Equilibrium has been reached at Carlton and Jarvis. The transition of the Primrose Hotel into the Parkside Student Residences didn’t begin well: an incomplete renovation initially forced students into bleaker accommodations. Now, three years later, Spanish street artist Okuda San Miguel is putting the final touches on 23 colourful storeys:

Rental stigma lifted by electric cars and “bark park.” Bloomberg News coverage of Toronto real estate is now as good an indicator as anything. But while last year’s story was about how renting an apartment was a total nightmare, summer 2018 brings a report on luxury perks offered to tenants of new purpose-built rental towers—part of the biggest rental construction boom in 30 years.

“They’re gone, they’re done. They’re done. We’re going to turn a new corner.” Premier Doug Ford’s assertion that he was firing Hydro One’s CEO, “six million dollar man” Mayo Schmidt, for the low, low price of $400,000 comes with a twist: Schmidt's retirement package actually entitles him to $9 million. Meanwhile, the sex-ed curriculum rollback has brought on its own resistance, including possible legal challenges from a civil liberties group that suddenly advocates homeschooling:

Marijuana money-making may mean never entering America again. Sam Znaimer, a Vancouver venture capitalist and brother of Moses, was banned for life from entering the States because of his investments in U.S. marijuana companies—showing that it’s not just illegal dispensary workers targeted by border guards. American tourists crossing with weed on the brain could be detained in new ways.

This is what happens when we aren't being vigilant enough about Stephen Harper. The choice of nine-year-old reality show rapper Lil Tay for the July cover of Maclean’s generated six printed letters of reader indignation. (Complainers seem not to know that the article’s writer, Joe Castaldo, got laid off afterward.) So, for August it’s back to the front you’d expect, featuring a man of very few apologies:

Frank D’Angelo lost even more fake followers than Donald Trump. The purge of Twitter handles of unconfirmed origin has so far left POTUS with about 300,000 fewer accounts following him—an irrelevant fraction of the 53 million he started with. But the fall has been greater for Toronto beverage baron turned film auteur D’Angelo, whose count has so far dropped by around 367,000. He still has roughly 200,000, though. A few might even date back to the days when finding fans didn’t come cheap:

Bob Wotherspoon dead at 64. The frontman for Hot Rocks, a Rolling Stones tribute band, was a decade younger than Mick Jagger. “Perhaps his greatest accomplishment—the day before he died, he remarried his ex-wife,” reads the death notice, which has a plea to Jagger to attend the funeral.

Word of the moment

BUILD-A-BEAR

Chaos reigned at the teddy bear chain, where out-of-control crowds forced a halt to a promotion inviting kids to “pay your age.”




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