Spacing

LORINC: The post-snowstorm sidewalk obstacle course - Spacing Toronto Does the City of Toronto see its network of sidewalks as transportation infrastructure? Officially, the answer is yes. Transportation services, the sprawling department tasked with planning, maintaini...

The post-snowstorm sidewalk obstacle course — the City made good on its promise to improve snow clearing on streets in the aftermath of a big snowfall — sidewalks, not so much, writes @johnlorinc.bsky.social. #TOpoli

spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 92, Resolutions for Toronto leadership - Spacing Toronto The October 2026 Toronto election may seem like a long way off, but intentions to run have already been declared and campaign plans are well underway. So we asked Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star c...

On the latest @spacingradio.bsky.social we ask @shawnmicallef.bsky.social and @dianachanmcnally.bsky.social what we, as a city, learned from the past year, what our 2026 goals should be, what stands in the way, and the kind of leadership Toronto needs: spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 92, Resolutions for Toronto leadership - Spacing Toronto The October 2026 Toronto election may seem like a long way off, but intentions to run have already been declared and campaign plans are well underway. So we asked Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star c...

New Year, New podcast episode! In this one, we talk about lessons learned from 2025, the goals we should set for 2026, and the kind of leadership we need to see these goals achieved. Check it at the link below, or your favourite listening app: spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 92, Resolutions for Toronto leadership - Spacing Toronto The October 2026 Toronto election may seem like a long way off, but intentions to run have already been declared and campaign plans are well underway. So we asked Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star c...

On the latest @spacingradio.bsky.social we ask @shawnmicallef.bsky.social and @dianachanmcnally.bsky.social what we, as a city, learned from the past year, what our 2026 goals should be, what stands in the way, and the kind of leadership Toronto needs: spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 92, Resolutions for Toronto leadership - Spacing Toronto The October 2026 Toronto election may seem like a long way off, but intentions to run have already been declared and campaign plans are well underway. So we asked Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star c...

New @spacingradio.bsky.social! The 2026 Toronto election has started! Now? Yes, now. So what do we need from the people who lead our city in the face of [gestures wildly] this? I ask @shawnmicallef.bsky.social and @dianachanmcnally.bsky.social to help set some resolutions: spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

20 // What was the first video game? No one can quite agree on an answer, but one of the most interesting contenders is Bertie the Brain, a tic-tac-toe machine from 1950. @spacing.bsky.social dove into the game's Canadian origins in this piece from 2014.

videogameresearchlibrary.com/meet-bertie-...

NEW(ish)! The latest issue of Spacing @spacing.bsky.social is out, which focuses on Eglinton Avenue - including reviving a piece I wrote about Richview Cemetery for the book 50 Toronto Hidden Gems & Curiousities (which it is!) #TOHistory

OP-ED: Stop Framing Bike Infrastructure as the Problem - Spacing Toronto There is no shortage of distortion in our public discourse right now. Context-free photos. Selective anecdotes. Partial truths repeated until they harden into talking points. What troubles me most are...

A briefly plowed bike lane does not reflect the City's actual priorities, argues @lanrickbennett.bsky.social spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

The Eglinton cover section, meanwhile, features Cheryl Thompson and @johnlorinc.bsky.social on the Golden Mile, a map of Eglinton density by @tdubolyou.bsky.social (slice below), and pieces by @theurbangeog.bsky.social, Todd Harrison, and more ranging from east to west.

Joseph Wilson writes about how the Spacing Subway Quiz (subwayquiz.com) is being used by teachers to engage neurodiverse students. And Sophie Bouquillon has an extended photo essay on the impact of delivery apps on bike couriers.

Here's the table of contents. The front section includes Kurt Kraler on the Imperial Pub sign, Elianna Lev on the poetry of personalized licence plates, Kevin Kitchen on cemeteries as public space, and Emily Macrae on an online game about lost bike lanes ...

NEW ISSUE: Crossing Town - Spacing Toronto We still don’t know when the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will open. It could be any day – the testing is all done. Or it could be many weeks away, given its history – there are still processes to go throug...

New issue! Issue 73 explores Eglinton Avenue, Toronto's "prime rib" from east to west, as it awaits its new transit line spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

Tough Year for Bikes but Optimism Lies Ahead - Spacing Toronto Last year was a tough year for cycling and road safety in Toronto. The Ford government secured a third straight majority in February and followed up on last year’s Bill 212 with Bill 60, which banned ...

A look back at the state of cycling in Toronto in 2025, and forward to 2026, by @rzaichkowski.bsky.social #bikeTO spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

LORINC: Uncomfortable conversations about road safety - Spacing Toronto The city’s Vision Zero team released its 2025 data yesterday and the trend lines are encouraging: overall, the number of traffic-related deaths — 39 for last year — is down from the three previous yea...

#topoli #visionzero New from me on @spacing.bsky.social: Uncomfortable conversations about Toronto’s improving road safety record ciz the mandate of the city’s new “traffic czar.”

spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

A point made by @lanrickbennett.bsky.social on Spacing not long ago spacing.ca/toronto/2025...

LORINC: Uncomfortable conversations about road safety - Spacing Toronto The city’s Vision Zero team released its 2025 data yesterday and the trend lines are encouraging: overall, the number of traffic-related deaths — 39 for last year — is down from the three previous yea...

Uncomfortable conversations about road safety: Council needs to reconcile its Vision Zero and cycling infrastructure goals with those of its new traffic czar, writes senior editor John Lorinc. @johnlorinc.bsky.social #TOpoli #ONpoli #bikes #BikeTO

spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

When Toronto’s Coffee Went 'Continental' Toronto developed its coffee and patio culture beginning in the 1950s with places like the Concerto Cafe and the Gaggia House.

"In March 1955, The Globe and Mail ... identified the catalyst of the new craze as “an Italian device known as the ‘expresso machine’” that had already caused a resurgence in coffee consumption in Britain." By @bobgeorgiouto.bsky.social from Spacing issue 71: scenesto.com/2026/01/10/w...

Photographing the Finch West LRT - Spacing Toronto I am not a daily commuter, but as a documentary photographer of Toronto’s urban fabric, I depend on the TTC to get me to far-flung areas of the city where I carry out various projects. Thus, like so m...

Photographer Peter MacCallum takes a trip on the Finch West LRT, Toronto's new transit line, and snaps some photos of the experience. spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

Gerrard Street East Part 2, 2023-2024 - Spacing Toronto The first part of this series focused on the section of Gerrard Street East between Broadview Avenue and the Carlaw-Pape development zone slated for a future rapid transit station and residential deve...

This is #TorontoDanforth

Photographer Peter MacCallum continues his exploration of an east end street facing significant changes

h/t @spacing.bsky.social 2/
spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

Looking for a Sunday read with your coffee? I've got you covered! 📚

This originally appeared in a @spacing.bsky.social issue last year and I've reproduced it for my site! 🖥

And hey, it's about coffee! ☕️

The Overhead: Community land trusts gaining ground - Spacing National THIS EPISODE: Community Land Trusts Gaining Ground A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country. New CLTs are be...

On the new episode of our housing series The Overhead, we show you two community organizations making housing affordable. One in Toronto which has shaped local government policy, and one in Vancouver’s downtown east side which is just getting started: spacing.ca/national/202... @bshnode.bsky.social

OP-ED: Toronto transit needs to build on what we have, not fall for old tropes - Spacing Toronto Transit planning is a long-term endeavour, not a one-time project with a single solution. In a municipal election year, we need to demand more from leaders and those charged with planning and running ...

In an op-ed today, @seanyyz.bsky.social argues that the best way to improve transit in Toronto is to focus on affordable, quick, and effective solutions spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

The Overhead: Community land trusts gaining ground - Spacing National THIS EPISODE: Community Land Trusts Gaining Ground A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country. New CLTs are be...

New episode of our housing series The Overhead on the @spacingradio.bsky.social feed: from Parkdale in Toronto to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, community land trusts are growing, and keeping housing affordable in their communities: spacing.ca/national/202... @bshnode.bsky.social

Gerrard Street East Part 2, 2023-2024 - Spacing Toronto The first part of this series focused on the section of Gerrard Street East between Broadview Avenue and the Carlaw-Pape development zone slated for a future rapid transit station and residential deve...

From the Gerrard Square mall to Little India, photographer Peter MacCallum continues his exploration of Gerrard Street East, a street facing significant changes spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

The Overhead: Community land trusts gaining ground - Spacing National THIS EPISODE: Community Land Trusts Gaining Ground A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country. New CLTs are be...

On @spacingradio.bsky.social we have another episode of our housing special series The Overhead. How community land trusts are preserving affordability across Canada: spacing.ca/national/202...

How to Survive a Publishing Apocalypse - The Review of Journalism The evening begins in a cheery reception room. Lined with appetizers and sparkling wine, and framed by tall ceilings, it seems much too formal and well-orchestrated for a magazine event. It’s December...

ICYMI Spacing's use of retail - and especially our famous subway buttons - was featured in the TMU Review of Journalism, with quotes from @matthewblackett.bsky.social reviewofjournalism.ca/how-to-survi...

I have been in this building and it is fantastic. Alf is a former editor at the Toronto Star and the first person I wrote for there, when he edited the much missed Ideas Sunday section. He said "write me 1000 words about goats". And I did.

Photo of cement machinery by Peter MacCallum

We've often featured photographer Peter MacCallum in @spacing.bsky.social . One of his gorgeous industrial photos is featured in the AGO's current photography exhibit, where each photo is chosen by someone different to relate to the previous one. 1st is Peter's, after is the previous one.

Joe Medwecki and the triumph of the wraparound balcony - Spacing Toronto Location, location, location is the old saying about what matters in real estate.  But what if you combined location, with architecture, and terrific views, as Joseph (Joe) Medwecki did at 190 St. Geo...

Alf Holden tells the story of the best Annex apartment building that's not by Uno Prii, and the shy architect behind it who died this year. spacing.ca/toronto/2025...

Who's behind the deep-pocketed private equity firm that's bought into Therme? - Spacing Toronto Back in the summer, Therme went public with a somewhat perplexing development in its corporate life — a €1 billion merger of its two, somewhat related, operating divisions: Therme Erding, which owns t...

Who’s behind the deep-pocketed private equity firm that’s bought into Therme? A new player has joined the Ontario Place melodrama — a mega-investor with billions to spend, writes @johnlorinc.bsky.social. #TOpoli #ONpoli

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