Community development
November 2nd, 2009
After the St. Clair Right of Way was approved, Toronto Environmental Alliance activist Gord Perks told me that nothing worth doing at City Hall takes less than five years. In light of that wisdom, the seven years it has taken to get a billboard tax into City Council’s committee process seems about right.
On Wednesday, Planning and Growth Management committee will finally consider a tax on billboards and a new signs by-law that makes it harder to get a new billboard approved in most neighbourhoods while ramping up the fines on illegal billboards to make them unprofitable.
The tax and by-law are being advocated for by the umbrella group Beautiful City Alliance, which includes artists and public space activists that range from the Scarborough Arts Council and the Art Gallery of Ontario to IllegalSigns.ca and Toronto Public Space Committee. (Spacing is also an endorser of Beautiful City, and I am personally involved in the campaign.)
While the by-law and tax provisions are good but not great, there are some important changes that need to be made by the Planning and Growth Management committee when it considers the issue at its meeting this Wednesday. While John Lorinc made some suggestions on Spacing Toronto this morning, the Beautiful City Alliance disagrees with them because his main proposal (BMX/skateboard infrastructure) could, in fact, be accommodated in Beautiful City’s proposal without limiting access to arts funding for youth, if that’s what youth prefer. Plus, there are two vital issues that need to be addressed to ensure any new programs or infrastructure are funded.
August 21st, 2009
WHAT: The Toronto Trilogy - Part III: Toronto Tomorrow
WHEN: August 24, 2009 at 6:30 - 9:00 PM
WHERE: Trading Floor of the Design Exchange
HOW MUCH: Pay what you can (suggested donation $10)
WEBSITE: architectureforhumanity.ca
A …
July 15th, 2009
Editor: Spacing is pleased to showcase films from the NFB’s online screening room. The NFB will be occasionally posting films here that explore our public spaces, Canadian or international cities …
June 1st, 2009
Each Monday, we bring you some of the popular posts from our sister blog, Spacing Montreal. We’ll keep an eye open for topics and discussions that …
April 26th, 2009
dandyhorse Launch Party!
Come celebrate Toronto on Two Wheels!
The Spring 2009 issue of dandyhorse has hit the presses, and we’re celebrating with a launch party on April 29th!
Date: Wednesday April 29, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm – …
January 28th, 2009
When word started leaking out last night through Mayor David Miller via Twitter that Transit City wasn’t funded in the budget brought down by the federal government, I was disappointed. …
November 17th, 2008
Spacing editor Shawn Micallef is the Blogger-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Art Matters blog in anticipation of the grand re-opening of the new AGO. He will be cross-posting some of the entries here on Spacing Toronto. To comment on this post, click here and head over to Art Matters.
When my father became a Canadian Citizen in 1980 I remember only two things clearly: getting the day off from kindergarten and the Mountie in full dress uniform standing impossibly still at the front of the room. I don’t remember much about the room itself (it was in an office on the upper floor of a nondescript downtown Windsor building), the details of the ceremony or who else was there (my family, I assume, but I can’t quite picture any humans save for that Mountie).
This past Friday the first official visitors on (re)opening day at the AGO were a group of New Canadians who became citizens in an Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) ceremony. The ICC is former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson’s legacy project. If the intention is to get people excited about becoming a Canadian, it’s a success. This was about as happy a room as I’ve ever been in.
I mentioned my 1980 story to the Mountie before everybody arrived, and perhaps went a bit overboard, saying he must be sutured into the memory of everybody who attends one of these events, and what an introduction to Canada he provides. He gave me a curious look, nodded, and said “yes, the uniform really is the symbol of Canada.”
September 25th, 2008
If you find yourself in London, England anytime soon, you may want to check out the work of the Village Underground in the Shoreditch neighbourhood. They have taken discarded London subway cars, placed them …
September 6th, 2008
WHAT: Junction Tree Tour
WHEN: September 7th, 11am to 1pm
WHERE: Meet at the northwest corner of Keele St. and Dundas St. West
HOW MUCH: Suggested donation $5
As centennial celebrations culminate during the Junction
…
July 15th, 2008
A key theme of the new exhibition Fringe Benefits (reviewed yesterday) that I found very interesting was the idea of “informal urbanism” — …
