[PHOTO] Looking up the Don River from Queen Street

Toronto's Don River may face significant ecological challenges, but the northwards view from Queen Street East at least evokes a functioning urban riverine ecosystem.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• blogTO notes that Toronto finally got its first test LRT from Bombardier, after many delays.


• Centauri Dreams considers some of the problems with drafting a message to extraterrestrial civilizations.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes that an upcoming Japanese telescope could detect oxygen on, among other planets, K2-3d.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Ivanka Trump's shoe factory is moving from China to Ethiopia in pursuit of lower wages.


• Language Hat links to a report on Alghero, the city that is the heart of a fading enclave of Catalan on the Italian island of Sardinia.


• The LRB Blog notes the ascent of François Filion in France.


• Otto Pohl describes the position of Soviet Kurds.


• pollotenchegg reports on ethnic diversity in the different raions of Ukraine.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer links to a 2013 study suggesting Cuba under Communism underperformed significantly.


• Towleroad looks at Donald Trump's claim of voter fraud.


• Window on Eurasia argues that deniers of the Holodomor should be shamed.

[URBAN NOTE] CBC: Bombardier sends Eglinton Crosstown, Finch West LRT test car to Kingston for trial

CBC News' Christine Pagulayan reports on the belated delivery of the much-promised test car from Bombardier.

A prototype light-rail vehicle for Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT lines is en route to undergo testing — two years after Bombardier was supposed to deliver the project's first test car.

Bombardier spokesman Marc-Andre Lefebvre told CBC Toronto, "Bombardier is quite happy that our LRV projects are going forward."

"I can confirm our LRV pilot vehicle has gone to the next step and has left Thunder Bay to go to our Kingston site," he said.

Lefebvre said Monday that because the prototype is traveling by rail, it should arrive in Kingston, Ont. in about five to 10 days.

Testing has already begun at Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant. But nine months of qualification testing still needs to be done and it is unclear when those tests will begin.

A relevant tweet showing the first glimpse of the test car is here.

[URBAN NOTE] "TTC backs off Scarborough subway expropriations"

The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr reports on something confusing, if good for the homeowners in question. Will the Scarborough line extension's route be changed? Will the line exist at all? Who knows?

Residents in the path of the Scarborough subway extension are no longer in danger of losing their homes.

The TTC sent notices to about a dozen property owners near the intersection of McCowan Rd. and Ellesmere Rd. last week, alerting them that their land would no longer be required to make way for a construction staging site for the controversial transit project.

In May, the TTC told residents of 11 homes on Stanwell Dr. that their properties might need to be expropriated for a tunnel staging site. A further 23 properties were facing partial expropriation.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) said he was “thrilled” by the TTC’s decision, and declared that the transit agency had “avoided a huge mistake.”

“I wish that these proposals were not put on the table in the first place,” said De Baeremaeker, who is a vocal supporter of the one-stop subway extension to the Scarborough Town Centre. “So I do tip my hat and congratulate the TTC staff for actually listening to the public.”

[URBAN NOTE] "Four Reasons Why Road Tolls Are a Good Idea"

Torontoist's Gideon Forman presents a four-part argument in favour of road tolls.

The first thing to note about proposed tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway is that they’ll benefit everyone—drivers and non-drivers.

Drivers should notice the highways are less congested and their trips faster, as some motorists opt for other means of transportation. Transit riders should notice service improvements as toll-generated dollars help the City invest in capital projects such as the downtown relief line.

Details still need to be confirmed, but the thrust of the mayor’s plan is clear. Drivers would pay a flat—not distance-based—fee of two to three dollars. That would generate about $200 million annually for transit and road improvements.

The policy requires provincial permission (not a major hurdle) and Council approval. Early vote counts suggest about 30 councillors support the plan. Given the mayor’s popularity, it would be shocking if the new measure was shot down.

The toll is likely to be backed by many on the left who desperately want expanded transit and by conservatives who like the fact it would be paid by non-Torontonians currently making no contribution to the city’s road network. (According to chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, cited in the Star, about 40 per cent of DVP and Gardiner users don’t live in Toronto.) Assuming the proposal is approved in early 2017, revenue could start flowing in by 2019.

[URBAN NOTE] "The last days of Mirvish Village before it's gone"

Amy Grief's photo essay at blogTO takes a look at the last weeks of Mirvish Village before the transformation of Honest Ed's guts this small neighbourhood, talking with some of the businesspeople of the street.

Darrel Dorsk started visiting Markham Street when he moved to Toronto from California in 1974. Like many, he would head to David Mirvish Books to buy the Sunday edition of the New York Times. Back then it cost 25 cents; he was a regular customer until the store closed in 2009. By then, the paper was $7.50.

Dorsk runs The Green Iguana Glassworks at 589 Markham St. He’s been in the same spot since 1981 and fills with storefront with his handmade frames, glass baubles and a variety of prints and pictures. “It’s very messy in here, but hopefully people find it interesting,” he says.

Neighbours refer to Dorsk as the mayor of Mirvish Village and he has plenty to say about his time on the street. “I like to tell people I’ve been suffering from an obscure medical syndrome working on Markham Street and the acronym is TMF. It stands for too much fun.”

Dorsk got his start in the 1970s selling stained glass boxes, which he made with his girlfriend at the time. His zoology degree from Berkley hangs in his store and he notes he once wanted to be a veterinarian – that’s why there are so many natural history prints on his wall.

He’s sad to be leaving Markham Street but plans to move his business into a building he bought at 948 Bloor Street West.

[URBAN NOTE] "Comic Book Store The Beguiling Plans Move to Kensington Market"

Torontoist's David Hains looks at the impending move of The Beguiling from Mirvish Village to College Street near Kensington Market.

Longtime Mirvish Village institution The Beguiling will close its Markham Street digs on January 28.

The venerable comic book store has been at its current location since 1992, after it moved from its original Harbord Street location where it was founded in 1987.

The store, which specializes in independent comics as well as original art, will relocate to College and Spadina at 319 College Street, just north of Kensington Market. The College Street location might have a casual opening sometime in December, but will be open for regular business on January 3.

[. . .]

The Beguiling isn’t the only comic book store affected by the Honest Ed’s development. Its children’s comics store, Little Island Comics, located on Bathurst Street, will close. In a Facebook post announcing the changes, The Beguiling says that much of Little Island’s selections will be available at Page and Panel, its store located in the Reference Library. In a phone call with Torontoist, store owner Peter Birkemoe says that the Little Island brand will live on in some form in the future, but that there are no current plans for it to have a physical location.

The 319 College Street location will have about 20 per cent less square footage than the existing store, but Birkemoe says the store layout will be better, which will make for easier browsing. The store will be on one floor, and it will mark the first time The Beguiling is fully accessible.

[URBAN NOTE] CBC and Torontoist on the closing of Beit Zatoun, Mirvish Village

CBC News' Laura Howells reported on the imminent closure of Palestinian diaspora centre Beit Zatoun, displaced by the transformation of Honest Ed's and Mirvish Village.

Toronto's rampant development is claiming another casualty this week: community space Beit Zatoun will host its final event on Wednesday.

Tucked away in the Annex neighbourhood, Beit Zatoun has become a hub of social justice and activism in the city.

In its nearly seven years, the Markham street location has hosted more than 1,000 events — everything from poetry readings to film showings, meetings, lectures, art and music.

But like its neighbour, Honest Ed's, Beit Zatoun will soon be demolished to make way for the Mirvish Village development.

"It has blazed a path for the grass roots community," said founder Robert Massoud.

"And now in its leaving, it leaves a hole. And so hopefully people can recognize the need to fill that hole in a different way."

At Torontoist, Amanda Ghazale Aziz wrote about Beit Zatoun's impact on her own life.

Beit Zatoun helped me learn about my maternal family. What I got out of this place were tiny fractions of my heritage that wouldn’t have been recovered by my mother’s memory or a detailed Google search. I knew folks who were in the same boat as me, but it was a matter of finding a physical ground.

A community can work to revive lost histories and traditions, but it’s location that gathers them together.

Over the past seven years, Beit Zatoun—“House of Olive” in Arabic—has hosted over 1,000 events coming from virtually every community making up Toronto and cutting across many dimensions of identity. It worked tirelessly to create a community based on mutual awareness and building solidarity. Only 25 per cent of its events had anything to do with the Middle East and the centre was well-known in left and radical activist movements as much as it was a space for the arts, like the Shab-e She’r poetry nights.

To me, it felt like visiting the home of a relative you hadn’t seen in a decade.

While it took me forever to finally visit, I was welcomed with a quiet hospitality by way of treats when I did make the trek. And every single time after that. In fact, Beit Zatoun events were known for having bread, olive oil, za’atar to dip, coffee with cardamom, and tea with sage adorn the tables for people to consume.

[LINK] "Why Facebook Won't Give Up on China"

Bloomberg View's Adam Minter explains Facebook's desire to still get into China in the context of the mercurial policies of China's government towards different social networking platforms.

[T]he most revolutionary service was Tencent's WeChat, released in 2011. At first glance, it looked like just another social network and messaging service. Yet it quickly morphed into something much richer, offering a free video-chat system, a taxi-hailing service, a bill-paying portal and a vast shopping environment. Today it's possible to bank on the system and send money to anyone. Invoking "The Lord of the Rings," some users joke that it's the "one app to rule them all." It now has more than 700 million users, including nearly everyone with internet access in China -- and another 70 million overseas.

Compared to WeChat, Facebook is a desert, with little allure to Chinese users. There aren't any public statistics on how many mainlanders use Facebook, but in my experience they're mostly Chinese who have lived or worked in the West, want to maintain friendships overseas, and have access to the technical means to avoid government blockades. For those without such connections, Facebook's only theoretical appeal is that it provides access to news, posts and videos that are otherwise censored. If and when Facebook is reintroduced, those advantages will disappear -- and so will the most obvious argument for joining.

But Facebook still has one thing going for it, which is surely on Zuckerberg's mind: Technology and social media evolve rapidly in China.

Only two years ago, Sina Weibo was China's biggest and most popular social-media platform. Then, after a government crackdown, it lost its political edge and many of its most popular users, and was left for dead. Even as the eulogies were being written, however, Weibo was reinventing itself. It soon became a platform for live-streaming bloggers and celebrity self-promotion, and it boomed once again, boosted by an astonishing 10 million live broadcasts between April and June of this year -- a 116-fold increase over the previous quarter. Today, Weibo is approaching 300 million users and its most popular live-streamers get multi-million dollar endorsements.

[LINK] "China Wants To Be The Next Hockey Heavyweight"

Over at Vice Sports, Sheng Peng describes the heavy investments being made into China into making China a hockey superpower. Russia is playing a particularly large role, in providing training and guidance, but there are also influences from Europe.

There is no Chinese word for "puck." In fact, the most literal translation for "bingqiu"—Chinese for hockey—is "ice ball." The Chinese are about as familiar with hockey as Wayne Gretzky is with badminton.

Yet off the West 4th Ring of Beijing on Sept. 5, 2016, the Kunlun Red Star were taking the ice for their home debut at LeSports Center. The Red Star are the newest franchise of the Russian-based KHL, thought to be the second-best league in the world after the NHL. In other words, what were they doing here?

[. . .]

China wants to flex again, as it did during the 2008 Summer Olympics. This time, the country is training to be a hockey heavyweight. Like Russia, the United States, or Canada. Really.

China has the capital. And right now, it has the motivation: In just six short years, all eyes will once again be on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

China, as host country, will have a chance to field squads for both the men's and women's ice hockey tournaments. In arguably the Games' most prestigious event, the hunger to be able to stand toe-to-toe with the best in the world is naturally greater. Not that far behind, also, is the specter of the "sick man of Asia", which has dogged the Middle Kingdom's last century.

But how can China transform its IIHF 37th-ranked men's national team, which plays literally three rungs below the elite, into a unit with even a puncher's chance in 2022?

[AH] "What would Cuba have been like without the Castro revolution?"

At the Alternate History forums, I ask the question of what Cuba would have become absent the Castro takeover. (Richer, but substantially more unstable and unequal, is my first suggestion.)