Think of your favorite board game. Maybe it's chess? Or Clue? Or Hungry Hungry Hippos? Now imagine it brought to life. No more fighting over who gets to be the battleship or the dog - in the case of Monopoly - because you and your friends are the pieces. And it's your city's public spaces that form the board.
Gentrification: The Game! - created by the artist collective Atmosphere Industries - recently took over Toronto's Kensington Market as part of Pedestrian Sundays.For this SUMMER SHORT, reporter Andrew Walsh brings us the sounds of the game, while producer Mieke Anderson catches up with one of the game's creators, David Fono, to talk about the importance of public play-time and tackling the subject of gentrification.
Note: Atmosphere Industries invites anyone interested in exploring or making big/public-space games of their own to get in touch!
Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 015:
Mayoral Race
• Ford went face-to-face with former player [ Toronto Star ]
• A Tory family affair - on the Thompson campaign [ Toronto Star ]
• Rossi vows to privatize garbage collection if mayor [ Globe & Mail ]
• Should John Tory run for mayor? Maybe he should ask Sam Katz [ National Post ]
• Ford says no debate, Smitherman camp cries fowl [ National Post ]
• John Tory could enter Mayoral Race late - and win [ Globe & Mail ]
• Stretch run [ Now Magazine ]
• John Tory for mayor? For real? [ Eye Weekly ]
• Mayoral makeovers! [ Eye Weekly ]
Cycling
• City launches campaign to get BIXI riders [ Toronto Star ]
• BIXI woos Toronto: Five things you should know [ National Post ]
• Calming the traffic debate [ Eye Weekly ]
Transit
• Metrolinx orders tunneling machines [ Toronto Star ]
• Deputy minister to head Metrolinx [ Toronto Star ]
• Q & A: Digging up the dirt on the TTC boring process [ National Post ]
• Giambrone vows to push ahead with open-fare TTC concept [ Globe & Mail ]
• 'Open-fare' technology not embraced elsewhere [ Globe & Mail ]
City Building
• Toronto to get new office tower and hotel near Union Station [ Toronto Star ]
• Perkins: New Hamilton stadium won't have Pan Am track events [ Toronto Star ]
• Frank Gehry clears the air on fishy inspiration [ Globe & Mail ]
• Reimagine Regent Park [ Now Magazine ]
Other News
• Crackdown in U.S. will bring clean air to Ontario [ Toronto Star ]
• Charge mysteriously disappears for G20 accused [ Toronto Star ]
• The curious case of the Scarborough stench [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto Hydro users may have to pay $8 million in class action settlement [ Toronto Star ]
• Customers on hook for Enbridge error [ National Post ]
• Different side of Bill Blair [ Now Magazine ]
• Speed demon [ Now Magazine ]
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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• Time's Michael Grunwald took the train ride from Miami to Orlando to consider the Obama administration's $8 billion investment in high speed rail. The US President aims to create 13 national high speed rail corridors to relieve road and air congestion, reduce carbon emissions and highway deaths, create jobs and jump-start the domestic manufacturing industry. The stimulus funding is a great first step but at 1/8 of last year's spending on highways, there is much more work to be done.
• The New York Times reports on the growing trend of cargo-hauling tricycles in New York City. The bespoke "industrial trikes" transform bikes from personal transportation devices to child-carrying, grocery-hauling complete car alternatives. Users even reported a positive change in their interactions with cars and trucks when using the device. Continue reading this post
Mayoral Race
• John Tory leaning toward run for Mayor's chair [ Toronto Star ]
• Speculation mounts over John Tory mayoral bid [ Globe & Mail ]
• Ford, Smitherman in radio debate? [ Toronto Sun ]
• Mayoral hopefuls hang signs [ Toronto Sun ]
• Smart car parked in dumb spot [ Toronto Sun ]
G20 Aftermath
• Police did fire rubber bullets into the crowd at Eastern Ave. during G20 [ Toronto Sun ]
• Accused G20 vandal to spend more time in jail [ CBC ]
Other News
• Bixi bike sharing program needs 1,000 members [ Toronto Star ]
• Customers on hook for Hydro suit [ National Post ]
• Hazel McCallion pushed sons project [ Toronto Star ]
• OPP cracking down on irresponsible drivers [ CBC ]
TTC
• James: Province-TTC spat hurts GTA transit users [ Toronto Star ]
• Our fare share: Comparing transit payment systems [ Toronto Star ]
Cycling & Driving
• Controversial Jarvis bike lanes open [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto won't measure impact of Jarvis St. bike lanes until autumn [ Toronto Sun ]
• Tougher rules target young drivers [ Toronto Sun ]
G20 Aftermath
• Cabinet rushed secret G20 change, documents show [ Toronto Star ]
• Lawsuit accuses police of G20 brutality [ Toronto Sun ]
• Ryerson students help G20 affected businesses [ CBC ]
Other News
• Crazy, sexy, cool [ Toronto Star ]
• Bradford canals on the move [ Toronto Star ]
• A book of the Toronto you never knew [ Toronto Star ]
• Big dreams for 'Little Ethiopia' dashed [ Globe & Mail ]
• Frank Gehry unfazed by plans to demolish childhood home in Toronto [ Globe & Mail ]
• Ontario eco fee outcry prompts early report [ CBC ]
Roads & Transit
• Man behind TTC's push for 'open payment' sticks to his guns [ Toronto Star ]
• Hume: From Halifax to Toronto, all roads lead to the future [ Toronto Star ]
• Vaughan: Gridlocked in suburbia [ National Post ]
Ontario Place
• Ontario Place: 'A fantastic Jaquar and you run it into a ditch' [ Toronto Star ]
• 10 visions of a new Ontario Place [ Toronto Star ]
• Once a gem, now generally forgotten, what could the future hold for Ontario Place? [ National Post ]
City Building
• Woodbines biggest gamble [ Globe & Mail ]
• City Place 2 creates traffic headaches in Toronto's downtown [ Globe & Mail ]
• Old Toronto's farm for minor offenders [ Toronto Star ]
• Urban Scrawl: A longing to return to 'People City' of the past [ National Post ]
G20 Aftermath
• Goar: City's bruising moment in the global spotlight [ Toronto Star ]
• G20 art eyes the face of authority [ Toronto Star ]
• Woman suing Toronto police for G20 injuries: Report [ National Post ]
Other News
• Pickering residents protest growing stink over sewer expansion [ Toronto Star ]
• Neighbours win showdown over lawn parking [ Toronto Star ]
• Bronfmans try to save fence around mansion [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto to Niagara: The honeymoons over [ Globe & Mail ]
Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
Spacing Ottawa editor Evan Thornton was on the road in Winnipeg this week and reports from that city on the dialogue surrounding the beautifully restored and vibrant Exchange District. During the decades when money was being funnelled into large scale modernist improvement projects the Exchange District was naturally and slowly rejuvenating itself.
On behalf of Montreal artist "Hyperalligina" Spacing is appealing to readers to help find the perfect empty lot in the city for part of an art project to be installed this summer using a grant from the Awesome Ottawa Project. The post includes some more details about what the artist is looking for.
On the transit file, the weekly Monday Musingscolumn this week generated discussion on how the proposed service cuts to bus routes around Halifax will affect the city. Additionally, Lauren Oostveen delves into the Halifax archives to look at the city's public transit history.
Spacing Atlantic is launching a photo contest challenging readers to encapsulate their city in a single photograph. Read more about the specific criteria and how to enter.
What does your choice of favourite buildings say about your personality? Continuing to digest the results from the reader survey of the best of Montreal, Spacing contributor Justin Boulanger speculates about the personal traits of the readers of who selected the top three favourite buildings and laments that the Sci-Fi nerds were not organized enough to get Olympic Stadium onto the podium.
In a landmark public space ruling the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled this week that the City of Montreal's anti-postering bylaw is unconstitutional. Christopher DeWolf reports on the story of how the law was challenged and speculates what the city will do to accommodate postering in the future. The post also includes a fantastic gallery of posters from around the city.
Name:Evergreen Brick Works Farmers' Market
Location: The Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave. Date & Time: Saturdays, 9-1 # of booths: 65 Contact: Website
The Brick Works farmers’ market isn’t just a market for veggies and fruit; it’s designed to be a family-oriented outing, complete with puppy in tow. With kids’ eco-craft programming every week, prepared food vendors and the ravines to explore, this market doesn’t fall short of things to keep one interested.
With around 65 vendors, the market caters to crafters, bakers, masseuses and other independent businesses as well as farmers and butchers. The market has 55% of their vendors as farmers and the rest are like-minded community organizations, a rotating schedule of about a dozen crafters and prepared foods such as organic hot dogs, organic French fries, crepes, honey, Koslicks mustard and even organic dog food.
Arlene Stein, programming director for Evergreen, says that she hopes the market becomes well-rounded to the point that it can be a one-stop shop for groceries. There are currently a few gaps that they are hoping to fill, including chicken, cured meats and Ontario produced grains. Also in the future, and once the Brick Works are officially open in September, the market will no longer be seasonal. For the past four years the market has run from May to October, but starting in November there will be an indoor winter market geared at providing greenhouse farmers, or those with acceptable cold storage, a place to sell their products.
Stein says that the market is centered on the design of European markets, designed to be lively and robust. In a building that is a destination for many in the first place, entertainment is “another layer” that adds to the warm and community feeling that is created upon walking into the historic building. Buskers and musicians are welcomed at the market, upon acceptance from market staff and volunteers, and the resident violinist Alana plays upbeat tunes that fill the space.
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