Colleen

You'll own nothing and be happy.

Kind of interesting because the first thing I thought of with the "too much public service" takes was how many of the same people just a few years ago were lamenting the death of Connaught labs during vaccine panic. They were privatized in 1986. COINCIDENCE? Maybe but also Mulroney soooo.

screenshot of an interactive map showing location of garden suites and laneway housing in Toronto as light green-yellow dots on a blue background

recently updated a map showing growth of laneway housing / garden suites in Toronto (2018-2025)

check out charts, interactive map, and a few words here: schoolofcities.github.io/gentle-densi...

#toronto #maps #housing

The existing convention centre already has two ballrooms. Are we really trying to do induced demand for ballrooms now?

An image of a wet road at an intersection (College St at Elizabeth in Toronto) with the entire street blocked off by pylons, signs and construction equipment.

If not spring, then why spring-shaped?

Sounds like the people demand the return of the almighty cement slab. Let's do it!

I am just finding out from you now, if it makes you feel better.

How John Tory’s exit, some bad blood — and a Ford — are threatening to shake up Toronto’s mayoral race As Brad Bradford moves closer to solidifying himself as the consensus centre-right mayoral challenger to progressive incumbent Olivia Chow, he still has hurdles to clear.

Lots of gossip, like Kouvalis saying Bradford's "disloyal" behaviour is off-putting and he would rather help Chow than Bradford. But honestly, I'm too distracted by the amazing job this photographer did. www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...

Amazing. I also knocked some doors in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

I am once again asking for downtown center of the universe not to write off its suburbs. There are good people there. There are 58 days until nominations open for municipal elections. A few suburban wards with a different councillor could change a lot.

(Sorry, not the last report. Since October. It was also back at planning approvals in January. Good that updates are so frequent, at least, even if they're disappointing.)

158 Borough moved backwards since the last report?

I would urge some caution about the forecasts in these reports. Voice of experience. I've been burned before.

I also enjoyed "I won't hesitate." A new man!

Perspectives: On housing, Mayor Farkas promised a plan and hasn’t delivered - LiveWire Calgary Believe it or not, Mayor Jeromy Farkas is a member of the More Neighbours Calgary community. During the campaign, he regularly engaged with members on housing and city issues. One phrase came up again...

“Repeal and replace” was a campaign commitment. Making housing more affordable was the goal. It’s time for Mayor Farkas to stand by that commitment, or admit it was never the plan at all.

Truly amazing for Tory to lecture about transit reliability, encampments and crime as though all of these things did not get worse during his time as mayor. We all remember that slow zones happened during Leary's time as CEO, yes? And they are better now? Also: www.torontotoday.ca/local/city-h...

Perhaps my favourite point: Ford blamed struggling students for getting degrees in basket-weaving. In reality, students finish with all kinds of degrees and can't get jobs in their field, largely because of poor provincial decisions. Why doesn't he want to talk about that?

Really enjoyed this. A lot to think about. We talk a lot about the - let's call them - highly specific deals that Ford has done with some companies. But can we do better than just a return to the pre-Ford days? What would an industrial policy that plays to Ontario's strengths look like?

Lytton Park residents originally organized as a community group in the 1950/1960’s to successfully oppose a proposed subway stop that was planned for Lytton Blvd and Yonge St. The “station”, next to Snider Parkette, became a service-access only point for the Yonge line. In 1969, 500 Duplex, the 2.5 acre site fronting on Duplex Avenue from Roselawn Avenue south to Montgomery Avenue, was the subject of a 1969 rezoning application. A notice was sent to neighbouring homeowners stating that a development proposal had been submitted for a building with a density of 2.325 times the lot area, but it made no reference to the height of the building. It was not until 1971 that LPRO learned that a 37-storey tower would be built on a portion of the site. By this time the foundation was already under construction. LPRO appealed to City Council’s Buildings and Development Committee. After more than two months of negotiations between LPRO and the Developer, a deal to reduce the height of the tower by four storeys in exchange for townhouses on Roselawn and Duplex was reached. LPRO’s history with 500 Duplex continues to this day.

Shoutout to Lytton Park residents who pioneered this manoeuvre decades ago. If you ever wondered why it's such a big distance between Eglinton and Lawrence subway stops, the answer is local control.

It's great that the City deferred the transit that they didn't want to pay for. It really gives them and residents associations a nice excuse for opposing the housing that they didn't want to build.

A letter to the editor stating that instead of "studying" closing roads in High Park in 1973, they should "save the money" and just do it. I wonder how much money the city has wasted over 50 years of studying the concept. Perfect encapsulation of city hall.

Congrats! They should give you double citizenship for CensusMapper.

I guess that we would get to add another bit to the joke about Toronto being sideways Chicago?

I've attended a 6000 person conference at the Metro Convention Centre and we still only used one building. How much of a market is there for bigger conferences? Biggest that I know of is RSNA with 40,000 attendees, always held in Chicago. But how many groups are like that?

One thing about the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference is that it seemed to do its job in raising awareness, if not immediate institutional change . No one really believing the problem of FI is “fixed”, even if you believe (as I do) that stabilization of relations with India is important.

Car crash

Car crash

Safe Parkside, site of the speed camera that was cut down over & over leading to Doug ford banning them, reports another high speed crash on Saturday via their IG account. Somebody will die here again. Doug Ford’s Ontario.

Lloyd Axworthy: Canada once rejected America’s aggressive, unlawful foreign policy. Today Mark Carney embraced it By endorsing preventive strikes on Iran during ongoing diplomacy, and after Washington itself shredded the previous agreement, we are embracing the very doctrine we used to reject, writes Lloyd Axwort...

"We invoke international law and the 'rules based international order' when adversaries engage in unlawful actions, but abandon those same rules entirely when it’s the Americans doing the bombing."

#Opinion from former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy

It's going to cost $1 billion to move the Ontario Science Centre. For that amount of money, we could have 9 major cultural institutions across the province.

Full video: youtube.com/shorts/LLm1N...

So when cases like 397 Pharmacy fail despite being generally in line with the bylaw but with a bit more space for bigger units, and fail with comments from the Committee indicating they hate the very idea and no variance would be minor enough, it tells others not to waste time applying.

Something from the article that I expect to hear during the review is that the Committee approves 90% of variances. But it's worth keeping in mind that applying and arguing a case is expensive (less than a rezoning but still significant). Most people don't apply with projects they expect to fail.