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How many injuries could separated cycling facilities prevent in Toronto?
City Building Ryerson has released a new report, Lane Change: Safer cycling infrastructure for Toronto, based on research led by Dr. Anne Harris of Ryerson University’s School of Occupational and...
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How much parkland do we need?
Through the summer and into the fall, city parks were busy as Torontonians tried to savor the excellent weather and bring some regular routine back into everyday life. As places to exercise, walk dogs,...
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LORINC: The crowded bus problem during the second wave
The TTC has been steadily bringing back vehicle operators since early September as ridership levels rise. As of October 9, buses were running at about 50% of normal capacity, with 36% and 31% for...
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Book Review: France Sketchbooks
Edited by Laurie Olin and Pablo Mandel (ORO Editions, 2020) Drawing is about seeing and not wriggling one’s wrist. It is also an act of the mind. Seeing is part of being awake, and perceiving is part...
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The City in Sight Podcast: The Case for Local Power
Spacing and Massey College proudly present City in Sight: Canada’s constitutional city crisis, a special podcast series in support of the Massey Cities Summit (April 7-8, 2021). THIS EPISODE: The Case...
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A park in a pandemic, in photos
During the summer days of the pandemic, local photographer Chloë Ellingson found herself spending much more time in Sorauren Park than she ever had before, despite it being only a few blocks away from...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 051, Toronto’s shelter disaster
In this episode, we look at the housing and homelessness crisis that has escalated into a full-blown disaster during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dania Majid, staff lawyer with Advocacy Centre for Tenants...
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LORINC: Tall or small is a false choice between main streets and intensification
At its meeting Monday, the Toronto Preservation Board (TPB) voted to adopt a set of staff recommendations that seemed, to some observers as well as development industry insiders, like a classic...
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Ten tips for the cycling advocate at City Hall
When Bells on Bloor was formed in 2007, we thought that convincing City Hall to install bike lanes was simply a question of demonstrating strong community support with annual bike parades. By 2009, our...
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COVID-19 stimulus spending needs to be wise to the perils of road building
In times of economic crisis, stimulus spending is important. But spending it wisely is even more important. In the midst of the climate and public health crisis you’d think we’d be on a recovery better...
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LORINC: Crombie’s resignation from Greenbelt Council reminds us to look upstream
Of course, the Ford government responded with misdirection and a bit of money. In the wake of David Crombie’s weekend resignation from the Greenbelt Council, followed by the rest of its members,...
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Weston Road as my main street
This selection of photographs by Peter MacCallum documenting Weston Road is published in conjunction with Spacing’s new issue themed around main streets. In July, 2020, after searching in vain for new...
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Reading List: John Sewell, “The Shape of the Suburbs”
When John Sewell’s book The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl came out in 2009, I read it soon after publication, flagging passages with the intent to write about in for Spacing....
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The City in Sight Podcast: Who’s in Charge of the Pandemic?
Spacing and Massey College proudly present City in Sight: Canada’s constitutional city crisis, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Who’s in Charge of a Pandemic? Dealing with COVID-19 has been a...
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Book Review – Tom Kundig: Working Title
Princeton Architectural Press, 2020 When considering Kundig’s buildings, twenty-nine examples of which are included here in his fourth book, one is struck by how palpably they express, and how...
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LORINC: 2020, a year of urban resilience
The answer to the “whither-cities” question that’s buzzed around the edges of pandemic punditry was never seriously in doubt. Cities are humanity’s sturdiest invention. They’ve endured deadly plagues,...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 052, Public Realm Resolutions
We began 2020 with a bit of optimism — how could we know? We had an episode about the public realm and its importance, and spoke to urban researcher/writer Cara Chellew about re-starting the Toronto...
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Book Review – The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of...
Authors: Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020) It is not a stretch to say that most contemporary urbanists have come across the 99% Invisible radio show at some point over...
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Sam Carr and Toronto’s Soviet spies
Sam Carr walked out of the Don Jail on a crisp autumn day in 1942. He had been living underground for two years, and detained for the previous month. While the Canadian government was concerned that...
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LORINC: Yonge Street’s new mission
It sometimes seems as if the ‘whither-Yonge Street’ question has been loitering on the edges of our civic debates ever since the City iced the short-lived pedestrian mall project from the 1970s for...
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