Stacked bar chart showing the number of apartment units in Toronto by year of construction with categories for private, TCHC, and other social housing. The vast majority were built in the 1960s and 1970s, with a minor up-tick in recent years.

Charting number of rental units in apartment buildings in Toronto by year of construction

(This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago)

#toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay

Are you fucking kidding me it’s like we are living in a cartoon

The real galaxy brain Canada is to make London Ontario the biggest London, but Canadians are afraid to dream big

Developer Peabody pulls out of building 564 homes in Southall - BBC News Hundreds of affordable homes will no longer be built in west London after Peabody withdraws plans.

“A large housing project delivering more than 500 homes in west London will no longer go ahead…Specifically, [the developer] claims that the most significant reason for its termination was the new requirement to provide two staircases in London for buildings over 18 metres.”

YouTube video by Andy's Paradox IS EUV WOKE?! A Delusional Europa Universalis V Review

youtu.be/2ZjYDxxswb8?...

Why I’m still skeptical about ALTO’s HSR project A reality check and a plea for transparency.

I've done something that I don't do very often. I wrote a short, quick polemic post. It was prompted by a discussion in here.

It's about why I'm still skeptical about ALTO's HSR project and why there is no way around transparency in public projects.

open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

What I want to know is if there’s a way to adjudicate cases with fewer resources while maintaining high standards of justice

This is an incredibly absurd way to develop laws. It’s essentially a fact free vibes Only method of developing rules. It can’t go the way of the dodo fast enough.

My disdain for these people is indescribable.

Platner chair retailing for $27,000 Canadian

Still making me feel old

That's what I thought but I was looking at it today and the number for the Eglinton Crosstown seems to include both giving it a much higher cost than other sources
transitcosts.com/toronto-egli...
schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/wp-content/u...

@alonlevy.bsky.social In your transit costs spread sheet, do you usually include things like operations and maintenance or just the capital cost?

Strange scenes at Planning and Housing Committee yesterday: a heritage listing of a 1930s 4plex in Leaside was upheld over objections of residents and neighbours. The residents clearly know what's up, even as the City sticks to canned lines that listing is no big deal, doesn't impede development.

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity! How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem.

It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project.

It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

Despite all of these junkets, I don’t think either the Austrians or the Americans really have a clue about what the circumstances are like in the other place. Neither understands the vast gulf in demand, shortage, or construction cost between the two places.

In 2020 (technically it started in 2019,) I was at a New Year's Eve party hosted by some of Raman's campaign leads. Several people there were mad at me when they learned I did work for Abundant Housing LA.

What a gigantic difference five years makes!

Beyond Bidenomics | Perspectives On what is living and what is dead in economic policy.

so okay! first piece out from me at Common Wealth

"Beyond Bidenomics: On what is living and what is dead in economic policy"

the argument is that progressives should take credit for the successful parts of the pandemic policy response and build the next Thing

www.common-wealth.org/perspectives...

Even if people stayed 30 forever, that would only get life expectancy into the 4 digits

bsky.app/profile/alon...

Railway track space could become Toronto’s ‘Central Park’ Mayor John Tory now spurring on a project long dreamed of but never acted on: decking over the downtown rail corridor.

Ex. www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...

Ditto for when people say “x new park will be city y’s Central Park”. It’s always too small or not central enough.

Inverse great man theory

Your analogy of the peanut butter factory helped me understand this

I like them but they probably shouldn’t be in bike lanes

Geothermal

Happy we got the transit lanes on Bathurst and Dufferin south of Bloor but this graphic from @chittimarco.bsky.social is going to be constantly on my mind when I use them.

Opinion: Canada’s outdated elevator rules are adding to the housing crisis The high cost of elevators is a barrier to the development of affordable, accessible homes

@englishrail.bsky.social and I have a piece in the Globe & Mail about how Canada can make housing more affordable and accessible, and disentangle itself from its unreliable and hostile southern neighbor: give its elevator industry the option to use the European/global standard, not just the U.S. one

where can i read about this?

It's the end of the newspaper either way right? Trump is going to sue them and then threaten them into a settlement and their independence will be compromised.