[PHOTO] Pink roses in bloom, Barbara Hall Park

The rose bushes that shelter the AIDS Memorial in Barbara Hall Park can flower beautifully.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO rates Toronto's top parks by neighbourhood.


• James Bow wonders how we keep erring in dealing with mass shootings.


• D-Brief examines LIGO's second gravitational wave detection.


• The Dragon's Gaze looks at Kepler-1647b.


• The Dragon's Tales shares a model for the birth of the Haumea system.


• Imageo notes the disappearance of the California snowpack.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is unimpressed with anti-Clinton radicals who see her as little different from Trump.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer approves of new changes in zoning laws which make it much easier to build tall in New York City.


• Towleroad notes the lack of support for Trump among many non-heterosexuals despite his recent statements, and wonders what it means if the Orlando shooter was gay.

[NEWS] Some Thursday links

• Bloomberg notes a report of Egypt's discovery of the wreckage of the crashed EgyptAir jet, reports on the visit of a IMF team to Mozambique, and looks at Vietnam's success in capturing Southeast Asian trade with the European Union.


• Bloomberg View notes that Donald Trump's candidacy can mean bad things for the Republican Party.


• CBC looks at how a top export from Tibet is a parasitic fungus, and looks at controversy over a CSIS evaluation of diaspora communities and terrorism.


• MacLean's looks at the wife of the Orlando shooting.


• The National Post notes the retraction of an ASEAN statement about maritime borders with China.


• Open Democracy carries an ill-judged radical Brexiteer's statement. All I can say is that socialism in one country is not likely, certainly not with the Tories in charge.


• The Toronto Star notes the fears of tax authorities that Conrad Black might abscond without paying his taxes.


• Universe Today notes the discovery, in a Swedish quarry, of a type of meteorite no longer present in the solar system.


• Wired reports on the second LIGO discovery and notes the import of The Onion in times of trouble.

[URBAN NOTE] On the search for the second capybara in High Park

In the National Post, Nick Faris writes about the search for the second of two capybaras still on the loose.

“(The second) one’s going to be posing its own challenges,” said Ben Lovatt, a local museum owner who has participated extensively in the chase, along with park staff and rescuers from the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

“We’re giving it some time. This one’s going to require a lot more study and observation before people actually go in.”

The first capybara was retrieved Sunday evening in the park’s southeast corner, near the drainage area of a pond, where passersby had spotted them in the days before the rescue. It came nearly three weeks after the animals — new arrivals to the High Park Zoo from a breeding program in Texas — absconded from their pen and disappeared into the park’s array of trees, trails and creeks.

The search party, since then, has relied heavily on reported sightings, and on the help of Lovatt and a few other private citizens, who have spent dozens of hours in recent weeks tracking the animals’ movements and behaviour.

That reconnaissance led to the first capture, said Megan Price, a spokeswoman for Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. In a game of wits, they don’t plan to stray from what has worked.

“The second plan is the same as the first plan: To narrow down, through sightings, the area that it might be located, and then to spend a couple of days looking at its patterns and its habits and where it is, so that we can really situate the traps in the best possible locations,” Price said.

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto police association head hints at job action over task force recommendations"

CBC News' John Rieti reports on unrest in the Toronto police force.

Toronto police officers are so concerned about the changes proposed in an upcoming report that there's already talk of job action, said the head of the Toronto Police Association.

A task force, struck by Mayor John Tory to modernize the police force and reduce its budget, is poised to make a series of recommendations, including closing six stations across the city and not hiring any officers for three years, according to details leaked by senior police officials.

Mike McCormack, President of the Toronto Police Association, said chief among his concerns about the details of the new report is how the force will operate with 350 fewer officers by 2017. He said officers are already frustrated by not having enough personnel to do proactive police work.

"They're stressed by the workload," McCormack told CBC's Metro Morning on Thursday.

McCormack said rank and file officers don't have a problem with finding efficiencies within the force, but won't do anything that jeopardizes public safety just to cut costs. The officers will read the finalized report — an interim version will be tabled at the police services board on Friday — and after that will decide whether some form of job action is necessary.

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto officer guilty of misconduct at G20 loses 30 days pay, reprimanded"

CTV News shares Colin Perkel's Canadian Press article.

The senior police officer who ordered indiscriminate mass detentions and arrests at the violence-marred G20 summit in Toronto six years ago will be reprimanded and forfeit 30 paid days, a tribunal ruled Wednesday.

In sentencing Supt. David (Mark) Fenton for exceeding his authority and discreditable conduct, retired justice John Hamilton said dismissal or even temporary demotion would be too harsh.

"His misconduct occurred under the noses of his superiors," Hamilton said. "He should have been stopped by his superiors. That never happened."

The 28-year officer was the incident commander when he ordered police to detain or arrest hundreds of people -- most peaceful protesters and passersby -- during the tumultuous weekend summit. Several hundred were kept for hours in cold, torrential rain, despite pleas to be allowed to leave. Others were kept in deplorable conditions in a makeshift detention centre.

Fenton, 56, took over command under an order to "take back the streets" after vandals had run amok in the downtown core, causing several million dollars in damage. The police service, Hamilton said, was "wringing its hands" and had no plan to deal the violence.

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto marijuana shop operators call charges ‘ridiculous’"

The Toronto Star's David Rider reports on the latest from the marijuana dispensary arrests.

Marijuana dispensary owners, clerks and landlords got their first day in court Wednesday, with several calling it a waste of time and money as Canada moves toward full pot legalization.

More than a dozen people appeared at Old City Hall on provincial charges of contravening Toronto’s zoning bylaw that states only federal licensed marijuana distributors, who mail or courier pot, can operate in the city and only in industrial parts of Toronto.

Most accused received disclosure of the case against them and a date to return for trial in August on the charges that carry a maximum fine of $25,000 for individuals and $50,000 for corporations.

Many were also hit with more serious Criminal Code drug trafficking charges in the May 26 raids on medical marijuana dispensaries by Toronto police and city bylaw enforcement.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous and funny, actually,” Mercedes Carter, 26, of Green Rhino Medicinal Cannabis on Danforth Ave. near Chester St., said of the zoning charges after appearing in court.

[MUSIC] "More Tragically Hip tickets go on sale for Man Machine Poem Tour"

Robin Levinson King's Toronto Star report shares the sad news.

The Tragically Hip will release more tickets to the general public Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

“Due to an overwhelming demand for the Man Machine Poem Tour, we have adjusted the show design in each venue to accommodate more seating,” the band said on its Facebook page.

Tickets go on sale at Ticketmaster.ca at 10 a.m. local time and the band is imposing a two-ticket limit per person. Since first releasing seats for pre-sale on May 30, fans have complained about scalpers snatching up all the seats and reselling them online — sometimes for more than $1000 each.

In response, the Ontario government has said that it will look at its current ticket resale regulations.

Tickets to the white-hot tour — a farewell to frontman Gord Downie, who was recently diagnosed with terminal brain cancer — went on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. June 3 on Ticketmaster. Within less than a minute, the website noted that few were left, and by 10:04 a.m., there wasn’t a single ticket for any of the three Toronto concerts.

[URBAN NOTE] Three links on saving the last streetcars and sundry of the TTC

Spacing Toronto hosted Chris Bateman's article, "Who will save Toronto’s old streetcars?", looking at past buyers of old TTC models.

Perhaps due to advanced decrepitude, the current CLRV and articulated ALRV streetcars are bound for the scrapheap when the new low-floor Bombardier streetcars (eventually) arrive.

It’s a shame, really, because the Toronto Transit Commission has a long history of sending its old vehicles—buses, streetcars, and subway trains—to far-flung jurisdictions for a

It started in 1922. When a swath of Northern Ontario was ravaged by wildfire, the TTC shipped 87 disused streetcars to the affected area on railway flatcars as temporary housing. Many of the old streetcars had coal stoves—a feature from a time before electric heating—and were ideally suited as makeshift shelters.

The town of Haileybury, which was among the worst-hit, received 60 former streetcars. The remaining 27 were distributed among the communities of North Cobalt, Charlton, Thornloe, and Heaslip.

“We will make the beds at one end, have the kitchen in the centre by the stove and have a living room and parlour at the other end,” one man told the Toronto Daily Star. “My wife is all tickled with the idea of our new streetcar.”

blogTO's Amy Grief wrote more briefly in "The TTC is bringing back old streetcars this summer" about a cool seasonal feature of the streetcar network.

It may be summer '16 in Toronto, but it won't feel that way on Queens Quay. That's because the TTC is bringing its vintage PCC streetcars back to the 509 Harbourfront route every Sunday from May 22 until Labour Day weekend.

This piece of Toronto history will be free to ride, which really ups the ante if you're looking to travel from Union Station to somewhere near the Fleet Street loop (i.e. Exhibition Place or the Amphitheatre).

If you can't catch a PCC on the 509 route, you can always rent one out. You can charter these streetcars, which date back to 1951, for a cool $1,881.45.

blogTO's Derek Flack described in "Someone is trying to save the lost relics of the TTC" how someone is trying to salvage some old TTC vehicles being stored in Ottawa, of all places.

Did you know that the TTC once operated double decker buses? If you answered "no" to that question, it's likely because Toronto has done a poor job of commemorating its transit history. To its credit, the TTC does run vintage streetcars in the summer, but the Commission just doesn't have enough cash to showcase its rich history.

That hasn't stopped local enthusiasts from trying to do our transit history justice. Case in point. Trevor Parkins-Sciberras, who you might know as a Lego-builder extraordinaire, is trying to rescue eight antique TTC vehicles from long term storage at a museum in Ottawa.

"These eight vehicles once belonged to the TTC, which featured in parades during the 1920s to the 1950s, Parkins-Sciberras explains. "In the 1960s they were shipped out to a museum Ottawa, where they are currently in storage and not available for viewing."

There is a petition here.