If you read one thing today:

Toronto committee votes to strengthen speed camera program, pushing back against Ford's proposed ban | CBC News In opposition to Premier Doug Ford's plan to ban speed cameras in Ontario, a Toronto city committee voted Friday to strengthen automated speed enforcement in the city, with councillors saying the prov...

Seeing some dooming about Ford and speed cameras. I think he's made a mistake here. Speed cameras have 73% support with Ontarians. Conservative councillors are against removal. Ideas about implementation might vary but a ban is a mis-step from Ford. This fight is winnable. 1/4

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

Shelters vs. self-interest: How two ugly fights exposed Toronto’s housing hypocrisy The opposition to sixplexes and shelters in the suburban areas of Toronto show how nasty and selfish some areas of the city can be.

According to 100+ housing professionals, non-profit housing providers, and community groups in our research, existing neighbours have disproportionate power over housing and services development, effectively blocking 000s of necessary beds and homes.

buff.ly/ZfM1ioM

The “empty luxury condos only for investors” myth is omnipresent in the housing discourse. No matter that 1) they’re not empty, 2) they’re not luxury, and 3) they’re not only bought by investors.

This myth causes so much harm, largely by providing policymakers (especially progressives) a scapegoat

"Why should a truck driver in Zambia have an income that is one tenth or maybe one twentieth of the bus or truck driver in the US? It’s the same work, same effort, same intelligence, maybe same education. And then you say, clearly it is not equal." 3/3

"...But then you open the Pandora's box when you say, “Okay, how does it work on a global level?” 2/3

Great discussion here. @brankomilan.bsky.social: "I ask everybody, “Who is against equality of opportunity?” Which means who is in favor of maybe rich kids succeeding their parents and staying rich and all the poor kids being poor and nobody says they’re in favor of that. ... " but--- 1/3

The overwhelming lesson of history is that elites, thanks to their deep investment in & attachment to the status quo, *wait too long*. By the time something happens that's stark enough, bad enough, it's too late.

You stand up at one of these early line crossings ... or you watch your country go.

YIMBYs should take the logic of “more neighbours” to its conclusion- more Canadians. This means if someone is trying to escape injustice and danger as a refugee, we should welcome them, not ask, “what’s in it for us” (national interest).

Loved the response to Robertson but I also think you have your own luxury opinion on immigration. The idea that allowing refugee, “low skilled” and family reunification migrants is a “symbolic” priority, not a hard one deeply rooted in their wellbeing is the ultimate luxury opinion.

And that should include refugees, family reunification migrants and 'low skilled' migrants along with the favoured high skilled migrants.

Of course, this means we REALLY need to build housing for people. Housing skeptics that are pro immigration need to grapple with the consequences of our housing shortages. It makes convincing others to welcome immigrants much harder.

My thoughts on Eric Lombardi's recent piece for the Hub. I think its important for YIMBYs to extend their support for more neighbours to include those that didn't win the birth lottery of being born a Canadian.

This framing is arbitrary and backwards. If we take the inherent moral worth of someone as equal regardless of their place of birth, and therefore favour their needs equally, surely we would face some rather “hard” truths when it comes to immigration, particularly re: refugees.

Lombardi frames favouring the needs of those already living in Canada (the national interest) as “hard priorities” while prioritizing the needs of refugees, family reunification immigrants and “low skilled” economic immigrants are “symbolic” priorities.

Lombardi shares his own ‘luxury belief’ that immigration policy can be separated from morality. He says that immigration is “not a virtue” but “a policy”. But all policy is rooted in some normative value, as Lombardi himself shares when he says imm policy “should serve the national interest”.

I'm down. Do we know just borrow the set and set up our own bookclub?

Harvard professor offers a grim assessment of American democracy under Trump Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has already done grave damage: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime."

Harvard's Steve Levitsky, coauthor of How Democracies Die: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime." Must-listen interview - remarkably clear about the severity of the situation we now face www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...