for the foreseeable future.
• A house in Wallace Emerson just sold for $C 1.4 million, after just two days on the market. Toronto Life reports.
• This plan to replace the old University of Toronto planetarium with a new establishment, at 90 Queen’s Park Crescent, of a mixed-use centre is certainly visually appealing. blogTO <a href="https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2019/02/90-queens-park-u-of-toronto/
• Richard Longley writes at NOW Toronto about the need of the city to preserve its heritage in all of its richnesses.
• John Lorinc writes at Spacing about the issues revealed in Toronto and Ontario politics by the Sidewalk Labs adventure in the Port Lands.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Light tunnels, waterfront, Ossington graffiti, Dufferin Mall, police

• blogTO notes a few of the holiday light tunnels up, from Yonge and St. Clair south to the waterfront.
• Rabble asks a useful question: How much does the Toronto public know about plans for the waterfront?
• John Lorinc at Spacing fears much may go wrong in the development of the Toronto waterfront, between a flawed auditor-general’s report and the new Ford government of Ontario.
• I must go to this graffiti-lined alley paralleling Ossington starting north of Queen. blogTO reports.
• There may yet emerge a substantial condo development on what is now the parking lot of the Dufferin Mall, to the northeast of the mall proper. blogTO reports.
• Happily, the Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal by the former policeman convicted of killing Sammy Yatim. VICE reports.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• blogTO notes that the old HMV store in the Dufferin Mall is now a fidget spinner store. This has gone viral.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about her week in Paris.
• Centauri Dreams notes one paper examining the complex formation of the dense TRAPPIST-1 system.
• Far Outliers reports from early 20th century Albania, about how tribal and language and ethnic identities overlap, and not.
• Language Log notes efforts to promote Cantonese in the face of Mandarin.
• The LRB Blog wonders if May’s electoral defeat might lead to the United Kingdom changing its Brexit trajectory.
• Marginal Revolution notes that cars have more complex computer programming these days than fighter jets.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that the counter-cyclical Brazilian fiscal cap still makes no sense.
• Window on Eurasia argues that Russia is edging towards an acknowledgement of its involvement in the Ukrainian war.

[PHOTO] Hanging pansies at Miceli’s

Miceli’s garden centre, in the parking lot of the Dufferin Mall, had some wonderful hanging pansies on display.

[PHOTO] “Dufferin Mall, really”

The catchphrase “Dufferin Mall, really” belongs to the west-end Dufferin Mall, a shopping complex that–contrary to stereotypes, and expectations–has actually done a pretty good job of connecting with its local community and of attracting a good mix of stores. (They have a Dollarama and a H&M!)