[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] Five Toronto links

• A new project hopes to revitalize the Golden Mile of Scarborough, along Eglinton Avenue. The Toronto Star reports.
• blogTO looks at how IKEA is going to be opening a new smaller store in downtown Toronto in the next two years, here.
• blogTO looks at a plan to make 80 Bloor Street West, in Yorkville, into a golden skyscraper 79 stories tall.
• Sadly, Chick-Fil-A at Yonge and Bloor still has long lines. blogTO reports.
• Radheyan Simonpillai reviews the new Kevin Donovan book The Billionaire Murders, looking at the unsolved killings of the Shermans in 2017.

[PHOTO] Towers of Yorkville (1), Google Photos’ take

My Google Photos app yesterday offered up an interesting edit of the first photo in my Yorkville series, intensifying the blue sky into surreality and bringing out the sunlight that much more.

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[PHOTO] Towers of Yorkville, noontime

The light yesterday at noontime, in the Yorkville that is now a burgeoning high-rise district, was gorgeous.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Yorkville, Burning Man, Rol San, 29 Dufferin, Cherry Street

• The Toronto Star looks back at its coverage of Yorkville in the 1960s, back when it was a hangout spot for hippies.
• Toronto Life shares photos of some Toronto-originated artworks put up at Burning Man this year, here.
• blogTO notes that Rol San, a leading dim sum place in Chinatown, might be erased by a 13-story tower.
• The crowding on the 29 Dufferin bus produced by the CNE is something I notice regularly. blogTO reports.
• The Cherry Street Bridge, after a month, is finally going to be fixed. blogTO reports.

[PHOTO] Four photos from midtown Yonge Street in the mist

Yesterday evening was rather cooler and wetter than I would have wanted, below 20 degrees and rainy. The clouds, it was pointed out to me, were so low as to touch towers in Yorkville just a couple dozen stories above the ground. Still, it was walkable, and the clouds and the wet did produce interesting effects.

[PHOTO] Towers of Yorkville, seen from Yonge and Bloor

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: green Designers Walk, Hearn, property taxes, U of T, renoviction

• Narcity reports that the 27-story Designers Walk condo tower in Yorkville is going to be a green vertical forest.
• The owners of the Hearn generating station are upset the building has received heritage protection from the City of Toronto. The Toronto Star reports.
• David Rider at the Toronto Star notes a new study suggesting there is substantial leeway for Toronto to increase property taxes.
• The Varsity notes that the University of Toronto now receives more funding from international students’ tuition than from the Ontario provincial government.
• The tenants of 394 Dovercourt Road fear they might face renoviction from their affordable homes. The Toronto Star reports.

[NEWS] Five Canadian politics links: marijuana, NDP, Québec, Green Party, ISIS, Brexit and film

• There is a shortlist of likely marijuana store locations in Ontario that includes Yorkville in Toronto. Global News reports.
• Éric Grenier at CBC reports that the NDP in Québec risks falling to pre-Orange Wave levels of support.
• Former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair warns that the weakening of the NDP stance on environmental issues might led to mass defections to the Green Party. CTV has it.
• Given the lack of any legal obligation to expedite the return of ISIS fighters holding Canadian citizenship, the Canadian government seems inclined to let them remain in detention in former ISIS territories. Global News reports.
• Brexit is boosting the Canadian film industry, given our numerous advantages as described by the Hollywood Reporter.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: 1 Yorkville, Davenport Village, Meridian, homelessness, Pride, art

• Urban Toronto notes that 1 Yorkville is nearing completion.
• Urban Toronto notes the plans for the massive redevelopment of Davenport Village, north and west of Dupont and Lansdowne.
• The Sony Centre is now going to be called Meridian Hall, thanks to the Ontario credit union of the same name buying the name rights. blogTO reports.
• This story of a tenant who was deprived heating by her landlords’ neglect is appalling. I hope things get fixed quickly for her. Global News reports.
• Declan Keogh reports in NOW Toronto that the funding problems of Pride Toronto are linked to the police ban enacted in 2016.
• This Nicholas Hune-Brown feature at Toronto Life about the crisis of homelessness in Toronto is terribly compelling in sharing these stories.
• This Toronto Life feature on the installations on the seventh floor of the Hudson’s Bay makes this place very visit-worthy.