In a comment I made on a previous post about how big box stores were not “needed” on a rezoned area along Queen Street West, critics were quick to point out that the market was a better force to determine our urban spaces than I was. Unfortunately, leaving development to the market often results in bad planning, something which the city of Toronto has come to exemplify. Although the market might be able to maintain diversity, efficiency, and sustainability -- three things every great urban centre incorporates into their planning processes -- it has ...

In a previous post about bike lanes on Bloor Street and how they may -- or may not -- fit into the Bloor Street Transformation project in Yorkville, we featured comments from some of the candidates for Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale. So, who else supports bikes on Bloor? Here are the rest of the candidates' comments whose wards are along Bloor-Danforth. I asked them if they supported the idea of a major east-west bikeway on Bloor Street, and whether or not they would be willing to give up parking for it. Ward 20 and 27 candidates were also ...

Before and after the Bloor Street Transformation: At the turn of the 19th century, bicycling was all the rage for the bourgeoisie. It would appear this is no longer the case; not in Toronto, anyway. A massive remodelling of Bloor Street is underway in Toronto’s tony Yorkville neighbourhood -- and the preliminary design does not include bike lanes. The Bloor Street Transformation -- spearheaded by the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area (BYBIA) -- will reconstruct Bloor Street from Avenue Road to Church Street. The initial plan includes the removal of all on-street parking on ...

A few weeks ago Spacing posted a story about the Toronto Waterfront Viaduct (TWV), a plan to rid the city of the Gardiner Expressway and create connections between communities down by the Lake. To call the plan ambitious is an understatement: it's an idea the likes of which Toronto has not seen (let alone developed) in a long time. Many of Mayor David Miller’s supporters were dismayed by his unenthusiastic response to the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation’s recommendation to tear down the Gardiner east of Spadina Avenue, ...

Tensions ran high last night at the Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina, all-candidates' debate, as frontrunners Helen Kennedy and Adam Vaughan lobbed accusations back and forth. This ward is being touted as one of the city's tightest races. Kennedy first came under fire for supporting the use of Section 37 funds for the Bloor Corridor visioning study. (Section 37 of the Toronto's Official Plan requires developers to give money to the City in exchange for height or density variations. This money is typically used for community improvement projects.) "We shouldn't be using Section 37 money for that," said candidate Chris ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OhpjX6ZxP0[/youtube] As part of our partnership with the Wellesley Institute, we present the Blueprint video to help you get a better understanding of what the Blueprint is trying to achieve.Also, Himy Syed was at the official launch of the Blueprint and has posted an 8-minute video of the press conference. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OhpjX6ZxP0[/youtube]

Compare these average monthly costs of housing and homelessness: social housing ($199.92); shelter bed ($1,932); provincial jail ($4,333); hospital bed ($10,900). Though the cost of building social housing is dramatically cheaper, Toronto continues to spend more than $118 million a year on temporary beds in the hostel system. Moving 10% of shelter users into affordable homes, however, would save the City nearly $12 million, freeing up enough money to pay the capital subsidies on 160 new homes, or rent supplements for over 1,400 households. These are a few of the figures provided in the Blueprint to End Homelessness, ...

For some downtown Toronto residents, the idea of a mall being something worth preserving might seem odd. But in Don Mills, this is exactly what community preservation advocates are fighting over. Cadillac Fairview, the company that owns the Don Mills Centre, is in the process of demolishing the current mall and replacing it with an outdoor "lifestyle centre," which will include condominiums as well as outdoor-concept retail stores. The mall was conceived as the epicentre of a new planned community, the first of its kind in North America. To reflect post-war optimism in Toronto, buildings in the area were ...

What should we save, demolish, or build? Development issues vary greatly from ward to ward. Here's what two candidates in Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence, consider priorities in their area. Steven Bosnick Does Toronto need a design review panel? Bosnick thinks so. The candidate said that the City needs to take aesthetic considerations into account, "moving the debate away from an emphasis on just height and density." According to Bosnick, the panel (complementary to the existing planning process) should consist of architects, planners, and other professionals -- with no direct involvement from councillors themselves. He pointed to two different ways of selecting ...

How do we meet the growing need for affordable housing in this city? The problem has become so big, it’s almost overwhelming – each year more than 30,000 people turn to Toronto’s shelters, nearly 70,000 households are on Toronto’s social housing waiting lists, and around 150,000 households spend over half of their income on shelter. These numbers don’t include the people who make their homes on the street, the people so many of us have learned to ignore when walking by. It would help if the City — as well as the provincial and the federal governments — ...