To coincide with the launch of Spacing's first national issue, the magazine presents the Spacing Road Show, a tour of 10 Canadian cities this summer. In each city Spacing will host an event with a panel discussion and party. The western swing of the Road Show takes place between June 16-to July 5. The eastern Canada jaunt runs from July 19-25. The Spacing Road Show is sponsored by BMO SmartSteps for Homeowners and supported by Autoshare and the Canada Council for the Arts. WINNIPEG —The first event of any tour — whether it's a rock show or a magazine launch — can be a little nerve wracking. Especially when it's in a city where no one has ever really heard of you and you're relying on social media, word of mouth, and a little media whoring to get asses in the seats (I got myself and the Road Show promo'd on Breakfast Television, CBC Radio, and the local Metro paper). I was eating dinner at the Winnipeg Free Press news cafe (I love the idea of a newspaper having a ground level cafe!) about 30 minutes before the doors were supposed to open at the gallery when I received a call that people were already arriving. This was a good sign and my nervousness was easily replaced by excitement. The three panelists that took part in the panel — Richard Milgrom (University of Manitoba, Planning), Christopher Leo (University of Winnipeg, Political Science), Robert Galston (local blogger of Rise and Sprawl) —were wonderful speakers and provided local insight into where urbanism is headed in Winnipeg. Probably the most amusing part of the night was the seating. If you look closely at the photo above the people sitting along the back wall were actually on top of bundles of hay. The hay is for an upcoming exhibit in the gallery, but the gallery's curator Joe Kalturnyk and myself set up the bushels as makeshift bleachers. There is nothing more urban than hay, right?

To coincide with the launch of Spacing's first national issue, the magazine presents the Spacing Road Show, a tour of 10 Canadian cities this summer. In each city Spacing will host an event with a panel discussion and party. The western swing of the Road Show takes place between June 16-to July 5. The eastern Canada jaunt runs from July 19-25. The Spacing Road Show is sponsored by BMO SmartSteps for Homeowners and supported by Autoshare and the Canada Council for the Arts. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS AN EVENT IN SASKATOON TONIGHT WINNIPEG — After 24 hours of driving through Ontario over a three day period, I finally set foot in Winnipeg. I arrived a few days in advance of the first Spacing Road Show event (last Thursday) so I could get the blood running through my legs once again. Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll give a short report on the event and some of the things I saw while in Winnipeg, but I thought I'd give a little insight into my trek just to get out of Ontario.

Back in Spacing's spring 2010 issue, we featured a photo essay by Surendra Lawoti that focused on the life of people living in the Don Valley. Lawoti’s detailed and large-scale images focus on the makeshift shelters and their inhabitants that can be found along the river, as well as the recreational users of this green urban space. It is through the people he pictures that we begin to understand the dynamics of this landscape. This Saturday May 14,  Lawoti will discuss his photography series with me at Gallery ...

Thanks to all of Spacing's readers who braved the cold and long-weekend blues on Monday to show up to the El Mocambo for our 20th release party. Photographer Yvonne Bambrick captured a handful of images of our guests, as well as our Create Your Own Fantasy Toronto Transit Map contest. You can see all of the photos in Spacing's photostream at Flickr.

Back when the Pinko button-craze was full blown, we sent a handful of buttons and magnets to Don Cherry and his sidekick Ron MacLean. We hoped he'd wear a button on his weekly Coach's Corner, but he shied away from even mentioning the incident. Yesterday, Spacing received a postcard from Cherry. On the front of the card he wrote "thanks for helping the Home", a reference to the Darling Home for Kids where some of the proceeds from the button sales will end up. On the back he ...

I recently came across an interesting proposal to improve the safety of pedestrians at busy intersections. Korean designer Jae Min Lim studied the routes pedestrians instinctively take while crossing the street. In most cases, people tended to walk outside the confines of the zebra-stripes as they approached the sidewalk. Lim's proposal — an idea that was short-listed in a recent Design Boom competition —  is to round the edges of a crosswalk. In Toronto, this idea would be appropriate at intersections where right-turns on a red light are restricted or streets with heavy pedestrian traffic (but are not being considered for a scramble-intersection approach).

Back in the summer, when Rob Ford carried a large lead in the polls, a lot of friends and colleagues would talk to me about the looming election with impending fear and angst. But each conversation would end with the comment, "Well, at least he is only one vote of 45," or "Luckily, the mayor doesn't have that much power." While those may be comforting thoughts to Toronto progressives, these assumptions are naive at best and deluded at worst. It is true that the mayor's vote is equal to all other councillors, but the chief magistrate does have much more power than many residents know. For instance, the mayor automatically has a seat on the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB). He/she is also the person that represents the City in inter-governmental affairs. And the mayor sets the tone and tactics of any labour negotiations. It is these powers of the mayor, I believe, that should sway the swing and undecided voters of this election away from Mr. Ford. And maybe even push Joe Pantalone voters towards George Smitherman.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST SPACING RADIO EPISODE! As election day nears in Toronto, we hunt down mayoral candidates Joe Pantalone and Rob Ford. And our reporter Daniel Guillemette discovers that neither one is doing much campaigning in our public spaces these days. We also talk to Councillor Joe Mihevc - who recently put his support behind George Smitherman (we featured Smitherman last episode) - about what the next mayor needs to do on his first day on the job. And we take you to the American ...

Lake Shore Blvd. westbound bridge demolition from Spacing Magazine on Vimeo. As part of the City's plan to upgrade its aging infrastructure (with some funds from the federal government's stimulus package) a handful of bridges around Toronto are being repaired or rebuilt. Since the spring, the multiple bridges near the intersection of Lake Shore Blvd. and Jameson Ave. that cross over the Gardiner Expressway, very close to where I live, have been in a constant state of destruction. Back in May, I watched for two days from the balcony of my apartment as half of the Jameson Ave. bridge was torn down and carted away. In early August, I teamed up with Sam Javanrouh, photoblogger extraordinaire and Spacing contributor, to document the dismantling of the bridge that contains the westbound lanes of Lake Shore Blvd.

Spacing Radio is back for Season Four and we’re jumping right into Toronto’s election debate! Check out our newest episode or subscribe via iTunes. This election has been zany, to say the least. We go to Toronto Star columnist Christopher Hume for his take on why candidates have strayed so far off topic. And leading up to voting day, reporter Daniel Guillemette is on the campaign trail looking at how the front-runners are using our public spaces. Also in this episode, all the election talk about the so-called "war ...