which way, canada?

It's said if you want to understand a government's priorities, you look at its budget & boy does Ford have his twisted. Wildfire budget numbers from: globalnews.ca/news/1196838...

Calgary’s fight over housing isn’t just about zoning—it’s about who gets a voice. After public pressure reversed blanket rezoning, policy activist Peter Dormaar argues wealthy homeowners have an outsized influence over housing debates. https://thewalrus.ca/rich-block-affordable-housing/

"The main roadblock to solving this issue remains that a politically overrepresented proportion of the Canadian citizenry benefit immensely from housing scarcity." This is a great overview of Canada's feudalistic housing system, its self-interested defenders, and the problem with public hearings.

Here you go

These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...

My statement on the EHRC’s Code of Practice coming into force on 5 August:

830 wildfires burning across Canada right now. And you know what’s going to make it worse in the future? More oil pipelines. This is why our voice and our vote matters.

Incandescently furious that Carney and most of the Canadian political class are ensuring that the climate crisis only accelerates, that my kid will look back on these apocalyptic days as the good times.

We have this idea that Ontario/Canada will be minimally affected by climate change (compared to the rest of the world) but increasingly having some of the world’s worst air quality days from wildfire smoke will have detrimental public health, environmental, and economic effects

👀👀👀 Another interesting study -- if you put seismometers on the lunar surface, then we might be able to search for passing decihertz freq. gravitational waves as they stretch and squeeze the Moon. The thicker crust on the farside might have a better response too! 🔭

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We've all seen Mayor Mamdani in a pool with his suit on but have you seen Vancouver Parks Commissioner Brendan Bastyovanszky in a speedo during today's press conference?

When something like this happens, we treat it as business as usual. Where are the calls to make parking lots safer?

Is it time to renationalize the CN rail network in Canada? It has been 30 years since Canadian National was privatized, and Wall Street continues to profit at Canada’s expense www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Church Street Pedestrianization in action on a busy Saturday night! Keep in mind this is the weekend after Pride festivities which is usually quieter cuz all the gays are tired, but people still decided to rally and come out to enjoy the street, which would usually be reopened to cars by now.

510 Spadina Streetcar crawling through King St intersection. Double Point switches were needed decades ago to allow faster speeds thru intersections, but the next best time is now, especially when we’re already rehabilitating intersections and sections of tracks.

Yonge Street regularly has over 10x more pedestrians than cars, even in the rain. Yet cars get 2x more space. This video faces west at Yonge/Edward, and only captures the west sidewalk, and peds still out number cars. YongeTOmorrow with wider sidewalks & more dedicated pedestrian space is overdue.

My @thestar.com column: Toronto's not the only city in the world. It's true. I swear. I looked it up. And a lot of these other cities, it turns out, have car-free streets. With clear examples to follow, we REALLY don't need to make pedestrianization so complicated www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

We should all be concerned and angry about the police demands for more money on things that should just be part of their existing job. Negotiating the base police budget is tough because of the system, but we should really demand that it should cover all these items.

Couldn't sleep last night because it was too hot outside so instead I ruminated on the 63 billion dollars we've allocated for defence spending www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Trying out video content! Be nice, I threw this together in literally 2 mins. Trying to combat my perfectionism and just throw stuff out there! Wanted to just document our progress on Church Street’s Pedestrianization Pilot thus far!

Toronto’s streetcars are the slowest in the world. The 506 College is among the worst of them. But we don’t need to reinvent transit to fix it. Real signal priority, modern track infrastructure, and dedicated space can #FixThe506 🚊

Toronto seriously needs to get event security costs under control which are responsible for tripling the Church Street pedestrianization pilot costs to $500,000! And to think TPS initially asked for $3M for paid duty officers? They get too much funding as is! #TOpoli www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...

Night 2 of the Church Street pedestrianization and it’s still going strong! Putting on my @jaypitter.bsky.social hat on and documenting lots of examples of public joy! Here’s a thread of my observations so far: (1/5)

Do you know an engineer/engineering student who can help us design ramps for the pedestrianization? It costs too much to rent 7 ramps so we wanna build it ourselves lol Also some more slides about the church street pedestrianization: assets.nationbuilder.com/villagebia/m...

$198M / 3,500 parking spots = $56,571 per spot. But no money for affordable housing, healthcare, education, OSAP, and ODSP. Got it.

Stuff like this and the annual weeks-long crush at the Christmas Market really shows the huge unmet demand for pedestrianized spaces in the city. The right answer is more, but I worry the city will opt for less. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

We don't usually see each others headers. Here's mine. Quote post with yours (if you wanna)

No, you’re not seeing double. Bike lanes save lives, and the ones on University Ave are doing double duty! As Councillor for Ward 11, in going to prioritize safe infrastructure for all commuters, implemented in a way that is responsible to local needs 🚲🚑

This video camera study showed that less than 5% of people on bikes broke traffic laws while riding bikes, yet 66% of people did so while driving. And perhaps even more importantly, if you REALLY want even MORE bike-riders to obey laws, build more protected bike infrastructure. Via @carltonreid.com

Toronto Critical Mass posted this on Facebook. Given the recent police violence perpetrated against a person on a bike on Queen's Quay, TPS' statement in support of that violence & the silence from City Hall, it's probably time we ride. Strength in numbers. Bring friends. Share widely. Ride bikes.

happy Pride Eve to all the people who are about to paraphrase this tweet from 2022 or repost it with my name removed as if it’s a thought they just had themselves

Our Church Street Pedestrianization website is now open to donations and volunteer sign up! While the existing city and BIA money can cover the basics of street closures (hostile vehicle mitigation, security, permits, some furniture), your donations will go into making the space more vibrant! (1/3)

Would you donate $10-20 if there was a community fund for street furniture, planters, art, etc to better activate the Church Street Pedestrianization? Or do you know any potential sponsors? Or even more importantly, your time! Please signup to volunteer here, there are multiple ways to help:

so uhh..I'd much rather those $20 million be thrown to installing real and effective PEDs, not fences. if our costs were normal, they'd fund TMU and a couple stations. if our costs were bad it'd fund just TMU. still a good proof of concept. but we're not "affording" even a single station, are we?

I’m not radical. You’re just colonized.

Today in fuck Doug Ford: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

When the old Chief City Planner of Toronto clocks how unambitious the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot is lmfao

Good news*: Church Street Pedestrianization has passed! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🚶🚶‍♀️🏬 From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your support—everyone who signed the petition, spoke to council, and offered encouragement along the way. (1/9) *Bad news later in thread

"For many workers, silence was no longer worth it."

Reading the report, this is how people access the Toronto subway: 61% walk 29% bus/streetcar (TTC) 5% crossboundary transit system 3% auto, taxi, rideshare 2% park at TTC parking lot

Massive turnout and positive atmosphere at the Nabka 78 March + United Against The Far Right

If you haven’t signed the new Church St Pedestrianization petition yet, I am once again asking for your signature! This one is for the city wide council vote for May 20, so please do it before then! www.experiencethevillage.ca/petition

Inea’s story is one of home, tradition, and memory over generations.

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.   Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us.

Anyone free Wednesday May 13 10am-noonish to be part of a promotional video about Church Street Pedestrianization? It’ll be an informal interview format in the Village! Email me and @francescapoli.bsky.social here: [email protected] [email protected]

The City of Ottawa posted the raw speed data from before and after Doug Ford banned speed cameras and the effect is so obvious it's not even necessary put a line marking when that happened. This chart shows the percentage of drivers going 15km/h or more over the posted limit.

Elbows up, eh?