LORINC: Building a better residents association
We live in a society where individuals aren’t regulated in the ways in which they participate in (legal) group activities — from reading groups to sports to cultural or professional or activist...
View ArticleBook Review: 100 Ideas That Changed Architecture
Written by Richard Weston (Laurence King Publishing, 2020) This book’s title poses two obvious questions: what is an architectural ‘idea’, and how were the 100 ideas it discusses and illustrates...
View ArticleFarewell, Regent Park
By Lena Sanz Tovar and Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie Farewell Oak Street, produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1953, presents a before-and-after picture of the Regent Park development in the...
View ArticleComing clean on Regent Park’s Social Development Plan
By Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie and Lena Sanz Tovar Earlier this year, the City of Toronto at long last approved $635,000 to partially fund the Regent Park Social Development Plan (SDP). Initially...
View ArticleFixing Avenue Road
The car wins on Avenue Road. It always does. The pattern of valuing the convenience of drivers over everything else has been fixed since 1959, when the city chopped down trees and dramatically narrowed...
View ArticleParks, policing, and the pandemic
Park People’s national COVID-19 survey shows that parks have become more important than ever to Canadians during the pandemic. While many have been using parks to de-stress, get exercise, and connect...
View ArticlePODCAST: Toronto transit in the pandemic
It’s been too long since we had a classic Toronto transit episode. And, with the City and province grappling with the pandemic, and the threat of a second wave, there’s a lot to discuss. We talk with...
View ArticleRe-purposing Toronto’s city-owned golf courses
Public space has never been so popular. Over the summer in Toronto, we saw streets closed for active recreation, parks filled with people young and old, and bike lanes popped up almost overnight. While...
View ArticleA case for compassionate design in housing standards at Toronto shelters
For thousands of Toronto residents, housing precarity and homelessness are a lived reality. But for many others, the issue grew suddenly more visible as encampments were established throughout the city...
View ArticleWhat can we learn from kids who thrived during COVID-19 lockdown?
COVID-19 has been a destructive force and cruel amplifier of inequalities for many Canadian families. In addition to the damage caused directly by the virus, those who are low-income, racialized, or...
View ArticleLORINC: The digs of R.C. Harris
Anyone venturing by the Queen Street side of Old City Hall in the past couple of weeks may have noticed a small new plaque in front of E.J. Lennox’s monumental sandstone castle – one of the Toronto...
View ArticleLORINC: Preparing to weather the winter pandemic
After an emotionally complicated long weekend featuring spectacular fall colours, ambiguously-limited Thanksgiving gatherings, and disturbing statistics about new infections, I’d say it’s time for...
View ArticleREID: Piketty and the decline of “dirty mansions”
Toronto’s affordable housing crisis has many facets. One of these many facets is the conversion – or rather, re-conversion – of big old houses in the older parts of the city that are full of...
View ArticleHow 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...
View ArticleHow 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,...
View ArticleLORINC: 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...
View ArticleBook 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleA 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...
View ArticlePODCAST: 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...
View Article