Skip to content

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Spacing Saturday: The Don Valley, Urban Camping and Versailles

Read more articles by

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.

Why don’t we go camping in the city? Alanah Heffez posted two articles this week dealing with the idea of urban camping profiling an effort to get campsites established in Montreal and discussing the merits and restrictions on urban campfires.

Joel Thibert is proposing to walk across the entire Montreal region; a 100km trek over the course of a June long weekend and is looking for others to join the expedition.

Urbanist, former councilor and recent mayoral candidate Clive Doucet made his inaugural post on Spacing this week comparing current government policies to the Treaty of Versailles in that they fail to deal with serious issues and ensure future problems.

Lamenting the state of curbside potholes which cause havoc for cyclists around this time of year, Evan Thornton asks why cities don’t use center drainage collection to better clear roads and sidewalks.

Spacing profiles the project for Music in New Spaces which aims to expand music to new audiences and its upcoming string of performances in the quasi-public space of VIA Rail stations across the maritimes.

Emma Feltes makes an appeal to those who could lead Jane’s Walks around Halifax this May.

With government privatization making news across North America, John Lorinc looks at the Ford Administration’s move to bring in outside budget consultants and speculates about their potential role in an outsourcing process.

Jessica Lemieux reflects on a walk through the Don Valley and uses a German friend’s confusion about the definition of a ravine to reflect on sense of place and urban conservation in evolving settings.

Photo by Mike Gifford (modified image, not actually a real gas price)

Recommended

4 comments

  1. 313.9 a litre? Where was the picture shot, Marty? Back to the future?

  2. I love the idea of being able to camp in a city’s downtown instead of booking a hotel.

  3. Eric I totally agree, I once camped at this site http://www.camping-koeln.de/index.php?lng=en&nav=index in Cologne Germany which was about 5km from the city centre. It was a great place to stay but I can’t think of anywhere in Toronto that camping could be set up in such close proximity to downtown. 

  4. I thought a campground could be set up on the Toronto Islands. It would be tenting only because you’d have to carry everything in on the farry, but there are many people who would grab at the opportunity to try the island lifestyle.