By John Lorinc
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LORINC: Booze in the corner store
Until the mid 1970s, you couldn’t buy lottery tickets in Ontario. Ontarians could go to the horse races and place bets; the ponies, after all, have...
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They Brought Back the Don
In the coming weeks, Waterfront Toronto crews will remove the final plug in the new Lower Don, thereby allowing the river to finally flow naturally...
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LORINC: Eyes in the Sky
On the evening of July 1, after the sky darkened and the fireworks over Ashbridge’s Bay began, some participants noticed eight police drones...
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LORINC: The Gordian Knot that is Toronto Island
In a city that loves to make, but not execute, plans and then overthink, but not solve, problems, there’s surely no better illustration of this...
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LORINC: The case for adaptive re-use of Ontario Science Centre
Given all the powerful arguments articulated by commentators like Elsa Lam, in Canadian Architect, or Alex Bozikovic, in The Globe and Mail, there’s...
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LORINC: The public space miracle of the moveable chair (redux)
In 1979, when the renowned American sociologist William (Holly) Whyte published The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces — which is, let’s face it, a...
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LORINC: Toronto’s transit agenda has gone missing
A day or so before the deadline for a threatened TTC strike, New York State governor Kathy Hochul torpedoed a much anticipated and controversial...
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LORINC: Major planning change for Toronto’s major streets
Though it normally seems as if the gears of Toronto’s planning machinery are barely moving, the reforms of the past four years add up to what will...
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LORINC: It’s time to talk about the Committee of Adjustment
The building pictured above — a three storey walk-up with five units — is located at the end of the block where I live. I’ve always thought of it as...
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What is the cost of ransomware attack on Toronto Library?
This is a follow up to Spacing’s five=part series on the ransomware attack on the Toronto Public Library in the fall of 2023. Part I: Toronto Public...
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Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. V
This is part five in a five-part series independently produced and investigated by Spacing The Toronto Public Library’s chief librarian, Vickery...
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Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. IV
By John Lorinc and Sakeina Syed Although TPL officials maintained an official no-comment stance for much of the shutdown — TPL chief librarian Vickery...