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Book Review: Merrick House
Edited by Anthony Robins, ORO Editions (2017) UBC SALA West Coast Modern House Series Nestled on a wooded hillside, the house is truly contextual, yet eccentric and outrageous at the same time. It is...
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WWW: Unexpected urban gems
The Strip: the unexpected, all-American city? Examining how Las Vegas can be defined as a model for modern urban development, following the ever-evolving ideals of the American dream to produce an...
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The oddities of the Dundas Street Extension
In December 1954, the railway tracks near Logan Avenue presented the final obstacle in one of Toronto’s first major post-war road building projects—the construction of Dundas Street East through the...
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Book Review – Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory
Author: Charles Waldheim (Princeton University Press, 2016) It goes without saying that despite its contemporary meaning, practice of ‘urbanism’ is as old as the city, itself. And over the thousands...
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A need for high speed rail reality
GO Transit commuter train at Brampton Station, on the Toronto-Kitchener rail corridor Last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the commencement of an Environmental Assessment for a new high-speed...
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LORINC: No relief in sight when it comes to subways and politics
In the bonfire of the vanities that is transit politics in Greater Toronto, it is often difficult to identify who is the biggest bozo. Take, for example, the letter circulated to the media yesterday...
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Book Review: Bike Boom
Author: Carlton Reid (2017) “Not only is bicycle travel human scaled, healthful, and non-polluting, but it turns out to be more efficient than jetplanes, salmon, and seagulls.” – Whole Earth Catalog,...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 012, Priorities
In this episode, we take you to the Ten Year Tent City in Vancouver, where residents are protesting the lack of affordable housing in that city. Andrew Walsh reports. And we speak to recent Ryerson...
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LORINC: The politics of the minimum wage
One of the more curious differences between the powers of American and Canadian cities has to do with the former’s ability — and willingness — to impose minimum wage rules on employers doing business...
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REID: Pity the poor operator: success and failure in subway systems
I attended the International Transport Forum May 31-June 2 on behalf of Spacing, and over the next few days will report some of the most interesting things I heard there. “Many governments embark on...
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REID: The value of federal support for cycling
Canadian bike and walking advocates have been working to try to get the federal government to engage with, and provide financial support to, cycling and walking. Even with a supportive government,...
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Toronto’s strange climate change plan in the age of Trump
When U.S. president Donald Trump announced last week that he’d decided to abandon the historic Paris Accord, national and sub-national governments around the world didn’t miss the opportunity to heap...
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REID: Transforming Buenos Aires
A radical transformation of the centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina, combining a new Bus Rapid Transit project and a pedestrian-and-cyclist priority district, was awarded the Transport Achievement Award...
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Book Review From The Stacks: The New Downtown Library
Author: Shannon Mattern (University of Minnesota Press, 2007) “The legitimacy of the library is in question” — Rem Koolhaas during the design of the Seattle Central Library in 1999 (paraphrased). In...
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The short, mysterious life of the Beard Building
The Beard Building is a historical enigma. Toronto’s first skyscraper, the 7-storey building was constructed in 1895 to designs by E. J. Lennox, one of Toronto’s most prominent and sought-after...
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Making places for Toronto’s Queer history
By Ed Jackson In June, 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York City, as an American National Historical Monument. The designation was...
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REID: “You cannot talk fatalities down”– international insights on walking...
When I asked Anders Lie, the Swedish expert on the Vision Zero traffic safety program, about cities (like Toronto) where politicians lay claim to the “Vision Zero” brand without following through with...
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Islamophobia in Canadian public spaces: how to go from trauma to solidarity
There is a pressing need to turn public spaces where Muslims have been traumatized into spaces where solidarity is strengthened. Racialized communities have a history of being excluded and alienated...
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OP-ED: Does Canada need a federal infrastructure agency?
This week, Spacing is publishing three columns about the proposed $35 billion Canada Infrastructure Bank, which was proposed as part of the Liberal government’s omnibus budget bill and was debated in...
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Book Review: Atlas of Cities
Editor: Paul Knox (Princeton University Press, 2014) With cities at the centre of all major global phenomena—from climate change to population growth—it is no surprise to see the explosion of printed...
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