[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: Ottawa, Montréal, NYC, Calgary and Edmonton, Vancouver, Sao Paulo …

• Ottawa mayor Jim Watson vows to vix the LRT Confederation Line. Global News reports.
• Home-buyers in Montréal are having to buy outside of the city, in the West Island and even the mainland. The Montreal Gazette reports.
• VICE looks at the legacy of Michael Stewart, a New York City graffiti artist famously killed in the 1980s, here.
• The LRT projects in Calgary and Edmonton are currently facing terrible uncertainty thanks to new legislation. Global News reports.
• New maps show the great damage that could be caused by sea level rise in Metro Vancouver. Global News reports.
• Spacing reports on an amazing graphic novel biography of Sao Paulo.
• Guardian Cities looks at the problematic gentrification of Soweto, here.

[CAT] Five #caturday links: Edmonton, research, sex, Scotland, social media and trackers

Alanna Mitchell at MacLean’s writes about a forensic investigation into a series of cat deaths in Edmonton.
• A pet cat was caught up in a research project focusing on roaming cats and their impact on birds, and its owner was upset. KWWL reports.
• A male cat in China escaped and had so much sex it needed a glucose drip. NY Mag reports.
• George the cat, a tabby in Scotland, has an active social media following as people watch for him as he roams. British Metro has it.
• VICE reports on how a tracking device for cats not wildly different from Fitbit traced the movements of one cat around his neighbourhood.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Town of the Blue Mountains, Québec City, Calgary, Edmonton

• Kingston will be hosting an open house discussion on the legacies of its most famous resident, John A. MacDonald. Global News reports.
• The Toronto Star reports on a beach and land ownership controversy in the Georgian Bay resort Town of the Blue Mountains, here.
• CBC Montreal reports on the closure of the Québec City church Très-Saint-Sacrement, after just under a century of operation, here.
• Cost increases for the Green Line LRT in Calgary may lead to route changes. Global News reports.
• The Brick has taken over the space of Sears in the West Edmonton Mall, offering hope to shopping malls of survival. Global News reports.

[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.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Thunder Bay, London, Hong Kong, Edmonton

• CTV News reports the exceptional popularity of a Toronto Blue Jays away game in Montréal.
• A library n Thunder Bay is playing a critical role in helping treat the ills of that city. Tanya Talaga writes at the Toronto Star.
• Guardian Cities reports on how poor children in mixed-use housing in London are being kept from using public playgrounds.
• The Financial Times reports on the rapid growth of the French immigrant community in Hong Kong, now numbering tens of thousands of people.
• Céline von Engelhardt writes at MacLean’s about how Sobey’s has secured for itself, in the new north-central Edmonton neighbourhood of Griesbach, restrictive covenants that exclude any possible retail competition elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Edmonton, London, Rio de Janeiro, Addis Ababa

• The Strand bookstore in New York City is seeking to avoid being granted heritage status, in order to avoid the complications which could drive it out of business. The Guardian reports.
• The City of Edmonton, post-2014, will not regain previous levels of per capita wealth until the 2030s. The Edmonton Journal reports.
• Henry Wismayer has a heart-felt essay at Medium talking about how a London plunged into the heart of a turbo-charged capitalism is becoming increasingly inhospitable for the non-rich. Grenfell Tower beckons on the horizon.
• Guardian Cities shares photos of the homes taken over by squatters in Rio de Janeiro.
• The National, from the UAE, praises the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as not just a regional hub but as a worthy tourist destination in its own right.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Scarborough and Vaughan, Hamilton, Montréal, Edmonton, Vancouver

• The auditor of Ontario is investigating two proposed Metrolinx stations, one in Scarborough and one in Vaughan, that may have been placed for the benefit of political incumbents. CBC reports.
• CBC Hamilton reports that some Hamilton neighbourhoods continued to see strong interest and continued price rises despite a general slowdown.
• La Presse reports on the disruption to traffic and the environment that will be caused by the repair of a tunnel linking the island of Montréal to the South Shore.
• The annual ice castle in Edmonton seems to be doing well, what with cold weather locally. Global News reports.
• “Renovictions”–buyouts of tenants–are a growing trend in Vancouver that some local activists are warning against. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Queens, Edmonton, San Francisco, Manizales, Tbilisi

• VICE considers how mass transit issues in Queens will be changed by the Amazon HQ2 relocation there.
• The Edmonton alternate paper Vue Weekly will be closing down this month, Global News reports.
• The ongoing disastrous fires in California have left San Francisco with the worst recorded air quality of any city in the world, Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities looks at how the disaster-prone city of Manizales, in Colombia, prepares for catastrophes.
• Guardian Cities looks at how, after years of unregulated construction and growth, the Georgian capital of Tbilisi is trying to prepare for smarter growth.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Montréal, Longueuil, Halifax, Edmonton

• Kingston is working on its third bridge connection up the Cataraqui, this one well upstream of other bridges. Global News reports.
• CityLab praises the redesign of the Bonaventure Expressway in Montréal into a boulevard, noting the revivification of Griffintown produced as a result.
• The new Québec government is open to a further extension of the Yellow Line subway into Longueuil, apparently more open than it is to the the Pink Line in Montréal proper. CTV News reports.
• Is a CFL stadium and a team in Halifax viable? Much depends on a bid that is as much about the standing of Halifax as a major centre as anything else. Global News reports.
• The new Capilano branch of the public library system of Edmonton looks lovely. Global News shows the location.