Eric Lombardi

People keep saying this of Toronto YIMBYs and MNTO specifically, but it’s actually not true.

Eric Lombardi: Our politicians want you to forget about Canada’s biggest socioeconomic challenge. Yes, it’s still housing When it comes to Canada’s failures, all roads lead back to housing

Latest piece by @ericlombardi.bsky.social at @thehubcanada.bsky.social:

“Our politicians want you to forget about Canada’s biggest socioeconomic challenge. Yes, it’s still housing”

thehub.ca/2025/07/18/e...

Eric Lombardi: Our politicians want you to forget about Canada’s biggest socioeconomic challenge. Yes, it’s still housing When it comes to Canada’s failures, all roads lead back to housing

STANDING OVATION for @ericlombardi.bsky.social in @thehubcanada.bsky.social 👏 👏 👏 🙌 🎉 Rarely do we see something so well articulated with the nuance the topic deserves! This is a MUST READ! "When everyone says the right thing, but no one is willing to actually do the right thing."

Eric Lombardi: Our politicians want you to forget about Canada’s biggest socioeconomic challenge. Yes, it’s still housing When it comes to Canada’s failures, all roads lead back to housing

shorturl.at/evQIM

If you've not read this piece by @ericlombardi.bsky.social yet. He's to be credited for persuasively making the non-partisan case for more housing, via private market & gov't funded initiatives. Centrists, fiscal cons, socons, & soc-dems all have cause to agree with him.
#cdnpoli

Incredible new @chiosse.bsky.social video with @ilanaglazer.com on how New York became so unaffordable

More Neighbours Toronto is disappointed in City Council’s failure to legalize sixplexes across the City of Toronto. Mayor Olivia Chow should have shown clear leadership and stood up for this reform with the full spectrum of tools available to her.

1/3

Well this is awkward. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Councillor Carroll claimed that consultations were just virtual with "a couple of More Neighbours members" phoning in. Grossly false. North York members turned out for the in person consultation and others around the city. Hugely dismissive of the time and effort that our volunteers put in.

This is the exact type of situation explaining why former Mayor Tory wanted these powers.

If it comes down to it, the mayor will have a choice to show leadership - even with controversy - or acquiesce to the NIMBY status quo that has lead this city into the housing crisis to begin with. (3/3)

She has committed to not using those powers in the past, but now we have a practical rather than ideological choice.

If Sixplexes do not move forward, it calls into question whether this council under the Mayors leadership is capable of making any progress on housing the rest of this term. (2/3)

I am hearing word that supporters of sixplexes on Council do not think the vote will get 50% to legalize them.

But here is the thing, @MayorOliviaChow has every ability to invoke Strong Mayor powers to move it along with 1/3 of council support.

(1/3) 🧵👇

City council is debating legalizing small apartment buildings on residential streets. This is why it must allow them Toronto city council is debating sixplexes in residential neighbourhoods. Allowing them is vital, writes Eric Lombardi.

Tomorrow, Mayor Olivia Chow and City Council have an opportunity to legalize sixplexes in Toronto.

In today’s @thestar.com I encourage councillors to ignore the NIMBY hysteria and vote in favour. In fact, we will need to go further eventually.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Austria took the stigma out of social housing. Here's what Canada could learn | CBC News While Europe struggles with similar trends to Canada of rising rents and skyrocketing home prices, experts say social housing models like Austria’s are among the best defence against a growing afforda...

Alright, sounds good, now we just need a bunch of cheap land following a world war that the city can buy followed by a sustained loss of population following the collapse of empire.
www.cbc.ca/news/world/e...

Ontario is off!

Eric Lombardi: Ontario is now the ‘sick man’ of Canada The failures of Canada's largest province are dragging down the country

Totally forgot the link, here:

thehub.ca/2025/06/16/e...

My latest in The Hub:

ONTARIO IS NOW THE “SICK MAN” OF CANADA.

Our provinces failures drag down the country.

- - -

This is a longer read, but an absolutely critical discussion to have. Canada cannot thrive if Ontario holds it back. 👇

No, luxury opinions are about prioritizing secondary and tertiary goals above primary goals.

Health is a foundational need. So quite literally no, not a luxury opinion.

“Environmentalism is, in part, a luxury value. It depends on a foundation of stability. You can’t decarbonize a country that can’t build a train, permit a wind farm, or deliver housing.”

Great article

Eric Lombardi: Canada can no longer afford to be governed by luxury beliefs

My latest for The Hub:

“Canada can no longer afford to be governed by luxury beliefs”

In this article, I take on our multi-decade habit of denying trade-offs that are real and hard.

This denial is the basis of luxury beliefs that are now eroding our living standards.

thehub.ca/2025/05/28/e...

We should be talking about how and where to grow in Ontario. Instead, Doug Ford is opening the door to favouring friends — as always Once again, the premier has shown that he'd rather bypass the work of governing than do it properly.

In my latest for the Toronto Star, I take aim at Ontario Bills 5 and 17.

While I think many of the changes in these bills are good and needed, the expansion of ministerial exemptions (MZOs) is a gateway to corruption we can’t ignore.

Read it here 👇

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

We should be talking about how and where to grow in Ontario. Instead, Doug Ford is opening the door to favouring friends — as always Once again, the premier has shown that he'd rather bypass the work of governing than do it properly.

Excellent and completely on point piece! @ericlombardi.bsky.social
The focus should be on facilitating good developments - ones that we need and not only for people who have access to politicians. #onpoli

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Eric Lombardi: Canada can no longer afford to be governed by luxury beliefs

This piece from @ericlombardi.bsky.social is excellent and worth a read. thehub.ca/2025/05/28/e...

Metrolinx has decided that they know how to run a railway better than the Germans at DB who made up ONxpress. A huge loss of talent for transit in Toronto and Canada and easily as catastrophic a move from Metrolinx as the agencies performance on the Eglinton Crosstown.

The RS zoning story they don’t tell you – Jacob Dawang Ah, here we go again. A deeper look at the RS zone that seems to perenially be in the news. How much housing supply is being delivered, and how fast are mature neighbourhoods really changing?

NEW BLOG POST

On June 3, I'm hearing some councillors will propose adding more restrictions to the RS zone introduced in the Zoning Bylaw Renewal.

So, I went deeper into the data, even more than in my last post. Read my blog or highlights in the 🧵

#yeg #yegcc

www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2025/re...

Building Complete Communities Event on May 6, 2025 at The 519 From left to right: Jason Thorne (Toronto Chief Planner), Michael McLelland (ERA Architects), Amanda O'Rourke (8 80 Cities), Eric Lombardi (More Neighbours Toronto), Councillor Chris Moise

Attended a "Building Complete Communities" talk hosted by @chrismoise.ca which was well attended. Excellent presentations by @jasonthorne.bsky.social, Michael McLelland of ERA Architects, Amanda O'Rourke of @880cities.bsky.social & @ericlombardi.bsky.social of @moreneighboursto.bsky.social. #TOpoli

You really struggled with the first half of that sentence eh?

On today's episode of the Missing Middle podcast @EricDLombardi of @MoreNeighbours makes a pitch to @fordnation on housing as an economic driver of growth that the Ontario government should absolutely lean into during these uncertain times. #Onpoli

A packed room of people gathered around Zak, a board member of MNTO.

People enjoying the social

People enjoying the social

People enjoying the social

We had an absolutely fantastic time at our social yesterday! Thank you all for coming. Big shoutout to the new volunteers who came out excited to find out how to get involved!

There is still so much to do to build more homes in more neighbourhoods in Toronto.

Let's get to it!