[URBAN NOTE] Fifteen Niagara Falls, Ontario links (#niagarafalls, #niagarafallscanada)

• A new storyboard in Niagara Falls displays the importance of railways to the city. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• Niagara Falls city council is considering the idea of linking casinos by aerial car. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• Global News reports on a drug bust that saw two people arrested in Niagara Falls.
• The Niagara Falls Review reports the number of reported homicides in Niagara Region tripled in 2019, to six.
• The immersive live nativity hosted by a Niagara Falls church sounds interesting. More is here.
• A recent discussion at Niagara Falls city council was dominated by discussion of housing issues and of homelessness. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• Most revenues from the casinos of Niagara Falls have been directed to the infrastructure of the city. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• City council in Niagara Falls has approved the construction of a 72-storey hotel. Construct Connect reports.
• In November, the mayor announced the old city hall and courthouse in the downtown of Niagara Falls was scheduled to be demolished. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• The Bath House Hotel once was intended to be a centrepiece of local tourism. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• Carrie Bosco writes about the experience of a customer service associate working at the Niagara Falls Public Library, over at the Niagara Falls Review.
• The Niagara Falls Public Library in winter is a happening place for locals. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• A Chinese developer hopes that a proposed $C 1.5 billion dollar project in south Niagara Falls will still go forward. The Niagara Falls Review reports.
• Niagara Falls is going to have a hard time replacing city historian Sherman Zavitz. The Niagaa Falls Review reports.
• Niagara News reports on the Winter Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls.

[URBAN NOTE] Fifteen Kingston, Ontario links (#kingstonon)

• CBC reports on suggestions that Kingston should plan for a population expected to grow significantly in coming decades, to not just expand but to have intensified development downtown.
• The rental housing market for Kingston is very tight, not only because of large student populations. Global News reports.
• Kingstonist reports on Queen’s plans to build a large new student residence on Albert Street, here.
• The Whig-Standard carries an account of the new Queen’s principal being interrogated by Kingston city council over issues of friction between school and city, including costs for policing (and not only at Homecoming weekend).
• This summer, farmers in the Kingston area saw poor crop production as a consequence of the weather. Global News reports.
• Happily, the budget of the city of Kingston was made to accommodate costs for Murney, the police force’s horse. Global News reports.
• Weston Food’s plant in Kingston has seen forty jobs cut. Global News reports.
• Lake Ontario Park, in the west of the city, may be reopened to limited camping. The Whig-Standard reports.
• Kingston hockey player Rebecca Thompson is now playing for the team of Queen’s. Global News reports.
• Queen’s University is not alone in urging its exchange students in Hong Kong to evacuate. The Whig-Standard reports.
• Yesterday, a plane crashed in the west of Kingston, killing all seven people aboard. CBC reports</u..
• Chris Morris at Kingstonist has a long feature examining the Kingston Street Mission, interviewing outreach worker Marilyn McLean about her work with the homeless of the city.
• Kingston-born street nurse Cathy Crowe talks about homelessness, in Kingston and across Canada. Global News reports.
• The family of Royal Military College cadet Joe Grozelle, who disappeared from his campus and was later found dead two decades ago, wants his fate reinvestigated. Global News reports.
• A hundred students at a Kingston public school are being taught how to skate, part of a pilot program. Global News reports.

[PHOTO] Kitchener-Waterloo plans

I will be having so much fun today.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city notes: Montréal, Bronx, Nashville, Chicago, London

• People in Montréal will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk over the Champlain Bridge, scheduled for demolition in the near future. Global News reports.
• The Conversation looks at the mass tourism, after Joker, directed towards a flight of stairs in The Bronx, and what this means for cities.
• CityLab notes the deep upset of the numerous and influential Kurds of Nashville with Trump.
• CityLab looks at how a Chicago magazine reflects the gentrification of large parts of that metropolis.
• Guardian Cities takes a look at what maps of Victorian London, mapping disparities of wealth and social dysfunction, reveal about the city now.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the mystery of distant active galaxy SDSS J163909+282447.1, with a supermassive black hole but few stars.
• Centauri Dreams shares a proposal from Robert Buckalew for craft to engage in planned panspermia, seeding life across the galaxy.
• The Crux looks at the theremin and the life of its creator, Leon Theremin.
• D-Brief notes that termites cannibalize their dead, for the good of the community.
• Dangerous Minds looks at William Burroughs’ Blade Runner, an adaptation of a 1979 science fiction novel by Alan Nourse.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a new study explaining how the Milky Way Galaxy, and the rest of the Local Group, was heavily influenced by its birth environment.
• JSTOR Daily looks at why the Chernobyl control room is now open for tourists.
• Dale Campos at Lawyers. Guns and Money looks at the effects of inequality on support for right-wing politics.
• James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the decay and transformation of British politics, with Keith Vaz and Brexit.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper explaining why queens are more warlike than kings.
• Omar G. Encarnación at the NYR Daily looks at how Spain has made reparations to LGBTQ people for past homophobia. Why should the United States not do the same?
• Corey S. Powell at Out There shares his interview with physicist Sean Carroll on the reality of the Many Worlds Theory. There may be endless copies of each of us out there. (Where?)
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why 5G is almost certainly safe for humans.
• Strange Company shares a newspaper clipping reporting on a haunting in Wales’ Plas Mawr castle.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at all the different names for Africa throughout the years.
• The Volokh Conspiracy considers, in the case of the disposal of eastern Oklahoma, whether federal Indian law should be textualist. (They argue against.)
• Window on Eurasia notes the interest of the government of Ukraine in supporting Ukrainians and other minorities in Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at syntax on signs for Sloppy Joe’s.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• blogTO looks at the Toronto of the 1950s, when Highway 2–Lake Shore and Kingston Road–was the way into the city.
• Jamie Bradburn takes a look at a 1950 tourist guide to Ontario, specifically focusing on its descriptions of Toronto.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at how, in the post-war era, dining at the Coxwell Kresge in-house restaurant was a thing.
• blogTO notes how many in Leslieville are unhappy with the idea of the Ontario Line being built above-ground.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto notes that there is going to be a Pride rally outside of Palmerston library where Meghan Murphy will be speaking.
• Spacing looks at the connections between Nuit Blanche and the Toronto Biennial, for Toronto as an artistic city.
• NOW Toronto shares some photos of Honest Ed’s in its dying days.
• Toronto Life tells the story of Peperonata Lane, a west-end laneway that took its name from a popular neighbourhood pepper-roasting event.
• blogTO notes a new movie being filmed in Regent Park, here.
• blogTO shares photos of the new Garrison Crossing pedestrian bridge, here.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Architectuul looks at the Porto architectural project Critical Concrete, here.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares the evidence for our galaxy having experienced a phase as a quasar a quarter-million years long some 3.5 million years ago.
• Author James Bow celebrates the end of his publicity tour for The Night Girl, including a controversy over cover art featuring the CN Tower.
• Robert Zubrin at Centauri Dreams considers how we could detect energy from artificial singularities used for power and propulsion. (Is this how we find the Romulans?)
• The Crux considers whether or not the new proposals for more powerful supercolliders in China and Europe are likely to produce new discoveries.
• D-Brief explains why older generations so often look down on the young: The elders idealize their younger selves too much.
• Dead Things notes new evidence, in the tracks of trilobites moving in line 480 million years ago, for early life being able to engage in collective behaviour.
• io9 interviews Kami Garcia about her new YA book featuring venerable DC character Raven, remaking her for new readers.
• The Island Review interviews David Gange about The Frayed Atlantic Edge, his book account of his kayak trip down the western coasts of Britain and Ireland.
• JSTOR Daily explains why Martin Luther King Jr. thought so highly of jazz.
• Eleanor Penny argues at the LRB Blog against taking Malthus, with his pessimism trending towards a murderous misanthropy, as a prophet for our times.
• The NYR Daily looks at the play American Moor, which touches on the efforts of black actors to engage with Shakespeare.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new film The Flick, an old to old-style movies and theatres.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map depicting Hutterite migrations across early modern Europe.
• Starts With A Bang shares new speculation that some evidence for dark matter might actually be a mistake in measurement.
• Strange Maps notes the now mostly submerged continent of Greater Adria.
• Window on Eurasia shares a suggestion that the deep Russophilia of many ordinary people in Belarus might support union with Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the different meanings of “unaccompanied”.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.
• Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.
• The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.
• D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.
• Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.
• Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.
• Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.
• Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.
• io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.
• JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.
• Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of “their” as a singular.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.
• The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.
• Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.
• Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.
• Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.
• The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.
• The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.
• Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.
• Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.
• Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.
• Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, “depose”.

[PHOTO] Planning for Ottawa and Gatineau

The Guides Ulysse 2019 guide to Ottawa and Gatineau, the two cities of the National Capital Region, seemed a wise purchase tonight. I would be lying if I said that the new Confederation Line LRT was not making me think seriously of a visit north to the metropolis of the Ottawa Valley, but there are so many reasons for me to go north beyond the LRT, too!

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Town of the Blue Mountains, Québec City, Calgary, Edmonton

• Kingston will be hosting an open house discussion on the legacies of its most famous resident, John A. MacDonald. Global News reports.
• The Toronto Star reports on a beach and land ownership controversy in the Georgian Bay resort Town of the Blue Mountains, here.
• CBC Montreal reports on the closure of the Québec City church Très-Saint-Sacrement, after just under a century of operation, here.
• Cost increases for the Green Line LRT in Calgary may lead to route changes. Global News reports.
• The Brick has taken over the space of Sears in the West Edmonton Mall, offering hope to shopping malls of survival. Global News reports.