Spacing Radio

We're back for 2023, and there is... a lot to catch up on. To begin, Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, guides us through Doug Ford's Greenbelt plan. What will the long term effects be? Who stands to benefit? Did certain developers catch wind of the changes to land that was formerly protected? Then, Ontario Place for All co-founder Norm Di Pasquale tells us about the growing criticis...

We've had some time to make sense of the Toronto election, and what it might mean for the next four years in this city. Is there a silver lining to be found? Is Toronto due for another urbanist renaissance? We talk to Spacing co-founder and Star columnist Shawn Micallef. And we talk to the co-editor of the new book "The Signs that Define Toronto" Kurt Kraler about how the project came together, an...

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Digital Placemaking Data and technology allow placemakers to experiment with new ways of measuring, designing, and most importantly engaging with the people they are designing public space for. Ideally, digital placemaking empowers everyone to shape the spaces they...

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. Lorraine Lam is community organizer who works with unhoused people, John Lorinc is a Spacing senior editor, together, we try to make sense of the encampment evictions of last year, and h...

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. This is a special, French-language edition. Spacing et Evergreen présentent ensemble une nouvelle série de podcast, Face au futur : des solutions pour les communautés du Canada, d’une côte à l’autre.  CET ÉPISODE: Trois-Rivières : un virage intelligent Face au futur est presenté...

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. But the Big Smoke isn't the only municipality going to the polls October 24th. All across Ontario, people are choosing their mayor, their local councillor, even their regional chair in s...

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. In this episode, it's a classic transit panel with Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and City Hall Watcher proprietor) and Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and S...

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Experiments in Mobility It can be hard to convince governments at any level to invest in a new idea. This is especially true with transportation, where breaking away from the status quo can sometimes seem an impossible dream. But when opportunity to explore potenti...

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we’ll be bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. In this episode, we talk to Spacing senior editor Shawn Micallef and Spacing contributor and West End Phoenix associate editor Kunal Chaudhary about how it's too quiet out there, publi...

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. This is a special, French-language edition. Spacing et Evergreen présentent ensemble une nouvelle série de podcast, Face au futur : des solutions pour les communautés du Canada, d’une côte à l’autre.  CET ÉPISODE: La culture de la bicyclette est-elle inclusive? Si vous vivez à M...

Another election, another surprise announcement from Premier Doug Ford that throws it all into disarray. Ford's proposal for "Strong Mayor" powers for Toronto and Ottawa's next mayors have left many wondering why the Premier is intervening in local-level governance. One of these people is former Toronto Mayor David Miller. We speak to Miller — currently managing director of C40 Cities, advising mu...

We're all used to headlines about impossibly soaring housing prices in Canadian cities: prices that leave many out of the market, and out in the cold. But this model of perpetually increasing home values is the dream for many owners. You buy a home, let it accumulate in value, and do whatever you can to insure that growing value isn't threatened. But this model is unsustainable and leaves many peo...

The Toronto municipal election is underway, and we'll be spending the summer bringing you coverage, all the way up to E-Day on October 24th. But how do we get people engaged, and avoid the abysmally low voter turnout we saw in the Ontario provincial election? What does "Ford More Years" of Premier Doug mean for the municipal race, and the next council? What key items should be made election issues...

The housing market is one everyone's minds these days. It determines who can live where, who can afford to buy a home, or even afford rent. It keeps some people in poverty, while making a small few incredibly rich. Is there a way governments, at various levels, can help bring some stability to an unstable market? To begin our discussion, we speak to University of British Columbia associate profess...

Spacing and the Balanced Supply of Housing research node proudly present The Overhead: Understanding Canada’s Affordable Housing Crisis, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Non-market housing solutions For many housing advocates, part of the solution to providing affordable housing is removing housing from the volatile market. This means finding ways to secure housing ensuring it won't be sold...

Urban designers and placemakers often struggle to create cities that work for everyone, including youth. But the youth themselves are often left out of planning and engagement, or aren't being invited to participate in a way they feel comfortable with or excited about. How do we engage youth in building their cities?  Federico Palacios is a graduate student at X University's (formally Ryerson) Sch...

Housing affordability and homelessness in Canada is a national disaster. And while there are many solutions proposed, the crisis likely requires a complete, holistic approach goes beyond just supply. That's the mission of the Balanced Supply of Housing research node, led by Principal Investigator Penny Gurstein. In this episode, we will meet some of the people working with the BSH, and ask them wh...

Those working with unhoused people in Toronto, like Sanctuary Toronto outreach worker Lorraine Lam, are warning about the total collapse of the City's shelter system: as COVID continues to sweep through those communities, and we experience extreme low temperatures. Spacing contributing editor Perry King (author of the book Rebound: Sports, Community, and the Inclusive City) talks about what to do...

We end the year with a classic case of man vs. machine, as journalist and culture writer Graham Isador talks about tiny delivery robots taking over city sidewalks, and Toronto Council's decision to pause so-called micro-utility devices until sometime in 2022. Next, we talk to journalist and author Stephen Dale about his new book, Shift Change: scenes from a post-industrial revolution, all about Ha...

With many people still working from home, the future of Toronto's PATH system — the underground mall serving the financial towers above — is in question. Globe & Mail urban affairs reporter Oliver Moore, who wrote about this crisis, explains the situation. And Spacing senior editor John Lorinc talks about the possible implications the City's new Inclusionary Zoning policy may have on Toronto's hou...

In this episode, we follow up on the municipal elections in Edmonton and Calgary, with a bit of a rant about rooming houses. Then, we talk to journalist and Spacing contributing editor Perry King about his new book Rebound: sports, community, and the inclusive city. Finally, as a preview of our upcoming "Growing" issue of the magazine, we talk to Sundance Harvest farm director Cheyenne Sundance ab...

With the mayors of both Edmonton and Calgary stepping down, and Alberta municipal elections taking place October 18, we decided to bring you all out west. But first, the City of Toronto released a detailed account of how much this summer's park encampment evictions cost. Matt Elliott wrote a Toronto Star column breaking down the cost, and we talk about how that money could have been better spent a...

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Tech Lessons COVID Taught Us Throughout the pandemic, we've seen people use technology and data in creative ways to help combat COVID-19. Even everyday people found ways to connect people to information about the disease, and even vaccinations. In this episode, we...

A snap federal election in the face of a potential "fourth wave" of the COVID-19 pandemic means an emergency panel episode to discuss the urban issues that may (or should) come up before people go to the polls, September 20th. Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc and Spacing urban affairs columnist and York University Geography Professor Tricia Wood unpack urban issues such as housing, transit, and c...

In this episode, we speak to Diana Chan McNally, community worker with the Toronto Drop-In Network, about A Path Forward. It's a document signed by 206 organizations, artists, and politicians calling for a safer, more humanitarian approach to housing encampment residents, where the residents themselves are heard. And we speak to Kensington Market Community Land Trust Co-Chair Dominique Russell abo...