[PHOTO] Socially distanced at St. Alban’s Square, after 10 pm

St. Alban’s Square, in the Annex, was rather socially distanced earlier this week.

[PHOTO] No excuses for not gardening properly this spring

[CAT] Cat sitting guard, vertical and horizontal, Seekers Books

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Artscape, PoP Shoppe, Funhouse,

• Tanya Mok at blogTO looks at Artscape Weston Common.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the heyday of the PoP Shoppe, a late 1970s chain specializing in different kids of soda drinks.
• Toronto Life reports on the Funhouse experience created inside an old Buddhist temple off Queen Street West.
• blogTO notes that, at least so far as absolute numbers are concerned, Toronto is the fastest-growing city in the United States and Canada.
• Toronto Life reports on a home in the Annex that was sold a decade and a half ago at three hundred thousand and just now went for 1.5 million.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Koreans, Italians, Irish, Albino Carreira, #threetorontos

• This 2013 Toronto Guardian article explains how the Korean community in Toronto can trace its origins to early 20th century missionaries from Canada.
• At Spacing, Daniel Panneton writes about the rise of fascism in Italian Toronto and the very different reactions to this ideology’s rise.
• CBC Toronto reports on the popular new app Irish App-roved, aimed at helping new immigrants from Ireland get oriented in Toronto.
• Jacob Lorinc at the Toronto Star tells the story of Albino Carreira, a Portuguese-Canadian construction worker disabled by a construction incident in the 1990s who went on to whimsically decorate his Clinton Street home and his bug-covered van.
• The growing racialization of poverty in Toronto is a huge ongoing concern. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: raccoons, High Park sakura, dog parks, marijuana, Queen Video

• Jamie Bradburn looks back at vintage coverage in the Toronto press from 1952 about some fortunate raccoons.
• blogTO notes that this weekend will seek peak bloom in the cherry blossoms of High Park.
• Edward Brown at Spacing writes about the decades-long struggle to get dog parks accepted in Toronto.
• CBC Toronto notes controversy in Etobicoke surrounding a local brewery’s decision to process medical marijuana on site.
• This National Post article by Sadaf Ahsan looks at how now-defunct Queen Video contributed hugely to pop culture in Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Downsview Park, Christie Pits, Queen Video, public art, Joanna Luo

• A formal inquest into the stage collapse that killed one person at a Radiohead concert at Downsview Park in 2012 is only now taking off. CBC reports.
• The May opening of a new exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work at the Olga Korper Gallery, reported by NOW Toronto, is very exciting.
• blogTO notes a new graphic novel to be put out by Dirty Water Comics dealing with the anti-Semitic Christie Pits Riot of 1933.
• Queen Video’s last location, in the Annex, is finally closing, with plenty of its titles now available to be bought before it shutters its doors at the end of April. Global News reports.
• NOW Toronto reports on Museum II, a show part of the Myseum Intersections Festival looking at the impact of war and trauma on spaces.
• Karon Liu, writing at the Toronto Star, explores with WeChat influencer Joanna Luo a whole universe of Chinese restaurants and social networking that was almost unknown to many Torontonians like myself.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Doug Ford, Labyrinth, SmartTrack, night planning, Toronto Islands

• NOW Toronto notes how Doug Ford positions himself as an ally to the black community of Toronto, and how this has hardly been non-problematic, here>.
• Annex comic store Labyrinth is set to close, alas. NOW Toronto reports.
• The SmartTrack plan for more commuter rail put forth by the mayor could cost an extra quarter-billion dollars. The Toronto Star reports.
• Edward Keenan makes the point that, like other cities such as Amsterdam and Berlin, Toronto needs to do a better job of planning for the night. The Toronto Star has it.
• Toronto Guardian shares some lovely vintage photos of the Toronto Islands, here.

[PHOTO] 10 Yarmouth Road, Seaton Village

While heading to a friend’s place for a very enjoyable evening’s dinner and a movie, I passed by the nearby 10 Yarmouth Road. This residential address in the neighbourhood defined by Wikipedia as Seaton Village recently became world-famous as the home of Prince Harry’s future spouse Meghan Markle. Markle rented this home for several years while acting on Toronto-based show Suits. With her departure, the house–initially bought for $508,000 in 2007–went on the market again for a mere $1.395 million. One news source claims the house found a buyer within a week.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: King Street, Annex, Yonge and Sheppard, Chinatown, Keita Morimoto

• Global News reports that, based on spending data from Moneris, consumer expenditures on King Street have not dropped during the transit experiment.
• The homeless shelter in the Davenport Triangle area, thankfully, seems to be going through notwithstanding some local opposition and with the help of other locals. The Toronto Star reports.
• An area of unused land near Yonge and Sheppard may not become a park after all, due to disputes over ownership. CBC reports.
• These photos exploring how Chinatown on Spadina has evolved over the decades provide a good perspective on the development of this key neighoburhood. CBC reports.
• Toronto Life showcases the classic paintings of Keita Morimoto, currently with an exhibition at the Nicholas Metivier Gallery downtown.