[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• NOW Toronto reports on the long-time independent weekly’s sale to a venture capital firm, here.
• The Yonge-Eglinton Centre now hosts a venue where people can nap in peace. Toronto Life has photos, here.
• The family of North York van attack victim Anne-Marie D’Amico hopes to raise one million dollars for a women’s shelter. The National Post reports.
• Toronto Community Housing, after a terrible accident, has banned its tenants from having window air conditioners. Global News reports.
• blogTO reports on the ridiculous heights to which surge pricing took ride fares on Uber and Lyft during yesterday morning’s shutdown.
• blogTO notes that the Ontario government has provided funding to study the idea of extension of the Eglinton Crosstown west to Pearson Airport.

[URBAN NOTE] Eight Toronto links

• blogTO notes the strange house, a fantasia inspired by Greece, at 1016 Shaw Street.
• blogTO shares photos from inside Paradise Theatre on Bloor, reopened after 13 years.
• blogTO notes that GO Transit will now be offering customers unlimited rides on Sundays for just $C 10.
• Photos of infamous Toronto chair girl Marcella Zoia celebrating her 20th birthday are up at blogTO, here.
• Many residents displaced by the Gosford fire in North York have been moved to hotels. Global News reports.
• A TTC worker has launched a court case against the TTC and city of Toronto over issues of air quality. Global News reports.
• Jamie Bradburn reports on how the Toronto press covered the opening of the Suez Canal, here.
• Transit Toronto explains what, exactly, workers are building at Eglinton station and Yonge and Eglinton more generally.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• The Pilot, in Yorkville, celebrates its 75th anniversary as a venue. Global News reports.
• Some immigrant businesspeople recently bought an old Toronto Hydro building in the north of the city as a shelter for immigrants. Global News reports.
• The backlash against the proposed condo tower at Yonge and Eglinton branded by Pharrell Williams has been swift. blogTO reports.
• Urban Toronto notes that a 13-story mixed-use building has been proposed for 888 Dupont Street, at the corner of Dupont and Ossington.
• A TV crew in North York last week cancelled its shoot in North York, near the site of last year’s ramming attack on Yonge Street. CTV News reports.
• A poster on r/Toronto noted last week the six-year anniversary of the admission of then-mayor Rob Ford that he smoked crack.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Liberty Market Tower, Canada goose, raccoons, van attack, Minassian

• Urban Toronto looks at the excavation site of Liberty Market Tower in Liberty Village.
• blogTO notes that the Canada Goose has returned to Toronto, and that some geese have begun to defend their reclaimed territories.
• This Heather Mallick column at the Toronto Star about her accidental (and unsuccessful) impromptu stabbing of an errant raccoon is just bizarre.
• Many of the witnesses of the Yonge Street van attack last year are still struggling. Global News reports.
• The Katherine Laidlaw profileat Toronto Life of Alek Minassian, perpetrator of last year’s van attack on Yonge Street, is timely. Still: How did he come to that point in his life where that atrocity made sense?

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Metrolinx map, carding, Ontario Place, HIVE, density

• Metrolinx shares a glorious map depicting traffic and trends at the different stops on its many routes.
• NOW Toronto notes how Doug Ford may yet enable carding-like practices by police.
• The criticism by an Ontario government minister of the state of Ontario Place is worrisome. The Toronto Star reports.
• Urban Toronto shares a photo of the construction at the vast Hive site downtown.
• George Popper at Spacing Toronto looks at three neighbourhoods where housing in Toronto can really densify indeed must densify, including the Bloor-Danforth corridor.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Yonge, 650 Parliament, renters, El Mocambo, Scarborough

• Urban Toronto shares a photo of Yonge Street in North York, taken more than a decade ago.
• The inhabitants of 650 Parliament Street will be displaced from their homes at least until April of 2019. The Toronto Star reports.
• Tess Kalinowski at the Toronto Star looks at efforts to change the culture and laws of Toronto and Canada to better support long-term renters, here.
• NOW Toronto reports on the latest plans on refurnishing venerable music hub El Mocambo, here.
• Aparita Bhandavi reports on how, after Nuit Blanche, outsiders to Scarborough are only now starting to recognize the vibrancy of culture there. (I am among this number, in truth.)

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #yongeandstrong, Bloordale, rental housing crisis, Green Line

• Toronto Life has a nice photo-heavy feature sharing the experiences of some of the witnesses and survivors of the North York van attack.
• NOW Toronto reports on the discontent of Bloordale residents with the latest proposal for development on the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin.
• Prices for rental housing continue to rise beyond the city of Toronto, in the wider GTA. CBC reports.
• The idea of a crisis of affordability for Toronto renters, with one-quarter having to pay half or more of their income in rent, is very real. The Toronto Star reports.
• Public consultation on the plan for a Green Line network of parks, extending from Bathurst Street up to Earlscourt Park, will close on Friday. Submissions can be made here.

[PHOTO] Five photos of the Toronto van attack memorial, North York (#yongeandstrong)

The memorial to the Toronto van attack on the 23rd of April still stands on the eastern edge of Mel Lastman Square in the heart of North York, flowers and cards and stuffed animals and memories. As I was walking around the site under a perfect blue sky, I could see chaplains setting up a tent nearby with signs inviting passersby to talk if they needed to.

[PHOTO] Avondale Park in the evening

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Sidewalk in Toronto, Alok Mukherjee, Yonge Street, King Street, HQ2

• Toronto Life has a Q&A feature with Dan Doctoroff, the main behind the Sidewalk Labs’ plan for Quayside, here.
• Alok Mukherjee shares an extract from a book on Toronto policing in the Toronto Star, noting how the police treatment of the G20 protests upset him.
• Yonge Street beyond the downtown, up in North York, desperately needs to be tended to and made better. New urbanism can work there, too. NOW Toronto makes the case.
• The Toronto Police Service has not been doing a very good job at all of ticketing drivers ignoring the changes on King Street. Why is that? Global News reports.
• In the era of Trump, the location of Toronto outside of the United States may well be a trump card for Amazon as it preps for HQ2. CBC reports.