Archives /// Matthew Blackett
August 9th, 2010
San Francisco’s plan to deal with parking
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SFpark Overview from SFpark on Vimeo.
I know I'm stating the obvious when I say this: parking a vehicle downtown, in Toronto or any city, can be a challenge if not entirely frustrating. But the parking policies of a city go a long way in determining how a city is experienced at street level. For instance, the city of Prince George, BC has nearly 50% of its entire downtown area covered in parking lots. Toronto's downtown used to ...
August 4th, 2010
Mapping subways
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If you've been reading Spacing Toronto for any length of time you'll know that I have a fascination with transit maps. So much so, I've proposed a few map ideas to the TTC in the past (which is probably why I was asked to design the original Transit City map).
The world's most famous subway map, designed by Harry Beck, is found in London, England and is considered the world standard-bearer of transit maps. It compresses the sprawling Underground (12 lines, 270 stations) network into a digestible size that is rather easy to understand.
Toronto's subway map is simple, simply because we have so few lines and only 69 stations. New York, on the other hand, has 26 lines and 468 stations (as a side note: can you imagine what we at Spacing would have to do to make subway buttons for NYC's subway system?!?). A quick look at a New York subway map reveals that the city has yet to find a comfortable way to display their system with the same ease as London.
In an O'Reilly Radar post, graphic designer Eddie Jabbour explains why he chose to re-design New York's subway map and all of the minute details that need to be considered during the creative process. One of the more interesting tidbits he points out is that in North American cities our subway networks tend to follow the grid of the streets, whereas in most European cities the subways operate in rail corridors and cannot conform to the winding, medieval street grid. This means that North Americans usually have a greater understanding of where they are once they're underground.
July 15th, 2010
VIDEO: Nothing is higher than an architect
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If you live in a place without air conditioning than you can relate to my current plight: the heat wave is making it difficult for me to sleep at night. When I find myself wide awake and sweating buckets at 3am, I sometimes sit on my couch, place the fan directly in front of me and watch a bit of late night TV.
The other night/morning, the TV gods were kind to me: they offered up a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza is handing out a scholarship, in honour of his late fiancée, to a kid who aspires to be an architect (George's fake occupation). The recipient later changes his mind and wants to be a city planner, which earns George's wrath: he revokes the scholarship. The kid ends up in a gang who later confront George by demanding that he give back the scholarship and let the kid become a city planner.
July 13th, 2010
Bike parking takes over car parking spaces
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Toronto bike riders can celebrate a "first" today: the City has converted two car parking spots into parking for a minimum of 16 bikes.
Here is a little background on how it happened.
Last year after I returned from a month-long trip to Scandinavia — where I witnessed a variety of amazing bike infrastructure projects — I was determined to see if any of them could be implemented here in Toronto. One of the easiest things, I figured, was the conversion of a few car parking spots into bike parking. Montreal had done it a few years back and I saw other examples in cities like Vancouver, New York and Portland.
A year ago, there were six ring-and-post bike racks in front of Spacing's office on Spadina that could hold up to 12 bikes, yet a survey conducted by our landlord, the Centre For Social Innovation, determined that 75% of tenants rode their bike to our building in the summer. That meant there was a demand for 150 bike parking spots near our building. While the landlord provided bike parking in our building for about 30 bikes, there was still a significant shortage of spots available on the sidewalk for a few blocks. Cyclists were parking to stop signs, support wires for light poles, the pipes of water mains, the scaffolding attached to our building for much of the summer, and any other thing you could fit a lock through.
June 29th, 2010
G20: The revolution will be televised (on YouTube)
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Last week, social media demonstrated that Toronto is a quite a plugged-in city: Twitter, Flickr and Facebook quickly confirmed that an earthquake had happened before any news media could get it out. And this weekend, Torontonians did an outstanding job of documenting the G20 protests and altercations. Here are a few items that made an impact on me.
THE BEST VIDEO, DAY 1: This is a well-edited video of the rampage that took place in the downtown core. The videographers at times were able ...
June 28th, 2010
G20: A few questions to ask organizers of G20
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Simply put, this weekend in Toronto was horrible on every level. All of the events that transpired need to be examined with critical eyes — from residents, elected officials, and the media — in order for the city to come to grips with the scars left behind by the G20 Summit. I've pulled together a few questions any Torontonian should ask their elected officials.
WHY TORONTO?
Violent protests at G8 and G20 summits are as common as breathing air, so why would any federal government official think it would be a good idea to hold this event in any Canadian city? Mayor David Miller clearly stated that he did not want the summit held in the city as did many other local politicians. But Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has said the summit was a chance to showcase Toronto and Canada. "These are marketing techniques that have been put forward by our best people to be able to showcase Canada, and that's what we all want. We want to be proud of what Canada represents and what we can do."
So what did the delegates and foreign media get to see on their visit to Toronto? Not the vast array of cultural activities available downtown. Not the amazing restaurants we offer on King and Queen streets. Not the vibrant neighbourhoods and local businesses that operate so close to the core. None of the delegates got to see a city that prides itself on tolerance and diversity. When an event like this forces downtown residents to flee the city, no foreign television crew or intrepid newspaper reporter will have a chance to discover the true spirit of this city.
June 23rd, 2010
Earthquake! Tsunami warning for G20 fake lake
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Yes, an earthquake shook Toronto. And Ottawa. And Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Windsor, places in Ohio.... There has also been a tsunami warning for the G20 fake lake (ahem).
The National Post is reporting that the quake was in the mid-4 range of the Richter Scale, while the US Geological Survey is reporting a 5.5 quake. The epicentre is believed to be 70km north of Ottawa. You can learn about the St. Lawrence fault line, the culprit of this quake, on Wikipedia.
But to really follow what's ...
May 19th, 2010
Help give us the goods on Toronto
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In each issue of Spacing we have a feature called Public Goods that highlights cool stuff for the discerning urbanist. We've showcased items such as Andrew Alfred-Duggan's MASH MAPs, Yasmine Louis' skyline-inspired shirts and pillows (pictured above), coffee cup holders for commuting cyclists, and ties that replicate the street grid of specific cities.
We need your help to keep uncovering these gems: let us know if you see any products we could feature in our upcoming issues. Our criteria is simple: it should be Toronto or city-inspired stuff. You can leave ...
May 18th, 2010
Tonight! Take a Stroll with Shawn
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UPDATE: Coach House Books will be selling copies of the infamous 1975 "CN Tower Fall Zone" poster that we wrote about in 2006.
WHAT: Launch of Stroll, a book by Shawn Micallef
WHEN: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, starts at 8pm
WHERE: Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas Street West
COST: free!
INFO: Check out the event listing on Facebook, or where to buy the book and see the Stroll hub for additional walks and excerpts.
Spacing's staff couldn't be more proud of our senior editor Shawn Micallef: his first book, ...
May 16th, 2010
Morning bike traffic: when congestion is good
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Last year I spent a month in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany examining how the great cities of those countries tackle urban design, transportation and planning issues. Previously, I've also spent time in The Netherlands where I got to experience the quaint and charming city of Utrecht, though it was only for two rain-filled days so I sadly never got to see the scene portrayed in the video above.
What is remarkable about the video is the sheer volume of trips made by bike in the morning rush hour. I got to see similar scenes in Copenhagen and Malmo last year — although I was only armed with a camera I tried to capture the "congestion" of bikes on a busy throughfare.
