Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.

A new city was founded this week, the city of Spacington . Spacing staffers will use Sim City to attempt to turn Spacington into a 21st century utopia over the coming weeks using feedback from reader commentary. Comment early, comment often and help build the city.

Gordon Price uses the Prince Points feature to look into the story of a cluster of towers at Lougheed Town Centre. Through the work of David Pereira, Price explores the tower's connections to Simon Fraser University and why such density was built in the midst of what was significant greenfield at the time.

While many questioned the future of the skyscraper after September 11th, Sean Ruthen shows that the last decade may have precipitated a century in which the tall building will be zeitgeist. Through his review of Andres Janser's new book Highrise Idea and Reality, Ruthen discusses the global phenomenon which has seen the number of high rise buildings on earth double in the past 10 years.

Jay Baltz reports on the ongoing effort to enact guidelines on Ottawa's use of Section 37, the portion of Ontario's Planning Act that facilitates density bonusing, and criticizes how the guidelines have changed over a year of consultations.

Eric Darwin uses the Walkspace feature to highlight some of the difficulties Ottawa pedestrians face this time of year through a photo series of a good samaritan getting no respect from drivers.

Joel Thibert explores the hotly debated question of what really influences people's decisions on where to live. Delving into a variety of related studies conducted around the world Thibert proposes ways to make increased density more acceptable to the next generation.

Devin Alfaro provides a glimpse inside Montreal's complex municipal governance, analyzing the potential outcomes in an upcoming by-election that promises to be a tough fight with implications for the city's opposition parties.

As Saint John enjoys the completion of its new Official Plan, Morgan Lanigan comments on how the next step will be a thorough review of the Zoning By-law in light of the lessons learned over the 40 years of urban planning.

As disagreement on council continues to leave Toronto's transit planning in shambles, John Lorinc weighs in on the roles of various actors in the debate and who needs to step up to restore order.

Shawn Micalleff uses the Toronto Flaneur feature to react to John Tory's appointment to head up the revitalization of Ontario Place, making a compelling argument that the rethink should stay rooted in the site's rich past while emphasizing its role as a public space.

Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist
Jerry Waese.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange at Places:The Design Observer discuss Supertall - a recent exhibit on the world's tallest buildings at New York's Skyscraper Museum. The exhibition focuses on buildings built between 2001 and 2016 that are taller than the Empire State Building (100 stories plus) - a total of 48 projects worldwide. Lamster notes, "The irony is that these supertall buildings are designed to be iconic, memorable signs for the cities that build them, but their similarity works against that desire, and instead we seem to be creating placeless modern places that look great in ads for luxury automobiles."

Image from Places:Design Observer

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

I was in Berlin in December for a few weeks wandering around. It's a good walking city. East. West. Amazing differences and amazing activity going on there right now. Walking up one of the central avenues (see map here, and the picture below, for context) I had a brief feeling that I was still in Toronto when I saw the remnants of an Andrew poster pasted to a wall. Torontonians noticed 1000 of these posters put up around the city in 2010. Everybody wondered who was responsible, until BlogTO broke the story that it was artist Shaan Syed's project, a memorial to his late partner Andrew Hull who was killed while cycling in London. He has continued the project in the last year, putting 1000 posters up around Berlin. Check out Syed's website to see photos of the posters, and the alterations people have done to them -- ephemeral public art can take on a life of its own.

Meanwhile, Back in Toronto:

The photo above was taken the other day at Bay and Grosvenor, one of a few that are still around. This one, as you can see in the shot below, has been protected underneath the hoarding at the Burano construction site.

TRANSIT
• The state of Toronto transit [The Grid]
• Fact check: Ford on traffic, Forum on subways [The Grid]
• How to pay for the Sheppard subway [The Star]
• James: what transit needs is better politics [The Star]
• Hume: Ford digs himself a hole on Eglinton [The Star]
• Road tolls, parking fees needed to pay for Sheppard subway, Chong report concludes [The Star]
• Transit adviser backtracks on touchy subject of road tolls [Globe & Mail]
• Rob Ford opposes tolls to finance subway [National Post]
• Critics rail on Sheppard subway report [The Sun]
• Toronto falling behind pack in averting bicycle collisions, data reveals [Globe & Mail]
• Use Ontario Place to generate transit funding [The Sun]

OTHER NEWS
• Hazel McCallion: conflict of interest hearing involving Mississauga mayor moves to Brampton [The Star]
• Toronto zoo eager to get Chinese pandas - and will find the cash, vice chair says [The Star]
• Kensington Market stalwart is on the block [Globe & Mail]
• Kensington Market's pedestrian Sundays to be more frequent [Torontoist]
• Here's what $1-million will buy you east of the DVP [National Post]

Editor's Note: Last week, Toronto's liscencing committee voted against the idea of lifting the (rarely-enforced) ban on owning backyard chickens. Although the debate inspired a large number of egg related puns by councillors and the media, the idea didn't get a lot of serious consideration. While some concerns seem completely legitimate (especially concerning the role of Animal Services), a lot of the contention seemed to circle around the notion that chickens would be a pest. Mairin Piccinin has spent years living beside an owner of urban chickens and shares her experience with us.

Like many Torontonians, I’ve become aware of the growing debate over whether to lift the ban backyard chickens in the city. We’ve all heard the arguments about noise, smell, and attracting vermin. We’ve heard the dire warnings about avian influenza.

These arguments seem like no brainers to most city folk. But I find myself wondering how many are basing their views on first-hand experience. So, for those fellow citizens who have only had the pleasure of getting to know a chicken on their dinner plate, I’d like to share a bit about my own fowl urban experience.

I was nine when my family traded up from our Lego-block townhouse to a mid-century back-split with a giant backyard and a chicken coop next door. The chickens fascinated me. I would spend hours running back and forth along the chain link fence that separated our yards, clucking, cooing, squawking, mooing—making any farm noise I could think of to get their attention.

I quickly understood that grownups generally didn’t share my feathery fascination. But their downright distaste was baffling and, since at nine I still believed she actually knew stuff, I asked my mother why. “Well,” she explained, “It’s actually illegal to keep chickens in your backyard, and if the city knew about them they would take them away.”

As usual, her answer only led to more questions. Why would adults who had never met these chickens think they were a problem when nobody living on my street did? What would happen to the old lady if she lost her chickens? They were her pets and she loved them. I imagined the city taking away my dogs and felt sick. Fortunately, no one has ratted her out, though. Yet.

Yes, backyard chickens make noise. That’s because, unlike their dismembered cousins at the grocery store, they are typically alive. But the noise my chicken neighbors make, a few clucks and bok-boks every now and then, is easily drowned out by the cars on surrounding streets, the planes that fly by every 3 minutes, construction on nearby Yonge Street, and all the other abrasive noises that envelope Toronto in daily cacophony. If, in some apolcalyptic scenario, technology were silenced across the city and natural noises reclaimed their historical position as sovereigns of the soundscape, the soft clucking of chickens wouldn’t stand a chance, at least in my neighbourhood, against the yapping of dogs and the ranting of the delusional.

Yes, chicken shit smells. Chickens produce excrement, which, unlike the delicately floral-scented waste of dogs, cats and humans, has a distinct pong. I will admit that occasionally, on the summer’s hottest days when rain is a vague memory, the pungent note of baking chicken poop might just add a little something extra to the unmoving haze. But most of the time, any chicken-sourced aroma gets lost among the city’s myriad natural and industrial perfumes.

Yes, chickens may attract predatory raccoons or even coyotes. But so do green bins. Fortunately, since inventions called “the door” and “the bungee cord,” every citizen now has access to amazing varmint-deterring technology at the nearest Canadian Tire store.

The welfare and treatment of chickens kept in urban backyards is a big concern to animal rights advocates. While I can’t vouch for all the urban chicken farmers of Toronto I can say, after years watching my neighbor care for her chickens, that her chickens do better than spoiled lap dogs. The chickens come running when she enters the backyard, more for pets and cuddles then for food. Compared to their factory farm equivalents, these birds live in the lap of luxury.

The freedom of movement, the freedom to peck, scratch, and wander as they please is something factory farmed chickens never get, and is, according to my neighbor, the reason her hens produce an overwhelming number of eggs. And their bounty of eggs is guaranteed to be hormone free, a luxury for us humans in world of mass produced food.

So for now the people in my neighborhood are happy to look the other way, as they’ve done since I was nine years old, and let chickens continue doing what they do best, clucking, pecking, and laying, all while remaining relatively unobtrusive.

photo by Rachel Tayse

Well, here it is: Spacington. The new look of 21st century urbanism- well, kind of. The truth is there is nothing here yet, and that is because this is just the beginning. Every week this plot of land, slowly or quickly, will become our Sim City version a 21st century urban city.

During the week the Spacing team and myself will attempt to develop Spacington into a walkable, densely populated, diverse cityscape. Borrowing some suggestions from urban theorists such as Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl, and Ken Greenberg, as well as the LRT focus of 21st century urbanism, Spacington will become a simulated version urban city we all want. Check the blogs every Thursday and keep on track with our city's evolution.

(Editor's note: In the upcoming national issue of Spacing, senior editor Dylan Reid presents his outlook on urbanism for the next century)

Oh, and for all you Sims gurus out there, join in and comment on the cities development. Give us your suggestions, disagreements, or encouragement, and help us build Spacington into the best 21st century urban city.

It begins now folks, so post away will pre-planning suggestions.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Grist talks to urbanist Witold Rybczynski about his recent efforts to call out Richard Florida for playing "fast and loose" with income statistics for American urban centres. Florida posited a positive relationship between density and household income, using figures for metropolitan areas rather than city centres. Rybcyznski wants to shed light on what we believe to be true about the city and whether we have the data to back up those beliefs.

Image from The Atlantic

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture

The architects Atelier Kastelic Buffey are definitely worth watching. I wrote last week for The Globe and Mail about a chalet they designed, at a ski resort near Collingwood, that is minimal and extremely well-detailed - all on a reasonable budget.

More pictures after the jump.

It fits into a certain school of Canadian design that includes KPMB and others who show their influence - Dubbeldam Design and Superkul, to name two. But AKB's Kelly Buffey also mentioned to me that they are influenced by Peter Zumthor, and it shows here in the subtle, endlessly creative use of the most rustic materials. (Plus there's lots of IKEA in there.) I'll look forward to seeing them progress to public buildings. Meanwhile, enjoy the pics.

TRANSIT
• Timeline: how Toronto's transit mess unfolded [The Star]
• TTC timeline [NOW]
• Mayor Rob Ford goes on the offensive for his transit plan [The Star]
• Ford to Stintz: it's the subway or the highway [Globe & Mail]
• Doug Ford says TTC needs a shakeup - 'a complete enema' [Globe & Mail]
• Checking Rob Ford's polling: do Scarborough residents want a subway? [The Star]
• Ford makes push for transit below ground in Scarborough [National Post]
• Rob Ford did not have the authority to cancel Transit City, Hazel McCallion says [National Post]
• Mississauga mayor says Ford transit plan can't come at other cities' expense [The Star]
• Ford: Eglinton LRT promise sticks [The Sun]
• Thumbs up for Sheppard subway extension: report [The Sun]
• TTC not serving T.O.: Chong [The Sun]
• Adam Giambrone: Picking up the pieces [NOW]
• TTC in tatters [NOW]
• Cost confusion on the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown [Torontoist]

ONTARIO PLACE
• John Tory to head Ontario Place revitalization [The Star]
• Casino not ruled out as an option to revive Ontario Place [Globe & Mail]
• Much of Ontario Place to close indefinitely; John Tory to lead revitalization charge [National Post]
• Surgery needed for Ontario Place [The Sun]

OTHER NEWS
• The Fixer: 'cyclists dismount' signs will soon ride away [The Star]
• Real Jerk wins injunction to delay eviction [The Star]
• Sandra Bussin having a hard time saying goodbye to politics [National Post]
• Derelict Delights: West Toronto railpath buildings [The Grid]

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture

It's out: The new Globe and Mail building will be designed by KPMB, with Marianne McKenna as partner in charge.

It will be at the corner of Front and Spadina, on the site of the Toyota dealership in the picture above.

See my previous post on No Mean City here. Full details to follow as they emerge.

With the news that John Tory will be heading up the revitalization of Ontario Place, let's revisit a piece I wrote 1.5 years ago, exploring the faded-glory of Ontario Place. Revitalize yes, but just save those hot-pants pods. 1973 vintage photo via the wonderful Not My Father's Slides.

In one of the photo albums I grew up with, one that contained snapshots of my parents’ lives before I was born, there were a handful of pics taken in 1971 at Ontario Place, the year it opened. They’ve all got the golden tint that photos from that era have acquired — the troubles of the day seem far away as everything is muted by that gilded patina. One that always stood out is of a polyester-clad choir singing what I imagine is the old Expo ’67 Ontario anthem “A Place to Stand.” It all looked so optimistic and young, the brilliant future of Ontario and Canada.

The future is old now — nearly 40 years old — and it’s easy to drift into nostalgia about a place like Ontario Place, one of those civic spaces that are nostalgia machines. Everybody of a certain not-too-old age has a memory of either romping or working around here or heard stories passed down from a baby-boomer parent of working here in the early 1970s.

Yet as the Ontario government — it doesn’t seem like it, but this is a public space — is planning a major redevelopment of the area, this is no time for nostalgia. Some of the best buildings in Toronto are at risk of being swept away because the bureaucrats in charge have let Ontario Place slide into irrelevance. No offence to bureaucrats intended, but they may not be good at running things that are, well, supposed to be fun. Anybody who’s visited Ontario Place in the past decade or more knows it needs a major overhaul. It’s boring, neglected and tired. The future isn’t what it once was.

When it opened in 1971, it was Ontario’s $29 million answer to Montreal’s Expo ’67, if not in terms of civic pride then in dreams of waterfront and economic stimulus (a Toronto theme that never seems to go away). Designed by Toronto’s Eberhard Zeidler, it was constructed on fill dumped into Lake Ontario off the CNE shore, including three old lake freighters that were sunk and filled with sand to act as anchors for the landfill. The five pods that were suspended over the lake are like nothing else in the world, and the Cinesphere had the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre. For those who like to fret about Toronto’s world-class-ness, we’ve got some beauties right here. Once housing exhibits, the pods are only used for wedding and event rentals now. With floor-to-ceiling glass, they have some of the best views of Toronto, and few people get to see them.

Like Expo ’67, its opening brought with it a kind of Trudeaumaniacal excitement. If Expo let Canada be sexy, Ontario Place said this historically uptight province could be too. Ads from that first year proclaimed the glories of “The Girls of Ontario Place” claiming “There’s a lot to see at Ontario Place, and some of the easiest things on the eye are the attractive guides.” The Globe and Mail even did a photo spread of said girls, writing, “The 100 girls who are the hostesses at Ontario Place for the summer… have hot pants and pantsuits, a midi, a jacket and a stretchy yellow-and-white bubble blouse. Most popular are the hot pants. One girl commented ‘I’ve just got to shorten them.’”

Today, Ontario Place could use more hot pants. The uniforms (on both sexes) are frumpy and oversized now (though perhaps on account of the deep-fried foods that are served in huge portions — even the coffee bar is called a “fill station”). On a recent trip there, I spent over $15 just to enter the grounds for a walk that included few free attractions and a lot of either rundown or neglected buildings. On the east side, where the beloved children’s village once was, a dead, mostly paved space called “South Beach” is located near the waterslide park. The other older bits that have survived here and there are unloved, and the newer games and attractions seem temporary, as if part of the CNE.

Ontario Place was never a money-maker, and there are newspaper stories over the decades lamenting this. The only part that is a really profitable is the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, though it came at the cost of losing the Forum, an intimate outdoor concert venue in-the-round (the circular stage even rotated) with open seating under a tent-like roof and grassy areas. Baryshnikov danced here, many Torontonians saw their first symphony on that stage, and in 1980, after 1,000 fans of Teenage Head rioted for four hours when they were turned away from the sold-out show, “rock” concerts were banned for some time. The parklike forum has been replaced by high-security amphitheatre with gloved paramilitary-looking security people. The open stage over at Harbourfront has taken on the easy-come-easy-go role of the Forum, but without its bucolic, nearly forest setting.

When the Forum was torn down in 1994 and chainsaws were taken to over 400 mature trees, architect Zeidler told the Toronto Star, “Once the park image has gone… it’s Coney Island.” Zeidler’s original design was much more parklike than Expo ’67, as exhibits were a small part of the experience, as he said in 1974: “[It] wasn’t like Expo… the key was to create leisure time, space within an urban context and the spaces for exhibitions themselves become only one of many developments.” Last month, when talk of redevelopment went public, he said what happened to Ontario Place is like “a fantastic Jaguar, and you run it into a ditch.”

Ontario Place needs a near-complete rethink. We should bring back the park, make it free and turn it into a great Toronto public space. Build housing in and around it, so it’s a 24-hour neighbourhood, not just alive during the summer daylight hours. As dense communities are growing in nearby Liberty Village and Fort York, putting people in Ontario Place would nearly surround the CNE with life.

Yet whatever we do with this place, we must retain the hot-pants parts: the pods and sphere. Modernist buildings at this age are at greatest risk. Like awkward teenagers, they are unloved and are routinely disrespected, but parents don’t disown them; they know they’ll come around in a few years. Also at risk is a particular Toronto look that Zeidler gave us at Ontario Place and at his Eaton Centre, itself about to get a $120-million renovation which will likely remove many of the 1970s “futuristic” Space Shuttle–era details. Because of the age of both these places, and their connections to fun times, it’s easy to dismiss our built heritage as nostalgia.

But as Jane Jacobs said, new ideas need old buildings, and these buildings are now old, just like now-loved Victorian architecture was when she wrote those words. It’s time to do new things with these fine buildings.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Anthony Flint at The Atlantic Cities explores the expansion of urban highway removal across more North America centres and notes the cultural tensions that can flare when such a major piece of infrastructure is slated for demolition. Also worth checking out, the Atlantic Cities has a slideshow of urban highways on death row.

Video from WorldScott

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

WHAT: Spacing's 2nd national issue release party
WHEN: Friday February 3rd, 2012, 9pm-1am
WHERE: Canvas Lounge (99 Powell St. in Gastown)
HOW MUCH: free! (mag costs $5)
RSVP: Let us know if you can come at our Facebook event listing

The editors of Spacing and contributors of Spacing Vancouver are excited to announce that the magazine will host a release party at the Canvas Lounge in Vancouver to celebrate the publication of the newest national issue. We will have some fun activities and a few door prizes.

This event is held in conjunction with the annual conference for the Canadian Association of Planning Students (CAPS).

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ISSUE:

• Q&A with Mayor Gregor Robertson: Can he become North America's greenest mayor?

• The Rise of Roadsworth/Peter Gibson: Contributing editor Christopher DeWolf looks back how this stencil graffiti artist transformed the streets of Montreal and changed how we view street art

• Urbanism for a New Century: Spacing senior editor Dylan Reid outlines the urban design trends of the last decade and where city-building is headed in Canada

• There are also loads of photos, book reviews, and features on the details of Canadian cities.

Copies of this issue will begin to arrive for subscribers after Feb 6th. Newsstand copies will be available across Canada the week of Feb. 6th.

Gregor Robertson photos by Mischa Bartkow

TRANSIT
• Toronto councillors throw TTC Chair Karen Stintz under the bus [The Star]
• TTC board throws Stintz under the train [NOW]
• Ford attempts coup to stall debate on Transit City [Torontoist]
• Stintz bid for facts on Crosstown line derailed [Globe & Mail]
• TTC chair blindsided by 6-to-3 vote dismissing report [National Post]
• York region transit riders have free service for two months to make up for strike [The Star]
• Fiorito: I don't care what train I'm on [The Star]
• Family files $4 million lawsuit in TTC bus accident fatality [The Star]
• TTC using $5M awarded by council to beef up Wheel-Trans [National Post]
• Councillor wants to know who paid for Transit City legal opinion [The Sun]
• Metrolinx wants Toronto to make a transit decision [The Sun]

OTHER NEWS
• Hume: one Trump short of a deck [The Star]
• Talking Toronto towers [National Post]
• Pan Am velodrome approved by Milton council [The Star]
• Judge delays decision in Real Jerk property dispute [The Star]

Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist
Jerry Waese.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

The Smithsonian Magazine explores Who to Believe?, a Parisian garden in front of City Hall designed by Francois Abelanet. Playing with the traditions of the French garden and Anamorphosis, Abelanet shows that the view of City Hall is quite different depending on where you stand.

Video from WorldScott

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

TRANSIT
• Transit City flap raises prickly question: what power does Toronto's mayor have? [The Star]
• James: Transit circus never leaves town [The Star]
• Karen Stintz's bold moves on transit draw admirers - and critics [The Star]
• Rob Ford: 'I did what the taxpayers want' [The Star]
• Mayor Ford to rebel councillors: voters gave me transit mandate [Globe & Mail]
• Transit woes reveal the limits of mayoral power [Globe & Mail]
• Toronto's transit battle: compromise possible, Stintz argues, as mayor pushes for underground and opponents push for LRT [National Post]
• Transit City is not dead, lawyers argue [NOW]
• "It doesn't make sense" - a poem by Rob Ford [The Grid]

OTHER NEWS
• Roof topping: the guerrilla art of photographing cities from atop skyscrapers [The Star]
• New Regent Park building brings sunshine into lives of residents [The Star]
• Mississauga councillors vote themselves a 2% raise [The Star]
• Paint recycler threatens to stop collections at Ontario municipalities [Globe & Mail]
• Citizen group seeks input on a new business model for Riverdale farm [Torontoist]

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

“The map user has now become the map creator,” says Fraser Taylor, Director of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University. In a recent article on This Big City, author Christine McLaren explores the phenomenon of citizen cartographers. With the proliferation of mobile GIS technology and open-source mapping tools, citizens are increasingly finding and creating new datasets to map and overlay. Traditionally a way for authorities to control their jurisdictions, citizen-driven cartography is being used to hold governments to account.

Image from This Big City

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca