Categories
Design Infrastructure Parks Politics Roads Travels Urban Planning Walking

Let’s not be jealous of Montreal

Though a visit to Montreal can make one jealous, Toronto has shown it can do great things too. We just have to follow through.

Categories
Development Ontario Parks Transit Urban Planning

Why Wasaga Beach needs to be open to all

Wasaga Beach is a treasure of provincial significance. It deserves to remain owned by the public and fully open to all, with better access to those who can’t or don’t want to drive.

Categories
Cycling Infrastructure Parks Travels Walking

Chicago’s 606: an urban rail trail

Chicago shows how to build a great multiuse path in an urban setting

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 […]

Categories
Maps Parks Toronto Walking

Finding a washroom during Toronto’s pandemic winter

With ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, finding a washroom has become much more difficult. So I mapped Toronto’s park washrooms that will remain open this winter.

Categories
Parks Toronto

A failure to communicate: a small, but meaningful example of the terrible messaging during this pandemic

The ongoing pandemic, to quote the prime minister, “really sucks.” Ontario has been subjected to various levels of lockdowns and restrictions for nearly eight months now as COVID-19 case counts continue to be high. Restaurants, bars, cinemas, and gyms are currently closed in Toronto, as are most other indoor venues. Many of us are — […]

Categories
Maps Parks Toronto Walking

All stick, no carrot: the problem with the city’s response to physical distancing

On Saturday April 11, during the Easter long weekend, the City of Toronto announced that a team of over 350 police officers and bylaw enforcement officers would shift from an education-based campaign of verbal and written warnings to people congregating and using closed amenities in parks to a zero-tolerance ticketing campaign. Tickets for violating orders […]

Categories
Ontario Parks Politics

The province’s attack on conservation authorities

The Ford government’s attack on Conservation Authorities has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. It’s about ideology and payback. 

Categories
Election Parks Toronto Urban Planning

Why closing Toronto’s public golf courses is a boon to the public

Dentonia Park Golf Course Yesterday, Thanksgiving Monday, mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat proposed closing three of Toronto’s five municipally-owned golf courses. Keesmaat, Toronto’s previous chief planner, pointed out that the municipal golf courses operate at a loss, and that $10 million is allocated for improvements to those three courses. Furthermore, she intends to consult the local communities […]

Categories
Parks Toronto

Major improvements are coming to Scarborough’s waterfront

The Scarborough Bluffs will soon become more accessible Over the last few years, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has been working on an environmental assessment for improvements to much of the Lake Ontario shoreline in Scarborough. Today, the TRCA announced that assessment is now complete, and it calls for major improvements between Bluffer’s Park […]