Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
Recalling the beloved phenomenon of the “take someth’n, leave someth’n” Swap Boxes that began appearing across Ottawa a few years ago, Spacing interviews the creator of the guerrilla art project to discover the inspirations and motivations behind the unique and inspiring idea.
Nine years into what was supposed to be a test project of light rail in Ottawa, Spacing’s Evan Thornton looks at the role the O-Train has come to play both in the practical functioning and collective imagination of the city. As the service begins a five week hiatus for maintenance, Thornton wonders what will become the new norm for the route’s 10,000 daily riders.
Despite being a wonderfully vibrant and lively area at all times of day, Downtown Montreal is a place lacking in the sense of community amongst its residents found in many other parts of the city. Devin Alfaro reports on the Quartier en mouvement street festival, a coordinated effort to change the change the situation by hosting a block party on a closed off street during select days in July.
Results are now being posted for the Montreal Top Spots Survey which asked Spacing readers about their favourite things in Montreal. This week Spacing published the results for the best of the city and for best of municipal politics.
While the year 2010 hasn’t left us with the moon bases we were once promised, at least we are finally starting to make progress on Jetson’s style Personal Rapid Transit. Adrian Lightstone continues the Ideas For Toronto series by looking at a PRT pilot project which is about to begin in Stockholm, Sweden and points to how the transit mode could become an efficient and feasible feeder for higher orders of transit. It all begs the question of where this could work in Canadian cities.
As Toronto moves forward from the G20 summit, tempers and emotions are cooling enough so that practical questions can move to the forefront. In his weekly column, John Lorinc creates a list of 1o questions a G20 inquiry should address. With his characteristic pragmatism, Lorinc focuses on issues of how the police policy was established, who was behind it, and what grounds it was established.
Veronica Simmonds profiles a fascinating public space art project taking place this month in the Halifax Common. The Common: For as Long as You Have So Far takes its participants on a personal journey through the natural history of the area using a fictional story about one’s ancestors and future decedents.
Steve Bedard reports from Halifax on the troubles facing a proposal to build new infrastructure for active transportation on a short stretch of Herring Cove Road. As usual, the opposition is coming from local businesses who view the plan as potentially harmful to their business.
Photo by Katie McKay