[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• blogTO looks at the Toronto of the 1950s, when Highway 2–Lake Shore and Kingston Road–was the way into the city.
• Jamie Bradburn takes a look at a 1950 tourist guide to Ontario, specifically focusing on its descriptions of Toronto.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at how, in the post-war era, dining at the Coxwell Kresge in-house restaurant was a thing.
• blogTO notes how many in Leslieville are unhappy with the idea of the Ontario Line being built above-ground.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto notes that there is going to be a Pride rally outside of Palmerston library where Meghan Murphy will be speaking.
• Spacing looks at the connections between Nuit Blanche and the Toronto Biennial, for Toronto as an artistic city.
• NOW Toronto shares some photos of Honest Ed’s in its dying days.
• Toronto Life tells the story of Peperonata Lane, a west-end laneway that took its name from a popular neighbourhood pepper-roasting event.
• blogTO notes a new movie being filmed in Regent Park, here.
• blogTO shares photos of the new Garrison Crossing pedestrian bridge, here.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Galleria Mall, Ontario vs Toronto, Ontario Line, housing, theatre

• Urban Toronto shares a detailed plan for the Galleria Mall redevelopment.
• Jennifer Pagliaro at the Toronto Star shows how the Ontario government keeps undermining decisions made in Toronto, here.
• Actually building the Ontario Line, beneath Fort York and the Don River, will be a very tricky affair. The Toronto Star reports.
• This Toronto Star article describing how four young adults in their early 20s have to cram into a single apartment in order to live in Toronto is a terrible indictment of our housing policies.
• Rick Salutin at Rabble celebrates the achievements of Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Park Wyatt, Hunny Pot, Queens Quay, Yonge survey, Stackt

• blogTO shows what the Park Wyatt, at Bloor and Avenue Road, will look like after renovations.
• Toronto Life takes a look inside the Hunny Pot, the first legal marijuana shop in Toronto.
• blogTO notes preliminary plans for a new community centre on the waterfront at Queens Quay.
• Transit Toronto notes that geophysical surveying will be ongoing for the Yonge Line extension.
• Samantha Edwards writes at NOW Toronto about Stackt, an innovative new market made of shipping containers at Fort York and Bathurst.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #650Parliament, Leslieville, Bathurst, Sheppard, Scarborough

• That the owners of 650 Parliament Street are charging displaced tenants rent, while they are away from their homes, is unconscionable. The Toronto Star reports.
• This CBC Toronto story about light pollution leaking over from a commercial building in Leslieville to nearby condos highlights a new problem for mixed-use districts.
• Urban Toronto takes a look at the latest version of a proposal for a mixed-used property at Lake Shore and Bathurst.
• blogTO notes that at least some politicians want to extend the underused Sheppard line of the TTC east to Kennedy station.
• Aparita Bhandavi at The Discourse notes how the recent elections confirmed the underrepresentation of non-white males in politics in Scarborough.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Stackd, Parkdale, paradise Theatre, Bloor/Symington, Hadrian

• Urban Toronto notes that Stackd, a container-based community market, is taking form near Fort York.
• A Parkdale community group is seeking assurances of affordable housing from local developers. The Toronto Star reports.</li
• The restoration of the Paradise Theatre on Bloor, in Bloorcourt, is proceeding apace. blogTO reports.
• The intersection of Bloor and Symington is getting better. (I imagine that the growth of Sterling Road is one trigger.) blogTO reports.
• This NOW Toronto review of the Rufus Wainwright opera Hadrian suggests promise. Perhaps a remount?

[PHOTO] Three photos taken underneath the Gardiner Expressway at Fort York

Wandering late Saturday night underneath the Gardiner Expressway, west of Bathurst Street in the high-rise condo neighbourhood of Fort York, I was decidedly impressed by the concrete immensity of the highway above and around me.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: gay Toronto, reverse commuters, TTC, Presto, Bentway

• I find quite accurate this Hornet Stories guide to gay Toronto.
• This May Warren article in the Toronto Star looking at so-called “reverse commuters” in the GTA, people who live in the city an commute outwards, is fascinating.
• It goes without saying that an uploading of the TTC from the City of Toronto to the provincial government would threaten municipal-level transit planning. The Toronto Star reports.
• The two-hour transfer program being created for Presto users is a good sign of the push to get that card up and running. (Me, I still use the Metropass; I trust it.) CBC reports.
• The block party held Saturday at the Bentway to celebrate the conversion of that patch under the Gardiner Expressway by Fort York into a public space would have been fun, I think. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Doug Ford, elections, Garrison Crossing, TCH smoke free, streets

• The City Council of Toronto, out of all the cities councils in all of the cities in Ontario, was the only one targeted for such a sharp reduction in councilors. The Toronto Star reports.
• Alexandra Flynn at Spacing reports on some legal strategies that could be brought to bear by the City of Toronto against the Doug Ford actions.
• blogTO notes a new pedestrian crossing, the Garrison Crossing, bridging the rail lines west of Fort York.
• The new smoke-free policy of Toronto Community Housing will also apply to marijuana smoke. The Toronto Star reports.
• Christopher Hume considers, in an era where cars and their drivers compete with other users of our major streets, just what does make a street successful. The Toronto Star has it.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Metrolinx, Yonge and Bloor, transitions, Fort York, U of T, churches

• Steve Munro finds much wrong with the idea of transit fare integration across the GTA through Metrolinx, over at his blog.
• blogTO notes the possibility of a new Apple store, this one at Yonge and Bloor.
• Christopher Hume notes that 2018 is going to be a year of many transitions for Toronto, over at the Toronto Star.
• An ancient First Nations arrowhead found at Fort York eighty years ago has been turned over to the city by the woman who found it. The Toronto Star reports.
• Alex Bozikovic quite likes the architecture of the University of Toronto’s downtown campus, over at The Globe and Mail.
• I have been talking about the trend of converting old church buildings in downtown Toronto into condominiums for years, even sharing photos of conversions. Why not do this? The Globe and Mail describes this trend.

[PHOTO] Twelve photos of Fort York underneath the city (@fortyork, #fortyork)

On my Sunday visit to Fort York, I was struck by how this fort is now a green space engulfed in city, towers nearby in South Core to the east and further away in Liberty Village to the west, girdled by the Gardiner Expressway to the south and by the rail tracks to the north. It’s an anachronistic island, of sorts.