Stuff for a quick break from writing job descriptions and assembling reappointment paperwork:

• Montreal gets first anglophone mayor in a century: This is presumably related to all the goodwill I generated when I visited and tried to speak French as much as possible last month.
• Bolland – The Domino Theory: Loved this in 1983. Still pretty much do.
• Farewell to the Beach Motel — and Etobicoke’s legendary lakeshore strip
• If any state can secede, it’s Texas: If any state should secede, it’s Texas. Or Alabama. Or Mississippi. Or Arizona. Or…
• Vintage Vancouver: Archival film from the City of Vancouver Archives: Vancouver is at the forefront of my consciousness right now mainly because the three Vancouver-related books I bought in Canada ended up on top of the pile when I got home and are the first ones I’m reading. So it’s timely.

Back to work for another hour or so before departing to go to a retirement party. I’ll probably be here a good chunk of the weekend too, alas.

Some random links to things urban for a Monday morning:

• Take that, Bay Area: Our research park is becoming more urban than yours. Maybe. (via Ed Cone)
• Similarly, does Calgary “do urban” better than Toronto these days?
• Toronto struggles with the downside of density, not to mention historic preservation, in the face of a major condo boom.
• So people are starting to see the advantages of some of my favorite travel destinations? I think that’s good…
• On Philadelphia: This was sort of my take, too. I never could put my finger on exactly what was missing in Philly, but it’s something.

Three things I really don’t give a flying fuck about about tonight:

• Prince Harry’s wang.
• Lance Armstrong’s body chemistry.
• Whether or not the Republican National Convention ever starts.

Three things I do care about tonight:

• Great post about one of my own idols, Victor Gruen. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the “inventor” of the suburban mall was actually very much an urbanist at heart and had some interesting ideas on development strategies in the postwar years.
• Interesting commentary on the “Quebec question.”
• Good story on how digital may be the death of many historic cinemas in resort towns (and probably other small towns as well).

The Big Step – First Apartment in Toronto 1950s from Tiki Films on Vimeo.

Aside from being really cool on its own, this is extra cool for me just because I walked down Jameson between King and Queen ogling these very apartment buildings last fall when I was in Toronto.

More random links I’ve been storing up and forgetting to share:

• Uh huh: City Council OKs deal to buy Eastland Mall, hoping for TV and movie studios
• Interesting: Montreal’s English-language media faces troubled times
• Should have known better: Quebec: Gatineau gets rid of controversial ‘guide’ for immigrants from city website
• Really hate I missed this: ‘Chinatown’ screening reminds us of L.A.’s dark side
• Handier than you’d think: Cleaning Up Text from PDFs
• I love LA: L.A. County voters to decide if porn actors must use condoms

Something I never thought I’d see: Charlotte being cited as a model for Toronto in the area of “complete street” design:

But Whitney insists that it is possible to move past the divisiveness and political polarization that has impeded so much progress in Toronto. He cites the case of Charlotte, North Carolina, where an award-winning complete-streets policy was formally adopted in 2007. “Every single street there goes through the process and it’s no longer a question of left or right. Once it’s established, and once it’s integrated into the culture, it takes it out of the realm of politics and it becomes just the way that municipalities do business.”