[URBAN NOTE] Fifteen urban links

• It has been forty years since a train derailment that threatened to unleash toxic chemicals on Mississauga resulted in a remarkably successful mass evacuation. CBC reports.
• There is a Vimy display in Kingston’s Communications and Electronics Museum. Global News reports.
• It is unsettling that the Ontario city of Hamilton reports such a high levels of hate crimes. CBC reports.
• Le Devoir shares a warning that inattention to language means that Longueuil could end up becoming as English/French bilingual as the West Island.
• VICE reports on how the dying desert town of California City is hoping for a revival based on cannabis, here</u.
• MacLean’s tells the story about how an encounter of koi with local otters in Vancouver reflects a human culture clash, too.
• SCMP looks at how planners want to use big data to make Shenzhen a “smart socialist” city, here.
• CityLab hosts an article by Andrew Kenney looking at the importance of an old map of Denver for he, a newcomer to the city.
• These photos of the recent acqua alta in Venice are heartbreaking. CityLab has them.
• JSTOR Daily tells the story of an ill-timed parade in 1918 Philadelphia that helped the Spanish flu spread throughout the city.
• The LRB Blog looks at a corner of Berlin marked by the history of German Southwest Africa.
• Guardian Cities shares a remarkable ambitious plan to remake Addis Ababa into a global city.
• Durban, in South Africa, may offer lessons for other southern African metropolises. Guardian Cities reports.
• The NYR Daily recently took a look at what happened to so completely gentrify the West Village of New York City.
• Feargus O’Sullivan at CityLab takes a look at a new documentary, If New York Was Called Angouleme. What if the site of New York City was colonized by the French in the early 16th century?

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthropology.net reports on the discovery of footprints of a Neanderthal band in Le Rozel, Normandy, revealing much about that group’s social structure.
• Bad Astronomer’s Phil Plait explains why standing at the foot of a cliff on Mars during local spring can be dangerous.
• Centauri Dreams shares a suggestion that the lakes of Titan might be product of subterranean explosions.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber considers how, and when, anger should be considered and legitimated in discussions of politics.
• The Crux looks at the cement mixed successfully in microgravity on the ISS, as a construction material of the future.
• D-Brief looks at what steps space agencies are considering to avoid causing harm to extraterrestrial life.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes new evidence that the Anthropocene, properly understood, actually began four thousand years ago.
• Jonathan Wynn writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about how many American universities have become as much lifestyle centres as educational communities.
• Far Outliers reports on how, in the 13th century, the cultural differences of Wales from the English–including the Welsh tradition of partible inheritance–caused great instability.
• This io9 interview with the creators of the brilliant series The Wicked and the Divine is a must-read.
• JSTOR Daily looks at a paper considering how teachers of German should engage with the concept of Oktoberfest.
• Language Hat looks at a new study examining the idea of different languages being more efficient than others. (They are not, it turns out.)
• Language Log looks at the history of translating classics of Chinese literature into Manchu and Mongolian.
• Erik Loomis considers the problems the collapse of local journalism now will cause for later historians trying to do research in the foreseeable future.
• Marginal Revolution reports on research suggesting that markets do not corrupt human morality.
• Neuroskeptic looks in more detail at the interesting, and disturbing, organized patterns emitted by organoids built using human brain cells.
• Stephen Baker at The Numerati writes, with photos, about what he saw in China while doing book research. (Shenzhen looks cool.)
• The NYR Daily notes the import of the working trip of Susan Sontag to Sarajevo in 1993, while that city was under siege.
• Robert Picardo at the Planetary Society Blog shares a vintage letter from Roddenberry encouraging Star Trek fans to engage with the Society.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the economy of Argentina in a pre-election panic.
• Strange Company looks at the life of Molly Morgan, a British convict who prospered in her exile to Australia.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, in 1939, many Soviet citizens recognized the import of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; they knew their empire would expand.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the treatment of cavemen, as subjects and providers of education, in pop culture.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Kingston, Montréal, Vancouver, Shenzhen

• CBC Hamilton notes that former white supremacist leader Marc Lemire is employed by the City of Hamilton in its IT department.
• The former Kingston Penitentiary will host a music concert this September. Global News reports.
• Allison Hanes writes at the Montreal Gazette about how the status of Montréal as a metropolis has not kept the city from coming into conflict with the Québec government. As she notes, this sounds familiar to Torontonians and Ontarians.
• Have the prices in the Vancouver condo markets dropped so much that developers really need to entice buyers with supplies of avocado toast? The Toronto Star reports.
• The SCMP notes that the city of Shenzhen is moving away from the Hong Kong model of laissez-faire housing towards the planning exemplified by Singapore.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Ottawa, Kingston, Halifax, Chicago, Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong

• CBC reports on how Ottawa is storing its ever-growing mountain of snow removed from its streets.
• The city of Kingston, Ontario, is facing a growing shortage of family doctors despite it being a regional hub. Global News reports.
• The centenary of anti-Chinese riots in Halifax has just passed. (Would you believe I never learned of these at school?) Global News reports.
• VICE tells the story of how most people can, or cannot, afford to live in an ever-pricier city of Chicago.
• The SCMP reports on the “Greater Bay Area” plan just announced by China, an integration of the Pearl River area into a single global powerhouse. How will Hong Kong fit into this?

[URBAN NOTE] Six city links: Detroit, Oslo, Cox’s Bazar, Ho Chi Minh City, Shenzhen, Tokyo

• CityLab notes a new black-owned food coop in Detroit.
• CityLab notes the cool new designs of a new Oslo subway station.
• Al Jazeera notes the vulnerability of Cox’s Bazar, the Bangladesh city that is the heart of the Rohingya refugee settlements, to climate change.
• Guardian Cities notes how rapid redevelopment is devastating the architectural heritage of Ho Chi Minh City.
• This Culture Trip article looks at how, among other things, copying foreign technology helped make Shenzhen a global tech hub.
• Tokyo is offering subway users free food if they opt to travel on the subway outside of peak times, CityLab notes.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Burlington, Hamilton, Montréal, Miami, Shenzhen

• The mayors of Hamilton and Burlington have announced their opposition to any changes to the Ontario Greenbelt legislation, the Toronto Star reports.
• CBC Hamilton reports that units in a prominent downtown apartment building has been converted to condos.
• National Observer looks at the threat that a new Universit3 de Montréal campus in Montréal poses to the Park Extension neighbourhood.
• CityLab takes a look at how the construction of Interstate 95, in Miami, destroyed the black neighbourhood of Overtown.
• The Chinese city of Shenzhen has converted its bus fleet entirely over to electric units, Guardian Cities reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Detroit and Windsor, Africville, New York City, Calgary, Shenzhen

• The TVO show The Life-Sized City is spotlighting the revival of the binational conurbation of Detroit and Windsor. The Windsor Star reports.
• Owners of a house that is a rare survival of Africville, currently in Lower Sackville, are seeking heritage status for this building. CBC reports.
• VICE reports on how New York City is preparing for the L train shutdown.
• Students seeking to set up Gay-Straight Alliances in Calgary Catholic schools are reportedly being hindered, even harassed, by hostile administrators despite provincial policy. Global News reports.
• This SCMP article suggests Shenzhen is a popular destination for daytrippers from Hong Kong, for people who seek a Hong Kong experience at affordable prices.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Seattle, Tijuana, New York City, Hong Kong and Shenzhen

• A new neighbourhood in Markham is going to make use of geothermal energy to heat hundreds of homes. CBC reports.
• CityLab reports on how a census of the giant Pacific octopus in the waters of Seattle is going to be conducted.
• Some residents of Tijuana are protesting against the thousands of Central American refugees now sheltering in their city. Global News reports.
• A new exhibit at the 9/11 Museum in New York City tells of the contribution of Mohawk steelworkers to the construction of the megalopolis’ skyline. CBC Indigenous reports.
• Officials in Hong Kong and Shenzhen are having problems drawing a boundary through a garden plot on their mutual border. The SCMP reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fort Worth, Dundee, Shenzhen

• The City of Montréal is now following Québec provincial laws on flag displays, requiring the Québec flag to be flown most prominently alongside the Canadian and Montréal flags. CTV News reports.
• Former Toronto city councilor Betty Disero is now mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Toronto Star reports.
• CityLab reports on how the famously conservative Texas city of Fort Worth is now learning towards the Democratic Party.
• VICE takes a look at the reasons for the very high overdose rate among users of illegal drugs in the Scottish city of Dundee.
• Guardian Cities has a nice photo essay looking at some of the new green roofs in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Los Angeles and California, Montréal, London, Shenzhen

• The clashes of radical protesters in Hamilton are becoming worryingly more prominent. What is going on there? The Toronto Star reports.
• Marginal Revolution reports that Los Angeles, and all of California, is at last overcoming the densification that NIMBYists have been trying to block.
• Foreign buyers are apparently starting to drive up prices in Québec, especially Montréal, though to a lesser degree than elsewhere in Canada. Bloomberg reports.
• CBC reports on a tour of the city of London, highlighting the purchases of Russian oligarchs, that leaves me unsettled for a few reasons.
• This report on Naomi Wu, a maker of tech goods who has become a prominent figure representing a booming high-tech Shenzhen, is fascinating. Shenzhen is clearly a city to watch. VICE has it.