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KidScore: Children telling planners what they value in public space
In the world of city planning and design, there are tools for measuring everything from the number of vehicles passing through an intersection to the walkability of a location. These tools are...
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In face of Covid-19, what if Canada’s health system looked like our housing...
Covid-19 is making everyday life feel like dystopian fiction. But imagine an even more apocalyptic scenario: what if Canada’s health system looked like our housing system? In this terrifying alternate...
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LORINC: Paying rent in a pandemic
It’s the first of the month, which means, for many Toronto tenants, that rent’s due – a perennial transaction that was already imbued with stress, and which now includes all manner of pandemic...
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MARSHALL: Mapping TTC crowding during a pandemic
Sean Marshall is a Toronto planner, transit advocate, and long-time Spacing contributor. This is cross-posted from his personal web site. While most people are urged to stay home as much as possible...
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MARY ROWE: Fostering Covid-19 resilience in Canada’s cities
This is a guest column by Mary W. Rowe, CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute Over 80% of Canadians live in cities, making us one of the most urbanized countries in the world — compelling statistic in a...
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KidScore: Towards a more child-friendly, post-pandemic city
For many of us, one of the nagging questions added to our pile of brand-new worries in recent weeks concerns the physical and mental well-being of children who experience an extended period of staying...
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Observing urban change through the window of a GO train
I wrote this piece last year, long before Covid 19 kept almost everyone at home and before riding transit was something to be avoided for all but the most necessary journeys. While most of us are...
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LORINC: Ford Nation’s phony construction shut-down during pandemic
If you’d tuned in to the Ontario government’s daily press briefing last Friday, you would have seen a grim-faced Doug Ford presenting the sobering projections of the pandemic’s potential impact, based...
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Skateboards, Rollerblades, Scooters: The Orphans of Active Transportation
When we think of active transportation, we typically refer to the traditional modes of walking and cycling. But is it time we direct attention to less-considered forms of human-powered travel?...
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KELCEY: Cities are mostly forgotten in pandemic policy decisions
Outside our locked-down doors, Canadian mayors are wielding emergency powers. City bus drivers are literally risking their lives to help travellers get from A to B. With or without protective gear,...
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Covid-19 is a wake-up call for Toronto to act on housing and homelessness
In order to flatten the COVID-19 curve, Canadians have been advised to stay home as much as possible and, when going out, to engage in social distancing. That advice is obviously impossible for...
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5 IDEAS: Urban design challenges of spring weather in a pandemic
With recent warm days foreshadowing lovely spring weather, the public health response to the worsening COVID-19 crisis seems destined to collide with the very human desire to get outside and move...
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Space for people please
In the coming weeks and months, we will have the luxury and the obligation to worry about challenges in addition to the threat of COVID-19. Sooner rather than later Toronto must return to dealing with...
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Earth Day in the COVID19 era
Happy Earth Day! Although in these strange days of self-isolation, it may feel more like Groundhog Day than Earth Day, here we are. While our news tilts significantly to COVID19 stats and questions...
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LORINC: The pandemic is allowing residents to see our streets differently
On my long morning dog-walk the other day, a woman and her tween-age daughter jogged past me. I was walking down the middle of the road, which was also where they were running. It was rush hour and...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 045, What matters in a pandemic
In a time of snitch lines, and shuttered park space, we dive into what we’re prioritizing in this pandemic, and what, and especially who, is ignored. We talk to Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star...
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The unexpected potential of pandemic parking lots
From my living room window, I can see a church parking lot. Services are now streamed so it no longer fills up on Sunday mornings but, in this time of physical distancing, the parking lot has become a...
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City officials obfuscate while COVID-19 cases spike in homeless shelters
On April 8, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, and Mary-Anne Bedard, general manager of the City’s shelter, support and housing administration (SSHA), held a daily briefing on...
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Change and continuity in the COVID-19 city
Everything has changed and nothing has changed since the arrival of the COVID19 pandemic. Understanding the new dynamics of cities is the first step towards addressing today’s unprecedented challenges...
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Lessons on urban mobility and inequality during a pandemic
Many cities around the world have started to open up road space for non-automotive movement to give people room to get some exercise safely. As Toronto leaders continue to resist such initiatives and...
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