Categories
Development History Ontario Travels Urban Planning

The end of Sarnia’s Eaton Centre

Late last year, I wrote about the closure of the Hamilton City Centre mall, the last of Ontario’s downtown Eaton Centres to open. But Hamilton’s failed shopping centre wasn’t the only old downtown mall to close in recent years: Sarnia’s Bayside Centre, opened in 1982 as the Sarnia Eaton Centre, was recently demolished, with a […]

Categories
Development History Ontario Travels Urban Planning

The end of another Eaton Centre

Opened in 1990, the Hamilton Eaton Centre will close for good on Boxing Day, 2022.

Categories
Development Infrastructure Parks Travels Walking

Visiting America’s other urban railway park

On a road trip early this summer, my spouse and I paid a visit to New York and Philadelphia. In New York, we walked the famous High Line, which revitalized an abandoned elevated freight railway corridor, transforming it into a popular grade-separated walking path on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. While in Philadelphia, I made a […]

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Canada Development Maps Ontario Toronto Urban Planning

Mapping Toronto’s population growth

On February 9, data geeks across Canada rejoiced when Statistics Canada released the first round of data from the 2021 Census of the Population. The data was released at all levels of geography made available by Statscan. At the federal level, Canada grew by 5.2% since the 2016 Census, with a total population of 36,991,981. […]

Categories
Brampton Development Transit

A new twist in the story of a downtown parking lot

A nearly-completed GO Transit parking lot in Downtown Brampton may never open, as Rogers eyes the site.

Categories
Development Roads Toronto Transit Urban Planning Walking

Why pedestrian safety is a matter of justice for essential workers

A new Amazon fulfilment centre opened in northeast Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though we consider Amazon employees essential workers, a basic level of safety pedestrians and transit users is lacking.

Categories
Brampton Development Urban Planning

The death and life of Shoppers World Brampton

Shoppers World Brampton is destined for development as an urban mixed-use hub. The planning details have now been revealed.

Categories
Brampton Development Transit Urban Planning

The future of Downtown Brampton

Metrolinx-owned houses on Railroad Street, Brampton Over the last three years, I have been following developments in Downtown Brampton, especially lands surrounding the Brampton GO Station. In April 2016, Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for GO Transit, began buying properties in the northwest corner of Brampton’s downtown core, including twelve houses and two low-rise office […]

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Brampton Development Politics Transit Urban Planning

What’s next for Downtown Brampton?

Boarded up houses on Elizabeth Street, Downtown Brampton Earlier this year, the provincial government announced the location of Ryerson University’s Brampton campus, a partnership with Sheridan College, to be built on the GO Station parking lot in Downtown Brampton. Meanwhile, Metrolinx quietly purchased several houses and office buildings south of the station for new GO […]

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Brampton Development Ontario Urban Planning

Requiem for Ontario’s regional malls

Shoppers World Brampton, 2016, before the Target store was replaced by smaller stores, including Giant Tiger Recently, I wrote about the history of Ontario’s downtown malls. Most of these shopping centres, built in the 1970s and 1980s in the downtown cores across the province, failed by the end of the 1990s. The collapse of the […]