[PHOTO] Lucky bamboo, $C 14.99 and up

[PHOTO] “60 Years: The Art of Soup”

Campbell’s Soup celebrates Warhol.

[PHOTO] Ten photos from Metro, College Park, Friday evening (#coronavirustoronto)

Friday evening, I went with Jim to the Metro grocery store in College Park for some last-minute shopping. It was an interesting scene, crowded with shoppers, evidencing empty shelves where certain products where I expected there to be shortfalls (paper products, bread, eggs and dairy, perishable meats). There were presences, too, of canned goods that were unpopular (plenty of beets, for instance) and of a whole wall of orchids in bloom.

The atmosphere of the Metro was interesting. People there had intent, but there was no panic.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Montréal links

• MTL Blog shares this map of the Greater Montréal mass transit network, with a uniform design for all its networks, here.
• Exo commuters in Montréal are decidedly unhappy with the Exo chairperson for the unhelpful tips they gave. CTV News reports.
• Montréal has bought 140 acres of land in the West Island for its planned great park there. CTV News reports.
• Notre Dame East is set to be revamped as an urban boulevard. CTV News reports.
• Controversy over the Royalmount shopping complex grows. CBC reports.
• Montréal is reckoned by a Google team to be a major centre for game development. CTV News reports.
• A new fund seeks to increase the diversity of artists whose works are displayed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. CTV News reports.
• Montréal mayor Valérie Plante promises to help out record stores fined for being opened past 5 on a weekend. CTV News reports.
• Royal LePage suggests that home values in Montréal will grow sharply in 2020, more than in any other major Canadian city. CTV News reports.

[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] Six Toronto links

• Google has apologized for the negative shade its image search cast on Scarborough with a Twitter thread. Global News reports.
• The National Post looks at the story of the architecturally remarkable Integral House, on sale for $C 21.5 million.
• South Indian Dosa Mahal, a beloved Bloordale restaurant apparently displaced by landlords, has found a new home. blogTO reports.
• The infamous Parkdale McDonald, at King and Dufferin, has officially been closed down, relocated. blogTO reports.
• The Ontario Cannabis Store is experimenting with a same-day delivery program. NOW Toronto reports.
• Lia Grainger writes at NOW Toronto about how poor city planning has resulted in multiple dangerous intersections. (I know of two in my broader neighbourhood.)

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• A beautiful Toronto would be nice, but this goal will take planning. The Toronto Star reports.
• Sean Marshall writes about the sad ironies of suburban neighbourhoods in Toronto unsafe for pedestrians.
• Jamie Bradburn takes a look at Davenport Road in the past, here.
• Transit Toronto notes the arrival tomorrow in the GTA of the Holiday Trains of the CPR, part of a fundraising campaign for food banks.
• Spacing shares an essay considering the idea of a map of Toronto according to runnability.
• Sidekick West, a new comic shop in the Junction Triangle, has unfortunately closed down. blogTO reports.
• Toronto Life breaks down the references in the massive 10-story mural painted by BirdO at Yonge and St. Clair.

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 Toronto links

• A new project hopes to revitalize the Golden Mile of Scarborough, along Eglinton Avenue. The Toronto Star reports.
• blogTO looks at how IKEA is going to be opening a new smaller store in downtown Toronto in the next two years, here.
• blogTO looks at a plan to make 80 Bloor Street West, in Yorkville, into a golden skyscraper 79 stories tall.
• Sadly, Chick-Fil-A at Yonge and Bloor still has long lines. blogTO reports.
• Radheyan Simonpillai reviews the new Kevin Donovan book The Billionaire Murders, looking at the unsolved killings of the Shermans in 2017.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Urban Toronto looked at indigenous uses being proposed for the West Don Lands, here.
• That Toronto has become a major hub for Shopify is a significant economic factor. Global News reports.
• There will be an emergency exercise held at Union Station. Global News reports.
• Transit Toronto notes the opening of a new York Regional Transit bus hub at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.
• Transit Toronto shared video of a recent TTC public art project, “A Streetcar Called Toronto”, here.
• Venerable Toronto movie rental store Videoflicks will be closing. blogTO reports.
• The Evergreen Brickworks in the Don Valley will be hosting a winter village this season. blogTO reports.