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Book Review: The Ecologies of The Building Envelope – A Material History and...
Author: Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Jeffrey S. Anderson (Actar Publishers, 2021) Given the number of books I read and review every year, it is rare to be surprised by a book. Like all cultural...
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LORINC: John Tory’s housewarming gift to the new police chief
In the early 1980s, when inner city crime was soaring in many large metropolitan areas, a pair of American sociologists concocted what they dubbed the “broken windows” theory of policing and community...
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LORINC: Can the Ontario Science Centre save Ontario Place?
Here’s a strange little detail about the 20-car pile-up that is the Ontario Place redevelopment scheme: Shortly before Christmas, the province posted a heritage impact assessment (HIA) on its...
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EXCERPT: Displacement City: Fighting for Health and Homes in a Pandemic
The following is the afterword by Spacing‘s Shawn Micallef in the new book Displacement City: Fighting for Health and Homes in a Pandemic published by University of Toronto Press (you can purchase it...
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LORINC: How to expedite affordable housing during a crisis
With the launch of the annual budget slam dance, at the beginning of a new term of city council, on this, the 25th anniversary of amalgamation, it seems like as good a time as any to pose a timeless...
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LORINC: The taxing discussion about a parking tax
Can anyone who pays attention to City Hall say they didn’t see this one coming? The latest news from the budget committee’s deliberations is that the City’s proposed fees for CafeTO may be high enough...
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LORINC: How safe is the TTC?
How safe is the TTC? Notwithstanding a media narrative that is solidifying faster than quick drying cement, the quick answer to this question is: very. According to the latest CEO’s report, the rate...
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OP-ED: We can’t let perception of danger become reality
Toronto is a safe city. Not just by global standards, but by North American standards. It doesn’t feel that way right now. At least not to public transit riders. I can rhyme off statistics about how...
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Reimagining under the Gardiner
Toronto’s journey towards urban renewal could witness a new stage unfold with plans to transform overlooked areas beneath the Gardiner Expressway between Dufferin and the Don Valley Parkway. The Under...
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Megalandscape: A counter-proposal for Ontario Place
The Ontario government’s proposal to cannibalize Ontario Place by building a monstrous, for-profit spa on public land will destroy a waterfront ecology that has matured over the last half century. Yes,...
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LORINC: The Sad State of Police Governance in Tory’s Toronto
It feels like matters of policing, never far from view, have hung particularly heavily over the city’s business in this past month — an arc that began early in the new year with Mayor John Tory’s $50...
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LORINC: Seizing the opportunity of Tory’s resignation
Let’s not talk about candidates and the horse race, just for a fleeting moment. The end of the John Tory era, which came to a screeching halt at about 8:40pm on Friday evening, is, of course, a...
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Cars as predators
I am currently on sabbatical leave in Mumbai, India. Last week, I went to an eye-opening lecture at IIT Bombay by Dr. Sunetro Ghosal, “Immoral Wilderness in Urban Spaces.” He raised provocative...
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Book Review: American Urbanist
Author: Richard K. Rein (Island Press, 2022) “In our attention to making organization work we have come close to deifying it. We are describing its defects as virtues and denying that there is – or...
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REID: Is it time for a vehicle registration tax to help fix Toronto’s roads?
Toronto’s streets are in terrible shape. I notice this as a pedestrian, trying to cross at intersections where the zebra stripes that define my safe(r) space to cross have mostly disappeared and have...
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Black History Month: Making space for Black music in Canadian radio
By Cheryl Thompson and Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert In 1983, Toronto radio personality Ron Nelson introduced local audiences to the program “Fantastic Voyage” — a college radio show hosted on Toronto...
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Black History Month: Jack White and the Bloor Viaduct strike action
Almost lost in Toronto’s vault of Black history is a case of racial discrimination in the spring of 1964 that nearly prevented the Bloor subway line from opening on time. In mid April of that year,...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 069, Worst Case Ontario
We’re back for 2023, and there is… a lot to catch up on. To begin, Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, guides us through Doug Ford’s Greenbelt plan. What will the long term effects be? Who...
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LORINC: Where will the mayoral candidates stand on Ontario Place?
Here’s a question for the women and men positioning themselves for a run at the mayor’s chair: Do you think Therme’s proposed $350 million mega-spa and accompanying underground mega-garage represent...
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Transit workers’ perspectives on violence on the TTC
According to new data from the TTC released last week, the number of violent incidents on the system rose 46% in 2022 compared to the year previous. Attacks on employees, meantime, rose more or less...
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