Spacing Radio

This month, we respond to Doug Ford's stated plan of banning new bike lanes in Ontario municipalities and building an underground highway from Markham to Scarborough. Then we speak to environmental lawyer and cycling advocate Albert Koehl about his book Wheeling Through Toronto: a history of the bicycle and its riders. We talk about how attitudes towards cyclists have changed over time, or even re...

It's been a while since we had a good, old-fashioned transit talk with friends of the show Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter). We talk about returning TTC service levels to pre-pandemic levels, what we should look for in the next TTC CEO, what is even happening w...

We heard a lot about drones at the Paris Olympics, but what about in our own backyard? In this episode, Spacing's John Lorinc tells us about a piece he wrote called Eyes in the Sky, which documents the stealthy creep of the Toronto Police Service's use of drones to keep tabs on residents. Next, author and green advocate Lorraine Johnson tells us about an open letter she co-signed urging Canadian m...

Toronto is often accused of being over-regulated. It's a fair criticism. For example, photographer and urbanist commentator Dan Seljak tells us how he stumbled upon the small Finch Store selling espresso, fighting to stay open in the face of City zoning laws. For more of the story, and how Finch Store was granted a reprieve, we speak to local City Councillor Alejandra Bravo. And we speak to Counci...

It's Bike Month! It's a time we celebrate cycle culture in Toronto and surrounding cities and towns. At least officially. Despite some significant gains in cycling infrastructure, there are still a lot of people and (more troubling) politicians who'd like to run riders off the road. To put this all into perspective, we spoke to Lanrick Bennett Jr., a cycling advocate who, for the last few years, h...

Wildfire season has already begun in Canada. Due to climate change, we are seeing more frequent and devastating fires. They choke the air, the decimate the landscape, and they displace people from their homes. So we have to fight them with everything we've got. Neal McLoughlin is superintendent of the Predictive Services Unit at BC Wildfire Service. He tells us how AI and drone technology is helpi...

With the change of the seasons, we talk about different kinds of renewal. First, Senior Editor John Lorinc talks about the special Spacing investigation into the cyber attack on the Toronto Public Library that shut the service down for months. How did it happen, and how do we make sure our public institutions are hacker-proof? And, the latest Spacing Magazine issue is on shelves now. As a preview,...

We all know access to clean water is vital. We also know that water quality and access is jeopardized by things like pollution and drought. On the other hand, the growing frequency of powerful downpours causes stormwater issues. All that to say, the state of the water we rely on for so many thing is in constant flux. What we need is good, local data, about the bodies of water that sustain us. That...

Dans cet épisode, nous sommes allés dans les coulisses de la planification urbaine de Victoriaville. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la manière dont les municipalités comme Victoriaville s’y prennent pour mettre en branle des projets urbanistiques en tenant compte à la fois des paramètres environnementaux, économiques et sociaux.  Les entretiens avec Jean-François Morissette, Directeur des Services...

In 2005, Ontario passed the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which made accessibility for all public establishments a legal requirement by 2025. That goal won't be met, unfortunately. To tell us about the progress that was made because of the legislation, and what still needs to happen, we speak to AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. And, as part of our 20th anniversary cel...

With the Toronto budget about to be voted on shortly, we talk to crisis worker and homelessness advocate Diana Chan McNally about what the City needs to invest to help refugees and other unhoused people, whey the federal government needs to step up, and why the police don't need another big budget increase. And, as part of the Spacing 20th Anniversary celebration, we talk to historian and author A...

Spacing is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary. To celebrate, we talk to publisher Matthew Blackett and senior editor Dylan Reid about how the magazine came together, the latest issue and anniversary book The Big Book of Spacing, and our special exhibit at the Urbanspace Gallery. And, at the same time the magazine began, David Miller had just become mayor of Toronto on a platform of change and urban...

With climate change leading to more frequent and more extreme climate events, predicting the next disaster and planning for it is essential. In many areas of the country, that means using data to anticipate extreme heat events, and give communities time to prepare. Dr. Ryan Reynolds is the researcher behind Resilience Mapping Canada. Reynolds uses data and other tools to help communities prepare f...

Many people across the country struggle to make ends meet. In many cases, that means they experience energy poverty: they can't afford to use energy when they need to, if at all. At the same time, we are trying to address climate change and become more resilient. What if we could address both concerns at the same time? Energize Bridgewater was the winner of the 2019 Smart Cities Challenge. The pro...

Women and children experiencing violence need housing options to be able to start a new life free of abuse, survive, and support themselves. But housing options that suit their particular situation and needs are often limited, due to the housing crisis, as well as a lack of appropriate services. For these reasons, Tanyss Knowles, director of programs at the BC Society of Supportive Houses, says th...

Dans cet épisode, on découvre comment la ville de Lac-Mégantic, après avoir vécu le pire, s’est reconstruite pour devenir une meilleure version d’elle-même. En juillet 2013, un train de cargaison qui transportait du pétrole a pris feu, déraillé et explosé en plein milieu de la ville de Lac-Mégantic. Six millions de litres de pétrole brut ont été déversés et la majeure partie du centre-ville a été...

We meet Globe & Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic in the new Love Park on Toronto's waterfront, to talk about good public space design, bad maintenance practices, and the legacy of legendary landscape architect Claude Cormier. We talk to playwright Michael Healey about "The Master Plan," a play about the doomed futuristic neighbourhood Google and Waterfront Toronto tried to build on the lake...

Last season, we talked to a group of people from the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT) in Toronto as part of a range of options for non-market housing. Over a year later, we check in with the state of land trusts across the country: where are they, what are their impact, and what do they need to succeed and even scale upward to other communities? Susannah Bunce, associate professor at...

This Spring, Spacing Radio had the opportunity to take the show on the road to the International Transport Forum in Leipzig, Germany. Now that the whole "who will be the mayor of Toronto" thing is settled, we bring you some highlights from the Forum. Heather Thompson, CEO of the Institute for Transportation and and Development Policy, talks about the importance of smaller-order, local transit like...

The days of the "mom-and-pop" landlord are largely behind us. Now, housing units are being snapped up or developed by large corporate entities and private equity firms. It can be hard to figure out who  actually owns a building. Homes being treated like major sources of capital, instead of places for people to live. This is a major factor in the housing crisis, pushes people who are renting out of...

The June 26th mayoral by-election is coming up fast. We've seen plenty of debate, a crowded field of candidates, and increased voter engagement. What's next? Spacing senior editor John Lorinc, Toronto Star city hall reporter Alyshah Hasham, and Ontario reporter for The Narwhal Fatima Syed join us to talk about duelling housing platforms, the environment, the big, Doug Ford-shaped question mark, an...

Evictions can completely upend your life. At best, you have to begin the search for a new home in an increasingly expensive and competitive housing market. At worst, you can't find an affordable replacement. It's a scary situation, even in the best circumstances. In this episode, we get into why evictions happen, how frequently, tenant rights, and "bad faith" evictions. First, we speak to Adam Mon...

Now that John Tory has officially stepped down as mayor, the field of candidates hoping to replace him is a big one. With roughly 50 candidates on the ballot so far, there's a lot to make sense of. To help weigh the merits of some of the major candidates, and the ideas proposed so far, we talk to Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc and Toronto Metropolitan University Associate Professor Cheryl Thomp...

The term "Smart Cities" has been kicking around for about a decade now. When we began The Future Fix series, that term was headline news. Everyone, including multiple levels of governments, was being asked to imagine a new kind of urban space, where data and technology were woven into the very fabric of the neighbourhood. Since then, the Smart Cities conversation has evolved, important questions h...

Not all technology has to be disruptive, it may actually be most useful as an extension of our ways of life, instead of as a replacement. In the arctic, the Inuit have extensive traditional knowledge of traversing sea ice for hunting, gathering supplies, and travelling between communities. SmartICE is a social enterprise which uses technology to build on this traditional knowledge and map the ever...