[PHOTO] Empty 501 Queen streetcar westbound, The Beach

The 501 Queen streetcar was unnervingly empty Saturday night in the Beach.

[URBAN NOTE] Eight Toronto links

• Samantha Edwards writes at NOW Toronto about the controversy surrounding the visit of transphobe author Meghan Murphy to give a speech at the Palmerston library, with authors even threatening a boycott of the network.
• Natasha Tusikov writes at The Conversation about how Sidewalk Labs’ proposals for the Port Lands would give it great and unaccountable political power.
• blogTO looks at the 1945 proposal for a subway in Toronto, one with a west-east axis not on Bloor but further south on Queen.
• blogTO looks at Sparkles, the nightclub at the top of the CN Tower that reigned over the Toronto scene in the 1980s.
• Will the Scarborough neighbourhood of Birchcliffe-Cliffside by changed for the worse by new dense construction? The Toronto Star reports.
• People who, in illegally climbing the Scarborough Bluffs, get trapped on said feature might soon be charged with the costs of their own rescue. blogTO reports.
• The growth of popularity of specifically Toronto slang is fascinating. Global News reports.
• Jamie Bradburn shares an old article on St. John’s Norway cemetery, here.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: wealth, east-end, marijuana, 1930, ride-hailing

• blogTO notes that Toronto is getting richer even as the rest of Canada is getting poorer, though growth in Toronto is driven by debt.
• Steve Munro looks at the ongoing reconstruction of the intersection of Kingston Road and Queen.
• blogTO looks at the reopening of an illegal cannabis store.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the different ways mass media in 1930 Toronto shared election results.
• Nicholas Sanderson writes at Spacing about what other cities can learn from the experience of Toronto with ride-hailing apps.

[PHOTO] Nine photos from in and around Kew Gardens, The Beaches

As part of a campaign by the Beach Village BIA to attract pedestrian traffic to The Beaches, outdoor screenings of different movies have been scheduled every Wednesday night in Kew Gardens. I’ve gone to the past two, certainly appreciating the chance to explore.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: housing, highways, Toronto Zoo, Dufferin Grove Park, 501 Queen

• Jennifer Pagliaro and Emily Mathieu at the Toronto Star look at how 1400 subsidized housing units remain empty despite the housing crisis, and why.
• Does Toronto need another 400-series highway to handle traffic? blogTO considers.
• How can the Toronto Zoo move forward? The Toronto Star examines.
• Dufferin Grove Park is scheduled to face an interesting redevelopment. blogTO reports.
• Steve Munro looks at the factors behind longer travel times on the 501 Queen streetcar.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links: politics, transit, pop culture, photos

• CBC Toronto bids farewell, fittingly at TCAF time, to the iconic Jason Loo Toronto comic series The Pitiful Human-Lizard.
• At blogTO, Tanya Mok reports on the resistance of tenants at 54-56 Kensington Avenue to an illegal eviction order by their landlord.
• The Toronto Star reports</u. on a new matchmaking event intended to connect future roommates to each other.
• Kevin Ritchie at NOW Toronto reports on how a new pricing scheme for the AGO, including a $35 annual pass for people over 25, reflects a push to try to get more people into museums.
• Glenn Sumi writes at NOW Toronto about the increasingly steep price of ticket prices for live theatre in Toronto.
• Toronto Life shares photos from an exhibit, by Patrick Cummins and Ivaan Kotulsky, of Queen Street West in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Richard Longley writes at NOW Toronto about the emptying of an old warehouse of collectibles and oddities on Wabush, part of the decline of old storied Toronto.
• Toronto Life shares more photos from outdoor market Stackt, at Front and Bathurst.
• Steve Munro starts to analyse traffic patterns on the 501 Queen streetcar, looking first at the Neville Loop end.
• NOW Toronto is one of a few news sources to report on Scarborough writer Téa Mutonji and her new short story collection Shut Up, You’re Pretty.

[PHOTO] Three evening shots, looking west and east and south, at Queen and Victoria

[PHOTO] Four photos of The Water Molecule, Niagara Falls (#niagarafalls)

I do not know why The Water Molecule, a 1967 sculpture by Derek Costello of a water molecule down to the nuclei and electrons, was ever apparently controversial. I am glad that it is in a public space, poised in the Rosberg Family Park just a couple of blocks south of the bus and train stations on Erie Street at Queen, visible to at least some visitors.

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[PHOTO] Looking west, Queen at Yonge

[PHOTO] Ten photos of Queen Street West, Yonge west to Dufferin

Early Thursday afternoon, I took an extended walk west along ‘a href=Èhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Street_(Toronto)#Yonge_to_University”>Queen Street from Yonge towards Dufferin. Spring is here, but it is not here just yet; the grass is green but the trees have not yet sprouted new leaves. Can it really be only two weeks until the first cherry blossoms appear?