Getting to see some of this amazing downtown Vancouver bike infrastructure for myself. It's wonderful!

THINGS ARE PRETTY GOOD HERE 🇨🇦 PeaceLoveCanada.ca

Thanks @brenttoderian.bsky.social for the awesome tour of Vancouver. So great to learn more about the housing and livability of this beautiful city.

And the thing that breaks many a brains - a Costco underneath a building right in the neighbourhood (terrible picture but you can look it up)

Behold the HORROR of neighbourhood retail. These STRANGERS are lined up for pizza. STEALING business from our main streets. And who knows what DANGER they present to YOU AND YOUR FAMILY?!?!?

Oh no! Not pedestrian Sunday!

Sidewalks should be spacious enough for greetings to become gatherings.

It’s real! Pretty moving to actually see this in person. 🥲

It’s really important that #Vancouver’s Downtown Business Association, who were originally against bike-lanes, are now among their most vigourous supporters, because of ACTUAL EVIDENCE that they’re better for downtown business than any street parking they replaced. Safe bike-lanes mean business.

This book is my current transit commute read! I attended the pre-launch of the book "Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation", by our old friends Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Vancouver. #UrbanismBookClub 1/

I’m in the stage of grief where one criticizes the winning team’s generally bad city planning. #WorldSeries

A global network of urbanists shaping the cities of tomorrow. From sustainability to resilience and fairness, we’re all tackling the same challenges—and we have so much to learn from each other. As climate change and other crises intensify, sharing ideas has never been more urgent.

Bluesky is at 40 million and the urbanism community on here seems to keep growing. Here’s my updated Starter Pack of Canadian planners, architects, advocates and urbanists. Some well known faces … and some you should get to know! Give them a follow! go.bsky.app/AEYL7FZ

It's Halloween. Everyone post your scariest neighbourhood photos. A coffee shop across from a house. 😱

Important piece by Brent—please check it out!

By car, we have given up all facets of freedom. - We frame dependence on cars as *freedom* - We spend a lot of money monthly on this very individual form of mobility – without questioning it. - Since ‘everyone’ now drives a car, all the former advantages of driving have been lost for years. Agree?

“We need to start considering the role of care in our daily lives—all the unpaid tasks that are the essential foundation of society, and our economy couldn’t function without them. But cities are so focused on the commute to work they forget about the mobility of care.” biketalk.org/2025/10/2542...

My column today, on how police departments' car-first attitude makes them say the darnedest things. Like "leave your e-bike at home."

I’ll be part of a panel discussion following the screening of William Whyte’s classic “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” hosted by the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. November 4 at the Faculty Club. Details at www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-social...

Elm Street in Winnipeg is crawling with little people. A few projection screens set up along the block showing the ball game.

Are Bike Lanes Good for Cities? via @iiutoronto.bsky.social h/t @shoshannasaxe.bsky.social @uoftcities.bsky.social #BikeTO

🎃 Some lessons from Hallowe’en: 👻 Little kids should be able to walk in the streets, even at night, without worrying about cars. People who are well-off are expected to give out more candy. Candy is for anyone who asks — no means-testing. Whatever else we are, we are each other’s neighbors.

“Hey, I thought everybody knew that adding more lanes to address traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to address obesity.”

World Series, Stadium Edition: Rogers Centre vs. Dodger Stadium 🤔

If the Rogers Centre had a parking lot that covered the same surface area as the Dodgers' parking lot, it would stretch from Queen Street on one end to the Lake Ontario waterfront on the other

day 4: the blue jays just crushed the LA dodgers 11-4. you know what else toronto crushes LA in? public transit. i'm a nerd, but it's funny how similar the ratio of transit ridership is to the points scored tonight. we're the transit city, and we're the baseball city too 🚇⚾

Walkable city baseball edition: Andrés Giménez on how you get the feeling of a city by walking it.

We know a lot about urban data, mapping, and storytelling! Now so can you. We’ve published an online textbook of learning materials on data analytics, data visualization, and narrative techniques, to make complex urban trends understandable and engaging. https://tinyurl.com/4wur8jfk

Parents of young kids - please be careful trick or treating tonight I found this Dodge RAM 1500 hidden inside a Snickers bar last year Unlike razor blades or Fentanyl massive trucks like this actually do injure or kill a significant number of kids on Halloween

Attention design teams! Help us turn this parking lot into a new urban park. The City of Toronto has launched an international design competition for a new park in Liberty Village. Details at tinyurl.com/5xzrwh6p

“A new study found when people moved from less walkable U.S. cities to more walkable ones, they increased their levels of physical activity and saw health benefits.” The design of cities can help us be healthier. We’ve actually known that for quite a while. #HealthyCities www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

day 2: dodger stadium's 16,000-spot parking lot is so huge, it could fit ~10 more dodger stadiums in its place. a monument to socal's asphalt addiction more than to baseball. meanwhile in toronto, an actual walkable, bustling city exists around the stadium

Jamaica is responsible for less than 0.03% of global CO₂ emissions but faces almost unimaginable loss and damage in coming days at the hands of wealthy nations. It's heartbreaking and utterly damning.

“In a city once choked with cars and infamous for its traffic snarls, Paris has pulled off a remarkable turnaround. According to a major new ranking, the French capital has officially become Europe’s best city for children to walk, cycle, and move around independently…” @momentummag.bsky.social

Not good news. Jamaica is the current focus for what this means in reality where Cat 5 hurricane Melissa is crossing the island. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

My FAVOURITE take-away was their highlighting of FIVE traits that helped these women change-makers be successful: 1. Lead with empathy 2. Have a long term plan/vision 3. Emphasize an understanding of “care work” (ie. care giving and family supports) 4. Build alliances 5. Value impact over power 3/

We KNOW how to solve the Climate Emergency. WILL we?

Freedom.

“The installation of community mailboxes might be seen as an opportunity to create a new type of street furniture that is beautiful and meaningful, weaving itself into this neighbourhood tapestry. If allowed to dream, the opportunities are limitless.” — @brentbellamy.bsky.social #Winnipeg

Amazing new billboard going up on Main Street (the side of Palomino Club). A celebration of three time Stanley Cup Champion Winnipeg Victorias. The first team outside of Montreal to win the cup.

“But urban thinkers see another way: cities designed for people, not cars. It sounds utopian, maybe even naïve, but these three urbanists say it’s achievable if city builders are willing to take bold steps and rethink the status quo.” 3 urban experts rethink how cities move.

“Ontario’s plan to ban bike lanes is ripped from the business lobby’s wish list. Buried in a new omnibus bill, the latest salvo in Doug Ford’s war on bikes is more than a vendetta—it’s a gift to corporate lobbyists.”

“Many major cities now have some version of a bike or scooter-share system, but Montreal revolutionized the trend…The tech behind BIXI became the backbone for bike-sharing programs in London, New York, Chicago & dozens of other places, turning two wheels into a genuine option for navigating cities.”

Worth reading! #UrbanistShoutOut

Embodied carbon isn’t just about the buildings, it’s about the landscape around them as well. Learn more about Toronto's benchmarking study for the carbon intensity of urban landscapes. Canadian Society of Landscape Architects webinar with report leads DTAH + City staff Oct. 30 tinyurl.com/2tt2r23w

I suspect the same is true in Canada: we’ve developed cities under a “drive until you qualify” housing market, starved public transit, enacted zoning/planning that makes it harder to build affordable moderate density; forced car ownership is part of the problem. @brenttoderian.bsky.social

CanU Forum: CHA[lle]NGE - Panel Spotlight Sharing our streets and the increasingly fierce competition for space in Canada's rights of ways 📅 FRIDAY OCT17th ⏰ 10:30 - 11:45 am 📍 Toronto, ON | Limberlost Place @ George Brown College Waterfront Campus 🔗www.canu.ca/registration2025

Join the Developer Roundtable at CanU Forum: CHA[lle]NGE Moderator: Eric Lucic Featuring Brian Sutherland, Jude Tersigni, Scott Pickles, Gavin Bailey, Joyce Lau 📅 OCTOBER 16th, 1:30-2:45 pm 📍 Limberlost Place @ George Brown College Waterfront Campus 🔗 www.canu.ca/registration2025

“Carnegie, who famously believed "the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced" and gave away most of his wealth, funded 2,509 libraries worldwide, including two more in #Winnipeg: St. John's and Cornish, both of which opened in 1915.” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Some of us could argue the present of urban North America already is.