[PHOTO] Moon behind clouds above Pacific Avenue

The Moon was brilliant last night behind the clouds as I walked south down Pacific Avenue.

[PHOTO] Empire State Building disappearing into fog

On the afternoon of Friday the 12th of January, 2018, anyone looking up at the top of the Empire State Building from a street-level position on West 34th Street just to its north would have seen the upper levels disappear into fog.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Crooked Timber seeks advice for academics trying to publish general-interest books.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas considers the extent, and the way, in which technological change can outstrip the ability of cultures and institutions to manage this change.


• Hornet Stories notes the many ways in which the Trump Presidency is proving to be terrible for HIV-positive people around the world.


• Sara Jaffe at JSTOR Daily explores the concept of queer time. What is time like for queer people if the traditional markers of adulthood--marriage, children, and so on--are unavailable? How do they think of life stages?


• Language Log looks at the complexities of language in Hong Kong under Chinese rule.


• Drew Rowsome reports on the latest theatre piece of Jordan Tannahill, Declarations.


• Window on Eurasia reports on declining flows of migrants from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union to Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] Four city links: planning, luxury retailers, churches, Sky City and China

• Crooked Timber has a fascinating discussion, derived from a Financial Times Jarrett Walker interview, talking about city planning and making the city work for everyone.
  
• The cities of Canada, due to their size and growing wealth, are starting to attract substantial numbers of luxury retailers. CBC reports.


• Many churches in Canada, faced with the growing costs of keeping large buildings active while dealing with smaller congregations and spiking real estate prices, have chosen to downsize. Why not? Guy Dixon reports for The Globe and Mail.


• Bianca Bosker at Slate writes about Sky City, a French-themed planned city built outside of Shanghai that--contrary to the assumptions of Western critics--has actually become a thriving metropolis. This reappropriation and reinterpretation of other traditions, she argues, is how cities have always evolved. Fascinating report.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC, Presto, planning, TDSB, Ontario Place

• The TTC promises to relieve overcrowding on its subways and buses, but isn't going to actually spend enough money to trigger significant change for a couple of years. CBC reports.


• Ben Spurr reports on the frankly embarrassing failure of the TTC--Metrolinx, anyone--to have any sort of technological infrastructure capable of checking up on the Presto cards and the gates they use.


• Edward Keenan takes issue, rightfully, with the failure of city planners in Toronto to plan ahead for crises, counting on the false security of assuming things will go on as they have gone in the past, over at the Toronto Star.


• The Toronto District School Board is considering allowing school trips to the United States in the era of Trump. The Globe and Mail reports.


• Shawn Micallef raves about the power of light on a winter night, taking an extended look at Ontario Place's Winter Light Exhibition. I must get down there. The Toronto Star has it.

[URBAN NOTE] Five cities links: New York City, Cape Town, Calgary, Montréal, London

• Justin Fox at Bloomberg View questions whether the strong economic growth of New York City, continuing from its 1970s nadir, can continue given underinvestment in infrastructure like transit.


• CBC reports on the appalling scale of the Cape Town water crisis, made possible by a combination of rapid growth with sustained drought and terrible political responses.


• Global News suggests that the IOC likes the surviving Olympics infrastructure in Calgary, so much so that it thinks this places the city in good position for a bid for the 2026 games. (Don't do it, Calgary!)


• This brief article in the Montreal Gazette talks about Chinese investors and migrants moving into the traditionally Anglo-dominated West Island. This is new to me: What is going on there, I wonder?


• The Guardian considers a report commissioned by London and its mayor Sadiq Khan considering the possible cataclysmic impact of Brexit on the economy of that city. Will it happen, and under what conditions?