Archives /// Matthew Blackett
November 22nd, 2010
Building a better intersection for pedestrians
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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).
October 21st, 2010
ELECTION: Powers of the mayor should sway voters
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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.
October 20th, 2010
PODCAST: Buffalo, Detroit, and the T.O. campaign trail
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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 ...
October 18th, 2010
VIDEO: Lake Shore Blvd. bridge demolition time-lapse
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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.
October 6th, 2010
PODCAST: Countdown to election day!
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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 ...
September 30th, 2010
SPACING: come to our release party Wednesday!
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WHAT: release party for the fall 2010 issue of Spacing
WHEN: Wed. October 6, 2010, doors open at 7pm
WHERE: The Courthouse (57 Adelaide St. E., just west of Church)
HOW MUCH: $10, includes copy of new issue; $5 for subscribers
FACEBOOK: feel free to RSVP to the event on Facebook
Come celebrate the release of our new issue on Wednesday, October 6 at the Courthouse (57 Adelaide Street East). It’s a great chance to mingle with mayoral and council candidates and other passionate urbanists to discuss key issues Toronto’s facing, and ...
August 26th, 2010
Looking down at Pittsburgh
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The title of this post is deliberately misleading simply because whenever I go to a city I look down to see what the city offers — whether it be garbage bins, sidewalk etchings, or fire hydrants.
As any long-time Spacing reader will know, I have a bit of an obsession with streetscapes and the elements that are peppered along roads and sidewalks. Whenever I visit another city I tend to spend a day wandering around, looking down and photographing the details. That was no different when I visited Pittsburgh this past weekend.
When I told friends and colleagues I was off to Pittsburgh for four days the most often response was, "Pittsburgh?"
Yes, Pittsburgh. While I've been to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, Pittsburgh has always been off my radar. The city has always had a reputation as being down-in-the-dumps since it lost hundreds of thousands of jobs from the 1960s into the 1980s when steel mills and factories closed shop. While the population of the city has dwindled from 675,000 in 1950 to 311,000 in 2009, the city has reinvented itself as a bio-medical and education hub (luckily, the city has six universities all within walking distance of each other).
August 19th, 2010
How to (not) promote access to the waterfront
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I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed but Toronto's waterfront doesn't seem to be on the radar of the mayoral candidates in this election. This is surprising since one of the candidates (Joe Pantalone) is a city councillor of a ward that borders Lake Ontario while another one (George Smitherman) used to represent a provincial riding that includes the Toronto Island, airport, Don River, and skirts the Port Lands. I suspect it's only a matter of time before HTO Park's yellow umbrellas are introduced to the miser wrath of Rob Ford.
But this post is not meant to challenge candidates. Instead, I'd like to discuss our access to the waterfront. Or more importantly, how the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto have dropped the ball on effectively directing pedestrians and cyclists to make their way down to Lake Ontario.
I live in the most southern part of Parkdale, just west of the CNE grounds. The Jameson pedestrian bridge that crosses over the eastbound lanes of Lakeshore Blvd. is a one-minute walk from my place and I have a clear view of it from my balcony. It's used quite often by walkers and cyclists. But it's the only entry point to the waterfront and the Martin Goodman Trail for over a kilometre in either direction.
So how is this vital access point promoted? With two rather insignificant signs: one is a few blocks away from the bridge itself (see it on Google StreetsView at Jameson and King West) and another sign is two short blocks away at Dunn and Springhurst, both residential streets (shown above). These are the only signs I've found in the western part of the city promoting access to the waterfront. The other popular pedestrian bridge, at Roncesvalles and King, has a grand total of zero signs promoting its location.
August 11th, 2010
WWW: Bikes, transit, and why gardens are good for school kids
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• There is a tradition amongst cycling advocates around the world to attach a "ghost bike" — every part of it painted solid white — to a light pole or bike rack in order to memorialize the death of a cyclist near that location. New York City is considering a law that would allow the city to remove these bikes.
• The Guardian reports, "Much has been written about a war between cyclists and drivers, as if the two groups were such polar opposites that they could never cross in a Venn diagram. But according to new research, people who cycle the most are likely to own at least two cars."
• High-speed rail is a hot topic south of the border, especially along the densely populated east coast. The Philadelphia Inquirer has compiled a handful of their articles on the topic into one easy-to-read section.
• "The controversial Cincinnati streetcar plan may have made its final political stop at City Hall on Wednesday, when City Council authorized moving ahead with $108 million in grants and bonds for a project that has dominated civic debate for the past three years. In a series of 5-3 votes mirroring the action of council's budget committee earlier this week, council gave city administrators approval to proceed with $44 million in grants and $64 million in bonds that will finance most of the Downtown-to-Uptown streetcar line's $128 million first phase."
August 10th, 2010
VIDEO: Skateboarding in Kabul
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I was never very good at skateboarding as a kid, though I spent way too many nights trying to slide the bottom of my board along the curb outside my house. Over time, the board became more useful as a tool for moving my ball hockey net to nearby school yards and parking lots. But I had a lot of friends in high school who were excellent boarders so I spent numerous hours taking photos as they perfected their moves and tricks.
In the intervening years I ...
