[PHOTO] Hudson Condos, 438 King Street West

The 21-story Hudson Condos tower at 438 King Street West, on the northeast corner of Spadina and King, is a development that quite appeals to me visually with its dynamic lines.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining what happens to complex organic chemicals in emergent planetary systems when irradiated.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper examining the impact of Antarctic sea ice on ocean flows.


• Joe. My. God. shares Jimmy Somerville's revisiting of his 1984 hit "Smalltown Boy".


• Marginal Revolution links to a paper claiming tax evasion is responsible for the developed world's financial ills.


• Steve Munro revisits the issue of articulated buses on Bathurst Street.


• Towleroad notes Nate Silver's argument that most people belonging to Hillary Clinton's demographic would have been in favour of same-sex marriage as early as the early 1990s.


• Transit Toronto points to a screening next week of three transit-related films.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that Argentina is now vulnerable to American creditors wanting state-owned property as compensation for Argentine debts.


• Window on Eurasia considers federalism in Azerbaijan and wonders about prospects for Chinese guest workers in Russia.

[LINK] "MPeople from Mexico show stunning amount of genetic diversity"

National Geographic's Karen Weintraub wrote about a new study in Science, described here by Lizzie Wade, about the genetics of Mexico's indigenous populations. It turns out that Mexico's populations are very diverse. This has significant implications for, among other things, medical treatments and diagnoses, besides revealing interesting things about Mexico's pre-Columbian history.

Mexico contains 65 different indigenous ethnic groups, 20 of which are represented in the study, says Andrés Moreno-Estrada, a population geneticist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and the study’s lead author. Working with Carlos Bustamante, another Stanford population geneticist, the team sampled the genomes of indigenous populations all over Mexico, from the northern desert of Sonora to the jungles of Chiapas in the south. Over centuries of living so far apart—and often in isolation because of mountain ranges, vast deserts, or other geographic barriers—these populations developed genetic differences from one another, Bustamante explains. Many of these variants are what he calls “globally rare but locally common.” That is, a genetic variant that’s widespread in one ethnic group, like the Maya, may hardly ever show up in people of different ancestry, like people of European descent. If you study the genomes of only the Europeans, you’d never catch the Maya variant. And that’s a big problem for people with Maya ancestry if that variant increases their risk of disease or changes the way they react to different kinds of medication. “All politics is local, right? What we’re starting to find is that lots of genetics is local, too,” Bustamante says.

When the team analyzed the genomes of 511 indigenous individuals from all over Mexico, they found a striking amount of genetic diversity. The most divergent indigenous groups in Mexico are as different from each other as Europeans are from East Asians, they report online today in Science. This diversity maps onto the geography of Mexico itself. The farther away ethnic groups live from each other, the more different their genomes turn out to be.

But most people in Mexico or of Mexican descent these days are not indigenous but rather mestizo, meaning they have a mixture of indigenous, European, and African ancestry. Do their genomes also vary by what region of Mexico they come from, or has all that local variation been smoothed out by centuries of different groups meeting, mixing, and having babies?

To answer that question, the team collaborated with Mexico’s National Institute of Genomic Medicine, which has been collecting genetic data from mestizos for many years. Somewhat surprisingly, they found that mestizos in a given part of Mexico tended to have the same “rare” genetic variants as their indigenous neighbors. The mestizo genomes “track so well with the indigenous groups that we could use the genetic diversity in mestizos to make inferences about [their native] ancestors,” Pasaniuc says. Strong genetic markers of Maya ancestry, for example, show up in the genomes of modern people living in the Yucatán Peninsula and the northern part of Mexico’s Gulf Coast in the modern state of Veracruz, which likely reflects a pre-Columbian Maya trade or migration route. “It gives us a historical understanding of what these populations have been up to,” says Christopher Gignoux, a postdoc in Bustamante’s group at Stanford.

[URBAN NOTE] "Ghost bikes move us all"

NOW Toronto's Andrew Reeves wrote favourably about the Toronto manifestation of the "ghost bike", a memorial to a cyclist killed in an accident at that location. I photographed one here, on St. Clair at Wychwood. There are controversies surrounding the ghost bikes as obstructions to movement and as potentially unsightly, with many people relating to the issue in ways that reflect their alignments on the issue of bikes in Toronto.

Ghost bikes are seen by family members as sad tributes to lost loved ones, and by cycling advocates as reminders to bike safe. The fate of the bikes has become an issue for the Public Works Committee since City Hall started receiving inquiries from cyclists and families opposed to their removal last year.

[. . .]

Ghost bikes were introduced in Toronto in the mid-2000s after a 2003 bike crash in St. Louis, Missouri, inspired a witness to install a white-painted bike as a sombre reminder of the safety challenges for cyclists. Toronto’s versions are crafted by Geoffrey Bercarich, a volunteer with Bike Pirates.

“They make people understand that this intersection is dangerous,” he says.

Bercarich would like to see them protected and honoured as permanent landmarks, because “they’re a powerful tool for advocacy,” he says. “That’s why I keep building them.”

Mike Layton also thinks they should remain. The Ward 19 councillor brought forward a motion last October asking staff to study changing existing bylaws to recognize ghost bikes as “art and memorials” rather than rusting eyesores.

“Some families want them taken down because they don’t want to be reminded of a tragic incident,” but others want a reminder that “it’s dangerous out there.” Layton’s hoping to find a solution that addresses everyone’s needs.

[URBAN NOTE] On the proposed new location of the Sam the Record Man sign

Torontoist and Toronto Life and blogTO all happily noted last week that the iconic sign of the Yonge Street location of Sam the Record Man will be coming back to the streets of Toronto. The Toronto Star's Tim Alemenciak reported on the new location, looking down on Yonge-Dundas Square from the east.

Toronto’s iconic Sam the Record Man sign may have a home atop a city-owned building near Yonge-Dundas Square if a new plan is approved.

But the local councillor says the proposed building is slated for sale in 10 to 15 years, potentially endangering the long-term future of the beloved sign.

“Overall I think there are some great positives that come out of this proposal . . . the fact that the sign will be seen again,” said Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam whose ward includes the sign’s former Yonge St. location. “People have been asking for the signs to come out of storage.”

Deputy city manager John Livey’s plan suggests placing the double-record neon sign atop the Toronto Public Health building at 277 Victoria St., overlooking Yonge-Dundas Square.

[. . .]

“What we’ve heard from residents of the community and residents at large across the city is they would like to see the sign visible from Yonge St.,” said Wong-Tam. “So now they’ve chosen to have that sign placed above Yonge-Dundas Square which I would say is the most iconic space in the city next to Nathan Phillips Square.”

Here's my photo of the sign at its original location, in 2008.

[LINK] Three links on the newly approved Northern Gateway pipeline

I've blogged in the past about the very controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, planned to connect the controversial oil of the tar sands of northern Alberta to a port on the coast of British Columbia. British Columbians are reluctant to have the pipeline, fearing environmental catastrophe, while the Canadian government has been pushing the pipeline heavily, even attacking critics as agents of foreign influence on occasion (!). The pipeline is politically controversial, and it has just been approved.

First comes CBC's report.

The federal government has agreed to let Enbridge build its Northern Gateway pipeline, subject to 209 conditions recommended by the National Energy Board and further talks with aboriginal communities.

Enbridge wants to build the pipeline from Bruderheim, Alta., to Kitimat, B.C.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called it "folly" and "pure madness" to think anyone can put supertankers in British Columbia's Douglas Channel.

Both Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said they would reverse the decision to accept the National Energy Board's pipeline approval. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, environmental groups and First Nations reacted quickly to news of the federal approval, releasing statements opposing it.

[. . .]

Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, whose office announced the decision to allow the pipeline, wasn't available for interviews on Tuesday. The announcement was made in a news release with no ministerial press conference.

Next comes National Geographic's reaction.

The $7.9 billion pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta's tar sands in the east to the British Columbia coast, where it could be exported to markets abroad. As part of the project, the port of Kitimat, located on a coastal inlet, would be expanded to accommodate about 220 oil tankers every year.

Canadian oil producers are seeking new markets for their oil, 99 percent of which goes to the United States. The Northern Gateway decision "is another important step for Canada to access global markets and world prices, and earn full value for our oil resource," said Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, in a statement.

A joint review panel convened by Canada's National Energy Board recommended approval for the project last December. But unlike in the United States, where many have been waiting for a verdict from the Obama administration on the Keystone XL project, an approval from the federal government does not amount to a green light for construction in Canada. Instead, Enbridge must meet 209 conditions—an exhaustive list covering everything from environmental impact to detailed filings about construction and operation—before it can start building the pipeline.

"Today constitutes another step in the process," said Greg Rickford, Canada's minister of natural resources, in a statement announcing the approval. "The proponent [Enbridge] clearly has more work to do in order to fulfill the public commitment it has made to engage with Aboriginal groups and local communities along the route."

Enbridge expects that the effort to meet required conditions for the project will take 12 to 15 months, said Janet Holder, the Enbridge executive leading the Northern Gateway effort, on a media call Tuesday. After that, the National Energy Board would need to review and approve Enbridge's work. "We are working hard on those [conditions]," she said. "We are required to meet them, and we intend to do that."

Finally, MacLean's emphasizes the political controversy and the potential for it to bring down the Conservative government.

Harper claims there is a dire economic need to expand Canada’s energy markets beyond the U.S. to Asia, but the issue is certain to stick to his government like a giant ball of bitumen as it treads into the next election in 2015. For Harper, who cut his teeth as an Alberta Reform MP on the western alienation of the Ottawa-dictated National Energy Program of the Trudeau Liberals, Gateway is both a crisis and an opportunity. It is certain to win approval from his base in Alberta, pinched by generally low oil prices caused by an overreliance on U.S. customers. The decision is also consistent with his determination to win approval from a skittish Obama administration to green-light the 1,900-km Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska.

[. . .]

The political risks, however, are substantial. Both NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said they would kill the project if they win the next election. Mulcair said the 21 Conservative MPs in B.C. are already “hiding under their desks” fearing the electoral fallout. An array of well-funded environmental groups and dozens of B.C. First Nations vowed to fight the project in the courts and, for some, through civil disobedience. Already First Nations and environmental groups have five legal challenges of the NEB decision on hold in Federal Court—cases certain to be reactivated and expanded now that the cabinet decision has come down. “Today we unequivocally reject the Harper government’s decision to approve the Enbridge Northern Gateway tanker and pipelines project,” said a joint statement from many First Nations in northern and coastal B.C. They vowed to “vigorously pursue all lawful means” to kill the project.

Larger public opinion in B.C. is also tilting against the project. A recent poll by Nanos Research for Bloomberg News shows a majority of British Columbians favoured either blocking the project or delaying it for further study, while 29 per cent wanted it approved. A majority of residents of Kitimat, B.C., the proposed site of the shipping terminal, also rejected Gateway in a non-binding plebiscite earlier this year. The twin pipeline is only part of the concern; for many the greater threat is the risk of an oil tanker accident in the narrows of Hecate Strait fouling the coast.

[LINK] "Can Fast-Food Chains Get Americans to Try Middle Eastern?"

Vanessa Wong's Bloomberg BusinessWeek article takes me somewhat by surprise. The idea that Middle Eastern food might not be commonly eaten almost doesn't seem right. Likely it's because of my background in Atlantic Canada, where as this Saltscapes article describes, one of the most noteworthy elements brought by the non-trivial Lebanese immigration to the region was their food. Shawarma not being an option is almost implausible.

The original Halal Guys in Manhattan is a thing of local legend: a food cart that became a word-of-mouth phenomenon with long—and occasionally violent—lines day and night. Now the purveyors of chicken and rice in Styrofoam containers are trying to turn the sidewalk stand into a national franchise concept. After signing with consulting firm Fransmart, Halal Guys now plans to grow into a chain of 100 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and overseas in about five years.

Halal Guys isn’t the only one trying to create a market for Middle Eastern fast food in the U.S. Just Falafel, based in the United Arab Emirates, plans to open 160 outlets in North America and has already signed franchise agreements in New York City, New Jersey, Kentucky, San Francisco, and Toronto. Amsterdam’s Maoz Vegetarian already has a chain of falafel restaurants in the U.S.

While starting a “Chipotle of Middle Eastern food” may seem seductive, Darren Tristano, executive vice president at restaurant consultancy Technomic, sees certain challenges that did not confront the successful fast-casual Mexican restaurant. The average American, he argues, lacks basic familiarity with Middle Eastern cuisine. Only 0.5 percent of the U.S. population is of Arab ancestry, according to U.S. Census data.

[URBAN NOTE] "Community activists concerned about TAVIS policing"

I was first alerted by a Torontoist post about possible neighbourhood concerns about policing in the Sherbourne and Dundas area during WorldPride. Patty Winsa's Toronto Star article goes into greater detail about these concerns.

Toronto police view the area from Wellesley south to Queen, and from Church east to Parliament, as one of the city’s most violent.

Community workers look at the neighbourhood in 51 Division and see marginalized people who need housing and help.

Those divergent views may clash as close to 30 officers with the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy start sweeping through the area Monday as part of a summer initiative that will last until Sept. 8.

“We think this neighbourhood has a lack of resources, including housing, and these are the issues this community faces. Arresting people isn’t going to solve these socio-economic issues,” said Zoe Dodd, a community worker and volunteer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

At a press conference Monday, the group, along with Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, the Toronto Sex Workers Action Project called “Maggies,” and the Network for the Elimination of Police Violence, said the additional police presence wasn’t welcome and asked for it to end.

“Our biggest problem is that we don’t think policing will solve the issues of this neighbourhood,” said Dodd, and “that over-policing is actually using tactics of harassment, carding and ticketing of people, especially people that are homeless and young men of colour.”

A Star investigation found that on average, TAVIS officers stop, question and document people — called “carding” — at a higher rate than regular officers in any division. Blacks were more likely than whites to be carded by police in each of Toronto’s 70-plus police patrol zones.

Police said the area was targeted because an analysis of crime rates over the years and incidents per square kilometre showed the neighbourhood had among the highest numbers of calls for service regarding shootings, robberies and violence.

“The neighbourhood has been chosen because of its high concentration of violent activity and not because of its racial, ethnic or socioeconomic make-up,” police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said in an email.