Toronto condo triumphs with cringe marketing

You love to see it getting dragged

eric zaworski @ericzawo

The Ask: "How can we market to the parents of wealthy millennials who aren't *from* Toronto and have never been to Sherbourne and Carlton?" The deliverable:

The visceral responses to this pastiche of hipster clichés advertising a residential development on a less gentrified side of downtown Toronto begs the question of how much of the triggering was on purpose in an era when young folks might rather leave.

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Techlash back on the Sidewalk

#BlockSidewalk @blocksidewalk

Full house at our multi-organizational community meeting as David Robertson of ⁦@goodjobsforall⁩ illustrates that ⁦@WaterfrontTO⁩‘s Oct. 31 mitigation is just an attempt to reduce opposition, not to reduce the project. #Blocksidewalk #onooli #topoli

Discussions about Alphabet’s proposed smart-city development have fired up again, upon the release of a report from Waterfront Toronto’s digital advisory panel. It questions the benefit of building Silicon Valley style, rather than an analog approach to housing.

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A journalist was arrested by the RCMP while covering the rail blockade. Melissa Cox was part of a documentary crew in Nelson, B.C., and wearing her press credentials at the time. Meanwhile, the outlet Real People’s Media was covered in the Globe and Mail, specifically for how the website’s co-founder is perceived as playing a “dual role” as an activist in Belleville.

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The biggest hole in his ground

Just before Steven Del Duca’s pretty-sure coronation as leader of the Ontario Liberals, a CBC News report outlines how his new in-ground family pool in Vaughan was built on a section of protected land irrespective of receiving a proper conservation permit:

CBC Toronto @CBCToronto

Ontario Liberal Party front-runner Steven Del Duca wants protected land to save his private pool ift.tt/2PoeTgb

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The truth about the state of Torstar. One-time gains related to its pension plans and the sale of two real estate properties allows the Toronto Star to crow that its owner had a “fourth quarter profit of $14 million.” Naturally, a more honest take depends on a competitor: Postmedia outlines Torstar’s continued challenges following a tough year.

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Finally, an ode to Joni Mitchell

Rufus Wainwright is foreshadowing his April album, Unfollow the Rules, with a song inspired by his Joni Mitchell “virginity being broken” after moving to Laurel Canyon. Mitchell herself is also “coming back musically,” according to James Taylor: