[PHOTO] Looking towards the condoized skyline of Yonge and Bloor

Almost all of the towers you see in this photo, taken looking northwest from Church Street towards Yonge and Bloor, were built in the last few years.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO shares photos of old Toronto department stores.


• Discover's Citizen Science Salon reports on how people are facing California seals and sea lions faced with famine.


• D-Brief warns people to be cautious about the newest claim of detections of extraterrestrial intelligence.


• The Dragon's Gaze reports on the discovery through microlensing of a distant planet, KMT-2015-BLG-0048Lb.


• Dangerous Minds reports on a line of collectible china plates with nuclear reactors on them.


• Joe. My. God. notes Christianity Today's denunciation of Trump as a fool.


• Language Log looks at the new Hong Kong legislators who insulted China when they were being sworn in.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the racism behind allegations of voter fraud.


• The LRB Blog reports on the unrest in Kashmir.


• The Map Room Blog looks at a new website devoted to the 1507 Waldseemüller world map.


• Marginal Revolution notes how Brexit has hit food supplies.


• Understanding Society presents a new study of assemblage social theory.


• Window on Eurasia reports Russian allegations that outside forces are trying to break Russia down on regional lines, looks at how more prosperous Russian regions also send out more migrants, and reports on the linguistic Ukrainianization of Ukraine.

[URBAN NOTE] "Bert Xanadu Guides You Through Toronto’s Hidden Infrastructure"

Torontoist shares this authentically amusing comedic take on Toronto's underground infrastructure.

There is a secret city.

Behind the Toronto you endure each day lies another city, one known only to the megalapolitan cognoscenti.

But I’m not going to write about that today.

Instead, I will celebrate the sinewy and sewagy infrastructure of the City of Toronto and its skeletal underpinnings—pipes, wires, troughs, spittoons, and curbettes—that keep this town functioning and from collapsing into itself, like a half-eaten sponge cake.

It is estimated—for no one truly knows—that 79 per cent of your tax dollars go to maintaining and ruthlessly expanding this infrastructure. As you faint backwards upon reading this, be assured that it is the infrastructure itself that will break your fall, and perhaps your coccyx.

Like your random thoughts about orangutans and trousers, the municipal layers of steel, stone, and stucco are intricately interwoven, yet show an uncallous disregard for one another and an aloofness that ensures efficiency.

[URBAN NOTE] "‘Old Jays’ are battered and bruised but ready for battle"

The Globe and Mail's Robert MacLeod reports on the aging Toronto Bay Jays as they come into play for the World Series.

Jason Grilli is 39 and proud of it.

The Toronto Blue Jays reliever, a 14-year veteran, wears his longevity like a crown, gracefully enduring ribbing from his teammates about an old coot playing a kid’s game.

The onset of middle age among some Blue Jays has been a running joke in the clubhouse, ever since the likes of Grilli and Joaquin Benoit, who is also 39, joined the team in mid-season trades.

Josh Donaldson, the 30-year-old Toronto third baseman, has been a leading protagonist, even using his Twitter account to poke fun at the so-called “Old Jays.”

Donaldson was at it again Monday, after the Blue Jays swept the Texas Rangers from the American League Division Series to afford them a break before starting the league championship against the Cleveland Indians.

[URBAN NOTE] "Scuttled Crosstown deal sparks debate about Toronto transit and development"

The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr reports on a development dispute at the future Avenue Road station of the Eglinton Crosstown.

A dispute over a piece of land in midtown is reigniting debate about whether Toronto is doing enough to integrate transit with development projects.

Terranata Developments Inc. is slamming Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, for scuttling a deal that would have allowed the company to build a 15-storey mixed-use tower above the planned Avenue Rd. station on the $5.3-billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT line. Metrolinx counters that it couldn’t allow the project to go ahead because it would have delayed LRT construction, and didn’t have the support of the city.

The tower would have incorporated the station and, according to John Aquino, a partner at Terranata, provided Metrolinx and the local community with numerous benefits.

Aquino said Terranata offered millions of dollars for the air rights above the station, and would have granted the agency’s contractor permission to use its property as a construction staging area. Aquino argued that would have reduced the need for road closings and limited the effect on a nearby park, where Metrolinx intends to cut down about two dozen trees to make way for a work site.

“We were very disappointed to be shot down,” said Aquino, who learned the proposal had been rejected via a letter from Metrolinx in August.

[URBAN NOTE] "Outpacing Toronto real estate, Durham may be the GTA's hottest market"

CBC News' Trevor Dunn reports from suburban Toronto.

When Mike Minelli decided to move his growing family from a downtown Toronto condo to Durham region, he was expecting a little relief from the city's red hot real estate market.

Instead, he found himself in a competitive market where, over the past year, the average price of a home has increased 14 percent more than in Toronto.

"It's unbelievable," Minelli said in an interview.

"In one minute, my wife and I decided to offer $40,000 more," he said of the first house they tried to purchase in Durham, which attracted 13 offers.

"We lost that one."

According to a new report from Royal Lepage, the strongest growth in Greater Toronto Area real estate prices over the past year is happening outside of Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] "Transit’s “last mile” solution may be mobility-as-a-service companies"

Spacing Toronto's John Lorinc reports.

I loath Rogers just as much as the next red-blooded Canadian, and, on certain days, possibly even more. But I have to give the telecom conglomerate, and others like it, credit for figuring out how to promote the idea of bundling all sorts of services and options, plus financial incentives, into an all-in-one offering.

My question is whether there’s something positive to be learned from this particular marketing/pricing strategy that could build on the proliferation of mobility options now available in large urban areas that still struggle to deal with the so-called first mile/last mile problem.

The explosive popularity of Uber has certainly prompted policy-makers to consider the prospect of joining forces with ride-sharing companies as a means of providing more coordinated options in areas not well served by transit.

According to a 2015 article in CityLab, cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis have established service or payment partnerships with Uber. Late last month, the Toronto Transit Commission accepted a recommendation from CEO Andy Byford to study how the agency (and the City) might pilot an on-demand ride sharing service that conforms with the TTC’s policy of requiring transportation providers to only use accessible vehicles.

Metrolinx in August also put out a report prepared by the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre calling for more coordination between transit agencies, including Metrolinx, and ride-, car- and bike-sharing organizations, with a proposal that the integration should be delivered to riders via the Presto card.

[URBAN NOTE] "Bloor-Dufferin residents fight for community space as schools put up for sale"

CBC News' Amara McLaughlin tells of a local story of some concern to me.

People living near Bloordale Village have launched a petition hoping to secure a community hub in the 30,000-square metre redevelopment at Bloor and Dufferin streets.

The land is one of 21 properties the Toronto District School Board is looking to sell in an effort to take some pressure off of its $3.3 billion-maintenance backlog. The three hectares for sale include the former Kent Public School and a portion of the Bloor Collegiate Institute site.

Neither school is currently occupied by the board's students. Kent Public School is being leased to other community organizations, including a German school and a daycare.

Residents are demanding that any redevelopment include community facilities, affordable housing and reinvestment in Bloor Collegiate. They say they're concerned the school board's open call for proposals overlooks vital community space.

Steve De Quintal has been living in the area since he was a child, and now uses the area's green space to play with his five kids. His is one of 1,200 signatures on the petition to ask the board to impose a mandatory clause creating a community hub.