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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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The Future Fix: Mapping Arctic Sea Ice
Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Mapping Arctic Sea Ice Not all technology has to be disruptive, it...
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Visiting cottage country without a car
It was summer 2021, and I was eager to get away and mentally escape the pandemic. Some wilderness would be nice, forest bathing in cottage country, perhaps some swimming and hiking. In previous years I...
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Take me back to Happiness: an art show about Hanlan’s Point beach
What: Take me back to Happiness: paintings of Hanlan’s Point art show by Zach Rosen When: March 9-14 Opening Reception March 10 6-10PM Where: Northern Contemporary Gallery, 420 Roncesvalles Avenue...
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ELECTION: Voter turnout in 2022
Ever since John Tory was elected mayor of Toronto in 2014, voter turnout in municipal elections has been in decline. In 2010, the year Rob Ford was elected mayor, turnout was 50.4 percent. Four years...
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OP-ED: The emergence of the Airbnb rental shadow market is harming tenants
A few weeks ago, a story broke about a family of five who relocated to Toronto from Switzerland for a ten-month work assignment. Unable to find housing, they turned to Airbnb to find a home close to...
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LORINC: Is the 15-minute city’s 15 minutes up yet?
By way of spoiler alert, I’ll begin by saying I have no intention of wasting my time (or yours) rebutting the lunacy of the 15-minute city conspiracy theorists, who have barged into the normally staid...
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LORINC: Why aren’t Toronto’s major streets major streets?
One day last week, Toronto history buff Jeremy Hopkin tweeted a then-and-now set of images that told an unflattering story about where we find ourselves. He paired a 1923 photo of St. Clair West,...
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Remembering the Hoggs Hollow Disaster
By John Cartwright The Hoggs Hollow Disaster, which occurred on March 17, 1960, killed five Italian immigrant workers: Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Correglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers...
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Tools to address the affordable housing crisis facing Canada
In 2019, Canada adopted the National Housing Strategy Act, which commits all governments in Canada to “progressive realization of the right to adequate housing,” with an emphasis on “improving housing...
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