Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
Its election year in a city where both traffic and transit development are gridlocked so mayoral front runner George Smitherman’s release of his transportation platform this week inspired critical examination from both John Lorinc and Jonathan Goldsbie. While Lorinc focuses on the political motivations for Smitherman’s plan, Goldsbie looks specifically at the cycling initiatives to see if they hold sway, or a merely paying lip service.
On a lighter note, the hording finally came down last weekend on renovations to the historic John Street Roundhouse near the base of the CN Tower. Spacing’s Nicole McIsaac visited the new National Railway Heritage Centre built into and around the roundhouse and the public space surrounding it and profiles some its exciting features, including restored steam locomotives, historic buildings and a miniature railroad.
Speculating that Ottawa City council could be a very different place following the next election, Vicky Smallman talks about the advantages of both incumbents and fresh faces to a council. While incumbents don’t face a learning curve they can become too narrowly focused on certain issues or particular interest groups as past civic officials in the city have shown.
Spacing contributer and McGill School of Urban Planning researcher, Jacob Larson introduces readers to the issue of integrating cycling into a broader new vision for transportation in North America. Readers are invited to take a survey on multi-modal connections in the Montreal Region.
On the Lower Main, Alanah Heffez showcases an interesting temporary fix for the unsightliness of the buildings awaiting revised redevelopment plans involving a graffiti bomb by thirty different artists organized by the Corporation de développement urbain du Faubourg Saint-Laurent and the Partenariat du Quartier des spectacles.
Katie McKay reports from Halifax on the success of the May edition of the city’s Critical Mass Bike ride which for the first time crossed the MacDonald Bridge over the harbour, closing a lane of traffic in the process. The success of the event was not in obstructing motorists, but in strengthening the breadth of the Halifax cycling community.
Photo by Nicole McIsaac