This Friday, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design will welcome award-winning cartoonist Ben Katchor to present “Reading in Public,” an illustrated history of public reading rooms and libraries in New York City. WHEN: Friday, April 20, 6:00 PM WHERE: 230 College Street, Room 103 HOW MUCH: Free Katchor's work as an graphic novelist, illustrator, and author focuses on urban lore and the often ignored or unnoticed details that colour our cities. His lecture will tell the story of the earliest public reading rooms in New York City, which were established to offer children an alternative to the luridly illustrated dime novels that were sold in cigar stores and at corner soda fountains. The books offered by the first public reading rooms were devoid of illustrated covers and were intended to improve, rather than excite, young readers.

[caption id="attachment_24264" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Image from the NFB documentary One Millionth Tower"][/caption] This week’s free lectures in Toronto include a talk on whether getting rid of the OMB is really such a good idea, a discussion about we can do to improve our high-rise neighbourhoods, and a conversation between two collectives interested in urban design, art, and civic change. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6 Villain or Scapegoat?: The Ontario Municipal Board and Land Use Planning in Ontario Guest speaker: Aaron Moore, a Post-Doctoral Fellow from the Institute on ...

This week’s free lectures in Toronto include talks on what it takes to build a great city and Toronto’s growing inequality. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Toronto in Question Lecture Series, Cities Centre, University of Toronto City Building: Beyond the Concrete Cities Centre’s Toronto in Question lecture series continues with guest speakers Ken Greenberg (architect, urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants), and Dr. Larry Bourne (Professor Emeritus, Geography, and Senior Advisor to Cities Centre). Where: The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, 230 College ...

[caption id="attachment_23708" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="United Auto Workers strike, 1955"][/caption] This week’s free lectures in Toronto include talks on the future of sustainable architecture, what Jane Jacobs got wrong, city planning in Vancouver and Abu Dhabi, and how the United Auto Workers (pictured above) shaped the city of Oshawa. Plus, don’t forget the information night Hop to it! on wonders and benefits of Runoff Voting. For all the listings follow the "continue reading" link.

Want to go back to school, but can’t afford it? I recently realized that there is an abundance of free lectures in Toronto. Between the University of Toronto, OCAD, Ryerson, and York (plus all the colleges, cultural institutions, community organizations, and smarty-pants hipster-types who create new speaking series for fun), you could go to a lecture every night of the week in this city if you wanted to. And if you are a bit of a geek like me, that’s a very good thing. Like any big city, Toronto itself is an institute for higher ...

WHAT: Mayoral debate on planning, community and environmental sustainability WHEN: Thursday, October 7, 7:00 – 8:30 pm WHERE: St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts, Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front Street East Let’s face it: urban planning isn’t a very sexy municipal issue. As Edward Keenan suggests in the most recent issue of Spacing, “Try telling the guy at the next bar stool that one of the key achievements of David Miller’s second term was passing the harmonized zoning bylaw, and see how long it takes before he suddenly gets really interested in whatever sport is playing on the TV above the bar.” His point: planning is one of those subjects that, when mentioned, often causes people’s eyes to gloss over. And who can blame them? When conversations about proposed developments are reduced to conversations about GFAs, setbacks, commercial versus residential coverage, and angular planes, a baseball game — even if you’re not really into baseball — seems a whole lot more exciting. But a city’s approach to urban planning affects everything from transit to sustainability to affordable housing to the design of our public spaces. Break it down into its various components and you’ll find that residents across the city are actually incredibly passionate about planning issues, whether they realize it or not. In short, people everywhere want a say in how their neighbourhoods grow. They want to play a role in building the city. So, the question to ask candidates in this month’s municipal election is this: how are you going to engage residents in the planning process and ensure that they have a meaningful voice in the future of their neighbourhoods and the city as a whole? The leading mayoral candidates will have the opportunity to share their thoughts on this and other planning issues tonight (see details above) at a debate organized by People Plan Toronto in partnership with Toronto Debates 2010.

Dale Duncan is a former editor of Spacing. The opinions expressed in this article represent her personal views on this weekend's events. Leading up to the G20 summit, at meetings organized to provide local residents and business owners with information about what to expect, police and politicians reminded those in attendance of our right to assemble and demonstrate in public spaces. The vast majority of people who joined demonstrations yesterday did so peacefully. But what people are most likely to remember about this summit is the much smaller group of militant thugs who decided it would be a good idea to set police cars on fire and smash the windows of stores and banks. There's no question that those who vandalized our city should be stopped and held accountable to their actions, but, now, it seems that the average citizen’s right to peacefully protest in Toronto is being treated as though it’s a criminal act. Sadly, it’s the aggression exhibited by the police — not the so-called Black Bloc — that have instilled fear in many members of the general public who witnessed some of the events of this weekend. Some are commending the police for showing restraint yesterday; I witnessed some of that restraint. I went for a walk to Yonge Street in the afternoon and, by chance, happened upon the vandals who were out breaking storefront windows. As I watched people march by, my heart pounding and my mouth agape, there seemed to be no police in sight. With all the money spent on security this weekend in Toronto —"the biggest security operation ever in Canada" — I don’t understand why the police weren’t able to stop these criminals from continuing to smash windows all the way up Yonge and then West along College.

    WHAT: Junction Tree Tour WHEN: September 7th, 11am to 1pm WHERE: Meet at the northwest corner of Keele St. and Dundas St. West HOW MUCH: Suggested donation $5 As centennial celebrations culminate during the Junction Arts Festival, join LEAF arborist Todd Irvine as he explores the neighbourhood to uncover both historic and newly planted native trees. From back streets to grand boulevards, the Junction is home to a diverse array of trees including the rare black oak often associated with High Park. Wander down a hidden alley to discover a honey-locust with a vigorous, ...

The Toronto Tree Tours is a collaborative project of LEAF and the Toronto Public Space Committee that offers walking tours in neighbourhoods across the city as well as virtual tours on its web site. The aim is to introduce Torontonians to the individual trees in their neighbourhood while telling stories of our city's ecological and cultural history. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parkdale Tree Tour: Stop 13 Street trees suffer many more environmental stresses than trees growing in a forest. This honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is planted in a bed of concrete, an unnatural condition for any tree. ...

LEAF (Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests) is throwing two tree tours this weekend. These tours are a great way to learn more about Toronto's urban forest, the stresses that our city's trees face, and the stories behind some of our neighbourhoods' most cherished trees. Both tours listed below are lead by arborist (and Spacing's Green Space columnist) Todd Irvine in partnership with members of the local community. Here are the details: WHEN: Saturday June 14, 2008 WHERE: Cedarvale Park and Neighbourhood Tree Tour START: 1:00 pm END: 3:00 pm Suggested donation: $5. If you ...