Urbanism
A shorter update this week as I juggle a few big projects and associated looming deadlines. I will be able to share a few of those projects soon. They’re fun, I promise. My Ottawa Citizen column this week is about skating — in Ottawa and in Huntsville, Alabama. Well, mostly
Urbanism
When the colossally stupid three-days-in-the-office federal policy came into effect in September I occasionally saw in my various social media feeds complaints from people who couldn’t find parking downtown. I thought it was weird. Difficult to believe, even. Aren’t there six thousand gazillion places where one can temporarily
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I discuss the Point in Time Count — a national exercise to get a reasonably accurate picture of homelessness in Canada. I agree we need solid data. It’s important to know how people end up unhoused, or in precarious housing. It’s also
Urbanism
Five years ago I wrote a series on “Healthy Ottawa” that included a column on reusable containers. It was before the pandemic and a few stores allowed customers to bring their own clean-and-empty containers like mason jars to buy certain items like bulk noodles or coffee beans or spices. The
Urbanism
Not to show my age or my dirty mind or anything, but when I hear the word sponge I immediately think of Elaine in episode #119 of Seinfeld. But today I am interested in even better sponges than that — the ones that turn urban parks into extraordinarily useful green infrastructure
Urbanism
There are weeks when it seems there are no limits to the number of zany ideas people come up with, including (in no particular order), digging a tunnel under the 401 in Toronto to add lanes of traffic because there’s no way the existing 20 or so are enough,
Français
This one is just in French, because the platform to which I am referring is 100% in that language. It is a new initiative by the Assotiation des auteur.e.s de l’Ontario français to promote the work of its members, francophone literature in Ontario as well as help
Urbanism
[English follows French, be patient.] Il y a des affaires qui sont tellement nounounes que mon vieux fonds franco-québécois revient au galop et s’accapare la place qui lui revient pour les démantibuler sans merci. La patente à gosse du maire nocturne d’Ottawa me casse les pieds quelque chose
Urbanism
One of the coolest parts of my work is to get advanced copies of books I’m dying to read and tell you what I think of them. Carolyn Whitzman’s excellent Home Truths in one you won’t want to miss when it becomes available in a couple of
Urbanism
There’s a lot of talk in Ottawa these days about whether our transit system is going to hell super fast or is entirely fucked already. On a good day it barely works — if by “works” one means getting people to where they’re going in a reliable manner that
Urbanism
Not to boast, but I’ve spent the last year and a half heroically navigating, on my trusty and very dependable comfort bike, the living hell that is the area around where the new central library is being built. The part where Scott turns into Albert, specifically. First the old
Urbanism
Because I travel lots and never not have a camera with me, I decided to start collecting great examples of people-friendly places and tell their stories. I opted to make it a different website because a) it’s more narrowly focused than this one and b) my hope is to