Carolyn Whitzman

The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Rebecca Solnit - Longreads The author of The Beginning Comes After the End talks about jackrabbits, her own “informational hypervigilance,” and the one word she won’t stop using.

What five items would you place in a time capsule?

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and maybe Mohammed bin Salman, to be opened, carefully, with precautions, in the year 3026.

Thank you!

Coming back to this story, the care economy has been driving the Canadian job market since the pandemic, but especially 2024-2025, despite the clampdown on international study permits.
It's quite something that this sector is not part of the Canada Strong industrial strategy.

In which my hand gestures… go wild as I discuss the need to scale up housing that works.

What Broke Housing in Canada, and How to Fix It - IRPP In this episode of Futureproofing Canada, host Jennifer Ditchburn speaks with Carolyn Whitzman, one of the country’s leading housing experts, about how decades of policy choices created today’s housin...

🎧What broke housing in Canada and how do we fix it?

Jennifer speaks with housing expert @cwhitzman.bsky.social on the policy choices behind today’s crisis and the practical pathways forward, from non-market housing to financing reform.

Out on all platforms + YouTube.
irpp.org/podcast/what...

A woman, Sandra, smiling as she speaks into a mike.

The focus needs to be on maintaining permanent hsg & repair the individual’s social relationships.

Four people on a stage

Shelters can create homelessness but they are seen as the ‘simple’ solution. Sandra Clarkson from Calgary talked about how half+ 900 ppl using their shelter every night had been living there for over 3 months. Cash, creating permanent hsg has led to 3500 successful tenancies.

Michael Lethby from Niagara Region sitting on a chair and speaking into a microphone.

90% of youth in the Niagara program stayed housed. Mike talked about how outreach in small community schools became the basis for keeping kids in families, housing, school & local community.

A poster for the event

At Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa public event on Emergency Shelter Transformation with Calgary Drop In & Niagara Resource Service for Youth, featuring Jennifer McKelvie MP & Catherine Cullen from CBC.

Excellent prescription.

I hope they make it after all.

In which I have much to say about planners as change agents.

It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month.

It’s about oil and regime change.

And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from his sinking under Epstein and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

This would be so popular at the national level if centrist Democrats let us use those words in that order

Thanks, @glengower.ca

NYC’s Lander Recommends Dropping $42 Billion BlackRock Mandate New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is urging three of the city’s pension funds to drop BlackRock Inc. because of “inadequate” climate plans, the latest move to penalize investment firms for failing...

Landmark move: New York City's comptroller @bradlander.bsky.social, with hundreds of billions under his control, recommends dropping investment giant Blackrock because they won't reckon with climate change.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Here's the info for the Ottawa screening! I'm looking forward to this event, especially since @cwhitzman.bsky.social & I will talk housing as part of the Q&A discussion after the film!
The event is free & all are welcome

Three pale males

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an all white male panel like this (not shown: 2 online panelists, 1 moderator - also pale male) but worship of Ed Glaeser is a must as well

High density residential street in downtown Vancouver with 5(!) rows of street trees creating “kissing canopies”.

This is really important.

The main thing that makes it hard to achieve integrated nature and green in cities isn’t density of buildings or density of people — it's density of cars. And the more well-designed and integrated density of people & buildings you achieve, the fewer cars you need or want.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: 2025 CityTalk | Live — "There’s the Money! What The Federal Budget Means For City Building". After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about ... The local impact of national priorities: what the budget really means for Canadian communities. The 2025 federal budget sets the tone for how Canada plans to tackle its biggest challenges — housing, ...

What the federal budget means for cities this Thursday noon ET - moderated by @canurb.bsky.social featuring @fcm.ca @thehubcanada.bsky.social & @uoftcities.bsky.social (me) us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Nov. 9: Join Carolyn Whitzman Senior Housing Researcher, for a talk at Koffler Arts about artist Tracey Snelling’s Intergalactic Planetary exhibition and how they both explore the ways that marginalized communities navigate and shape urban spaces https://ow.ly/ucnx50Xl6mB

We'll be discussing @cwhitzman.bsky.social's book Home Truths on November 23rd, 2pm, downtown Kitchener. DM us for the address if you'd like to join this book club!

This is a great article - great visuals & great summary of why we need 4 storey apartments with single egress everywhere in North American cities.

Yikes.

www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default...

I tweet: "people who see 50% of their monthly paycheck go to rent don't care if a candidate eats with their hands. they want to hear what your candidate is going to do about housing." John Galt 2025 replies: "Move if the cost of living is too high."

who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.

A dense, urban Canada? It’s possible A specific, provocative proposal for how Toronto might evolve offers good ideas

Bravo. Toronto - and Canada - need this. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

Toronto recently allowed more 6 storey apartments on Major Streets but what would it take to make "courtyard" apartment blocks?
* 4-6 storey permissions on adjacent streets
* front yard setbacks of 2 m or less
* single stair and European elevator standards
* modest garbage room in the basement