Great episode, as always. Canada would be well-advised to accommodate EU elevators codes (and other elements of the building code). Especially in today’s age where we are looking to diversify trade relations and tying ourselves exclusively to the US market has become particularly problematic.

Single-stair stacked-flats, next to the park. 33' lots. Each floor plate is 24' x 56' and can have one "family size" 3Br flat, or two small units.

Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"

If you're interested in how the Canadian federal government can build affordable housing at scale now, please join us next Thursday, September 25 at noon ET for a great webinar: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The often ignored word ‘universal’ is key to human rights www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/c31f2f5...

TODAY: How nonmarket developers and providers can work together more effectively in a portfolio approach - register to watch live or receive a link to the recording! schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/bundling-ass...:

The approach - govt land for nonmarket hsg, definition of affordability, designated funds to address homelessness thru supportive hsg, including acquisition of apts, supporting construction innovation - is right. Now we need targets, timelines, action. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Gonna be a big day for housing announcements here in Canada. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

For anyone who cares to pay attention, the fact that major developers are lining up behind the NIMBY mayoral candidate tells you a lot about real-world housing politics and who the real shills tend to be in local YIMBY/NIMBY fights. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/n...

please enjoy this mass timber social housing where midrise development and trees are co-exist. 2-story wood aufstockung (vertical addition) w/ infill point access block in courtyard. number of homes *doubled* www.archdaily.com/1033635/timb...

A great new report, says the author :-)

Canada was a leader in UN peacekeeping -bring back global moral leadership, argues @lindamcquaig.bsky.social www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

'Don't take shit' is a lesson I learned from my mother and grandmother. From a great series on mid-life 'lane changes' by Celia Chandler! www.celiachandler.com/blog/lanecha...

When evictions are part of business plans, it’s time for more nonmarket housing & better renter protections www.thestar.com/real-estate/...

“I don’t care how much you love working people. They can’t afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,” ... “I don’t want to know your ideology, because you can’t build anything. It does not matter.” 🔥👀

very excited to announce I have been featured in Liberal Currents, writing about what Zohran’s pro-housing policy should look like! here’s the TL;DR: 1) upzone, upzone, upzone 2) address hard costs & permitting 3) leverage the public sector 4) appoint the right people 5) sell the vision

This is the way instead of forcing workers back to the office. Downtown Edmonton office tower converting into more housing | Urbanized share.google/YVUbTbwnoGuh...

I want the record to show that PM Trudeau was instrumental in getting domestic manufacturing of vaccines in Canada. You know who shut down scientific research & drug manufacturing in Canada? Harper. When we talk about building Canada & being self-reliant, conservatives are all talk & no action.

In a recent op-ed for @thestar.com, SofC Senior Housing Researcher @cwhitzman.bsky.social outlines why it is so important that home ownership not be the only goal in housing availability – not least because it will remain unattainable to so many for so long www.thestar.com/opin...

Now with an exclamation point!

Umm the good kind of nimbyism???

14 year old Aussies for the win

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Strong argument by @cwhitzman.bsky.social for why we need stronger rent control and tenant protection - so people don't buy just for security of tenure.

I also appreciate @cwhitzman.bsky.social's criticism of the CMHC study. I had read it and had similar questions. The author brushes off rent control, but briefly admits it works just fine in Quebec. Why not say, rent control presents challenges but these can be addressed when designed properly?

Homeownership should be a choice, not a necessity to obtain secure tenure. My latest (paywalled, sorry) www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Very happy to be included in these cool crowd?

While Bluesky may not have the user base of Twitter or FB (611M & 3.07B), it does have a healthy 38 million registered users. Bluesky reaches people who tend to be kind, solutions-focused & future-oriented, compared to the big corporate social media channels. I consider that a feature, not a bug.

Spain, Norway & Switzerland all have wealth taxes - why not Canada? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Still think families with kids don’t want to live downtown? They will, if you actually plan for them. Downtown Vancouver’s 3rd elementary school is opening this fall in Coal Harbour. 3 storeys, 340 capacity (should’ve been more), homes/daycare above. 7300+ kids (0-14) in downtown peninsula (2021).

I used this social interaction graph A LOT when I was teaching.

AMEN. I always try to use “home” even and especially when talking about supportive, student & seniors’ homes.

Good thread from Ottawa councillor @seandevine9.bsky.social. Begs the question of how many circuses (new and renovated stadiums) while there’s such a need for bread (affordable housing, reliable public transit). I’m more of a zero circus person, but 1 seems like a possible compromise…

One cool way to solve homelessness that isn’t an authoritarian take over of a city is to give everyone homes

Some pure evil from The National Post. Note the quotes. I wonder if the journalists who penned this gave a thought to how normalizing the murder of journalists by calling them terrorists might someday bite them, or someone else whose basic humanity they recognize, in the ass.

This thought is beyond the scope of this story but there is a positive spin to the gradual decommodification of housing for the federal government, if they want it: people can diversify their assets into economically productive investments (which could further help us Build Canada Strong™)

There's a growing intergenerational understanding that ownership prices need to go WAY down - or stay stable while incomes go WAY up. I'm cited in the @theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

Thanks for bring that blog to my attention, @amoralorealis.bsky.social. I don’t mind being called a ‘pragmatist’ but I do mind a fact - ownership is unaffordable to middle-class people - being called ‘an opinion’ or somehow ‘anti-ownership’.

I love when someone uses facts to call out a nasty liar. The ghost of Jack Layton is smiling rn.

Canada’s house prices are falling, but not enough. Is Australia next? I’m interviewed in @theguardian.com Australia www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

I listened to @mehdirhasan.bsky.social in @jonstewartdaily.bsky.social & I’m all for gloves off in US.

Want better-located, more environmentally suitable, affordable homes? Offsite construction + zoning/ building code change + rapid approvals! Me again, in @thestar.com www.thestar.com/real-estate/...

Subskeet of a lot of things here but the “purpose of the YIMBY movement” is to make it known that people are okay with things being built near them, principally housing, usually, and certainly in my case, because we think it will make housing more affordable. 1/x I don’t know I’m in a mood

As @philmarfisi.bsky.social says, a few 1000 of these, please, everywhere.

More Toronto councillors & mayors need to speak in this language. Make the opponents to safe streets for all say they don’t care about a certain number of deaths & life changing injuries. Every time. Ask them what their threshold number is.

How moral rot happens

"Prof. Whitzman said student housing, senior’s housing and affordable rentals are three ideal scenarios for prefab housing". I'm on Metro Morning tomorrow bright and early (after 7 am news) talking about it: www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

Gift link 🎁 www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/34655be... University of Toronto senior housing researcher @cwhitzman.bsky.social: “I’m not saying Build Canada Homes is a bad idea. But there’s stuff that could be happening tomorrow and there’s stuff that should be happening tomorrow."