[PHOTO] Fourteen photos of Christmas lights, in Dovercourt Village and High Park North

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: flooding, weather, towers, plants

• Rising water levels on the eastern beaches of Toronto are a growing concern. The Toronto Star reports.
• Earlier this month, a poster at r/toronto shared photos of Toronto Islands flooding, here.
• The City of Toronto is warning of flood risks near the Lake Ontario shoreline. CBC reports.
• blogTO notes the unusually cold weather this May.
• Urban Toronto looks at the Grenadier Square tower near High Park.
• Toronto Life shares photos of the Tokyo Smokes cannabis shop, in the old HMV at Yonge and Dundas.
• James Burt at Spacing identifies some invasive plants in the Toronto area.

[URBAN NOTE] Five #cherryblossomsTO links

• blogTO notes that High Park subway station was very crowded Saturday with the crowds looking for the sakura.
• CBC Toronto shares photos of the sakura of High Park.
• blogTO shares photos of the sakura of High Park.
• Toronto Life looks at the weekend sakura of High Park.
• r/toronto shares this beautiful photo showing the cherry blossoms of Exhibition Place.

[PHOTO] Two maps of High Park (#highpark)

After I came back with a friend from a tour of the sakura of High Park last evening–the upside of the wet and the chill meant that there were no large crowds, at least–we came across this outdoors map of the park just a couple of minutes’ walk from the High Park TTC station.

Earlier in our walk, we had come across this map demonstrating where fishing is possible in Grenadier Pond, by far the largest body of water in Toronto’s High Park.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: raccoons, High Park sakura, dog parks, marijuana, Queen Video

• Jamie Bradburn looks back at vintage coverage in the Toronto press from 1952 about some fortunate raccoons.
• blogTO notes that this weekend will seek peak bloom in the cherry blossoms of High Park.
• Edward Brown at Spacing writes about the decades-long struggle to get dog parks accepted in Toronto.
• CBC Toronto notes controversy in Etobicoke surrounding a local brewery’s decision to process medical marijuana on site.
• This National Post article by Sadaf Ahsan looks at how now-defunct Queen Video contributed hugely to pop culture in Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: 1919, condos, Long Branch, transit, Walk-Up Weekdays, sakura

• Jamie Bradburn shares some editorials from Toronto newspapers in 1919 reacting to the city’s general strike.
• CBC Toronto reports on the growing number of 311 complaints about short-term rentals in many condo complexes, like the Ice Condos.
• blogTO profiles an excellent-looking condo at 1100 Lansdowne Avenue, on Lansdowne near Davenport.
• Tess Kalinowski writes at the Toronto Star about controversies in Long Branch regarding lot severance. How can this old community densify?
• Edward Keenan writes at the Toronto Star about the point that a transit shelter enclosed on four sides did not make, and the point that it did perhaps make inadvertantly.
• The Toronto Public Library announces its Walk-Up Weekdays program, where this month possession of a library card can give someone free admission to a city museum.
• The Toronto cherry blossom festival in High Park will start this weekend, with road closures starting Saturday. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: High Park, rent, Sri Lanka, vertical farm, Zizek vs Peterson

• The cherry blossoms of High Park are expected to start blooming earlier than expected, perhaps reaching peak bloom in a week’s time. blogTO reports.
• blogTO notes that someone was trying to rent out a bed in an occupied apartment for a rent of $C 600 a month.
• A Toronto Star investigation reveals the prominence of ghost hotels, enabled by Airbnb, in making the rental housing market that much more difficult.
• At NOW Toronto, Liam Barrington-Bush considers what renters in Toronto can learn from their activist counterparts in Berlin and Barcelona.
• Aparita Bhandari wrote at The Discourse about how Sri Lankans living in Scarborough responded to the recent terrible bombings.
• blogTO writes about the new vertical farm set to be built at University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.
• The VICE account of the debate between Slavoj Zizek and Jordan Peterson reveals much.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Port Lands, High Park beer, #tunnelofglam, Toronto Pride, refugees

• The project of building a new river valley in the Port Lands, at the mouth of the Don, is a breathtakingly bold vision. The Toronto Star reports.
• The High Park Zoo will be getting its own brand of beer. (Will the capybaras feature? One hopes.) blogTO reports.
• Toronto will be getting a sparkling tunnel at Yonge and St. Clair, Instagram-ready already with the hashtag #tunnelofglam picked out. blogTO reports.
• Kristyn Wong-Tam writes at NOW Toronto about why now might be time for Toronto Pride, to ensure its independence and security from threats, to break free from restrictive funding sources.
• Perhaps 40% of the people making use of Toronto shelters for the homeless are refugees or asylum claimants, a new report suggests. CBC reports.

[PHOTO] Glittering, east to west

Toronto is gorgeous in the night. The Google Photos-stitched panorama is last in this series of four.

[PHOTO] Six photos of the Toronto skyline at evening

A friend’s balcony offers unforgettable views of the Toronto skyline and Lake Ontario beyond, so I naturally took advantage of it.

Three photos in this set–the first one here, and the last two–are panoramas kindly stitched together by Google Photos. (One must acknowledge one’s collaborators.) Click on them to see their full breadth.