Urbanism
Monday night, along with my good friend the awesome architect Toon Dreessen, I went to the urbanism book club and was very surprised, A), that so many people showed up to discuss somewhat nerdy things and B), that the people who did show up came from all over the city
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I talk about an idea whose time, finally, is coming: Giving legal personhood to natural phenomena worth protecting. Like the Magpie River in Quebec – the subject of a documentary that premieres Thursday on The Nature of Things by award-winning filmmaker and all-around awesome
Culture
English will follow and be different from the French because the older I get the more pleasure I take in writing in two languages. As usual I invite my bilingual readers to enjoy both versions. Moi, vous me connaissez, je n’aime pas faire les choses à moitié. Le mois
Culture
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enthuse, loudly, about the new heritage building program at Algonquin College that combines building, construction and other craft stuff, including practical business skills and significant elements from the humanities. What wags whom, and for what? Fascinating story in The Atlantic (behind the
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enlisted the help of BeePBot, my own personal imaginary AI writing assistant, to create a short sci-fi story about how cool Ottawa would be if we started making all the right decisions. No legal writing to share this week and if I
Urbanism
My personal big news this week is my departure from Substack, for reasons I explained here. I had first heard about the moderation issues in early December and didn’t really want them to be true because damn, migrating from one platform to another is not the most fun in
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I express gratitude for the privilege I have of engaging with readers in the paper, online, and on jogging and bike paths throughout the city. Columnizing is my absolute favourite thing to do, because a) it’s cheaper than therapy to get most
Urbanism
A lighter roundup this week as I am taking some much-needed personal time to recharge. In my Ottawa Citizen column I highlight the latest pedestrian plan unveiled by the city of Paris last month and ask why on earth we can’t do something like that here. We even have
Politics
My, oh my is there a lot of activity suddenly on housing. About time, of course. But at the same time, shame that it’s all upside-down. I guess when you’re dealing with politicians politicking in political ways, that’s to be expected. Momentum got going in October when
Gender
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I discuss the role we’re asking public libraries to play when we cut services elsewhere and generally privatize everything. This was prompted by a news item about the OPL requesting a $3M security upgrade in light of an uptick in incidents where
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column I discuss a successful public-private partnership I discovered when I took up ultimate. Domes in Ottawa are a rare example of something useful that was done right and that enjoys a great deal of success and no criticism that I can see. What lessons does
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I answered the question asked by the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa about what the Rideau Canal means to me. It is quintessentially Ottawa-esque in that it can be beautiful but is mostly under-utilized, and not in a good way.