Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
Community activism is changing in the information age and we are just beginning to see what can be accomplished by the trend of increasingly open access to public data. Emily Richardson profiles a number of initiatives and programs in place both in Atlantic Canada, and throughout North America.
Responding to a column last claiming that new Transit slated for Ottawa would only feed urban sprawl, Alain Miguelez takes up the cause of defending the direction Ottawa is taking explaining it as the natural evolution of a city maturing.
Evan Thornton reports from Carleton Place on the progress of a community transit initiative operating bus service from the exurb into Ottawa. While the service has so far been a success, use of the transitway has been stifled by the NCC.
Shiny new streetcars are coming soon to the streets of Toronto and this week the TTC began preparing for their launch with a campaign to build excitement by eliciting rider input. Spacing Editor and TTC Customer Service Review Panel member, Matt Blackett talks about the initiative and gives some suggestions on how the names of the new cars can be used to sell them to riders.
In a very provocative piece, Nicole McIsaac speculates about a future of open source government and what it could mean for civic engagement. While other Cities are quickly hoping on this bandwagon by releasing their immense date basses to the public where the data can be organized according to need, and widely disseminated.
Alanah Heffez talks about a new initiative by the STM to put green roofs on select bus shelters throughout the city as part of slick new marketing campaign. The campaign is a window into the broader green initiatives of Montreal’s transit operator.