Spacing Toronto

LORINC: The public space embarrassment that is College Park

Five years after a major rehab, the open space at Yonge and College has already gone to seed

By John Lorinc

When College Park (pictured above) formally re-opened, in 2019, the City of Toronto put out a rather breathless press release on what had been achieved in this “placing making” exercise: “[a] multi-year, multi-use redevelopment project has resulted in an exhilarating and engaging outdoor experience that regenerates a vital public space in the heart of downtown.” You be the judge. The superlatives may have been a brave attempt by city officials to paper over what... Read more

Podcast

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 081, Talking Transit ’24

In This Episode: Is the TTC reliable? Will the Eglinton Crosstown ever open? And Doug Ford's literal track record.
By Spacing Radio
Events

Ontario Place premieres at TIFF

Filmmaker Ali Weinstein captured the people using Ontario Place in a moment of limbo between the onset of the pandemic and the redevelopment
By Ian Darragh
Services

LORINC: Booze in the corner store

Ontario's move to allow alcohol to be sold in convenience stores won't produce any of the ills we've been warned about
By John Lorinc
Transit

Re-visiting the subway art of ‘Atmospheric Lens’

During a hot and wet summer, with renewed criticism of TTC station design, our critic considers the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station
By Sinead Doherty-Grant
Walking

Exploring Toronto through its Indigenous heritage

First Story, available through the Driftscape app, is the perfect way to discover new parts of the city
By Trent Weston
Waterfront

Ontario Place’s West Island trees on death watch

Ian Darragh looks at the legal and other challenges to the Ford government's plans, and whether they give any faint hope the trees can be saved from clearcutting.
By Ian Darragh

Housing

OP-ED: The lessons of the Dundas St. building collapse

Dominique Russell argues that the City of Toronto needs to consider expropriating neglected affordable housing properties
By Dominique Russell
Architecture

Documenting the collapsed Dundas Street buildings

Photographer Peter MacCallum captured images of the four matching storefronts at 606-614 Dundas West in their prime, and after they had deteriorated.
By Peter MacCallum
Green Space

From drainage ditch to vibrant, pollution-absorbing habitat

Douglas Counter fought City Hall and won the right to help clean Marie Curtis Beach by transforming the ditch in front of his Etobicoke property into a rainwater infiltration garden
By Trent Weston
Green Space

Listen Up! What birdsong tells us about everyday life

Not every bird's sound is beautiful, but from before dawn to after dusk, they reveal a lot about the world around us.
By Sarah B. Hood
Civic Engagement

OP-ED: Free our Front Yards

A national campaign aims to reform municipal bylaws to allow residents to cultivate ecologically beneficial landscapes
By Lorraine Johnson
Podcast

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 080, Toronto’s Drone Scandal

In this episode: police spying, the battle for better lawns, and turning down the volume on noise pollution
By Spacing Radio

Culture

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Songs About Toronto

In the Fall 2023 issue of Spacing (coming soon to a store or mailbox near you), we shine a spotlight on five “Toronto Troubadours” — musicians “dedicated...
By Todd Harrison
Pandemic

LORINC: The pandemic is about cities

Viruses, in the abstract, don’t care much about their host organisms, beyond the latter’s on-board, physiological defenses. Yet it’s clear the coronavirus...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 1)

The investigation by Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk into the Ford government’s removal of 7,400 acres of prime farmland and wetlands from the...
By Ian Darragh
Housing

LORINC: The Tories’ use-it-or-lose housing ruse

On the north-east corner of Bathurst and St. Clair West sits a snazzy purpose-built condo sales office, ostensibly there to promote Foret, a giant...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

Q&A with Steven Evans on photographing Ontario Place

With the chaotic Greenbelt scandal swirling in the background, the updated plans for the Ford government’s deeply contentious and destructive scheme...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 2)

Sequel to Part 1 of “What’s really happening at Ontario Place?“ Ontario Place was conceived by Conservative Premier John Robarts in 1968 as an...
By Ian Darragh

Trending