Each Tuesday, Spacing Montreal will share with you some posts from our sister blog, Spacing Toronto. We hope it will enable constructive dialogue on the urban issues faced by both cities, though we’ll settle for some witty jibes against la Ville reine in the comments.
Urban fabric around the world: Robin Chubb looks at the efforts to create an urban friendly city centre in Mississauga by comparing its typically suburban street pattern with those in other cities around the world, including London, New York, Paris, Barcelona an downtown Toronto. “The comparisons expose the inherent problems of scale in trying to evolve any suburban, auto-oriented area into a more pedestrian-oriented centre,” she writes.
Streetcars vs. cars: Looking back at the blizzard that hit Toronto on December 16th, Shawn Micallef posts a video demonstrating how streetcar service was slowed down by cars parked nice to snowbanks, blocking streetcar tracks. In another streetcar-related post, Spacing editor Matthew Blackett unveils some maps he created that would make it easier for public transit users to navigate Toronto’s streetcar network.
Tree Tuesday is a weekly series of posts by Todd Irvine that takes Spacing Toronto readers to various stops on the Toronto Tree Tours, a collaborative project of LEAF and the Toronto Public Space Committee. Last week, Irvine looked at how trees can be used to narrow residential streets and calm traffic. It’s something that could be put to good use in some Montreal neighbourhoods.