[URBAN NOTE] Fifteen Kingston, Ontario links (#kingstonon)

• CBC reports on suggestions that Kingston should plan for a population expected to grow significantly in coming decades, to not just expand but to have intensified development downtown.
• The rental housing market for Kingston is very tight, not only because of large student populations. Global News reports.
• Kingstonist reports on Queen’s plans to build a large new student residence on Albert Street, here.
• The Whig-Standard carries an account of the new Queen’s principal being interrogated by Kingston city council over issues of friction between school and city, including costs for policing (and not only at Homecoming weekend).
• This summer, farmers in the Kingston area saw poor crop production as a consequence of the weather. Global News reports.
• Happily, the budget of the city of Kingston was made to accommodate costs for Murney, the police force’s horse. Global News reports.
• Weston Food’s plant in Kingston has seen forty jobs cut. Global News reports.
• Lake Ontario Park, in the west of the city, may be reopened to limited camping. The Whig-Standard reports.
• Kingston hockey player Rebecca Thompson is now playing for the team of Queen’s. Global News reports.
• Queen’s University is not alone in urging its exchange students in Hong Kong to evacuate. The Whig-Standard reports.
• Yesterday, a plane crashed in the west of Kingston, killing all seven people aboard. CBC reports</u..
• Chris Morris at Kingstonist has a long feature examining the Kingston Street Mission, interviewing outreach worker Marilyn McLean about her work with the homeless of the city.
• Kingston-born street nurse Cathy Crowe talks about homelessness, in Kingston and across Canada. Global News reports.
• The family of Royal Military College cadet Joe Grozelle, who disappeared from his campus and was later found dead two decades ago, wants his fate reinvestigated. Global News reports.
• A hundred students at a Kingston public school are being taught how to skate, part of a pilot program. Global News reports.

[NEWS] Ten LGBTQ links: crime, Toronto, Montréal, HIV/AIDS, in memoriam, education, sports, camp

• Leo Mantha, the last man executed in British Columbia in 1959, was executing for killing his estranged lover. Was homophobia the cause of what was, even then, a unique lack of mercy? Global News considers.
• Brian D. Johnson at MacLean’s, reviewing Killing Patient Zero, notes how the openness of Gaëtan Dugas about his sexual past was one feature that led him to be unfairly branded Patient Zero, cause of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
• This invaluable Justin Ling AMA at reddit’s unresolvedmysteries about the Church-Wellesley serial killings, besides exposing the accidents that led police not following up on reports, highlights a historic worldwide pattern of rage-filled killing sprees against queer people.
• Shaun Brodie at NOW Toronto pays tribute to the late, great writer Wayson Choy.
• CTV News reports that the Québec National Assembly has extended official recognition of the historic importance of the Village gay of Montréal.
• Phys.org links to a study suggesting that countries which extend civil rights to LGBTQ people experience higher economic growth as a result.
• Peter Mendelsohn at Daily Xtra looks at homophobia in Canadian hockey, a factor that deters many queer people from playing the sport. Can it be easily dealt with?
• Erica Lenti at Daily Xtra has a fantastic article looking at how gay-straight alliances at schools help young people learn how to be queer in a safe environment, providing them with the socialization they do not get elsewhere.
• This lovely essay by wedding photographer Dana Koster at them explores, in general and in a specific example, the miracle and joys of legal same-sex marriage.
• Elio Iannacci at Daily Xtra writes, in the wake of the Met gala, about the specifically queer nature of camp.

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: Cree NHL, Mi’kmaq, US-Mexico border, Australia, reconciliation

• APTN is broadcasting NHL hockey games with Cree-language commentary, a first. Global News reports.
• New funding and authority has been given to Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq educational authority. Global News reports.
• The National Observer notes the significant damage that the Trump border wall could cause indigenous peoples bisected by the US-Mexico frontier.

A school in Melbourne, Australia, is doing interesting work trying to help Aborigine children bridge the cultural divide in their lives. The Toronto Star reports.

• Natan Obed writes in MacLean’s about how the press following Trudeau in Iqaluit failing to deal with his apology to the Inuit reflects a failed implementation of reconciliation.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City, Churchill

• The vacancy rate in Kingston is easily the lowest of any major Ontario city, even worse than Toronto. Global News reports.
• CBC notes that Ottawa is continuing to work on building a film centre in its Greenbelt.
• La Presse notes that residents of the neighbourhood of Glenmount, in the Montréal borough of Côte-des-Neiges, are threatening to separate from the city.
• Québec City has again been rejected by the NHL, the North American hockey league deciding not to situate a team in this pro-hockey town despite strong local support. CBC reports.
• After more than a year, regular passenger rail service has finally resumed between Winnipeg and Churchill. CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa, Simcoe County, Vancouver, Dublin, Dubrovnik

• Kyle Cicerella at the Canadian Press reports on the close link in Oshawa between GM workers and their local OHL hockey team, the Oshawa Generals. The Global News hosts the article.
• This long feature at Global News about the impact of the fentanyl epidemic in Simcoe County is heart-rending.
• VICE reports on how the May Wah SRO hotel, an affordable haven for elderly Chinese-Canadians in downtown Toronto, managed to survive the threat of gentrification.
• Guardian Cities reports on how Dublin is facing a serious homelessness crisis despite there being more than thirty thousand empty homes, held by landlord investors.
• The English-language Dubrovnik Times reports that, apparently on the basis of thriving tourism, Dubrovnik stands out in Croatia as a place that has seen population growth.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Ontario PCs, Bohemian Rhapsody, Scott Thompson, Internet, Check Please!

• Ontario PCs have shamefully voted in favour of no longer recognizing gender identity. If this party, forming a government that has already invoked the notwithstanding clause, tries anything else against transgender people, let the fight start. Global News reports.
• The essay of Peter Knegt at CBC Arts highlighting problems of queer representation in Bohemian Rhapsody needs to be read. Why is so much of the queer content fictionally represented as negative?
• Peter Knegt at CBC Arts points out that Scott Thompson deserves to be recognized as a Canadian treasure.
• This Jon Shadel essay at them exploring how the Internet opened up new channels for communication and self-identification as a queer person speaks deeply to me.
• The Houston Chronicle explores Check Please, Ngozi Ukazu’s fantastic queer hockey webcomic.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Gimli, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Sydney

• York Region reports on an anti-refugee protest in Markham that, reportedly, was dominated by Chinese-Canadian protesters.
• Gimli’s 18th annual film festival has been a roaring success. Global News reports.
• What has become of downtown Winnipeg after the city’s hockey team, the beloved Jets, finished their playoff run? Global News reports.
• The voice of Seth Rogan will be the voice of Vancouver’s mass transit service, announcing stops and the like. CBC reports.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw reports on how problems of growth surround–literally–Astrolabe Park, in Sydney.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Niagara Falls, Seattle, Boston, Toronto vs Montréal

• VICE notes that Airbnb is also having a negative impact on certain neighbourhoods in New York City.
• It may be necessary to put up barricades at Niagara Falls, but it’s still sad. CBC reports</u..
• Is Seattle the latest city at risk of being priced out of range of most locals? This Seattle Times opinion piece makes the case.
• This Toronto Life ad suggesting things to do in a four-day stay in Boston makes that city look wonderful. One day …
• Why not write an opera about the hockey rivalry between Toronto and Montréal? CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Toronto Maple Leafs, 1904 fire, Sidewalk Labs, SmartTrack

• Edward Keenan is quite right to note that the very high prices of Toronto Maple Leafs tickets would be easier to deal with if the games were better. The Toronto Star has it.
• Toronto Guardian shares some archival photos of the great fire that destroyed large swathes of downtown in 1904, here.
• Torontoist notes the surprising and perhaps worrying failure of its reporters to gain access to the City of Toronto’s agreement with Sidewalk Labs.
• John Lorinc at Spacing notes how Sidewalk Labs hired fixer John Brodhead, apparently to handle problems with implementation and PR.
• The question asked last week by Steve Munro, asking how SmartTrack will actually be paid for, remains very relevant today.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Meadoway Park, terracotta home, Ontario Place, Jollibee, Maple Leafs

• CBC reports on the impending creation of the Meadoway Park, a substantial corridor stretching from the Don Valley northeast to the Rouge River.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto shares some more cool facts about the Meadoway Park, with 40% of its projected cost of $C 85 million already funded.
• I am quite interested in seeing this west-end Toronto home with terracotta tiles for myself. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto Guardian has shared some lovely vintage photographs of Ontario Place back at its height, here.
• This NOW Toronto guide to the offerings of Jollibee makes me interested, and perhaps a bit hungry.
• Edward Keenan writes movingly about how he and his deal with being a Toronto Maple Leafs Fan at playoff time. (As someone not born in Toronto, I think this city deserves better of its teams. Just saying.) The Toronto Star has it.