[PHOTO] Three photos taken from around Broadview and Danforth in late evening

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[URBAN NOTE} Five Toronto links: Corso Italia, Danforth, Davenport Diamond, books, Graffiti Alley

• blogTO notes that Corso Italia is one of the hubs of Latin American food culture in Toronto.
• The Danforth Music Hall recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, NOW Toronto notes.
• The cancellation of a mural for a rail bridge in the Davenport Diamond is a shame. The Toronto Star has it.
• This bookstore at Queen and Ossington looks particularly unique in conception. blogTO reports.
• Melanie Zettler at Global News talks about the origins of Toronto’s Graffiti Alley.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC, Vienna, Zed 80, Toronto of the Future

• Cameron MacLeod at Spacing considers the poor record of the province of Ontario with supporting the TTC.
• Steve Munro, writing at NOW Toronto, looks at how the cost of the TTC to the provincial government is inevitably set to climb hugely.
• blogTO shares a list of five things Toronto can learn from Vienna.
• A second arcade bar is set to open in Toronto, Zed 80 on the Danforth. blogTO reports.
• Urban Toronto notes that the latest iteration of the Toronto of the Future conference is set for the end of June.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #DanforthStrong, #topoli, Jennifer Keesmaat, Province of Toronto

• Jamie Bradburn wrote earlier this week about a stroll he and his took down the Danforth.
• Edward Keenan is entirely right to note that Ford’s slashing of city council’s size is all but a declaration of war by his government against Toronto. The Toronto Star has it.
• Toronto MP Adam Vaughan has stated openly that, if need be, the federal government will bypass Ontario in working with Toronto. Global News reports.
• Widely-respected former Toronto city planner Jennifer Keesmaat is running as mayor in the upcoming election. I’m inclined to vote for her already. The Toronto Star reports.
• The resurgence of talk of a separate Province of Toronto is unsurprising, but frankly I think the proposal fundamentally unworkable. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: ward boundaries, affordable housing, Bremner, #TorontoStrong

• Utterly changing the boundaries of Toronto’s wards through an unwanted amalgamation just before an election will create chaos. The Toronto Star reports.
• Jennifer Pagliaro notes how the City of Toronto is considering changing its definition of “affordable housing” into something more realistic, over at the Toronto Star.
• Urban Toronto contrasts two photos recently taken on Bremner Boulevard, in the heart of the South Core.
• Steve Maich writes in MacLean’s about what tragedies, like the Danforth shooting, do and do not say about cities.
• Enzo Dimatteo at NOW Toronto notes how the alt-right has been making use of the Danforth shooting.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Julianna Kozis, Danforth, black communities, weapons, politics

• Julianna Kozis has been identified as the girl 10 years old killed in Sunday’s shooting. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto Life shares a list of twenty of the top attractions along the Danforth.
• NOW Toronto reports the concerns of community groups that the response to gun violence will further marginalize black communities, too much emphasis being placed on enforcement and not enough on supporting marginalized communities.
• Toronto City Council has just voted, by 41-4, to ban the sale of handguns and ammunition within city limits. Narcity reports.
• David Rider notes that John Tory wants the Ontario government to change the municipal government of Toronto, to give the mayor more powers, in a response to (among other things) gun violence. THe Toronto Star has it.

[PHOTO] Nineteen photos from the Danforth and Greektown on a warm summer night (#danforthstrong)

I took a walk east along the Danforth Avenue this evening, east into Greektown. The terrible mass shooting of the night of the 22nd of July, just two days ago, was on my mind. I may be a west end boy, but I know this stretch on the east side of the Don quite well. I’ve had coffee with friends here, done yoga here, gone to theatre here, done Jane’s Walks and solo exploration here, done more here. I’ve eaten liver and onions at the New York Cafe while looking south down Broadview towards Riverdale Park and the downtown skyline ready to burst beyond just beyond the trees and the low-rises, and looked west at Broadview’s intersection with the Danforth across at the beckoning Viaduct. The Danforth is as much a part of my beloved city as Dovercourt Village.

Cities and neighbourhoods are always machines for living. At their best, like in the case of the Danforth, they are glorious machines of living, places that set us free to live and love and enjoy as best we can. We have to always work hard to keep these machines working well, but we also must never err and take anomalies like Sunday’s killings to be representative. As I was walking along the Danforth, I heard and saw people talk about Sunday–what they witnessed, what they heard–but I also people talk about what they were going to be doing. I saw the Danforth full of people, continuing to live in a neighbourhood that these people must care about. This particular machine still works, even now.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Reese Fallon, guns, Sugar Beach North, Little Ethiopia, Parkdale

• Reese Fallon, one of the two people killed in the Danforth shooting, was a student hoping to go to the fall to McMaster University to study for a career in nursing. The Toronto Star reports.
• People in some Toronto neighbourhoods with high levels of gun violence welcome an expanded police presence, despite other issues. CBC reports.
• Urban Toronto notes an exciting plan to, among other things, build a Sugar Beach North on the waterfront.
• blogTO talks about Little Ethiopia, on Danforth by Greenwood. Speaking as someone familiar with his Little Ethiopia near Ossington, this area sounds fascinating.
• The Pia Bouman School in Parkdale, a leading dance academy for four decades, is hoping to avoid displacement by new construction. CBC reports.

[PHOTO] Six photos of the Alexander the Great Parkette on the Danforth

The Alexander the Great Parkette, located on the Danforth in the heart of Greektown, is a wonderfully landscaped parkette occupying a corner next to some restaurants. On a warm summer evening, it’s a very nice place to hang out, one of the nice things to come of the heating up of the Macedonia naming dispute in the first half of the 1990s. (Most of the individual statues date from this time.)

[PHOTO] Church of the Holy Name, 73 Gough Avenue

The Church of the Holy Name stands out on the Danforth now as much as it did when it was built just over a century ago.