Every Saturday, we highlight recent posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
• A long-anticipated bike lane along Jarvis Street in Toronto has finally been given the go-ahead at City Hall. John Lornic looks at why mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi has decided to turn the proposal into a contentious election issue.
• Spacing’s Sean Marshall looks at Disco Road–the road the city forgot. The a four-lane industrial road, contains signs never converted to metric.
• [Re]Presenting Halifax, an ongoing series on Spacing Atlantic deconstructs “historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region” to see what they reveal about the city’s past, present and future. This week the Matt Neville takes on a 1957 report entitled A Redevelopment Study of Halifax, that called for sweeping slum clearance in the name of urban renewal and regeneration.
• The former community of Africville, may soon be receiving three million in compensation almost 40 years after community members were uprooted and their homes destroyed. Africville, settled on the shores of the Bedford Basin in the 1840s, served as home to a community of African-Nova Scotian families until, in the name of “urban renewal” the City of Halifax demolished it piece-by-piece in the 1960s.
• Spacing Atlantic’s Dustin Valen looks at how to design successful public infrastructure by examining an un-built proposal by architect Oliver Dang for a Halifax aquatic center.
• Daniel Rotsztain looks at the organic and spontentous paths Montrealers create collectively as they negotiate snow in the city’s park and streets.
• For the past two years Spacing Montreal has been following the city’s controversial plans to revitalize the Lower Main. For those who need a review of the issues at stake, Spacing Montreal has helpfully itemized all its Lower Main blog coverage .
• While Ottawa’s 2010 municipal election is still eight months away, early announcements of candidacy has led to growing interest in the campaign. This week, in Spacing Ottawa’s newly launched CityVote column, Vicky Smallman outlines what Ottawa voters can expect in the months to come.
• Spacing Ottawa’s Evan Thornton looks at the enduring and vital issue of homelessness on Canada’s city streets.
Photo from Spacing Atlantic