[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa and Sault Ste Marie, Québec City, Vancouver, Edinburgh, Sydney

• Sault Sainte-Marie hopes to recruit former GM workers from Oshawa to live in that less expensive city, Global News reports.
• Robert Vandenwinkel at HuffPost Quebec makes the case for Québec City not developing a tramway but rather a subway.
• Daily Hive notes that the British Columbia government has increased its funding into research into a high-speed rail link connecting Vancouver to points south.
• CityLab notes that Edinburgh is imposing a tourist tax.
• The Guardian shares images of some of the rejected designs for the famous Sydney Opera House.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Saint John, Sydney, New York City, Katowice

• La Presse notes that reconstruction work planned for Montréal’s Saint-Sulpice library has been delayed by a shortage of workers, given the wider city’s construction boom.
• CBC notes how the Halifax Explosion led to the Oland family building the Moosehead Brewery in Saint John.
• The closure of Sydney-based call centre Servicom has left six hundred people unemployed just before Christmas. CBC reports.
• Gothamist warns people in New York City which bars to avoid during this weekend’s Santacon.
• Politico Europe notes how, in the Polish city of Katowice at the heart of Upper Silesia, even there coal is falling out of the mix as a major employer.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Halifax, Sydney, Kiruna, Kigali

• CBC Hamilton reports on patterns of misconduct by members of armed forces units in the Hamilton, Ontario, area.
• That the Cape Breton Post, main newspaper of that island, may now be printed in Halifax says much about that city’s growing dominance of Nova Scotia (and, too, of Cape Breton’s decline). CBC reports.
• Building a new library on the waterfront of Sydney, in Cape Breton, might well anchor a wider revitalization of that city. CBC reports.
• Guardian Cities shares the story of how the Swedish iron ore-mining town of Kiruna, facing subsidence, is literally moving kilometres away.
• The Inter Press Services notes that the Rwandan capital of Kigali will have a downtown ecotourism park.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Manhattan, La Tabatière, Dunkirk, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne

• Derek Thompson at CityLab writes about how, despite or even because it is so wealthy, real estate costs in Manhattan are so high as to drive out the sorts of mixed and eclectic neighbourhoods that Jane Jacobs loved.
• The town of La Tabatière, on the fisheries-dependent Lower North Shore of Québec, has transitioned to the growing of honeyberries after the local fish plant closed down. CBC reports.
• Guardian Cities notes how free local transport in the French city of Dunkirk has had a major effect on locals’ lives.
• CityLab takes a look at the stunning black-and-white photographs taken by Pascal Greco of the concrete towers of Hong Kong.
• Slate responds to the new plan of the Australian federal government to limit inflows of immigrants to Sydney and Melbourne, instead trying to distribute them more evenly around the country.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Iqaluit, San Francisco, Sydnbey, Sihanoukville

• That the real estate market in Hamilton, Toronto’s traditionally more affordable western neighbor, is so strong that some people have been pushed into homelessness is a concern. The Toronto Star reports.
• Iqaluit is acting to deal with the threatened water shortages, but will it succeed in time to hold off this concern? MacLean’s reports.
• This Bloomberg View article suggesting the unaffordability of San Francisco came not so much as a result of the tech sector as because of Barry Bonds’ sports success is interesting. Thoughts?
• The extended fire season of Sydney, Australia, will force Sydneysiders to adapt to this dangerous new environment. Guardian Cities reports.
• The SCMP looks at how an influx of Chinese investment is transforming Sihanoukville, the leading deep-sea port of Cambodia.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Gimli, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Sydney

• York Region reports on an anti-refugee protest in Markham that, reportedly, was dominated by Chinese-Canadian protesters.
• Gimli’s 18th annual film festival has been a roaring success. Global News reports.
• What has become of downtown Winnipeg after the city’s hockey team, the beloved Jets, finished their playoff run? Global News reports.
• The voice of Seth Rogan will be the voice of Vancouver’s mass transit service, announcing stops and the like. CBC reports.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw reports on how problems of growth surround–literally–Astrolabe Park, in Sydney.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Utrecht, Vilnius, Saint-Louis, Sydney

• For perhaps understandable political reason, Québec premier Philippine Couilllard wants Bombardier to get the Montreal metro renewal contract. Global News reports.
• Utrecht, Noisey notes, has a thriving black metal scene worthy of extended exploration.
• The bohemian enclave of Užupis, in the middle of the Lithunian capital of Vilnius, is starting to face pressure from gentrification. Politico Europe reports.
• Ciku Kimeria at Okay Africa makes the case for the old colonial capital of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to become a major destination for international tourists.
• The Guardian profiles a serious proposal to split Sydney into three different cities, each with its own development needs, to better manage the wider conurbation.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Wayne, Sydney, Istanbul, Irkutsk

• Controversy continues over the construction of a commuter rail link in Montréal’s West Island. Global News reports.
• The New Jersey town of Wayne is going to have to adjust to an economy without Toys R Us, based there. Bloomberg reports.
• Property prices have fallen in Sydney for the seventh month in a row, those prices outside Sydney are rising. Bloomberg reports.
• Plans to construct a new shipping canal through the Bosphorus, at Istanbul, may have negative effects for the strait and the city. National Geographic reports.
• The Guardian takes a look at the Siberian city of Irkutsk, a metropolis that apparently can lay claim to a long tradition of cultural and other dissent, here.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper suggesting exoplanet transits could start a galactic communications network.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the connections between eating and identity.
• The Frailest Thing’s Michael Sacasas looks at the need for a critical study of the relationship between technology and democracy.
• Language Hat notes how nationalism split Hindustani into separate Hindi and Urdu languages.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the grim outlook in Somalia after the terrible recent Mogadishu bombing.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen thinks Trump’s decertification of the Iran deal is a bad idea.
• The Map Room Blog links to an article imagining a counter-mapping of the Amazon by indigenous peoples.
• Neuroskeptic considers the possibility of Parkinson’s being a prion disease, somewhat like mad cow disease.
• The NYR Daily notes that a Brexit driven by a perceived need to take back control will not meet that need, at all.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw looks at the problem Sydney faces as it booms.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the extent to which an independent Catalonia would be ravaged economically by a non-negotiated secession.
• Peter Watts tells the sad story of an encounter between Toronto police and a homeless man he knows.
• Window on Eurasia notes a Sakhalin bridge, like a Crimea bridge, may not come off because of Russian weakness.

[URBAN NOTE] Five notes about mass transit and development: Toronto, New York, Sydney

• At Torontoist, a Scarborough transit group notes locals don’t know of the negative implications of the one-stop subway extension.
• Did Metrolinx succumb to political pressure in deciding to locate two new GO stations? The Toronto Star reports.
• CBC describes how Bombardier lost a contract with New York City to sell cars on the basis of its terrible performance in Toronto.
• The New York Times describes how legislators in New York State outside of New York City control the metropolis’ mass transit system, evoking for me Ontario and Metrolinx.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw notes how light rail development in Greater Sydney is driving a property boom.