[BLOG] Fifteen Toronto links

• blogTO reports that Toronto has been testing Eglinton Crosstown trains, here.
• What TTC routes might be changed by the Eglinton Crosstown? A map illustrates, over at blogTO.
• The new tower proposed for 888 Dupont, at Ossington, will even include a vertical farm. blogTO reports.
• Venerable Agincourt Mall is going to be a new condo development. blogTO reports.
• Is co-ownership actually the only way most people in Toronto will end up owning a home? blogTO considers.
• Residential tenants in a Leslieville building who complained about their landlord may end up getting evicted from a building never zoned for residents. CBC reports.
• The City of Toronto has taken over the deserted shopping arcade at Queen Street West and John. CBC reports.
• Katrina Onstad at Toronto Life tells the story of Katharine Mulherin, the Queen Street West gallery owner who changed her neighbourhood but was broken by gentrification.
• The bar Tequila Bookworm is closing, displaced by rising rents. NOW Toronto reports.
• NOW Toronto interviews night mayor Michael Thompson, here.
• Steve Munro considers the TTC’s express bus services, here.
• Terra Lumina, the nighttime cultural event at the Toronto Zoo, looks fantastic in these photos over at Toronto Life.
• Oh, what the map of Toronto subways could have been if only we planned! blogTO shares one.
• Steve Munro examines the TTC’s plan for 2020-2024, here.
• The TTC may not act to decrease overcrowding on some routes. blogTO reports on why.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Transit Toronto celebrates the life of photographer John Bromney, here.
• blogTO explains, with photos, the cause of the subway shutdown on Line 1 Wednesday night.
• blogTO notes that the TTC wants to create five transit corridor for buses, including one on Dufferin Street.
• Toronto is apparently the top tech city in Canada. blogTO reports.
• John Lorinc at Spacing considers what affordable housing actually is, especially in the context of real-world constraints less generous than often imagined.
• The displaced residents of Gosford have seen nothing from their apartment block’s owners about housing options. Global News reports.
• The TTC plans to have even more subway closures in 2020 than in 2019. Global News reports.

[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.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• John Lorinc at Spacing considers the complication idea of a city charter for Toronto. Is it worth it? Does it ignore other governance issues?
• Tourism is booming in Toronto, transforming the economy of the metropolis. The Toronto Star reports.
• NOW Toronto notes how the Toronto District School Board is introducing educational courses intended to prepare students for careers in hospitality.
• Legal controversy surrounding the governance of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and other like cemeteries in Toronto, is ongoing. The Toronto Star reports.
• In Milton, the owner of an illegal rooming house where one tenant died has been found financially liable. CBC reports.
• The Toronto Star tells the story of soldiers returning from the First World War who attacked Chinatown and its inhabitants, here.
• NOW Toronto points to an exhibition of photos created in solidarity with Hong Kong journalists.

[URBAN NOTE] Nine Toronto links

• Metrolinx using paid influencers to promote the Ontario Line is certainly a choice. The Toronto Star reports.
• Union Station retiring an old mechanical system 90 years old used to control TTC vehicles is a landmark event. The Metrolinx blog reports.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the birth of the Gardiner Expressway, here.
• Alok Mukherjee at Spacing questions why police in Toronto have stopped enforcing traffic regulations.
• Protesters charged with blocking the Bloor Viaduct during the Extinction Rebellion have had the charges dropped. Global News reports.
• Sean Marshall shared his account of his address to the Toronto Police Services board, here.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the history behind the mid-20th century expansion of Church Street.
• NOW Toronto notes that workers at the Broadview Hotel have become unionized.
• Samantha Lui writes at NOW Toronto against the false negative stereotypes applied by so many–even briefly by Google–to Scarborough.
• CBC notes that a lawsuit surrounding benefits fraud by TTC employees has been settled, expensively.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• The vicious homophobia exhibited by TCDSB trustee Mike Del Grande is, IMHO, another reason to defund public Catholic education in Ontario. Global News reports.
• The CCLV streetcars of the TTC are set to be pulled by the end of November. Global News reports.
• The Scarborough Bluffs are set to see some worthwhile investment. blogTO reports.
• CBC notes growth in food bank usage in Toronto and Mississauga.
• Presto users are being mischarged based on GPS mistakes. CBC reports.
• Renovictions have spiked 300% over the past four years. blogTO reports.
• The cost of rent continues to grow in Toronto. blogTO reports.
• A new project hopes to make Yonge and Eglinton less congested. The Toronto Star reports.
• New regulations about Airbnb should make the real estate market easier for renters. NOW Toronto reports.
• Owing to family request, a new street in Etobicoke will not be named after former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• The Pilot, in Yorkville, celebrates its 75th anniversary as a venue. Global News reports.
• Some immigrant businesspeople recently bought an old Toronto Hydro building in the north of the city as a shelter for immigrants. Global News reports.
• The backlash against the proposed condo tower at Yonge and Eglinton branded by Pharrell Williams has been swift. blogTO reports.
• Urban Toronto notes that a 13-story mixed-use building has been proposed for 888 Dupont Street, at the corner of Dupont and Ossington.
• A TV crew in North York last week cancelled its shoot in North York, near the site of last year’s ramming attack on Yonge Street. CTV News reports.
• A poster on r/Toronto noted last week the six-year anniversary of the admission of then-mayor Rob Ford that he smoked crack.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• blogTO reports that Presto machines on TTC vehicles are regularly falling out of service because they need to be emptied of coins, here.
• CBC reports that Ontario Place might well accumulate a spa under Ford government auspices, here.
• NOW Toronto argues that new Ford changes to social housing, including zero-tolerance on fighting, will worsen the plight of residents.
• ACORN is leading a protest in Weston by tenants against allegedly neglectful landlords. CBC reports.
• Residents of a Roncesvalles apartment block are contesting their landlord’s reclassification of their complex as a tourist-oriented property. The Toronto Star reports.
• What will become of the Ontario Science Centre, 50 years old? The Toronto Star reports.
• That average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto are now hitting $C 2500 is terrifying. The Toronto Star reports.
• Users of the Scarborough RT may find themselves riding buses instead of the RT (or a subway) for a good long while. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto is doing its best to preserve its biodiversity, particularly in its ravines. The Toronto Star reports.
• Transit Toronto notes that, in exchange for Toronto accepting the Ontario Line, Ontario will not try to upload the TTC.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: EtobiCo, Sully’s, Don Mills Road, biking, landlord vs. tenant

• blogTO notesa corner of Etobicoke, bounded by Bloor and Kipling and the Queensway and Islington, is now being banded as the neighbourhood of EtobiCo.
• Sully’s Boxing Gym, once a neighbour of mine on Dupont, is now on Dundas Street West. blogTO reports.
• Sean Marshall takes a look at the problems of Don Mills Road for people not in cars, here.
• The Toronto Star explains a new study exploring why more people in the city do not bike to work, here.
• The sort of landlord-tenant conflict and mistrust described here cannot contribute to a productive city. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TIFF and transit, 311 Mildenhall Road, Galleria, 7 Labatt, NDP

• Sean Marshall takes issue with how TIFF monopolizes much of the downtown, including key arteries like King Street.
• blogTO reports on the luxurious estate of 311 Mildenhall Road, recently off the market at a price of well over $C 10 million.
• Urban Toronto shares renderings of the first phase of Galleria on the Park. Wow.
• Dozens of artists are working out of 7 Labatt Avenue, a warehouse set to be demolished. The Toronto Star reports.
• NOW Toronto reports on the mess involving the NDP in the riding of Parkdale-High Park, here.