As a one time resident of Toronto, I had a lot of fun watching this episode. I'm pretty sure Kirk saying that it was "clearly mid-21st century New York" was a reference to how often Toronto is used as a filming location for NYC.

I saw Blinky once on display at the CN Tower. It spoke and it spouted pre recorded messages about safety, it's eyes looked around and... obviously... blinked. Kids loved it. Adults looked horrified.