Spacing

@spacing.bsky.social

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Spacing.ca / Toronto urbanism uncovered in award-winning mag/web/books/podcasts. Spacing Radio podcasts: spacingradio.bsky.social Spacing Vancouver: spacingvancouver.bsky.social Spacing Store: spacingstore.bsky.social

If you missed writer Ian Darragh’s story in Spacing on the proposed Billy Bishop airport expansion, it’s here, and it’s essential reading. Among many of the plan’s blights – its threat to Hanlan’s Point’s historic oasis; long strips of tarmac cutting into the harbour; an American building firm signing on for construction – it also compromises the proposed Port Land’s waterfront development, limiting the height of planned, and much-needed, city housing. This is just the latest advance of the Ford administration on our waterfront – following the destruction of Ontario Place and the relocation of the Science Centre – one that looks like an act of aggression against the city. Because it’s election time, it’s important to ask your councillor what stance they take on the airport expansion, and what power they plan to exert at the federal level.

Second: Develop clear principles for design and operations. Landscape architect and academic Fadi Masoud pointed the way last year in Spacing, arguing that parks should be classified by size, function, ecological role and social purpose. Think of them as a system of infrastructure, not as islands.

Old insurance map showing Pidgeon Ave. in Mimico

Recommendations
Mayor Olivia Chow, seconded by Councillor Jennifer McKelvie, recommends that:

1. City Council request the City Manager, working with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, the General Manager, Parks and Recreation, the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Transit Commission, to conduct an analysis of where new public washrooms are most needed and:

a. install high-quality temporary washrooms at these locations, beginning in the spring of 2025;

b. develop a longer-term plan to add more public washrooms, and retrofit existing ones;

c. identify and repair City washrooms most in need of restoration;

d. identify existing City washrooms that can be retrofitted so they may be open more months of the year;

e. work with the Toronto Transit Commission to explore the installation of new washrooms in subway stations and develop a plan to upgrade and improve existing Toronto Transit Commission washrooms;

f. ensure all new and upgraded washrooms are accessible to all members of the public;

g. work with the Toronto Public Space Committee following the conclusion of their competition “TO the Loo!” design challenge on potential design options;

h. develop a digital wayfinding tool citizens may use to find the nearest city washroom; and

i. report to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee prior to the 2026 Budget cycle on the cost of the initiative.

What’s City Hall reading?

City Hall spent $17,534.91 on Toronto Star physical and digital subscriptions, making it by far the most-read publication in the clamshell.

They also spent $4,455.22 on the Globe & Mail, $3,841.87 on NRU, $821.30 for the New York Times, and $657.70 at Postmedia. They also paid for subscriptions to Spacing, The Logic, The Economist, Toronto Life, The Wall Street Journal, Queen’s Park Observer and — aw, shucks — this newsletter.