March 13th, 2010
Every Saturday, we highlight recent posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
• Growing customer dissatisfaction with the with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and the looming municipal election have led to earnest conversations on how the fledgling city agency can be overhauled. One idea on the table is to integrate the TTC into the larger regional transit organization Metrolinx. Spacing Toronto hosts a debate between contributors and transit experts, John Lorinc and Steve Munro, on the pros and cons of uploading the TTC.
• Toronto is one step closer to its first civic museum with the launch of a new website "The Toronto Museum Project". Marcus Browmen takes us through what the online museum has to offer and why its helping to create a collective "civic consciousness".
• Spacing Atlantic's Andrew Matheson explores what's at stake in Saint John's plan to redevelop the western edge of the city's Rockwood Park: one of St. John's most important public amenities and among the largest urban parks in Canada.
• Widely considered a blight on the urban landscape and a "quintessential example of bad development", Halifax's Fenwick Tower is getting an overhaul. Templeton Properties, the new owners of the 33-storey, 40-year-old unfinished tower are hoping to turn the infamous high-rise into a mixed-use space more hospitable to the public. Spacing's Emma Feltes and Rachel Caroline Derrah take us through the specifics of the new plan.
• Danish architects Louise Kielgast and Kristian S. Villadsen recently gave a talk at Montreal's Mcgill University. The designers (from the world-renowned Gehl Architects) spoke on "people-focused" urban design with particular attention to the challenges and opportunities of Northern cites. This week Spacing Montreal hosts the video of the talk which should prove interesting to all Spacing readers.
• Émile Thomas offers some small but transformative suggestions on how to improve and re-imagine Montreal's St-Viateur street.
• Spacing Ottawa looks at the history and the potential future of the city's Parkdale Avenue:"a fume-filled arterial road functioning as an on-ramp to the busiest stretch of expressway in Eastern Ontario". Recent community consultations have resulted in comprehensive planning recommendations that, if adopted, would significantly alter the Parkdale Avenue of today.
• In the second post in Spacing Ottawa's ongoing "CityVotes2010" series, Ian Capstick looks at why Ottawa has become a "change-adverse" city and asks how everyday Ottawa residents can become a "catalyst for change"
Photo credit: Toronto Archives [see the full size image]
March 11th, 2010
Friend of Parkdale - Michel Frojmovic
It's got a farm at one end and a gorgeous stretch of riverbank at the other, and a name containing the work "park". With those kind of credentials first-time visitors to Ottawa might be excused for expecting Parkdale Avenue to be a meandering lane through a shady glade, and not a fume-filled arterial road functioning as an on-ramp to the busiest stretch of expressway in Eastern Ontario.
But even long-time Ottawans are taken aback at just how many functions the City of Ottawa and the Ministry of Transportation expect a narrow neighbourhood two-lane street to fulfill. It's a passage for emergency vehicles, a bus route, a commuter thoroughfare for thousands driving to Tunney's Pasture and the Civic Hospital, and a local street for homeowners whose driveways give out onto the avenue. Continue reading this post
March 10th, 2010
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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• Planning a bike trip using Google Maps is about to get much easier as the company is set to launch a new bike trip planner service in 150 US cities. According to the Chicago Tribune, the new service will provide cyclists with step-by-step biking directions that "factor in the length of the trip, changes in elevation and even fatigue".
• Is Japan's pictorial green "Running Man" sign more intuitive then North America's lettered red "Exit" sign? In an ongoing series on signage, Slate Magazine weighs in on the international debate over the Exit Sign.
• The Guardian UK hosts a slide show of inventive ways artists and designers have re-imagined the bicycle.
• The Infrastructist Blog details the 10 most expensive transit project of the last decade, including San Juan's 10.7-mile-$2.63 billion rapid transit Tren Urbano line.
• A photo essay on Foreign Policy looks at China's unlikely "golf boom" and the social and environmental stresses the course construction frenzy is placing on the landscape.
picture of Emergency exit sign at the Frankfurt Airport by Markus Tacker
March 9th, 2010
View Larger Map
Listening to the repetitive clanging of machines boring through bedrock it can seem that the condo developments along Richmond and Wellington Roads are never-ending. But along with the noise and dust, urban infill can also mean exciting possibilities, and can be used as a creative opportunity for changes within a community. Most recently, development options are being proposed for the Soeurs de la Visitation convent at 114 Richmond Road. This large, cloistered, very green looking area stretches from Richmond Road to Byron Avenue and is a mystery to local residents who have only air photos and glances at buildings and hundred year old trees to identify the heritage and natural value of the site. Immediately adjacent to the site is Hilson Public School with its treeless schoolyard separated from busy Richmond Road by a chain link fence. These two properties, side by side, green space and concrete. According to the current proposal the green space will be developed and the concrete will continue to be a children’s playground. Imagine if this could be different. Continue reading this post
March 8th, 2010
Reserved seating: commitment-phobes only?
Ottawa is a change-averse city. Or is it our elected leaders who are holding back change? Our current city council has been dragging their heals on fundamental debates and decisions about transit, infrastructure, and urban development for over a decade.
This on-again, off-again relationship with decision making has turned city council into the cliched commitment-phobic boyfriend. Just as you’re sure council is about to propose a great solution, one of them steps in to break up the near-deal and send debate careening off into committee hell for another six months.
When asked if we want change, citizens in Ottawa respond with a resounding “yes!” Until, that is, it’s time to actually vote. Then we return our incumbents to their squabbling and bickering. Continue reading this post
March 6th, 2010
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Spacing Montreal’s Adam Bemma has produced an informative mini-doc on a contentious Montreal proposal that would see a bus corridor run through the city’s historic Griffintown neighborhood. Check out Spacing Montreal for the fascinating video where Bemma speaks with engineer and Griffintown property owner, Sami Hakimand , and L'Université du Québec à Montréal urban planning professor, David Hanna.
• An upcoming community forum will bring together Montreal residents and eight different city organizations to discuss options for Greening the Plateau. The ideas generated at the conference will then "be directed to the [Plateau Mont-Royal] borough council and the newly created Advisory Committee on Greening".
• The winner of Spacing Atlantic's "Best and Worst of Bike Parking in the HRM for 2009" poll have been announced. Check out Spacing Atlantic to see what made the cut and why.
• The Halifax Regional Municipality's Governance and District Boundary Review, slated to be completed by December 2010, aims to assess the Halifax Regional Municipality's (HRM) municipal structure and propose changes for the future. Spacing Atlantic's Emma Felts looks into the public consultation while untangling the many dense issues at stake.
• Josh Fullan, who teaches English and Civics at the University of Toronto Schools (a private high school affiliated with the University of Toronto), organized the Jane's Walk School Edition featured in the "Walking" column in the Summer-Fall 2009 issue of Spacing. This week he writes a guest post on Spacing Toronto following up on what he and his class observed. Fullan discusses how youth interact with urban space and how to get them excited about the process of community planning and improvement.
• The Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway (DVP), two of Toronto's most used roadways, are, as Spacing's Dylan Reid points out ""city assets that don't earn any revenue but have revenue-generating potential". Reid muses on how leasing this fundamental infrastrucutre could have the double benefit of reducing car-use in the city (through the use of road tolls) while leading to much needed transit improvements (through re-investing the city revenue generated).
• Spacing Ottawa’s Evan Thornton recently brought along his omni-directional microphone on a walk through the city’s Byward Market and Rideau Centre. Check out Spacing Ottawa for Thornton’s detailed description of the “audio footprints” he captured and to listen to the city’s soundscape.
• Spacing’s Evan Thoronton ways one of a number of commentators invited to CBC's Ottawa Morning radio show to discuss was to revitalize the city’s “dysfunctional Sparks Street Mall”. Spacing Ottawa hosts links to this lively and productive discussion.
photo from Spacing Toronto
March 4th, 2010
Photo by Jeremie D.
March 3rd, 2010
This week on Ottawa Morning the CBC's Julie Ireton is taking an in-depth look at Ottawa's dysfunctional Sparks Street mall, the national tourist attraction that doubles as an echo chamber from October through April.
In this segment she hears ideas on how to revitalize the street; the concepts include a dedicated vintage trolley system, on-street parking, and dropping in an "anchor store", or maybe even two.
With ideas to share like Kate Wetherow's on how to make vacant buildings come to life -- combined with some pot-shots at the federal bureaucracy -- Spacing's Evan Thornton also weighed in on "putting the spark back into Sparks Street".
photo by Pierre Tourigny
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