Zach

Cassini NAC natural color view taken on 2011-04-25 19:34 UTC.

Distance to Rhea: 2.23 million km
Distance to Dione: 3.12 million km
Distance to Enceladus: 2.98 million km
Distance to Saturn: 2.75 million km
Phase angle: 67 deg

live.staticflickr.com/7257/7148482...

This fantastic overview of the obstacles and opportunities for missing middle housing is a greatest hits list of our favourite topics: single-stair, gentle density, zoning reform, will-it-pencil.

All described in a wonderfully accessible manner that sums up to: How do we get more quality housing.

Opening Doors | Publications | Carrefour Vivre en Ville Consultez notre publication « Opening Doors ». Carrefour Vivre en Ville

I wish there was a way to convey how much of a big deal this is to me, I wish you could feel it.

Our work on housing policy, condensed in a single report, has finally been translated to English. You can download it here:

carrefour.vivreenville.org/publication/...

(Click "Télécharger le PDF")

The big picture on housing, density and affordability How Edmonton's approach fights for affordability and fiscal efficiency

Fantastic piece by Don Iveson on what Edmonton is doing right on housing. There are lots of lessons here for other communities.

Mapping Population Density Across the Globe Explore the detailed geography of population across the globe with interactive mapping and statistics. Identify global megacity regions and the growth and diversity of urban forms. Data is from the Gl...

Fun fact: despite the enormous land mass, the population-weighted density of Canada — basically the density experienced by the average person — is the same as Denmark and close to the Netherlands.

Canada and Denmark are 3,000 people per km², while the Netherlands is 3,400/km².

The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on “Mapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...

When there is a topic that people have spent a long time thinking about, be it climate change or as in this case housing, and you think you found a simple trick to solve it all that everyone else somehow missed, there is a very good chance you don’t know what you are talking about.

Great short video by TransLink explaining “the empty bus lane myth”

An innovative feature is the inclusion of rainwater channels that drain water from the roadway to the tree trenches across the cycle track.

Picture 2: 7.45am. Church has left the churchyard, moving down the road & is in front of its belltower.

Picture 3: 7.58am. Church has left the churchyard, moving down the road & is now to the right ('downstream') of its belltower which is now visible again behind it.

Picture 1: 7.15am. Church just leaving the churchyard

Picture 4: 8.44am. Church moving down the road, quite a way now from where it started.

The church-movers are having a lunchbreak(!), but here's some of the progress this morning (UK times):

#church #kiruna #sweden

This "Little Red Hood" bus+bike/ped-only network of shortcuts through the wood b/w suburban neighborhoods is very interesting, a Nordic take on the Dutch 1970s "busbaan" concept, the the modernist idea of neighborhoods irrigated by separate modal networks, the opposite of the complete street concept

Piece by piece, cranes lift 84 prefabricated rentals into place in downtown Calgary | CBC News Along a busy street on the west end of downtown, another new rental building is going up — but instead of being built from scratch, prefabricated units are being craned into place, piece by piece.

[Calgary, AB] “We're going to be able to rent every single studio unit, 84 studios in there, for under $1,100 a month.” -
@AttainableHomes
on #ModularHousing www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Italy has invested heavily in passenger rail, but is increasing freight capacity and mode share at the same time. This is the kind of win-win investment we want to see in Canada:

Manito Six in Spokane by CAST architecture/Matt Hutchins/Heritage Housing Company

With the Manito Six in Spokane, we have proof of concept that stacked flats are viable to develop, give residents a wonderful quality of living, and fit nicely in established neighborhoods. Contact me about bringing stacked flat/middle housing to your neighborhood!

I’ve been thinking the same because the original 2017 tax cuts were supposed to expire at the end of 2025 which I think they assumed would be the first year of a Democratic presidency after a second Trump term. That didn’t happen but they’re using the same playbook.

It's interesting to contrast South Wales Metro Project's priorities (electrification and basic stations accessibility) with Ottawa's Trillium line modernization (faregates and architectural features).

Imagining a 4 storey #SingleStair 8 plex with "family size units" that could fit 'everywhere'.

In this case, a 50x122 residential lot with a lane,
with 50% site coverage.

(4x) 1300sf flats, 3br + Den
(3x) 1000sf flats, 2br
(1x) 850sf 1BR
(1x) 150sf Cargo Bike Garage

A graph from a French report, PORTES OUVERTES (deuxième édition), which shows that in spite of stronger rent controls, the province of Quebec builds more rental apartments than the other two most populous provinces.

This is being translated right now and I really can’t wait to break the language barrier with this information. We have an actual experiment with well-designed, inflation-pegged rent control. It doesn’t stop rental construction, relative to other markets without controls.

Québec, the Canadian province with the most exhaustive and expansive rent *and* vacancy controls, has built more rental units in the absolute and per 1000 than any other province in the past 40 years. Exemptions apply only for 5 years after construction.

They can be back-to-back as well, but this results in single-aspect middle units.

These sound like what we call stacked townhouses in Canada, especially in Ontario. Usually three and a half storey structures with the lower unit featuring a half-basement, but you can increasingly find four storey configurations. Underground parking more common with the four storey models.

It goes without saying that this is an insane decision by the US administration and will do further serious harm to its credibility. Students who’ve invested time and money to attend Harvard and other US universities deserve a better deal. Canada should offer it.

Top Canadian universities (and really any and all Canadian universities) should move quickly to reopen admissions to foreign students from Harvard and other top US schools with full recognition of completed credits. Time for some brain gain.

One of the truly baffling aspects of suburbanism in North America is that, despite its prevalence, it's seldom innovative in terms of urban design, unlike the surburbs you see in France.

This suburban development in Nantes from the 1970s is light years ahead of the boring New Urbanism stuff

I like how the French implement cheap daylighting of intersections without relocating the drainage line, simply by installing a small, raised curb extension detached from the sidewalk, accompanied by bollards to deter the most daring drivers.

Hostile architecture, but for cars.

Thank you Chrystia.

Creekside Crest
Elyse Dodge
2024

Si en dix ans notre comprehension d'un coût acceptable pour une infrastructure passe de 20-30 M$ par km à 150-200 M$, bien au-delà de l'inflation, je pense qu'il faudrait se prendre une petite pause de réflexion et se demander s'il n'y a pas un problème de fond dans notre manière de s'y prendre.

Au début des années 2010s, les estimations faites pour le tramway de Québec était encore en ligne avec des projets similaires ailleurs dans le monde.

Depuis, quelques chose c'est brisée dans la manière d'approcher ces projets.

Il faudrait comprendre pourquoi.

tramwaydequebec.info/docs/etude-f...

Comme d'habitude, le problème est le fait que plus de la moitié de la facture sont des "soft costs."

Des provisions de risques et des contingences qui s'élèvent à 40% du coût propre s'est une admission de laxisme, pas de la prévoyance, dans la gestion du projet.

ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/215...