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 and 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.
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.
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.
Photo by Nicole McIsaac
3 comments
Yes! VISIT the Toronto Roundhouse if you are in TO!
Not that many Roundhouses left, fewer that are user-friendly where visitors are encouraged to watch what goes on.
Several full-size locomotives on hand, the Miniature Railway, and several railway buildings, including a water tower once used to slake the thirst of steam locomotives and supply water for the shop.
Lots of history in a time when the general public has been removed from railways and trains in general by Safety First and litigation.
A reason to visit the Roundhouse and the the Steam Whistle Brewery in one end of the same structure, is that they are very accessible without a car.
Situated at the harbour side of the CN Tower, which is impossible to miss.
Next to the Convention Centre and the Rogers Centre/BJ Stadium.
TTC Subway runs right down the Toronto Union Station, as do the GO Trains.
A mostly-indoor walk from Union Station, or one can take a streetcar!! from Union that travels underground for the first part of it’s journey along the waterfront, then climbs to street level and passes to the South of the Roundhouse on the right going West.
One way to look at any ‘museum’, is that IF they do not get visitors thru lack of interest, they will eventually close, and fall to the sleazo developers which will erect yet another ugly multi-story edifice, of which Toronto now has too many blocking the view to the lake.
When is the last time you looked at a steam locomotive? or rode a train? even a minature one?
If you are in Toronto and have time to kill, its not that far from Union Station and easy to get to by TTC, or GO.
( No parking fees this way. )
Do it, history is important, especially to kids who have never seen so much of Canada’s past.
Thank You.
See the photo above of kids on a mini railroad? The Exporail museum on Montreal’s south shore (St-Constant) has just such a railroad for kids (of any age) to ride.
This place is totally worth a visit. You can even ride a Montreal Street car!
If you live a carfree lifestyle and wonder how to get to the museum, the museum organizes train trips from the a downtown train station on special weekends in the summer.
Totally worth it for anyone with a sense of history – trains are the reason we have a country from sea to shining sea.
And riding the mini train through quite a nicely constructed track layout (it’s a several minute ride through a forest with bridges and a tunnel) is highly recommended.
Maybe Spacing Montreal could visit Montreal’s own rail museum Exporail?
Montreal was the birthplace and heart of Canada’s rail system from day one, until only a few decades ago.
Our kids and the visitors to mtl that we drag along always seem to enjoy it a lot.
Toronto = “National Railway Heritage Centre?” Bah humbug!
Montreal’s Exporail = “The Canadian Railway Museum.”