Two final things. First, I meant to write "ARUs" above, and I kept writing ADUs out of habit. Sorry!
Second, here are links to the by-laws:
2026-32 pub-markham.escribemeetings.com/filestream.a...
2026-33 pub-markham.escribemeetings.com/filestream.a...
I also learnt from Markham's meeting on this that the mayor seems to believe that the federal housing money won't be threatened. Here is a partial transcript, with the relevant quotes in green: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
tagging some people who may be interested:
@plannersean.bsky.social – from whom I learnt that this whole thing was happening
@jm-mcgrath.bsky.social – whom I am hereby lobbying to write a column on this
But on the other hand, those in favour of more housing in Markham (like me) must advocate for much more to change than just ADUs. We need to ensure that other rules change so that four-unit lots can be not just theoretically possible, but practical and economical.
So on the one hand, I'm very frustrated that strong mayor powers—which our premier introduced under the premise that they would allow for more housing—are being used for the opposite. I'm also frustrated that the mayor has cited parking as a problem in his memo, when 4 units would require 4 spots.
The thing is, I don't believe the by-laws change any other rules: fire codes, building codes, parking regulations, and so on, still apply.
So, even under the status quo, very few ADUs are getting built. See p 11 of this memo by @cescato.bsky.social: pub-markham.escribemeetings.com/filestream.a...
It is currently possible in parts of the city to build two "Additional Residential Units" (ADUs) on a lot. The by-laws in question (2026-32 and 2026-33) would allow up for a third ADU on many such properties. (It's a tiered system — floodplains and environmentally sensitive areas get no ADUs.)
After doing a nocturnal, unnecessarily deep dive, I want to say a few things about the use of strong mayor powers by Markham's mayor to reject some pro-housing zoning amendments.
Have you seen the competition?
("Bill" is the wrong word — I mean the two zoning amendments.)
This is about the bill that would allow three ARUs on lots instead of two, right? I'm very confused, because Scarpitti was quoted in favour of this bill just a few months ago.
www.yorkregion.com/news/are-add...
I guess I need to write to him, my ward councillor, and my MP
Markham’s mayor for the first time has used his strong mayor powers… to block city-wide 4plexes that council approved. Presumably this puts in jeopardy the federal housing money the city has already agreed to, as this was a condition of those funds.
www.markham.ca/sites/defaul...
Exogenous what??? What can I instrument that for.....🤔
"stochastic parrot" is out; "sycophantic pirate" is in
at almost exactly this time six years ago, I was leaving a show of Hamilton and re-entered the world to the news that the NBA was on hiatus
www.queensu.ca/history/abou...
Buchanan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Canadian History at Queen's. Please help circulate the ad. widely.
Is there a place to pre-order? 👀
That looks excellent! Another caveat that I think goes in a different direction can be found in this post by an archivist friend. She points out that some metadata ("what papers were next to this one?") are useful yet nearly impossible to digitize
peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/w...
@absurdlymax.bsky.social is this anything
panpsychism: the belief that one can communicate with one's cookware
If I were a scholar that ever had to deal with transcription, I'd check this out immediately:
dropbox.com/scl/fi/kjstg...
From 🐦:
"I show that Vision Language Models used zero-shot outperform every existing OCR system across every script evaluated, and I propose a pipeline for deploying them on new collections. I apply it to six archival collections spanning 1.8 million pages across six countries for under $1,900."
where's the "in mice" guy when you need him?
University of Toronto sociolinguist Jack Chambers has died.
This is so sad to hear—he was at the university when my mum majored in linguistics, and was still teaching in my undergrad years. The whole U of T community will miss him.
www.linguistics.utoronto.ca/news/memoria...
@sambowman.co @scientificdiscovery.dev special culinary edition?
Post by Andy Masley on Twitter: Effective Altruism DC will be organizing a large EA conference in DC on May 2nd and 3rd. While I won't be directing the org anymore I'll be extremely excited to attend. The conference will bring together the large network of people working in EA cause areas in DC as well as people from around the world, and will welcome everyone from very active EAs to EA skeptics working in related fields. EA is more topical than ever in DC. If you'd like to connect more to the general EA network here this is the best way to do it. Apply here!
an upcoming EAGx event in Washington DC — spread the word!
apply here before April 16: www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global/ev...
stir-fry pans that are still developing their patina:
Woks in Progress
Screenshot of text: LLM writing often puffs up the importance of the subject matter by adding statements about how arbitrary aspects of the topic represent or contribute to a broader topic. There is a distinct and easily identifiable repertoire of ways that it writes these statements. There follow quoted blocks of text where highlights include these phrases: "marking a pivotal moment"; "represented a significant shift"; "was part of a broader movement"; "an important center".
Wikipedia has a "signs of AI writing" page intended as a resource for its editors, but much here seems useful for a general audience:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
This 👇🏻 tendency in particular may be the biggest reason I now find scrolling social media so much more exhausting than in 2022.
Here's a guide published today by Canadian-born researcher Chris Blattman, who was a skeptic of AI for research just a month ago (!)
claudeblattman.com
This article ended when I thought it was just finishing its introduction!
I'm not sure your own views on AI, but if you ever have a coding, admin, or organizing project where you need to turn digital inputs into digital outputs, I strongly suggest trying a tool like Claude Code, which is miraculous
