Damien Moule

We've cost spiralled our way to >$20 billion for subway automation and are completely unable to build 2km of new streetcar track on Queens Quay but sure, we would have made things better if we were more involved.

I don't claim to understand David Miller thought so I'll ignore the part where MX tried to make the project better and we ignored it. But I don't understand how he can look at the ongoing disaster that is the TTCs capital investment plan and say it would be better for the city to be more involved.

I can answer this. I interviewed Peterson's tailor a few years ago, although the interview was never published because I fell behind on work. Here is the story of this suit. 🧵

These miserable misanthropes moved to a neighbourhood with grandfathered retail and then have the audacity to say it and not they are out of place.
www.torontotoday.ca/local/city-h...

Very disappointed in today's committee result that reinforces the minority belief that having a neighbourhood convenience store or coffee shop is somehow an unimaginable blight on Toronto's residential character. (1/?)

I think there's a sizable chance the remaining item isn't palatable to the suburban councillors and it all goes down.

Yes. But that's better than watered down everywhere to nothing.

There is a diversion on the 501 due to an accident on Queen. I timed how long it took to turn off Queen, go down Spadina, and turn onto King and it was 13 minutes. That is as long as my entire commute this morning by bikeshare. Just to turn corners.

It is when you hate cities.

The people opposed aren't going to back down because you took out neighbourhood interiors. They don't want any change. I think you're better off trying to slice and dice geographically to get a winning coalition.

Going to take it a little easy or Perks here, if he thinks this will be enough to get it through council then passing the motion is the right thing to do. I am very worried though that his motion doesn't actually create a winning coalition and we'll lose the whole thing.

Mixed use areas are primarily on capital A Avenues which are a subset of capital M Major Streets. Avenues are being expanded as part of a separate initiative.

Well... is it going through council?

Getting pretty sick of this faux environmental person (says it's a group but it appears to be one person with some unfortunate York university prof sponsors) who occasionally writes in to PHC to oppose housing, and now neighbourhood retail with RA talking points and a thin environmental veneer.

Not exactly surprising but councillors Ainslie and Kandavel wrote into PHC saying they'll oppose neighbourhood retail.

For people who live in Beaconsfield or along Dovercourt, these are the people claiming to represent you to city council. They hate Dovercourt and your neighbourhood and want the restaurants shut down.
www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis...

The difference in the time it takes a streetcar in Amsterdam vs. Toronto to clear an intersection after servicing a nearside stop.

I think it's worth acknowledging every once in a while that the condo boom has made downtown noticeably more lively in the evenings compared to 10-15 years ago. We're a few pedestrianizations and road redesigns away from downtown being genuinely great.

Councillor @joshmatlow.bsky.social working to make Impossible Toronto a little more possible. He's got a motion at committee tomorrow to get a report on new waste collection strategies for mid-rise housing in Q2 2026.

Yes. You absolutely can. Just get some letterhead.

He seems to think having an ideological basis for wanting neighbourhood retail is disqualifying rather than like.. the entire question at issue. And that maintaining bans on neighbourhood is not also ideological.

Favourite NIMBY response to neighbourhood retail goes to CORRA (which is one man) who blames de-industrialization on previous attempts to build housing and says every site should undergo commercial analysis and we should do protectionism for the massively expensive existing commercial streets.

Maybe. But the other side of that equation is just buyer/occupants. Prices are down 10ish percent and now mortgages are down by more than that. That's a pretty big discount to say 18 months ago.

I keep waiting for them to do anything about through traffic in neighbourhoods but they don't care.

I'm worried that a lot of people are jumping to assuming the drop in housing starts in Toronto is the boom and bust nature of the construction industry and that prices will keep dropping when it might just be a function of interest rates and we're heading right back into crisis.

Just quietly monitoring that on neighbourhood retail the city consulted with the established RA coalitions and that it appears some RAs weren't happy with what they heard and established a new RA coalition to fight neighbourhood retail.

I've been critical of city staff when I thought it was warranted but I don't think I've ever had the gall to try and give them orders and deadlines, acting as if I alone am city council.
secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Toronto style 15 minute cities: walking across the stockyards parking lots to a big box store because transportation out of your neighbourhood is abysmal.

When the public aren't aware of the zoning, land use designations, secondary plans, development charges, and heritage designations that keep neighbourhoods frozen that's local democracy. When the public aren't aware we might allow corner stores, they are ignorant and must be made aware.

Why engage with real proposals when you can just be mad about the stuff you made up?
www.torontotoday.ca/local/real-e...