While I'm very happy about yesterday's GreenTOpia launch and the upcoming Building Sustainability series, I'm saddened to see this Star story also published yesterday on a new "sport" - "Leaf Blower Hockey" - hitting Toronto parks. I guess that we won't have to worry about spending money on opening ice rinks in December if we can keep the air nice and warm with diesel exhaust through the holiday month. What do you think: Should such high-octane sports be banned within the context of the city's green goals? Or should the ...

Though there's urban development panels aplenty in Toronto, few of them have taken place in the neighbourhood that's currently experiencing the biggest change: Regent Park. So I'm hoping to make it over there tomorrow afternoon to check out Rethinking Redevelopment, a panel of filmmakers and residents talking about whether such large-scale slash-and-burn strategies are a good idea in any city, Toronto included. It's part of the Regent Park Film Fest, which kicked off Wednesday and wraps up Sunday. Some interesting films will screen to get discussion started, including Brooklyn Matters, a doc on ...

While the graphic Spacing editor Dale Duncan posted yesterday of Hazel McCallion wrestling Jim Flaherty definitely made me smile, the front-page headline on today's Toronto Star -- "PM to cities: Drop dead" -- made me laugh out loud. It's pretty strong, sarcastic stuff for a non-Onion, non-editorial-cartoon header, and made me wonder if it was a little too close to deadline at the copy desk when that went through. I notice that on the Star website the headline has been changed to the less inflammatory "Harper ...

The Star reports today that a deal has been reached on the development disputes in the Queen West triangle (some other concerns, such as height and architectural context, still exist). But while that dispute might be settled, it's just one scuffle in a much longer and citywide conflict that pits community (particularly low-rent and artist communities) vs. developers. What is to be done about these kinds of problems? They sure aren't going away. Well, it's surprising in these circumstances how cogent the advice of a monied, jet-setting starchitect can be. Talking (and admittedly perhaps goading) Will Alsop in an interview last month, he surprised me by noting that part of the problem is that Toronto doesn't have an affordable housing requirement for all developments. And that it darn well needs one. As you likely know from the monthlong media buzz, Alsop, who is himself designing one of those disputed condos in the Queen West Triangle, currently has an art show on at the Olga Korper Gallery. The show, which runs to July 28 features—interestingly, given uproar over his development record—somewhat elegaic drawings of everyday-life detritus (shoes, lamps, pens, etc.) superimposed onto clean white cubes (symbolically, Alsop's brand of neomod building). As a visual arts critic, what came across for me in the drawings (both prior to and after reading Jon Lorinc's Globe article about Alsop's potential plans for Kensington Market) was a tension between a love for certain aspects of the low-rent boho life (Alsop's known for his love of bar patios, and doesn't mind a good cheese every once in a while) and a building practice often thought to extinguish such forms of neighbourhood dynamic. And as a low-rent kind of gal myself, what also came across was that Alsop was aligning himself, both through the show and in conversation, with a “love of art and artists,” but was actually being accused of ruining artist life in the Queen West area. I'm running my gallery interview with Alsop almost in its entirety below so you can decide for yourself what Alsop's intentions are. It's long; the more flowery stuff is at the beginning two-thirds, the more thorny stuff (including affordable housing questions) at the end, if you're short for time. Let me know what you think. Interview: Will Alsop, June 7, 2007, Olga Korper Gallery Q. So, let me get this straight, you have five offices around the world, you're hopping from city to city, you're super busy; so what is it with this painting thing, where do you find the time? A. Well, I always have painted. I've always been associated with the way that art, either through friends or by going to art school, I did go to art school. And studied art, whatever that means. I suppose my real closest friends are artists rather than architects. So it's always around me. I spend time in Norfolk with my good friend Bruce MacLean, he's a very good painter, and we just paint. We do other things as well. It's just pure luxury.

Okay, so there's been immense coverage this past week about Ed Mirvish and his varied impacts on our city. But what are his impacts in the public space realm, good or bad? I know it can go both ways here; some people love that crazy sign, others hate it. I know it's certainly a useful marker for people newly arrived to the city--though, of course, once you're inside it's hard to know where the heck you are. Then there's the whole Mirvish village thing... it's a pretty nice block but feels a bit strange that it exists just ...

Just came across an interesting approach to reducing speed racing -- and making streets safer for pedestrians -- from the land downunda. It involves female characters observing speed-racing men, and then insinuating that they have inferior subzipper equipment. Apparently, turning to questions of manhood is "big guns" for Australia's anti-speeding admen. The dramatic, graphic, violent ads they had previously been running to stop speeding deaths just weren't working on the vastly Grand-Theft-Auto-friendly contingent of young dudes out there. So who knows? If sex sells, perhaps the threat of no sex sells even better. And for those of you ...

Following plenty of blog chatter last week around the demise of “Five Dollar Fridays” at the ROM (and accompanied by traumatic flashbacks about the demise of “Free Fridays” in the months prior) the Toronto Public Library is gearing up to announce a new-to-Toronto museum pass program this Wednesday. Though full details aren't yet available, it appears the program will function by allowing a small number of free museum passes (think less than 200 total) for weekly first-come, first-served pickup at “high-needs area” library branches. Similar programs also operate in Ottawa and Boston. Also, ...

This Sunday marks the last day for Torontonians to preview empty galleries at the ROM Crystal. And today (Friday) is the only day of the preview (which started Monday) that it won't cost you $20 to get in the door — admission drops to $5 for adults after 4:30pm. To my mind, the crystal is a building worth seeing and experiencing from the inside as well as out. As a result, I'm concerned about whether this building — which belongs to a public institution and holds its collection in the public trust — will be financially accessible to most members of the public. These concerns were detailed in part in a NOW op-ed published yesterday. I wanted to elaborate on them more fully here. In doing a little research (I'm no born museum buff, unfortunately) through the Canadian Museums Association, I found that most museums, the ROM included, work on the principle that their collection belongs to the public. Museums are exempt from taxes and receive funding from the government (and are created through acts of government) because they agree to both preserve and provide public access to those collections which represent our collective memory. Museums worldwide deal with tension between the goals of preservation and access (not to mention competing concerns of inconsistent government funding) in different ways. Some, like the London UK's Natural History Museum, National Gallery and the Tate museums, charge no admission fee for their permanent collections, but do charge fees for admission to special and touring exhibitions. They also have concession pricing for the unwaged.

It's smoggy. You maybe want to percolate your body in the outdoors, with lemonade and asthma inhalers and beer. Or you maybe want to celebrate contemporary Toronto architecture — with its attendant celebration/experience of air conditioning and climate control and wine in plastic cups. Well, if the latter's what you're after then tonight there's a serendipitous event on the sched. It's the launch of Design City Toronto, a glossy new coffee table tome highlighting designs of many newish “Renaissance T-dotto” buildings. Interestingly, some of the buildings included aren't even completed yet. Ask them about that if you go, ...

Back in January, a million miles removed from this sticky-tropical Toronto day, I posted about how much I liked the slogan "Toronto: You Belong Here." Originally devised as a post-SARS "please don't flee the city!" campaign by Lastman-era 'crats, it's a much stronger slogan, I think, than Toronto Unlimited, with more emotional pull. And it can still be used, with varying ad copy and imagery, to appeal to those "oh-so-hip" Cleveland and Buffalo alt-weekly readers that January's much-critiqued Live With Culture campaign was targeting. Following that post, others suggested to me that "You Belong Here" might not be the only gem lingering in the city's branding past. After talking to a few different people with knowledge of the city's marketing history and visiting the city archives to look through old tourism brochures, I found that the city's struggle to identify and self-identify itself in an attractive, accurate way has indeed been a long road. The result was an article in this past Sunday's Star, which you can read here. In the wake of that piece, I've received some interesting ideas and views from others. Olivia Chow notes that "You Belong Here" had a terrific Chinese translation that "Unlimited" does not: "Toronto: hearts connecting with hearts."