How-Sen Chong

Montreal’s Bixi which designed the bikeshare technology Toronto’s Bikeshare is based on, now has rentable bike trailers.

#topoli

Photo of Metro Hall in Toronto, with old Metropolitan Toronto logo on the face of the building.

We should bring back the old metro logo.

@spacing.bsky.social wrote about it four years ago here: spacing.ca/toronto/2021...

Oh yeah… I spent a few days in Dublin before flying back to Toronto.

Check out my thread here!

That’s it for my trip to Europe!
Check out my thread on Milan below.

See you back in Toronto soon!

Photo of workers moving stage equipment into the back of a truck. The truck is taking up nearly the entire width of the street, but because there are so few cars in the area, it’s not causing car traffic chaos and the moving of materials into the truck can happen safely.

I think that last point is worth spending some more time about.

One of the criticisms of car-lite streets is that it makes loading and offloading difficult.

But car-lite zones free of fast-moving cars actually makes loading and unloading *easier*. You can even take up more of the street.

Photo of hotel doorman wheeling luggage to a taxi parked away from the hotel.

Photo of a truck taking up an entire street to offload gear from a concert the previous night.

This idea we have in North America where every building needs ample parking for loading and unloading?

That’s not how Dublin sees it. Hotel doesn’t have parking in front? Get your luggage wheeled to the corner. No space to unload concert gear? You can take the whole street in pedestrian zones.

Photo of pedestrian street in Dublin.

Photo of pedestrian-first area of Dublin. Cars are allowed but are restricted.

A photo of a streetcar-first street in Dublin.

Photo of a streetcar-dominated street in Dublin.

And, of course, Dublin, like pretty much every major urban area in Europe, understands that vibrant city spaces are those where cars are not allowed to dominate.

And before someone says ‘Toronto was built for cars’: Toronto was founded and its downtown streets were laid out before the automobile.

Photo of Dublin Castle showing a mixture of different architectural styles, including one of the original 13th century towers.

A 13th century medieval tower in Dublin Castle connected with two buildings built in the 18th and 19th centuries

A painting of a historical event that occurred in Dublin Castle

A painting of a far more recent historical event that occurred in Dublin Castle.

I really appreciate how Dublin doesn’t treat history as a static thing that’s never to be touched. Dublin Castle has been at the centre of Irish politics since the 1200s and has, at minimum, 4-5 different architectural eras jammed together. They’re even adding new paintings of historical events.

A display from the Irish Emigration Museum which reads: - Just 5% of rish land remained in Catholic hands - 700 Presbyterians set sail from the North of Ireland for a new life in Boston, USA in 1718 - The Penal Laws were not fully reformed until Catholic emancipation in the 19th century

One of the things I found fascinating about this museum is that it decries both the mistreatment of Catholics in Ireland, while also highlights some of the struggles the Irish have had with religious interpretations of modernity (treatment of women, homosexuality, transgenderism).

Outdoor shot of EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin.

The welcome sign at the start of the Irish Emigration Museum that reads: WELCOME At the heart of Ireland's story is the movement of our people. The Irish identity has been shaped by migration. People left and still leave our island for many reasons, some pushed by circumstances at home, others pulled by opportunities abroad. Many emigrant stories are linked by common motivations and shared experiences. Today, these emigrants and their descendants number over 70 million people, in all four corners of the globe Here, we tell their stories.

Quotation from Mary Robinson, first female Prime Minister of Ireland: In fact, I have become more convinced each year that this great narrative of dispossession and belonging, which so often had its origins in sorrow and leave-taking, has become, with a certain amount of historic irony, one of the treasures of our society. Address by Uachtarán na héireann, Mary Robinson, to Joint Sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas, 2 February 1995

Dublin has an Irish Emigration Museum, which explores Irish Emigrants throughout the ages.

Things I learned: Grosse Ile just outside of Quebec City was a quarantine island for immigrants into Canada. And there are 70 million Irish descendants compared to about 5-6 million people *in Ireland*

One thing I discovered recently: Gasoline goes bad after a few years.

I had no idea!

Photo of monument statue to the Irish Famine

Across Dublin there are several monuments to the Irish Famine, when the Potato Blight, along with a terrible land ownership history, led to mass famine and starvation in the mid-1840s.

1.5 million Irish left Ireland. Today’s population of Ireland is just about 5 million. Dublin, about 5 - 600,000

Sign in Gaelic and English that says: - Leithreas Inrochtana / Accessible Toilet - Níl gach míchumas le feiceáil/ Not every disability is visible

Street sign in Dublin that says: Sraid an tSeiceamair/ Sycamore Street

Sign in Dublin that says: Feach goch treo / Look both ways

Ireland was colonized by the English. And even though English is the dominant language here, there are real attempts to reintroduce the Irish Gaelic into society.

Gaelic signs are *everywhere*. This is something we should do more of with Indigenous languages in Canada.

Photo of a pint of non-alcoholic Guinness on a patio outside of an Irish pub. The kind of Irish pub you find in Ireland.

Before I head back to Toronto from Milan, I’m spending a few days in and around Dublin.

Some thoughts and observations, with ties to #topoli, #canpoli, and urbanism.

Enclosed photo: A pint of non-alcoholic Guinness, which I didn’t know they made!!

That’s the end of my trip to Milan and to Italy.

Years ago, former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau said “Let Toronto become Milan. Montréal will always be Rome.”

There’s a *lot* I love about Milan. If Toronto could be more like Milan in those ways, that sounds like a great outcome to me.

Grazie!

Speaking of names: Cities around the world name places after people who… actually are from there (and not some Lord who never even visited).

We need to name more public things after Torontonians: Banting, Pickford, Peterson, McLuhan, Candy, Alexander, Shuster, Jewison, Plummer, Lightfoot.

Photo of Milan Centrale train station

Photo of entrance of Milan Garibaldi train station

Photo of Milan Cadorna train station.

Milan has not one, not two, but 3 main train stations: Milan Centrale, Garibaldi, and Cadorna.

Toronto needs to look beyond Union as the city expands: Spadina/Front, Dundas/Bloor, and Kennedy are all good options.

Oh, and let’s stop naming them after the streets they’re on.

It’s hard to overstate how pleasant it is being outdoors in a place with almost no car or vehicle noise.

While Milan definitely has areas dominated by cars, they ensure that some areas are not car-centric.

This area is primarily accessed via walking and by streetcar. There are almost no cars here.

Milan’s Arco della Pace

It’s giant shame that Toronto’s Princes’ Gates sits in between what is essentially a highway on-ramp and what is essentially, for 96% of the year, a giant parking lot.

This is Milan’s Arco della Pace (Peace Arch) at the SW entrance of Parco Sempione.

Photo: On the right, an archival photo showing cars parked and driving right next to Milan’s Duomo cathedral, on th left side of the picture, a view of the same space today but dedicated to pedestrians only.

Confirmed. This placard says that people used to be able to drive and even park right up against Milan’s main cathedral. It is now a space dedicated to pedestrians and, as a result, can manage far more people.

Archeological site under the Duomo Cathedral in Milan.

Archeological site under the Duomo Cathedral in Milan.

Toronto does a terrible job maintaining our own history.

Under the Duomo (the construction of which lasted from 1386 to… 1965!) is a preserved archeological site with a baptismal pool dating back to the 4th century.

Toronto also has history underground that, like Montreal, we should make public.

Exterior of Duomo Cathedral in Milan showing effects of pollution on the marble.

Exterior of Duomo Cathedral in Milan showing parts that have been replaced or cleaned.

When visiting old cathedrals, you can see what decades of air pollution have done to these buildings. You can see the difference when the older marble is replaced or cleaned.

That stuff is in our lungs and our bloodstream and we need to get rid of it.

Photo of San Giovanni in Conca in Milan.

This is an old church first created in the 5th-6th century and rebuilt in the 11th century.

It was torn down in the late 1940s so they could build a road.

They kept the crypt underneath.

Every disaster movie has told us that the best way to get outta dodge is to hop into a car.

Here’s the problem: Because the average car spends 90-95% of its lifespan parked, no road system anywhere can handle the traffic of every car on the road at once.

Frecciarossa high-speed trains, operated by Trenitalia, reach speed of 250 miles per hour (400 km/h) and offer maximum comfort, making trips between Italian cities as smooth and short as possible. Frecciarossa high-speed trains, operated by Trenitalia, travel at speeds up to 200 mph (400km/h) and offer maximum comfort, making trips between Italian cities as smooth and short as possible. DAILY CONNECTIONS Frecciarossa trains make more than 120 daily connections* throughout Italy, from Turin and Milan in the north, to Salerno and Bari in the south. • There are 28 non-stop Frecciarossa trains between Milan and Rome each day, making the journey in just under 3 hours. Frecciarossa trains that stop en route in Bologna and Florence still make the trip in just over 3.5 hours. During peak travel times (8am-10am and 4pm-8pm), there are 12 trains leaving Milan for Rome and 13 leaving Rome.

Italy has a high speed train network. The distance between Milan and Rome is about the same as it is between Toronto and Montreal.

There are about 6 slow Via trains that go from Toronto to Montreal each day.

There are twelve *high speed* trains from Milan to Rome — JUST DURING RUSH HOUR

Photo of information screen on Italy’s high speed train.

Not only is there an information screen on the high speed train coming into Milan Centrale station, the screen gives you information on the next trains leaving the station to other destinations!

Sign on pavement in Italian town with red round circle symbol and writing that translates to ‘limited traffic zone’

Around Milan and other parts of Italy, municipalities seem to use this symbol to indicate limited vehicle zones

Photo of Navigli neighbourhood with retractable bollard in the foreground and a car’s taillights hidden behind a throng of pedestrians.

Photo of the same car parked in its spot in a residential lot in Navigli.

This is the Navigli pedestrian area. *However*, if you look close at the first photo, you’ll see the taillights of a car and a retractable bollard in the foreground.

It seems these bollards retract for local residents who drive. I followed the car and found it parked.

Photo of pedesteianized streets around Milan’s Duomo Cathedral

This is the area around Milan’s central cathedral, the most popular plaza city. Surrounding the Duomo are museums, historical buildings, and what’s considered the world’s first shopping mall.

We should pedestrianize the streets around City Hall, Old City Hall, and the Eaton Centre.