Located at the edge of the City of Toronto, but in the centre of the GTA, the Downsview Park site could become a significant public space, and one of Canada's biggest urban parks. Downsview Park consists of approximatley 600 acres of federally owned land, and plans are underway to turn about half of this land into urban park and recreation space. Parc Downsview Park Inc. will be holding a public meeting tomorrow in order to present the preliminary plans for the redevelopment of Downsview Park. For those unable to attend, you can view a live ...

Walking through the city, one is treated to a variety of sounds -- it could be the conversation of the people walking ahead of you on the sidewalk, the scraping of hockey sticks on asphalt as kids play road hockey, or the revving of car engines. And with the proliferation of people wearing headphones in public these days, more and more people are creating their own private soundtracks for the city. Traffic Island Discs is a London radio programme that makes some of these private soundtracks audible: "Traffic Island Discs is a radio programme about music, people and ...

Growing food in your front yard is unconventional in just about any North American city, but in many places, especially the suburbs, farming your yard could be considered a defiant act. The Edible Estates project wants people to reconsider how they use private front yards. At work in nine different American cities, Edible Estates will partner with residents to turn their suburban lawns into prototype food-producing gardens. "Edible Estates proposes the replacement of the American lawn with a highly productive domestic edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to ...

Like so many roadways of the 1950s and '60s, Seattle's I-5 freeway cut through the city and destroyed pedestrian connections between neighbourhoods. In an effort to undo some of this damage, the city has decided to create a park under the elevated freeway. The 7.5 acre strip of park space includes a picnic area, a mountain bike trail, and a dog park. As well, residents are encouraged to take part in the creation of other sections of the park. Read more about it here. While nothing is underway yet, there is talk of ...

The Ideas section of today's Toronto Star has a feature on psychogeography. The article notes a growing interest in psychogeography among artists, architects, and urban planners, and checks out the Glowlab: Open Lab festival and exhibition that wraps up today at Art Interactive in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Through a series of public events, the artists participating in the nine week event explored the effects of the urban environment on people's emotions and behaviours. The piece also looks at some Toronto psychogeographic happenings: local artist Jessica Thompson is interviewed about her Soundbike project, and ...

I'm fond of GoogleMaps as a way figure out where I'm going, mostly because of the "satellite view" feature. But now even more mapping fun is on the way. Google has just launched GoogleTransit, a feature that allows you to search a city's transit system. The Trip Planner allows you to enter the specifics of your trip, and then uses all available public transportation schedules and information to plot out the most efficient possible step-by-step itinerary. According to their FAQ page, you can even compare the cost of ...

Yes, the ground is verging on frozen right now, but the people at the Toronto Community Garden Network and Foodshare want to put their winter to good use and inspire a new batch of community gardeners. There are all kinds of places you can start a community garden —- in a city park, on an abandoned plot of land, on a rooftop, outside your apartment building, or at your school. These two organizations are a great resource if you are interested in starting one up. Starting in January, Foodshare and the TCGN are presenting ...