The mayor of Ottawa is suggesting freezing Confederation Line fare increases in light of the system’s problems. https://globalnews.ca/news/6146499/ottawa-mayor-transit-fare-freeze-lrt/

• The mayor of Ottawa is suggesting freezing Confederation Line fare increases in light of the system’s problems. Global News reports.
• La Presse looks at the problems faced by the Marché Jean-Talon, here.
• Greater Moncton, arguably the leading metropolis of New Brunswick, wants to double its intake of immigrants. Global News reports.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at Lafayette Park in Detroit, designed by Mies van der Rohe.
• Will Vancouver be connected to Washington State by a high-speed train route? Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Ottawa, Moncton, New York City, Calgary, Richmond

• The Ottawa Citizen reports on the first week of the Confederation Line LRT.
• The New Brunswick city of Moncton now has new affordable housing–20 units–for vulnerable people. Global News reports.
• CityLab looks at one photographer’s perspective of the New York City skyline, changed by the 9/11 attacks.
• An alleyway in Calgary is being transformed by art. Global News reports.
• Birth tourism might become an election issue in the British Columbia city of Richmond. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Guelph, Hamilton, Lethbridge, Moncton, Halifax

• blogTO suggests some things people could do on a day trip to Guelph (and commenters come up with more suggestions).
• The lack of explicitly queer spaces in Hamilton is one thing that has come up in a recent study. Global News reports.
• The Alberta city of Lethbridge, third-largest in the province, now has a population of more than one hundred thousand people. Global News reports.
• Will the city of Moncton get rainbow crosswalks? Global News reports.
• Halifax has faced complications in trying to pursue a commuter rail option. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven cities links: Montréal;, Québec City, Saint John, Moncton, D.C., Dallas, …

• CBC Montreal reports on how a downsizing Montréal-area convent recently put on a very large yard sale.
• Will the staged construction of a tramway in Québec City lead to the partial completion of that project? CBC examines the issue.
• The New Brunswick city of Saint John recently celebrated its Loyalist heritage. Global News reports.
• The new community garden in Moncton sounds lovely. Global News reports.
• CityLab notes the sad precedent of the privatization of an old Carnegie Library in Washington D.C. into an Apple Store.
• CityLab considers if cycling can make inroads in pro-car Dallas.
• Open Democracy examines the controversy surrounding the contested construction of an Orthodox church in Yekaterinburg.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Moncton, Detroit, Brussels, Tokyo

• The reopening of the main library in Kingston is the subject of this article over at Global News.
• Moncton will host a CFL game in August, part of the league’s efforts to build up a football-watching audience in the Maritimes generally. Global News reports.
• CityLab reports on the historic Hamtranck stadium in Detroit, a key element of black history.
• Politico Europe reports on the many British immigrants in Brussels, facing an uncertain fate come Brexit.
• Beth Elderkin writes at io9 about all of the cool nerd culture attractions she saw on a recent visit to Tokyo.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Moncton, Toronto drag queens, Pete Shelley, refugees, zines

• A new LGBTQ lounge is set to open up in Moncton, filling a much-needed niche in the nightlife of the city, nay region. Huddle Today reports.
• Toronto Life shares some photos of eight top Toronto drag queens.
• NOW Toronto takes a look at the out queer life of musician Pete Shelley.
• Hornet Stories notes the growing difficulties LGBTQ refugees face getting asylum around the world, even with ostensibly pro-LGBTQ countries.
• Hornet Stories looks at how queer zines continue to thrive.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Beechwood, Saint John, Moncton, Niagara Falls, Baltimore

• The Nova Scotia community of Beechwood has been recognized as being of historical significant for its African-Canadian links. Global News reports.
• This Sunday saw the final Masses delivered at three churches in Saint John, new Brunswick, closed down due to rising costs and falling attendance. CBC reports.
• The leaders of New Brunswick’s major political parties appeared in Moncton for that city’s bilingual Pride festivities. Ici Radio-Canada reports.
• An Ontario NDP MPP has been the latest to complain about the sewage being injected by Niagara Falls, NY, into the Niagara River. CBC reports.
• Guardian Cities reports on how what can only be interpreted as paranoid, even racist, hysteria against outsiders in greater Baltimore’s Anne Arundel county is driving a push to reduce service on its light rail system.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Ottawa, Markham, Moncton, Antwerp, San Francisco

• The story of how the murder of Alain Brosseau by gay-bashers in Ottawa nearly thirty years ago led to lasting change is important to remember. The Ottawa Citizen reports.
• This rather unique statue of a cow in Markham is still standing, despite neighbourhood discontent. The Toronto Star reports.
• The closure of Saint-Louis-de-France Roman Catholic Church in Moncton surprises me somewhat, since Moncton is one of the few growing centres of the Maritimes. Global News reports.
• The Belgian port city of Antwerp is looking to find some advantage from Brexit. Bloomberg reports.
• The impact of sea level rise on San Francisco and the wider Bay area may be devastating. Wired reports.

[NEWS] Some Saturday links

• Bloomberg considers wind power off of Long Island, looks at Odebrecht’s progress despite high-level arrests, and notes New Zealand’s criticism of China’s maritime expansionism.
• Bloomberg View notes that Germany is a country thoroughly opposed to genocide.
• The CBC notes the Tragically Hip tickets have sold out, and looks at ice melt in Antarctica.
• MacLean’s notes the mounting of a monument in Moncton to the three RCMP officers recently killed there.
• The National Post notes that Iraqi Kurds want to be armed, looks at how Calgary is a center for language change in Canadian English, and looks at how Australians want Canada to take in refugees.
• Wired looks at the Louvre’s defenses against flooding.

[URBAN NOTE] “In many Canadian cities, unsold condos are stacking up”

Tamsin McMahon’s article in The Globe and Mail noting how the condo boom is starting to bust in Canada outside of Toronto and Vancouver makes for worrisome reading. What will happen to the Canadian economy?

When the federal government tightened mortgage rules in 2012, overheated condo markets in Toronto and Vancouver were widely seen as the main target. But little more than two years later, it’s many smaller cities that are bearing the brunt of stricter regulations.

Winnipeg, Montreal and Moncton are grappling with a surplus of unsold condo units driven by a surge in new construction and a dwindling supply of first-time buyers in the wake of Ottawa’s decision in June, 2012, to limit mortgage insurance to amortization periods of 25 years or less from 30 years.

[. . .]

The downturn has been most painful in Quebec, where the boom in condo construction started in 2011 and 2012 as young buyers, armed with cheap mortgages, flocked to the housing market.

Roughly a third of Quebec buyers had taken out mortgages with 30-year amortizations – and that number rose to 40 per cent in Montreal, Mr. Cardinal said. He calculated that the change was the equivalent of raising interest rates by one percentage point.

Similar problems have plagued markets such as Moncton and Halifax, according to a recent housing market forecast from Re/Max. In Regina and Saskatoon, the number of unsold housing units hit a 30-year high, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation said, the majority of them condos.

Winnipeg has also seen a surge of new condo construction since 2012 as builders rushed to cater to new immigrants under Manitoba’s provincial nominee program and retirees looking to downsize and spend their winters down south.