[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.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Belleville, Flint, Kingston, New York City, Vancouver

• Rising real estate prices in Toronto are driving similar increases in communities far from the GTA like Belleville. The Toronto Star reports.
• VICE reports on how good food can lead the rehabilitation of Flint, Michigan.
• Kingston will take three years to build its latest bridge. Global News reports.
• Beaches like NYC’s Rockaway Beach are facing pressures from climate change and from gentrification, CityLab reports.
• Many of the homeless camped in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park are being rehoused, as part of a slow-moving campaign. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Halifax, London, Helsinki, Rustavi

• Some new high-rise housing developments in Hamilton are lacking in permits. Global News reports.
• Halifax is currently undergoing public consultations to see what is to be done with a statue of controversial British governor Cornwallis. Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities looks at how the ring-tailed parakeet has come to thrive in its adopted home of London.
• Guardian Cities reports on how the city of Helsinki has solved its problem with homelessness by automatically giving people in need housing.
• Open Democracy looks at the Georgian city of Rustavi, during the Soviet era dependent on a single industry like many others and left to cope with the collapse of this economy in the post-Soviet era.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: grocery games, real estate, housing, Shermans, Goldy

• blogTO notes that grocery chain No Frills has come out with a side-scrolling video game.
• blogTO notes that Lakeshore Apparel is making shirts and other garments representing often-overlooked Toronto neighbourhoods.
• Famed Little Italy nightclub The Matador has been sold to condo developers. The Toronto Star reports.
• The East Side Motel, a Scarborough motel once used by the City of Toronto to house homeless people, has been demolished. The Toronto Star U>reports.
• Front-line housing workers are finding themselves faced with problems impossible to solve thanks to the housing crisis. The Toronto Star reports.
• Anne Kingston at MacLean’s notes that estate documents belonging to Barry and Honey Sherman will be unsealed in a couple of months, attracting interest from people interested in the billionaire couple’s murder.
• This PressProgress report on the many well-off businesspeople in Toronto who supported the Faith Goldy run for mayor of Toronto is eye-opening.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: cemetery parks, alcohol, floating cities, homeless, sanctuary cities

• JSTOR Daily looks at how, in the 19th century, many cities made their cemeteries into parks.
• Guardian Cities considers which city in the world is the hardest-drinking one.
• CityLab notes that building cities is not going to be the answer to global warming.
• The Conversation looks at the demographics of the homeless of North America.
• The threat of Donald Trump to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities in the United States has widely noted. Maybe this actually might be a good solution? Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: 300 Bloor West, Great Hall, Coffin Factory, workers, homelessness

• Urban Toronto looks at the new proposal for a condo tower at 300 Bloor Street West, at Bloor and Huron.
• Toronto’s Great Hall, on Queen Street West, is up for sale. blogTO reports.
• Residents and tenants of the Coffin Factory at staging a funeral for this location as it is on the verge of being made into a condo development. blogTO reports.
• A new exhibit in North York is profiling the history of immigrant construction workers in Toronto. CBC reports.
• Could a tax on multi-million dollar homes in Toronto be used to generate funds for the homeless? The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: transit, Yorkdale, Sully’s, buried, David Silber, Justin Haynes

• Steve Munro takes a look at future transit connections for the waterfront centered on Union Station.
• The location of the vast parking lot of Yorkdale Mall is under consideration for transformation into a new high-rise neighbourhood. CBC reports.
• Sully’s Boxing Gym, on Dupont in Dovercourt Village, is fighting to–if not remain in its current location–survive somewhere. The Toronto Star reports.
• Metrolinx has offered to restore direct bus service to York University if that university, in turn, paid students nearly one million dollars to compensate them for their added transit costs. The Toronto Star reports.
• blogTO identifies five particularly odd objects found underground in Toronto, here.
• Toronto Life reports on David Silber, a Scarborough-born man who has become one of the world’s most remarkable and innovative chefs.
• The Ottawa Citizen reports on the tragic death of musician Justin Haynes, who came to my attention with his moving writings in NOW Toronto on the affordable housing crisis.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: poverty, real estate, architecture, neighbourhoods

• After a fire last night, the homeless encampments underneath the Gardiner Expressway have been cleared. Global News reports.
• blogTO reports on a terribly depressing unit offered for rent in East York at $C 1250.
• blogTO notes that a new pedestrian sky bridge is scheduled to be built in Exhibition Place.
• Urban Toronto notes that the steel skeleton has been put in place for the new extension to Robarts Library.
• blogTO reports on moves to place Ontario Place under heritage protection, sparing it redevelopment.
• George Popper writes at Spacing against new city development protocols for Toronto neighbourhoods.
• The state of 650 Parliament Street, now slated to be reopened in August of this year, is appalling. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: housing & ODSP, Crystal Papineau, Y&E Brooke Lynn Hites, loneliness

• Justin Haynes writes at NOW Toronto about the exceptional difficulty of finding affordable housing in Toronto for people on ODSP.
• CBC Toronto reports on the life of Crystal Papineau, a homeless woman who died in a tragic accident in Bloorcourt.
• Transit Toronto notes that Yonge and Eglinton is going to be disrupted for the next two months by Eglinton Crosstown construction.
• Toronto Life looks at Brooke Lynn Hites, the first Canadian contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
• Samantha Edwards writes at NOW Toronto about the concern that our city’s boom in condo construction might also lead to loneliness. What is to be done?

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: homelessness, Port Lands, housing, Winter Stations, Cracked Wheat

• There will be a new shelter for homeless youth in Scarborough soon, capable of housing several dozen people. CBC reports.
• Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star suggests that much of the controversy, at least, over Google’s plans in the Port Lands is misjudged.
• Tess Kalinowski at the Toronto Star shares some locally new ideas for increasing housing supply.
• Winter Stations is back this winter at Ashbridge’s Bay! Global News reports.
• Sarah Ratzlaff at Spacing interviews sculptor Shary Boyle about her new work, Cracked Wheat, on display in front of the Gardiner Museum.