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The question of food and the new resiliency
The ability to feed our communities as a result of COVID-19 has the potential to increase awareness of the economic, social and environmental challenges that continue to challenge our cities’...
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Tales from The Concert Hall at the Masonic Temple
“You need to get there by 5. Or 4, if you can.” This advice might have come from someone’s older brother, or more likely someone’s older sister. My friends heeded these sage words from our teen elders,...
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888 Dupont: Conversations with an old building
I went over to see 888 Dupont Street earlier this month. “I hope you haven’t come to criticize me,” said the old building, aware of the rough face it presents a gentrifying neighbourhood. “Don’t be...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 046, Toronto City Council is buffering
There have been two full, virtual City Council meetings since the COVID-19 outbreak in Toronto. Those meeting saw near-unanimous votes about building affordable and social housing, expanding the active...
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THOMPSON: Policing the boundaries of space and race during COVID-19
When a Black person is killed by police, it feels like Black people are suddenly taking up a lot of space in Canadian media. I’ve had Canadian producers ask me to speak about what’s going on in the...
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COVID-19 pushing homeless into encampments
According to a 2018 Toronto Street Needs Assessment, there were 533 “rough sleepers” in Toronto — that is to say, those homeless Torontonians who would rather sleep outdoors than stay in the...
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BRADFORD OP-ED: Bike lanes are the path to main street recovery on the...
Toronto has approved the installation of 40 kilometres of cycling infrastructure across the city, including a significant portion along Danforth Avenue, in the community I represent as city councillor....
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Post-pandemic economic recovery requires strong public transit
The job losses and damage to many retail businesses from the COVID-19 pandemic and related mobility restrictions mean that Toronto and other cities face a steep climb to economic recovery when things...
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Make civic skills for kids the new coding
Sometime in the last decade, coding became the must-learn, must-teach skill in the education and training world. Everyone from ambitious middle schoolers to reskilling professionals needed to learn to...
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Five organizations come together to produce a community map of Toronto...
In a great display of community collaboration, five Toronto-based organizations dedicated to improving and enhancing the city’s public realm have come together to advocate for safe and viable ways for...
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If Black lives truly matter in Canada, an apology for slavery is only a first...
Natasha Henry is a 2018 Vanier Scholar completing a PhD in History at York University on the enslavement of Africans in early Ontario. She is the president of the Ontario Black History Society. There...
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Book Review: Tall Wood Buildings – Design, Construction, and Performance
Written by Michael Green and Jim Taggart– Second and Expanded Edition (Birkhauser Press, 2020) A fundamental change in the way in which we build our cities is imperative, re-learning how to build in...
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LORINC: What’s in a street name? Dundas and other uncomfortable truths about...
The street where I live, near St. Clair West and Christie, was originally called Victoria after it was carved out of a farmer’s field or replaced a cow path in the early 20th century. Victoria is my...
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LORINC: Police can’t find road to reform even when given a map
Would Regis Korchinski-Paquet be alive today if the Toronto Police Service (TPS) had adopted the recommendations of a sweeping 2014 review of its flawed approach to dealing with emotionally distressed...
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THOMPSON: Saunders’ departure won’t fix the problem of policing in Toronto
What can be said about chief Mark Saunders’ sudden departure from the Toronto Police Service (TPS)? In truth, I am neither happy nor disappointed about it. Instead, I am concerned about the optics of...
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LORINC: The pandemic is about cities
Viruses, in the abstract, don’t care much about their host organisms, beyond the latter’s on-board, physiological defenses. Yet it’s clear the coronavirus that causes COVID19 has, for a range of...
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REID: The beginning of the end for rush hour curb lanes?
One of the distinctive and ubiquitous characteristics of main streets in the older parts of Toronto is the rush hour curb lane. For two or four hours a day on weekdays (inbound lanes in the morning...
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LORINC: The pandemic is sacrificing community spaces in places of faith
The long-awaited partial re-opening, which finally began in Toronto and Peel earlier this week, is a story with two aspects: on the one hand, a reunion, of sorts, with the businesses and organizations...
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Queerness and queer space in the time of COVID-19
Marquis is a queer young man living in the City of Brampton who enjoys commuting into the City of Toronto, where he attends classes at Ryerson University. He values his time spent in and around...
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LORINC: Council fails accountability test on defunding the police
For all the heat and light generated by Monday’s debate over defunding or detasking the police, the compromise — or compromised, depending on your perspective — motion that passed Toronto City Council...
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