[PHOTO] Memory of the Queen Street subway that could have been

The commemorative monument at the centre of the photo, erected on Queen just east of Dufferin dedicated to the "Queen Street Subway" with a date of 1897, is, as Derek Flack noted in 2010 at blogTO misleading: "Subway" was the word that the late 19th century used where we would use "underpass". People who are informed about the history of mass transit in Toronto could be easily confused, since discussion of a Queen Street subway line goes as far back as 1911, with one proposed route extended from Trinity-Bellwoods Park in the west to Logan Avenue in the east.

Flack's blogTO essay goes into the history of this proposed route at some length, while James Bow at Transit Toronto describes how Queen Street contended with Bloor-Danforth throughout the mid-20th century to be the location of the main west-to-east subway route in Toronto. Get Toronto Moving also has an extended overview of proposals to build the Queen line, noting how this has morphed over time into the Downtown Relief Line. The only physical vestige of this line is the Lower Queen station at Yonge, described by Bow at Transit Toronto here and by Tess Kalinowski at the Toronto Star in 2007 here.

James Bow's Transit Toronto essay "What if the Queen Subway was built instead of the Bloor-Danforth?" is a fascinating exercise in alternate history, considering how Toronto's transit system would have evolved in this case. The effect on Toronto's urban geography would have been equally noteworthy. Perhaps the waterfront would have been developed earlier, with Queen Street being the main street of the city, with places like Bloor--never mind St. Clair, or Dupont--lagging?

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Dangerous Minds notes the food songs that gorillas apparently sing to themselves as they eat.


• The Dragon's Gaze reports on the TRAPPIST-1 system, with three Earth-sized terrestrial planets orbiting a very faint star.


• The Dragon's Tales notes a paper examining methane exchange in the Martian near-surface.


• Joe. My. God. reports that Eurovision will be broadcasting live in the USA for the first time, on Logo.


• Language Hat reports on the effects of Japanese company Rakuten's switch to English as a working language.


• The LRB Blog and Marginal Revolution report on the claim of Australian Craig Wright to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.


• The Map Room Blog reports on an exhibition of the map history of Texas.


• Marginal Revolution reports on the economic dominance of vinyl sales and streaming music in the music industry.


• Steve Munro notes the Ontario government's refusal to talk about how transit fares in Toronto will be set.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes the discovery of the moon of dwarf planet Makemake.


• Window on Eurasia notes the Russian response to the MH17 shootdown and reports on the firebombing of a pro-Donbas museum in St. Petersburg.

[NEWS] Some Tuesday links

• Bloomberg View notes the strong case against Brexit and looks at how austerity will complicate the vote.


• CBC notes the impact of Expo 86 on the architecture of Vancouver.


• Discovery notes that the universe is likely filled with extinct civilizations.


• The Inter Press Service reports on the African-Caribbean-Pacific group summit in Papua New Guinea.


• MacLean's examines the fall of the Parti Québécois' Peladeau.


• National Geographic reports on how ocean acidification is killing reefs off Florida.


• Reuters notes how democracy is complicating Kuwait's economic reforms.


• The Toronto Star looks at the link between air rage and class divisions.


• Universe Today describes the TRAPPIST-1 system.


• The Washington Post notes how race is complicating the housing recovery in the United States.


• Wired suggests that TTIP may end the European Union's hard lines on privacy and the environment.

[URBAN NOTE] Two links on the Ontario Food Terminal and the problems of the Tibetans who work there

The Ontario Food Terminal, Toronto's main produce distribution centre, was the subject of two articles coming up on my Feedly RSS feed recently.

The first, Torontoist's "How the Ontario Food Terminal Works", written by Conrad Smyth with photos by Robert Ewart, takes a look at the bargaining that goes on here as buyers contend with sellers.

The OFT runs two distinct operations: a farmers’ market, where exclusively local growers hock their produce, and a warehouse market offering imported fruits and vegetables from around the world. Only legally registered businesses can buy and must pay a nominal fee for use of the facility. Sellers are charged rent by the OFT, with famers’ market access wide open and available by the day, and warehouse market tenants locked into long-term leases currently holding a robust zero per cent vacancy rate.

Prices at the OFT are informally set to a daily price list made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; they fluctuate based on customer demand and vendor supply, with factors as seemingly innocuous as a Loblaws’ flyer promotion depleting inventory levels and pushing up the going wholesale rate. Each vendor issues a single weekly invoice for all purchasing activity, with payment due to the OFT. Once received, the money is doled out accordingly, allowing sales floor deals to be struck in quick succession without concern for the cumbersome exchange of physical cash.

[Bondi Produce]does the bulk of its business with grocery stores and restaurants—the former favouring a sharp cost and commanding a lower per-case purchasing price in exchange for a much higher sales volume, and the latter emphasizing quality and paying a higher per-case price due to the comparatively small size of their orders. Exact numbers are kept close to the chest, though gross margins tends to blend out at about 15 per cent, depending on what is being bought and sold—a $17 purchase is resold for $20, generating $3 of gross profit, and putting the volume necessary to run a financially sustainable business into mind-boggling focus.

The second, NOW Toronto's "Tibetan immigrants fight for fair wages and dignity at the Ontario Food Terminal", written by Gelek Badheytsang, takes a look at an ongoing labour dispute. Apparently many of the workers at the Ontario Food Terminal are of Tibetan background, residents of the heavily Tibetan neighbourhood of Parkdale just east of the Terminal on the Queensway. Apparently working conditions--something touched on obliquely by Smyth's article--are not the best.

Stop and consider the salad in your sandwich, the berry in your smoothie or the saag in your paneer. If you didn’t grow that piece of leafy green yourself, or buy it directly from a farmer at your local farmer’s market, chances are it would’ve been handled by a line of workers employed at the Ontario Food Terminal.

Until recently, Thupten Nyendak could’ve been one of them. He worked full-time for Fresh Taste Produce, one of the distribution companies (called “warehouse tenants”) at the Ontario Food Terminal. Since April 21, Nyendak and 13 of his colleagues have been on strike, protesting low wages, lack of job benefits and workplace harassment. They have been bargaining for a first contract since November.

[. . .]

Before they joined the Teamsters back in October, Nyendak says Fresh Taste workers who complained about being shortchanged on hours worked or requested a pay raise would be told by management "to walk. There are many other Tibetans like you outside, they’d tell us," says Nyendak.

Because he was one of the more vocal employees, Nyendak says he tolerated less of this kind of treatment, letting management know whenever they crossed the line. His confident personality is one of the reasons his colleagues appointed him union steward.

Then there is Zaheed Shamshadeen. Originally from Guyana, he is one of the three non-Tibetans among striking workers at Fresh Taste. He has been an employee at Fresh Taste for 18 years, starting at $12 an hour. He has been earning $14.50 an hour for the last eight years.

“They treat me like shit,” says Shamshadeen, who is reluctant to speak at first. Nyendak encourages him. “Zaheed, tell them how they bully you.”

“They call me names,” Shamshadeen says. He looks downcast.

[URBAN NOTE] "Five Things You Need to Know about the Bloor Bike Lanes"

At Torontoist, Jacob Lorinc blogs about the apparently controversial Bloor Street West bike lanes.

There’s a development in the seemingly endless battle for bike lanes on Bloor Street, and it comes in the form of a City Council vote next month. If approved, temporary bike lanes will dawn the Annex-Bloor region, running between Shaw Street and Avenue Road this summer.

The project, however, is no more than a pilot—as mayor John Tory has strongly emphasized as a condition of his support—and is aimed at evaluating the impacts of cycling infrastructure along the downtown thoroughfare. As such, the pilot project is subject to removal if the lanes are deemed detrimental to the flow of traffic.

[. . .]

1. The pilot project does not have the committee’s approval.

Members of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee met on April 25 to vote on the proposed pilot project. The project was supported by Councillor Anthony Perruzza (Ward 8, York West) and Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32, Beaches-East York), but rejected by commiteee chair Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) and Councillor Stephen Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre). Due to the split decision, the proposal will head to Council without the approval of the committee.

2. The pilot project does, however, have the approval of others.

Despite the stalemate, some of the city’s loudest proponents of the issue lie outside of the committee. Councillors Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) and Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), whose wards fall within large stretches of the proposed pilot, have previously joined forces to promote the bike lanes, and recently hosted a public rally prior to the committee vote. Mayor John Tory has also given his support for the pilot project—“pilot project, underlined twice, it’s a pilot project,” he emphasizes—so long as the project is studied “carefully from every single standpoint.” Beyond the legislators, 96 per cent of cyclists and 85 per cent of pedestrians have voiced support for the bike lanes, while 46 per cent of motorists think the project is a good idea.

[URBAN NOTE] "The Toronto Settler Who Failed to Build a Hemp Empire"

In Torontoist's regular Historicist feature, Ross Fair describes early Upper Canadian settler William Bond, a man whose bid to build a fortune based on hemp failed.

William Bond was a Queen’s Ranger, one of the early residents of the Town of York, and among the first settlers granted lands along Yonge Street. Bond Lake in today’s Richmond Hill was on that property. Bond also owned York’s first tree nursery, located at Ontario and Duchess (now Richmond) Streets, and, among other minor roles, he served as York’s Town Clerk in 1803. Three years later, he would travel to England on behalf of a newly established organization at York, win accolades from the top echelons of England’s scientific community, and meet with influential gentlemen and powerful imperial officials that few residents of York—or colonials anywhere across the British Empire—would ever dream of meeting. After having spent more time and money in England than he had planned, Bond returned to York in 1809, only to find any rewards from his work in London become lost in a cloud of scandal, not of his making, leaving him ultimately disillusioned and utterly disappointed.

What took Bond to England in 1806 was the matter of hemp cultivation and the promise of a lucrative position administering Upper Canadian plans to grow this crop. By that time, the provincial government, centred at York, was five years into a program supported by imperial officials in London that aimed to encourage farmers to grow as much of the crop as possible.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Britain entered its seventh year of war with France, meaning a continued need for hemp for the Royal Navy to make cordage to rig its fleets. For centuries, Britain had depended on supplies of hemp and timber imported from Russia via ports on the Baltic Sea, and, by the mid-1700s, experts in England warned of the security threat posed by this dependence. In 1800, such fears were realized. Russia, an ally of France, persuaded Sweden to block British trade at Baltic ports, effective December 16, 1800. Although this lasted only a few months, Britain was caught fighting a war without access to the material required to construct and repair its navy. As a response to this crisis, it turned to its North American colonies and issued emergency instructions that administrators there should encourage farmers to grow hemp, with the aim of producing a secure source of this naval supply critical for defence of empire. In their haste to enlist Upper Canada’s help, British officials gave little thought to how the young frontier province could produce large quantities of quality hemp at a price competitive to Russian supplies in a short period of time. Nevertheless, hemp presented the promise of a significant financial windfall to farmers, merchants, and colonial administrators in a struggling colony like Upper Canada.

[URBAN NOTE] "Rob Ford’s nephew says he or Doug Ford will seek Ward 2 seat"

Of course he will. From the Toronto Star's David Rider:

Mayor John Tory strongly favours a by-election to replace Rob Ford as councillor for Ward 2, Etobicoke North, rather than council appointing a replacement.

“I think that’s the appropriate way to fill this seat, given that we’re less than halfway through this term of city council,” Tory told reporters Thursday.

Ford died March 22, 18 months after being diagnosed with pleomorphic liposarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

At its meeting that starts next Tuesday, city council will vote on how to fill the vacancy.

[. . .]

Ford’s nephew, Michael Ford, a Toronto District School Board trustee, told the Star that either he or his uncle Doug Ford, who served as Ward 2 councillor while his brother was mayor, will seek to represent the ward until the October 2018 election, whether it is filled by appointment or by-election.

[URBAN NOTE] "Jim Jacobs on the exhibit about his mom, the activist-author Jane Jacobs"

The Globe and Mail's Brad Wheeler has a nice interview with the son of Jane Jacobs relating to the ongoing Jane at Home exhibit at the Urbanspace Gallery. Fascinating (and yes, I will be going!).

Jane Jacobs, the American-Canadian activist and author (of 1961’s influential The Death and Life of Great American Cities and more), is the subject of Jane at Home, an exhibit of photographs and personal items that cover her life from a Pennsylvania childhood to her days in New York to her decades-long life in Toronto. We spoke to her son, Jim Jacobs, the exhibition’s co-curator.

People will have different ideas of who and what Jane Jacobs was. But how would you, as her son, describe her?

She was an observer. She observed what was going on in her house, and what was going on outside, in the world.

You live in the Annex, on Albany Avenue, the same street where Jane lived from 1970 to her death in 2006, is that right?

Yes. My wife and I had bought a house a half a block away from the house at 69 Albany Ave. We could luxuriate in a bigger space. But basically I was living at home my whole life. You can build up quite a few memories in 60 years.

Could you share one of those memories?

Sure, I’ll give you an anecdote. When we arrived from New York in 1968, before we lived at the house on 69 Albany, we rented a flat on Spadina Avenue. Soon after we had moved in, Marshall McLuhan came by. He looked around and asked, “Who cleans this place?” Jane looked at him and said, “Nobody.” So he and his wife had a cleaner, an Italian woman, and they sent her over. She spoke almost no English. She walked into the place and shook her head and said “too dirty,” and off she went. Eventually, very reluctantly, she returned. Our families became close, and she visited Jane once a week, until Jane died.

[DM] "On speculating about the effects of German labour market restrictions in 2004"

I engage in alternate historical speculation at Demography Matters. What if Germany had not restricted its labour market to migrants from the new European Union member-states in 2004? What would Germany look like? Would we be having a Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom?