Alex Bozikovic

Urban Truth Collective: Straight Talk About The Joy Of Cities In An Age Of Disinformation — Streetsblog USA The Three Tenors of Urbanism explain their latest effort: The Urban Truth Collective.

PLEASE HELP US SHARE THIS: “We’ve let the lies be far too successful, and that’s significantly hurt our cities. No more.”

It’s our blunt NEW @usa.streetsblog.org op-ed sharing why we’ve created @urbantruth.bsky.social. SPOILER: We need to call out the lies and tell the truth much more persuasively!

Of course. It‘s city land and a group of volunteers is not going to run a $100 million project.

Thie perfectly represents the larger situation. I worry about rewriting of history. The “golden age of co-ops“ was short and not that large and funded by tax dollars.

John Tory, son of John Tory, son of John Tory, founder of the law firm Torys.

John Tory doesn‘t need to earn a living. He was already in his 60s when he became mayor. Why didn’t he stand up and be “ambitious” then? What did he have to lose? Why was the point of running?

And what is all this “city building stuff” he was too afraid to do? Maybe he tells his friends.

ANALYSIS: Why John Tory wanted his old job back — and why he won’t seek it | TVO Today The former mayor is sitting out the upcoming election. Who will fill the void?

This is why journalists should not be friends with the people they cover. It‘s embarrassing for all concerned.

www.tvo.org/article/anal...

While the coop model has virtues, we should not blindly accept that it is the best way to deliver affordable housing. It is certainly not the only way.

And certainly co-ops can deliver affordable housing, but government can also do this directly.

I recognize that there are both qualitative and financial arguments for co-op, but it is very weird to suggest that co-op is the only vehicle to deliver affordable housing.

Government can provide affordable rents itself on housing that it owns.

It does not need to give money to an amateur-led not-for-profit in order to do this.

They’re full in those areas, depending on how you draw the map, and we have chosen to put all the development in those areas

‘It's not a profit making venture,’ Housing expert explains the benefits of living in a Toronto co-op - NOW Toronto A housing advocate highlights the benefits of co-op housing as an affordable alternative to renting, as a new co-op opens in Alexandra Park.

It’s weird to hear the co-op sector keep claiming that they generate affordability. That’s because government paid for the buildings! It’s not magic. nowtoronto.com/news/housing...

And that’s after they sold a bunch of buildings

TDSB has capacity of 301,000 and nearly 67,000 empty seats.

I’m sure that’s true, but with respect, if our government is going to spend $2 billion on this particular problem, I would like to see some rigourous supporting analysis

It would’ve been interesting to see where that went, but also he was always unable to make City Hall do anything (other than rebuild the expressway)

Fair enough, and a lot of other things also generate visitors. Does this particular type of activity warrant a $2-billion expansion? Will that $2-billion even generate a return? How would it compare with other sorts of investment in the city?

Yeah, he mentioned McCormick specifically. It sounds too simplistic as an explanation, but this is probably what it is.

ANALYSIS: Would a bigger convention centre just be a bigger waste of money? | TVO Today The premier wants to compete for the largest conventions in North America. The math doesn’t add up.

"When you’re talking about convention centres there’s no such thing as the efficient use of public money." @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social

www.tvo.org/article/anal...

The Tories should draft David Crombie to run again.

This old-stock Family Compact manner, that one shouldn't discuss uncomfortable things - it used to come with a degree of intellectual honesty and a strong sense of the public good. If Tory had displayed those qualities, Toronto would be a different place. But he wanted to be a talk-radio guy.

Toronto's planning system was a huge obstacle to productivity and growth. The civil service needed (and needs) reform. The city was (and is) physically in rough shape. There were many useful things a sensible conservative could have done. He didn't do them.

NEWSTALK 1010 on X: ""You found out that others who were seeking that job actually planned to play dirty." @millandmaitmom talks with former mayor John Tory about what changed his mind to not run again. Listen to the full interview on the podcast here: https://t.co/Wgq89xQMc8 https://t.co/NOnw0XWgdF" / X "You found out that others who were seeking that job actually planned to play dirty." @millandmaitmom talks with former mayor John Tory about what changed his mind to not run again. Listen to the full interview on the podcast here: https://t.co/Wgq89xQMc8 https://t.co/NOnw0XWgdF

John Tory wanted everyone to like him and be nice to him and not bring up anything awkward.

This meant no vision, no direction, just avoiding the ire of talk radio and Rosedale.

His clearest agenda items were too-low taxes and a bogus transit plan that died. Some legacy.
x.com/NEWSTALK1010...

Vague, endlessly verbose, self-pitying: John Tory’s statement. He’s not running.

The GDP of the Toronto region is about $500 billion a year. So Exhibition Place - which consumes a lot of public money - is generating 0.1% of that?

Are conventions so valuable? The main business of Toronto's Exhibition Place is conventions, and they claimed $600-million a year in economic impact. On 192 acres of land in the middle of a prosperous city.

That is not a lot of money.

www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis...

Doug Ford’s new Science Centre: How the architects came up with the design of the $1B building Doron Meinhard, one of the partners at Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects, said the building will be the "embodiment of science."

How many times will @thestar.com repeat this false number about the Ontario Science Centre? It is not 400,000 SF. It is less than 300,000.

The old building is 568,000. This is aggressive and transparent spin from the government.

www.thestar.com/news/gta/dou...

Of course they are

In preservation battles, someone always compares the current, aging building *with no repairs* against a flashy promise.

Ordinary people can't read drawings, or compare the qualities of different buildings. They don't get that the new thing is almost always worse.

The institutional buildings of 1960s Canada were extraordinarily well-built. Throwing them away would be madness.

The 1969 Science Centre is an incredible piece of architecture. It needs some work.

The new building complex is a kludge that will be inferior by any measure.

Ontario Science Centre’s new home is smaller, worse and probably pricier None of the Ford government’s main claims about this new facility at Ontario Place appear to be true

Forget the drawings. This is a flawed project being sold with false claims. My column: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...