Oh The Urbanity!

List of countries and territories by motor vehicles per capita - Wikipedia

I didn't mention it in the video but one reason I wanted to run the numbers was to see if this list of countries by vehicles per capita lines up. And it also has this same general pattern (except Ireland is the lowest car country of those).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

I didn't say there's nobody talking about safe streets or urbanist topics from NYC. I said there are fewer urbanist YouTube channels than you’d expect.

The US has 1/3 to 1/2 of all US transit ridership (massive!), but not that same proportion of urbanist YouTube channels.

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity! The Most (and Least) Car-Free Cities in the Anglosphere

The Most (and Least) Car-Free Cities in the Anglosphere

Cheap rent enables so much creativity, risk-taking, etc.

I’ve sometimes wondered if the relative lack of urbanist YouTube channels based in NYC — given the population and enormous transit ridership — is related to housing being so expensive.

I was just in Canada (Toronto) for work three weeks ago and people were nothing but kind and understanding and ready to be angry along with me. Going to Montreal in April (also for work) and I can't wait. Canada is a relief from our day to day here.

Reading Michael Barclay's fantastic history of Canadian music from 2000-2005 (Hearts on Fire).

One thing that really jumps out is how often musicians of the era credited their success to cheap rent. Small grants and a few bucks from shows go a long way when you're paying three hundred a month!

I have friends who work at restaurants on the waterfront. Some visitors get mad that they don’t accept American money!

Totally understandable, but it’s judging them on their individual actions

I’m also disappointed he put out that statement.

Yeah that would be an example of #3 to avoid

So my tips for Americans visiting:

1. Don’t be MAGA (obviously)
2. Don’t tell people it’s just a joke or distraction
3. Don’t try to downplay Trump’s win by saying things like “he only got 49.8% of the vote” or “you Canadians almost elected a conservative too”.

And you should be fine.

I don’t like how many people use “the government is not the same as the people”. It was the American people overall who elected that government just 1.5 years ago!

But that doesn’t mean that every *individual* enabled him. People should be judged on their individual actions as much as possible.

I’m 11/10 on anger at the US government and disappointment in the people who supported, enabled, and normalized that *lunatic*. I’m not soft on this.

But I retain sympathy for anti-Trump Americans frustrated and appalled by what their government is doing in their name.

I can’t speak for all countries but most Canadians have enough American friends and even family that it’s unlikely they’re going to mistreat a visitor just for being American.

So I would say don’t hesitate to visit. Just give a little thought to how you might talk about things if they come up.

Historically, also, zero setbacks and 3-story buildings were allowed basically everywhere. Incredibly enough, this isn't the case anymore! Basically no existing building on the Plateau would be legal to build now. Which is why we have a housing crisis now too.

At our previous apartment (in the Plateau), a building across the street had a big fire. It was a 3-storey building but, if I remember correctly, only zoned for 2. So not even necessarily allowed to rebuild as high as it had existed.

I have no idea why but I’ve had phones that kept it silent and phones that didn’t

I have no idea the logic. Apparently it’s based on an American alert system but we only use the presidential (highest) alert level

Leave the “all hands on deck” emergency alarms for nuclear war or natural disasters.

Because if people regularly get alarms like that for things that don’t concern them, they’re just going to learn to automatically ignore them.

It seems to me that the answer is obvious? Send an alert but have it respect people’s do-not-disturb settings. (I think the US system does this.)

People awake can see it. People sleeping, who are not going to leave their home to go search, can stay sleeping.

Seriously dude? A kid was missing and you are worried about getting your kid back to sleep? How on earth can you have children and be upset about amber alerts? May your child grow up to be a better person than you are. Not that it would take much.

If that was your kid missing, I don’t think you’d care if you woke up someone’s kid who needed 5-10 of cuddles to go back to sleep. Be grateful you can, others are not so lucky.

A few examples from a Reddit thread I just saw. Someone said their kids were woken up by the alert (confirmed: annoying).

People jump on them to say they’re a bad person for not wanting that! Even though there’s zero chance they’re going to leave their home to go search for a missing person.

Children agree not to get abducted after 8 PM so Amber Alert doesn’t wake anyone up TORONTO - After receiving numerous complaints about Canada’s Amber Alert system that is activated day or night, the nation’s children have agreed to restrict their abduction times between the hours of...

Canada’s Amber Alert system for missing children overrides many/most people’s do-not-disturb phone settings.

I’m always surprised by the large number of people who stridently defend this, suggesting that people bothered by being woken up in the middle of the night are heartless and cruel.

The City of Toronto approved six-storey units on major roads. But bureaucracy is still killing these projects.

I was so mad about this article, I had to rant about it. I can't believe councillors are still fighting for "neighbourhood character" in 2026.

www.thestar.com/news...

Something that lives rent free in my mind was when a Spanish language journalist asked a bunch of 2020 Dem primary candidates who the President of Mexico was and most of them couldn't answer.

While in Europe, I had more than 15 media interviews on major networks about my book.

Sadly, all discussions eventually migrated to Alberta separatism. Canada is held in very high regard and they can’t imagine why anyone would intentionally weaken Canada.🇨🇦

#ableg #cdnpoli

Wasn’t meant as a hostile correction. I just find city comparisons interesting.

Google Maps image of Toronto, showing relatively few highways

Google Maps image of Houston, showing a lot of highways

Toronto’s Highway 401 is enormous but it also has quite a bit fewer highways through/around downtown than Houston or many other US cities. Images are same scale.

That stub on the left side was planned to extend downtown (Spadina Expressway) but it was cancelled.

Google Maps image of Toronto, showing relatively few highways

Google Maps image of Houston, showing a lot of highways

Toronto’s Highway 401 is enormous but it also has quite a bit fewer highways through/around downtown than Houston or many other US cities. Images are same scale.

That stub on the left side was planned to extend downtown (Spadina Expressway) but it was cancelled.

We need this meme, but for negotiating with the US.

Never accept tea from Putin, nor a negotiation with the US. They are both poisonous.

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity! The Most (and Least) Car-Free Cities in the Anglosphere

The Most (and Least) Car-Free Cities in the Anglosphere