Urbanism
I’m not much of a bible reader but I do enjoy a great horror story so the one about the plagues of Egypt was always kind of attractive that way. I wondered this week what, in modern-day Ottawa, could count as plagues and I found a few things. Since
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I allow myself a little bit of mild woot-wootingon housing. No, we’re nowhere near getting close to attempting to solve the crisis. But it’s important to acknowledge small crumbs of good news. In my legal writing for National Magazine I have
Politics
My column for the Ottawa Citizen this week discusses the recent spike in anti-semitic incidents and how we should at the very least let our Jewish neighbours know we’re there and we care. In my legal writing for National Magazine I have a piece on the impact of the
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I blow a gasket at the extreme speeding and general lack of driving skills found on too many streets in Ottawa. In my legal writing for National Magazine I have a review of Ben Perrin’s most excellent book, Indictment: The Criminal Justice
Urbanism
My column in the Ottawa Citizen this week took the mayor to task for acting surprised at OC Transpo’s financial situation. Transit is a public service, not a business. It’s not meant to turn a profit. Oh, and there are other, more important things the mayor clearly doesn’
Politics
This week I’ll keep the roundup a little shorter. I’m hanging out most unwelcomingly at the Conservative Party Convention in Quebec City and writing a longer piece about that. I will endeavour to make it entertaining and perhaps even funny but fair warning, some of this stuff is
Politics
My Ottawa Citizen column this week is on 24 Sussex, our official mojo dojo casa house (obligatory Barbie movie reference, more on which below), and why Pierre Poilievre should make history, in a good way, by giving up his own taxpayer-funded mansion. Continuing with our summer series of lovely and
Gender
In my column this week I amplify Fae Johnstone’s invitation to straight and cis-gender Ottawans to march in Sunday’s parade. I add a few choice words about the “parents’ rights” crowd, including this important bit: If your child is out and you’re the only one who doesn’
Urbanism
The last thing I expected to find in a suburb of Vancouver is affordable gentle density but that’s why they say you should travel. It truly does expand your mind. As my patient reader knows too well, I was in that city recently to attend the ultimate national championships
Urbanism
I spent most of the week in Vancouver and Surrey. If anyone I personally spawned asks you why I was there, please tell them it was to support my eldest (number 23 above) who was playing for the Saskatchewan team (Go Wheaties!) at the national ultimate championships. But really, I
Urbanism
John Bauters is the mayor of Emeryville, California (pop. 12,870 as per the 2021 census). (And other interesting parenthesis: in California mayors are not directly elected but chosen by council.) Emeryville is not far from San Francisco. I’ve never been to it, but I sure want to. I
Urbanism
When the City of Ottawa sent a press release, both in French and English, to inform us that the mayor and a few councillors had gathered merrily together to mark the beginning of Construction Season I could not help myself. I guffawed. “This is satire begging to be written,” I