A Bit More Detail

• blogTO notes that Toronto is getting richer even as the rest of Canada is getting poorer, though growth in Toronto is drriven by debt.


• Steve Munro looks at the ongoing reconstruction of the intersection of Kingston Road and Queen.


• blogTO looks at the reopening of an illegal cannabis store.


• Jamie Bradburn looks at the different ways mass media in 1930 Toronto shared election results.


• Nicholas Sanderson writes at Spacing about what other cities can learn from the experience of Toronto with ride-hailing apps.

• The Globe and Mail describes how the flooding of Lake Ontario is starting to impact buildings built near the waterfront on the mainland, like some of Toronto's new condos.


• All of Toronto's beaches will be, CBC reports, at least partly closed on account of the flooding.


• Lucas Powers' photo essay at CBC tracks the impact of flooding on the Toronto Islands.


• Steve Munro continues his study of buses on Queen Street, noting that the frequency of buses needs to be increased to keep pace with streetcars.


• Edward Keenan argues in the Toronto Star that Michael Ford's call for a study for Queen Street transit will reveal that streetcars are the better way.

The TTC’s announcement that it will replace streetcars with buses during repairs to Queen St. this summer has jumpstarted conversation on social media.

Facebook and Twitter were flooded Wednesday morning with Torontonians bemoaning the change to their commute, criticizing the timing, and complaining about the construction projects that are causing the conversion.

Some were worried that putting more buses on the road would create more pollution.

“Buses are more harmful for the environment than streetcars, as streetcars run on electricity and not fuel,” wrote TJ Phelan on Facebook.

The news this week that Dangerous Dan’s will close at the end of May hit Riversiders like a ton of ground beef. But while the venerable burger joint’s demise is a blow to the meat-loving masses, the restaurant’s passing is just another sign of the changing times at the junction of Queen and Broadview. For 18 years, from his window seat at the front of his bustling diner, Dangerous Dan’s owner James McKinnon has watched the corner gentrify, literally in front of his eyes. We got his grill-hot take on the morphing intersection.

NORTHEAST

Dangerous Dan’s (named after owner McKinnon’s grandfather) opened in 1999. Early in 2015, McKinnon put his business and lease up for sale. Corporate fast-food chain Pizza Nova bought the whole building, and now, after failing to come to a new lease agreement, McKinnon and his outrageous burger inventions (including such meat monstrosities as the Big Kevorkian and the Colossal Colon Clogger Combo) are leaving. Nearby, a new Korean fried chicken restaurant has opened. Kaboom Chicken attracts a crowd more hip than the blue-collar clientele of Dangerous Dan’s, but Mr. McKinnon never saw the eatery as competition. “The chains have half the market,” he says. “Little guys like me and Kaboom Chicken are just nibbling on the edges.” Speaking of chains, Pizza Nova released a statement this week saying it hadn’t decided on future plans for the corner location.

The Broadview Hotel, until recently home to one of Toronto’s last licensed strip clubs, was itself stripped of its temporary drapes on Wednesday when scaffolding on the corner of Broadview and Queen streets came down and the newly-renovated boutique hotel showed its buffed skin for an assembled audience.

The ERA Architects-designed project, which is being led by Streetcar Developments, will eventually be home to a 57-room boutique hotel, restaurants and bars operated by the team behind Enoteca Ascari, along with event spaces. While the exterior and mechanical aspects of the renovation are now largely complete, the hotel’s interior will not be completed and ready for opening until the spring of 2017.

“I don’t know how many times people said, ‘When’s something going to happen with Jilly’s?’” Ward 30 councillor Paula Fletcher said before the unveiling. Through various iterations, the 125-year-old building has long been the architectural anchor of the Riverside neighbourhood, but over that time its use rarely matched up with its position.

“So many people have wanted to restore Jilly’s to its beautiful glory,” Fletcher said.