[PHOTO] Building Ryerson at Yonge and Gould

Construction is afoot at Yonge and Gould, as Ryerson University continues to build its new Student Learning Centre on the site of the old Sam the Record Man store.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling shares photographs of the Euromaidan protests in Kiev.


• BlogTO notes that Toronto in the 1970s and even after was actually pretty dirty, with soot covering all kinds of iconic buildings.


• The Burgh Diaspora's Jim Russell argues that higher education linked to migration is going to give the United States a key advantage.


• The Dragon's Tales notes the latest effort to come up with the size of Kuiper belt object Haumea. (It turns out it's an ellipsoid.


• Far Outliers notes the critical role played by Canadian and Australian shock troops at the end of the First World War.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas notes that Heidegger was right: we are using technology to control technology.


• Inkless Wells' Paul Wells argues that Justin Trudeau is the first Liberal Party leader who feels like a Liberal to leaders in a decade. Critically, Stephen Harper may not feel conservative.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the United Kingdom is in the process of adapting its titles of nobility and royalty to take account of same-sex marriage.


• Marginal Revolution notes the writings of economist Anders Aslund on the economy of Ukraine.


• John Moyer shares photos of the amazing northern lights of Iceland.


• In his latest Historicist feature, Torontoist's Kevin Plummer describes the 1940 hunt for escaped killer John Kluk, who haunted the eastern European districts of the west end.


• Transit Toronto observes that Mississauga and Brampton are set to work on building a 20-stop light rail route connecting their cities, seeking public consultations.

[URBAN NOTE] Three Torontoist links on changing Toronto neighbourhoods

The posts date from July of last year, but their issues remain relevant.

• The first describes an effort by residents of Kensington Market to crowdfund studies and activism opposing new condo and shopping developments in their area.


• The second, published after news of the eventual sale of the Honest Ed's building, celebrates the aging megadiscount store's history.


• The third takes a look at the Hotel Waverly, a hotel at Spadina and College that has served as something like Toronto's version of New York City's Chelsea Hotel.

[URBAN NOTE] On Tkaronto

Yesterday, Language Hat featured some Canadian Content.

A Wordorigins post on the Mohawk origin of the toponym Toronto, deriving it from “tkaronto, meaning ‘trees standing in the water,’” led me to ask for an explanation of the morphology of tkaronto, i.e., how exactly it means ‘trees standing in the water.’ Since Dave Wilton didn’t know, I thought I’d see if any of my readers do.

I was the first in the comments, linking to a 2013 Torontoist post by Patrick Metzger

[I]t’s virtually certain that the name “Toronto” is rooted in the Mohawk language and in a location about 130 kilometres north of the present city. Historical evidence tells us that the term is from the Mohawk “Tkaranto,” meaning “where there are trees standing in the water.” It originally referred to the Narrows at Orillia, where Lake Simcoe empties into Lake Couchiching and where natives had for centuries placed saplings in the water to trap fish.

Around 1680, Lake Simcoe appeared on a French map as “Lac de Taronto.” From there the name migrated southward, with the water route from Lake Simcoe to Ontario becoming the Passage de Toronto and the present Humber River, picking up the appellation Rivière Taronto. In the mid-18th century, the French updated the spelling and doubled down on their commitment to the word by changing the name of the fort at the foot of the Humber from Fort Rouillé to Fort Toronto.

Another commenter linked to an article going into greater length. about the origins of the word

After about an hour’s drive, one reaches the city of Barrie on the northwest arm of Lake Simcoe. At over 280 square miles, this large lake is somewhat dwarfed by the Great Lakes that lie to the north, south, and west. Driving another half hour northeast, passing through the town of Orillia, one reaches the northern tip of the lake where the waters of Lake Couchiching pour into Lake Simcoe.

Now known as the Atherly Narrows, these rapids are an ideal place for fishing and have been the site of a fish weir for three or four thousand years. Several native peoples have controlled this area. When the French missionaries arrived, it was Huron land. These missionaries recorded and fell victim to the war in which the Iroquois defeated the Hurons in the seventeenth century. The Mohawks, a member nation of the Iroquois confederacy, then moved north into the area for a time until the Ojibway, in their turn, pushed them back south.

While the Mohawks were still in residence, and before the English arrived, a French cartographer adopted the Mohawk name for the fish weir at the north end of the lake. The Mohawks simply referred to the weir as “where there are trees standing in water.” Their word for poles or trees is ront, and the ancient structure was called tkaronto. The cartographer decided to adapt the name for the entire lake, so in a French map published in 1680, the large body of water was labeled Lac Toronteau.

Other comments at Language Hat were interesting, trying to provide a full etymological breakdown of the word (apparently Iroquoian languages are complex that way), wondering whether the word was originally Huron not Iroquois, and speculating as to how the word lost its "k". Great stuff.

Incidentally, a quick Googling suggests that "Tkaronto" gave its name to a 2007 feature film about two people of First Nations background living in Toronto and to a 2011 work of street art. It still evokes the past in a community still quite young.

[URBAN NOTE] On the defunct Chapters bookstore at Runnymede, Toronto

My thanks to Flickr's Vik Pahwa for sharing this beautiful photo of the now-defunct Chapters bookstore at Runnymede.



(The file is viewable at his Flickr page here.)

Located at 2225 Bloor Street West in the historic Runnymede Theatre, since the Chapters on the southwest corner where Runnymede Road meets Bloor Street West opened in 1998 it was something of a neighbourhood centre. This is ironic since, as noted at the end of January by Postmedia's Marc Weisblott, Chapters was originally unwelcome here.

More than 1,500 locals signed a petition demanding that the 1927 site of the Runnymede Theatre — which movie chain Famous Players gave up on in 1997 — not be leased to a bookselling monolith.

Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman and his eventual successor, Bloor West Village city councillor David Miller, both expressed displeasure with the deal.

But the Ontario Municipal Board upheld a decision to rezone it for retail with the promise of renovations and restorations of the art deco theatre, which ultimately cost Chapters about $5-million in 1999.

Indigo initially put the Runnymede store up for sale after the consolidation in 2001, although it ended up intact for more than a decade — even if cash flow increasingly depended upon a Starbucks (which became popular enough to move on its own across the street) and a growing inventory of things that were not books.

Yet when the announcement of its closing was made in November, it was reported that the neighbours developed a fondness for the once-damned bookstore, thanks in part to the preservation.

Parents lamented the fact that their children grew up in a bookstore that would soon disappear — as it is more difficult for them to find entertaining diversions in a Shoppers Drug Mart.

The Toronto Star's Francine Kopun wrote about an unusual town hall meeting held at the store by Heather Reisman, head of Indigo (owner of the Chapters stores, too).

Indigo chief executive officer Heather Reisman fielded mostly friendly questions from an audience of about 300 gathered Wednesday night at the Chapters Runnymede bookstore, slated to close in 11 days.

“For many years we have operated this store and lost money,” said Reisman, by way of explaining why, after investing a fortune to renovate the historic theatre building and seeing it become a meeting place for families and friends and school groups, the store is closing. A Shoppers Drug Mart is scheduled to open in the space in the summer.

“With marginal stores there always comes a point where you can’t do it anymore,” said Reisman.

“We have the same romantic attachment to the space,” she said. “Maybe eight months ago we should have had this meeting … It would have been nice to turn it into a club.”

“We want to be here. We want to be in this community. We’re looking for a place,” said Reisman, whose remarks were punctuated by warm applause from the audience.

Indigo was unable to renew its lease on the 22,000-square-foot location because the rent rose beyond what the store could support, Reisman said.

She pointed out that many customers browse in-store, only to go home to purchase the items they want online at the cheapest possible price. She said Indigo sells books online at cost while other retailers do so below cost to drive sales of other products.

The store's last day was on the 16th.

I can verify the store's strong rating on Yelp. On the few occasions I visited the store, I quite liked it.

[LINK] Two Thought Catalog posts on crisis and migration

• Dekker Dreyer contributed "Fight or Flight in the Former Eastern Bloc", a brief article inspired by a recent visit to Bulgaria exploring pressures for emigration. Two people are interviewed, one a person who left and the other a person who stayed.


• Greek blogger Constantina Delimitrou, who moved from Greece to Cyprus just in time to catch the economic crisis there, contributes a listicle-format article, "What The Greek And Cypriot Crisis Taught Me". TLDR? When things start seeming ethically sketchy across your society, get ready to move.

[LINK] "Quora and the Search for Truth"

Quentin Hardy's post at the New York Times' Bits blog profiles Quora, a rather fun question-and-answer site. (I'm there, too.) I came across the site a few months ago thanks to Slate's regular promotion of particularly interesting answers to questions, and enjoy it.

The Internet has a nagging problem: There is lots of information, but often confusion about what’s true. Many big websites try to solve this problem with their services. At least one, Quora, suggests that maybe we don’t care that much about the truth.
Adam D’Angelo, a co-founder and chief executive of Quora, a question-and-answer service. “Eighty percent of our views happen a month after an answer is written,” he said. Adam D’Angelo, a co-founder and chief executive of Quora, a question-and-answer service. “Eighty percent of our views happen a month after an answer is written,” he said.

Quora is a question-and-answer website founded by Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, two early employees at Facebook. Begun in June 2010, it claims to have information on over 450,000 topics, almost all posted by its registered users.

“The scale is so big that there’s no point in saying what the top 50 questions are,” said Mr. D’Angelo, who is also Quora’s chief executive. Unlike a news business, immediacy isn’t an issue, either. “Eighty percent of our views happen a month after an answer is written,” he said.

[. . .]

The range of topics is certainly impressive. Questions include “What’s it like to hug a penguin?” and “Who are the likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates?” and “Is Al Qaeda winning?” Most of the questions have multiple answers, which other readers vote up or down.

Answers with the most votes don’t always end up at the top of a list of answers to a question, presumably the place of truth; over 100 factors, including down votes and who is voting, affect the ranking. But the votes are what is visible, and they matter for the business of keeping people engaged.

It’s not just impossible to say how accurate the answers are; it may not really be an issue. The penguin question, for example, has two answers at its top with opposite conclusions. Their difference may be resolved this way: Hugging a penguin at Sea World is cute, and hugging a penguin in the wild is like asking for a mugging. There is no such distinction in the answers themselves, however.

It is reasonably entertaining, however (in this case, if you’re into penguins). Quora styles itself “the topic network,” which is another way of saying it is partly in the business of organizing knowledge into categories about which people can have discussions. Everything is subject to change, a kind of implicit admission that nothing can ever be finally known.