Results tagged “urbanism”

The next time somebody tells us that Toronto is in the midst of a war on cars we are going to buy them a plane ticket to Copenhagen. Or possibly Bogotá. New York if they want something closer to home. We will send them to one of the growing number of cities that are actually demonstrating the nerve to redefine their planning priorities in favour of liveability and environmental sustainability and dare the auto-obsessed malcontents to say that they aren't all the better for it. For all the recent controversies over Toronto's Bike Plan and Walking Strategy, over our notions of just talking about taking down one portion of one disastrous highway, and converting one traffic lane on a road that is not used to capacity [PDF] to allow five times the number of people to use it on their bikes, Toronto's initiatives are piddling, tentative, nibbling-around-the-edges sorts of things when compared with what is happening elsewhere in the world.

As we reported on Friday, this weekend was the annual extravaganza of pedestrian urban love known as Jane's Walk. With dozens of walks exploring every corner of Toronto (and many more in cities across the continent), there was a glorious medley of tours to choose from. We were there (well, not everywhere), and though we couldn't begin to do a comprehensive survey of the walks on offer we did manage to log dozens of kilometres, and pick up a good number of fun tidbits along the way. Behold some of our favourite finds...

"Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks—the pedestrian parts of the streets—serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians... Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what comes to mind? Its streets."

Actions: What You Can Do With the City is a new collection of essays and photos brought to us courtesy of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. It's lazy Sunday afternoon reading, perfect for dipping into at random, rather than the sort of book you settle in to work through from beginning to end. The goal of the collection (and of the exhibition it accompanies, showing at the CCA until April 19) is to bring to the forefront little pockets of activity which general hover under the radar of urban life. The essays are organized thematically around four areas—walking, gardening, recycling, and playing—and provide theoretical, historical, and cultural context for everything from freeganism to parkour. More than offering dry analysis, the essays celebrate these activities, casting them as expressions of joy and vitality which make cities better, even when they defy conventions, expectations, and sometimes also by-laws.