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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 060, Alberta’s municipal power vacuum
With the mayors of both Edmonton and Calgary stepping down, and Alberta municipal elections taking place October 18, we decided to bring you all out west. But first, the City of Toronto released a...
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LORINC: The Supreme Court ruling on the size of council was a distraction
I’d be lying if I said I was the least bit surprised by Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling, which dismissed by a 5-4 vote the City of Toronto’s appeal of the notorious provincial law that...
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Toronto needs a new (old) logo
By Daniel Rotsztain and Mark Sherman With the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding Ford’s slashing of council from 47 to 25 wards, and the upcoming update to Toronto’s Official Plan, we think it’s the...
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EXCERPT: Outdoor School – Under the Freeway, a Forest: Some Notes on Trespassing
Outdoor School includes the contemporary environmental art of more than 20 Canadian and Indigenous artists. Below is an excerpt from a curatorial essay by Amish Morrell for the exhibition Outdoor...
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The long history of cycling in Windsor, Canada’s Motor City
The Windsor Law Centre for Cities at the University of Windsor recently published a detailed history of cycling in Canada’s Motor City. Spacing invited the report’s author, Christopher Waters, to share...
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LORINC: What is the future of CafeTO (with update)?
On October 27, Toronto City Council’s executive committee will get to dine alfresco on the results of an online survey about the CafeTO program, and specifically the question of whether this response...
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Motor make-believe
Make-believe is a beautiful thing when you’re defending a car-dominated transportation system amidst a disturbing road casualty toll, poor public health, and a climate crisis. In the past decade, over...
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2021 Toronto Heritage Award winners
The winners of the 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards were announced last night during an online ceremony. In its 46th year, the Heritage Toronto Awards recognize extraordinary contributions to Toronto’s...
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LORINC: Council prepares to bring in inclusionary zoning, finally
Those who pay attention to the ebbs and flows of the debate over how to plan Toronto will know that “inclusionary zoning” is one of those mirage-like affordable housing reforms that always seems to be...
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Toronto’s original vaudeville theatre: Loews
Excerpt from Toronto: City of Commerce 1800-1960 (James Lorimer & Company, 2021) by Katherine Taylor. Reprinted with permission. Opened in 1913, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre was built as the...
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LORINC: Unanswered questions about John Tory and the Rogers Centre
Questions about Mayor John Tory’s relationship with Rogers Communications Inc. have dogged him since even before he was elected mayor, and they have once again burst into the public eye. Earlier this...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 061, Community sports and urban farming
In this episode, we follow up on the municipal elections in Edmonton and Calgary, with a bit of a rant about rooming houses. Then, we talk to journalist and Spacing contributing editor Perry King about...
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Book Review: Cuban Modernism – Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970
Authors: Victor Deupi & Jean-Francois Lejeune (Birkhäuser, 2021) In the 20th century, modern architecture thrived in Cuba and a wealth of buildings was realized prior to the 1959 revolution and in...
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History on the Rocks
Standing outside her west end Toronto house on a sunny September morning, a cup of coffee in hand, psychotherapist and rehabilitative dance specialist Miriam Schacter planned to spend a few minutes...
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Modest Hopes: The story of Anne O’Rourke of Corktown
This is an excerpt from Modest Hopes: Homes and Stories of Toronto’s Workers from the 1820s to the 1920s — by Don Loucks and Leslie Valpy — which celebrates Toronto’s built heritage of row houses,...
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Achtung! Go for a German Walk T.O.
Over the summer and fall I was happy to work with a team put together by the German Consulate in Toronto on a series of audio walks exploring Toronto’s geography and history, with a special focus on...
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Smart city in a post-pandemic world: Small-scale, green, and over-policed
On the face of it, the smart city market is bleeding. In May 2020, Alphabet pulled the plug on Sidewalk Toronto, the company’s ambitious smart city project in Canada. One year later, the company...
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University Avenue’s Radiant Journey
In mid-October, University Avenue lit up as Radiant Journey, a light installation by the Friends of University Avenue, was officially launched. Along the road’s median, for the few hundred metres from...
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The transformation of Mabelle Park
This article was first published in August in the Park People 10 Years Together in City Parks series, and is republished here with permission. Tasmeen Syed was five years old, walking down Mabelle...
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LORINC: The Revenge of the Market Urbanists
Here’s a tale of two cities… In the City of Toronto (pop. 2.8 million), there are about 1.1 million private dwellings, and most of the growth recorded between 2011 and 2016 (latest census data) came...
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