From the Superbowl, via Broken City Lab (despite the fact that I was theoretically watching said Bowl):

Whatcha think? I think it’s too bad the message had to be about luxury and not simply good quality. Hearing comments about luxury mixed in with stuff about Detroit’s troubles is a bit jarring, no? On the flip side, perhaps 40% reality is better than 0%.

There were a couple news pieces about Detroit and the $100 home, following the Toby Barlow piece in the Times. Here’s one from ABC, and one from CNN.

Short version: artists are moving into Detroit, attracted by the low prices on vacant and gutted houses ($100-$3,000). These are houses in Hamtramck, which is still partially inhabited; it neighbours Highland Park, which is where Gran Torino was set. There are neighbourhoods in Detroit that are much, much worse.

I’m no expert, but the Anderson Cooper piece especially feels naive. Of course Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope will one-sidedly promote the opportunities in their neighbourhood. But at least ABC draws out the arson threat they had received. Remember that Detroit police can take 24 hours to respond to a homicide call, and realize you would have to gun up pretty hard to defend your nice new pile of wreckage. That said, a $14/month mortgage sounds pretty good right now. (via detroit unreal estate agency)

Meatspace game Street Wars has been cancelled due to low turnout (only 60 registrations). “I have no idea why this happened,” says organizer Franz Aliquo. I have an idea:

In virtually every previous city where Street Wars has set up shop, police or city authorities have spoken out against the prospect of dozens of water gun-toting assassins running around shooting each other… In Toronto, the trend reversed: police indicated they didn’t see a problem with the shenanigans.

The Toronto police didn’t do free publicity for the game. That’s a little lesson in the economic benefits of controversy.

Reading the Globe last week, I discovered that Toronto is the largest network on Facebook. Which is crazy since the cities of London and New York are obviously much larger in meatspace, but TO’s Facebook population dwarfs theirs. It’s crazy but it’s entirely believable to a Toronto resident: over the past couple months, Facebook has come up in conversation more often than even the weather. It’s spread quicker than a zombie plague. And in fact, to those who refuse to sign up (I’m on Facebook myself, but I know a few holdouts), it’s like your friends are one by one succumbing to the virus. Instead of asking for your brains, they ask if you’re on Facebook, and if not, why not?

That Torontonians would get all wrapped up in relentless, privacy-invading bulletins of friend-related minutiae flies in the face of our reputation as a quiet, withdrawn people. I suppose you could explain it by saying we are indeed withdrawn, and that Facebook appeals because it is the form of socializing that involves the least amount of actual socializing. Or, you could just call bullshit on the “quiet Toronto” myth. Either one works for me.

But then I remembered a past realization, that Toronto, city of SARS, filmic home of Resident Evil, Land of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead remake, is of course the capital of the zombie world. Which explains how infectious networking would especially catch hold here, but which also goes a little towards supporting another half-baked theory: that zombies in fiction symbolize P2P networked communications, and the fear of zombies reflects the fear that old, hierarchical, gatekeeper media have of a society that has no place for them.

That’s probably too cultural studies for a nice saturday afternoon, so let me clunkily segway into a mention of zombie-demon musical sensation Evil Dead: The Musical, which is back in Toronto. I saw it a couple of days ago for the first time, and it’s worth attending. It’s one of the only entertainment events that you can walk out of soaked in blood, and it contains some great writing such as one character’s dying words, “Death’s a bitch… a stupid bitch.”

This excellent post from Buzz who just left Apple (and describes it as a failed romance) contains an interesting tidbit about commuting, from this article:

“I was shocked to find how robust a predictor of social isolation commuting is,” Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, told me. “There’s a simple rule of thumb: Every ten minutes of commuting results in ten per cent fewer social connections.”

While I doubt the accuracy of that formula there, it’s an interesting downside to car/suburb society that isn’t often brought up. Now I really do have every reason in the world for hating cars. (That last sentence for Speed Racer fans only)