[PHOTO] CityPlace, December 2013

In December 2013, I took a walk west from Spadina into the new neighbourhood of CityPlace. This neighbourhood--bordered, as Wikipedia notes, by Bathurst Street to the west, Lake Shore Boulevard to the south, and Front Street to the north and Blue Jays Way and the Rogers Centre to the east--is the veritable heartland of Toronto's condos.

Built on the old Railway Lands west of Union Station used by the old Canadian National railway for storage and repairs, since the 1960s the area has been slowly built up. The CN Tower's construction occurred in the first phase of the Railway Lands' redevelopment. In the past decade, condo construction in CityPlace west of Spadina has boomed. Metro Toronto's Matt Elliott noted in 2012 that the electoral riding of Trinity-Spadina which includes CityPlace has one of the fastest-growing populations of any riding in Ontario, and the largest of any in Toronto. The Grid's Edward Keenan wondered in 2011 if, in future years, as the buildings deteriorate and if street life and transit links don't improve, CityPlace might become something of a ghetto.

For now, though, CityPlace is a dynamic neighbourhood with sky-reaching architecture. I'm a particular fan of the Puente de Luz pedestrian bridge spanning the still-used rail lines between Spadina and Bathurst (photos 6 through 8).

[BLOG] Some Ukraine links

As the Crimean crisis continues, I thought I'd share a few links from the blogophere.

• The Economist's Eastern Approaches has two recent posts of note, one noting on the close ties, past and present, between the Czech Republic (and Czechoslovakia) and Ukrainians, the other observing that Russia and Ukraine are close to war.


• Asya Pereltsvaig's Geocurrents post from last year examining the Stalin-era deportation of the Crimean Tatars on charges of Nazi collaboration, the beginning of their return from Central Asia under Gorbachev, and their remaining issues of integration, remains quite relevant.


• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Scott Lemieux doesn't think much about Charles Krauthammer's call for action, and Robert Farley links to a cross-section of American thinkers on the subject.


• Marginal Revolution has two posts--one here, one here--arguing that a Ukraine that had kept its nuclear weapons wouldn't have experienced this invasion, suggesting that aspiring nuclear powers are looking to Ukraine's example.


• At Personal Reflections, Jim Belshaw argues that there isn't much that can be done, perhaps suggesting that an integrated Ukraine in a Russian sphere of influence is the best-case scenario.


• Justin Petrone notes that Crimea's inclusion in Ukraine is just one example of the Soviet Union's conflict-prone borders.


• Otto Pohl wonders about the extent to which the Russian takeover will threaten the Crimean Tatars.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that, so far, the markets don't seem to suggest that Russia is taking a hit from its invasion. If it broadens to include southeastern Ukraine, maybe.


• Towleroad features an essay by David Mixner calling for a partition of Ukraine on lines of language and politics. We will see more of these in days to come.

[FORUM] What do you think will happen in Crimea?

What do you think will be the likely outcome of what Wikipedia is calling the 2014 Crimean crisis?

I'm willing to bet that a likely outcome will be the emergence of a Russian satellite pseudostate, something not very different from neighbouring Abkhazia. (What the Crimean Tatars will make of this, I don't know. I'm willing to bet a significant worsening of ethnic tensions vis-a-vis the Crimean Russians.)

The critical question is whether or not Russia will move further into Ukraine. The three easternmost oblasts of Ukraine--from north to south, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk--have a combined population of just over nine million people, populations that are not only mostly Russophone by language but have substantial ethnic Russian minorities (a quarter of the population in Kharkiv, two-fifths in the other oblasts), and industrial economies closely tied to Russia. Will Russia try to carve these off with local allies, and perhaps others?

Discuss.