Starting with a voice coach in January, and he wants videos of me singing...realised this one is one won't be much use since it's more of a Springsteen impersonation than earnest singing, so now it's for all of you instead. Merry Christmas.

Been a bit quiet with an intense final push for the year at the ol day job but today’s the last day in the office till the new year and have some exciting stuff planned for ‘26. Stay tuned—have a Christmas Penny in the meantime.

❄️☀️

on grey winter mornings like this it's nice to remember there are also these kinds of winter mornings...

cedarvale ravine (winter version)

City, interrupted.

Don't want to share too much of my Big Bathurst Walk as the photos are going to be part of a formal published photo essay, but here's a preview...

Thanks a lot @shawnmicallef.bsky.social for indirectly making me do this stupid long walk today

That’s different bc I’m the only one on the list

The simple beauty of an outdated medical centre lobby.

@anotherglassbox.bsky.social For your “buildings like cordyceps” file.

People have forgotten the classic texts

Corner store 🥰

I hate it here cc @jamespmcleod.ca

Public disorder is out of control on Toronto’s streets.

I also wanted to explicitly thank @jasonthorne.bsky.social and the EHON team for their efforts on this. It’s already a pretty thankless task dealing with resistance to change, and then a neurodivergent street photographer won’t stop yapping from the other side. Grateful for their grace + patience.

I am really happy (not entirely but that’s a whole other tangle) with this outcome and article. My only caveat is I am given too much credit in this one.

Thank you to everyone who wrote in and helped Toronto get this far, especially to @anotherglassbox.bsky.social for all of his work.

A win! But it took thousands—including petition signatories, tour participants, emailers, Matlow’s staff, the mayor’s staff, the councillors themselves, and some I surely forgot—to keep momentum and morph this into consensus. Thank you all.

The leftist Toronto media bias towards reality has struck once again.

I went back to Family Mini Mart today to show you all what neighbourhood retail actually looks like. No AI. No Music. Time to grow up.

what a time to be alive

"they're making corner stores a culture war issue"

BREAKING: Neighbourhood Retail already leading to increased theft.

The shamelessness of aping my own documentation and art (their creation on the left, my photo on the right) to exaggerate the impacts of retail… Sad. Derivative. Misleading.

I kind of want to go to the rave at the mid-block 7-Eleven in Riverdale?

The folks at IntegrityTO have finally weighed in on neighbourhood retail with AI generated scenes of creepy faceless loiterers congregating outside a 7-11… Mind you the recommendation (that didn’t make it past committee) was for *corner lots*. They can’t even prompt right.

so @joshmatlow.bsky.social has posted a motion that allows councillors to adopt neighbourhood retail in their own wards, effectively allowing the removed attachment to be adopted on a ward-by-ward basis. it's not perfect but it's something!!!

I got some brutal family health news last night so I've spent the day so far in the ravines with Penny (she says hi, btw) to parse. I'm going to try and spend less time online this weekend, but wanted to post some action items re: the upcoming council meeting on Nov. 12.

Came across another indie coffeeshop coping with unusual circumstances last night...remember how the new age crystal store was a holdout at Mirvish Village? Well, a multi-vendor market has opened in its place, including the physical location for Spirited Tarts.

I've seen dozens of videos of Zohran Mamdani being asked for his favourite bodega food. In Toronto, that question would be "what do you buy at the Metro to eat at your desk?"

Dan says it right: this is a city, and we need leaders who will say so.

Prior to 1959, retail units (like one that now contains a popular pizzeria) were allowed without major issue. Then we made rules to block them, and then some people spent a lot of time talking about "old Toronto" as if it was the natural way of things. Which old Toronto? When? Something to consider.

I wrote an op-ed on what I think about the fight for local neighbourhood retail (and the grousing about Badiali's) means for the urban vision of Toronto. Gift link here: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

"Neighbourhood interiors were never intended for commercial activity", says one letter writer. To be fair, this is true, if you toss the entirety of human history and modern day Earth outside North America in the trash, and think that urban planning less than a century old is ironclad natural law.

Two blocks from each other on the same street (Palmerston). Remember: what is at stake here is if Emily Rose goes under and is converted to residential, going back is nigh impossible—a community amenity lost for good.

Please enjoy my five minute plea for neighbourhood retail. Also if you do a virtual deputation, Webex doesn’t give vid preview??? So get your angles right first. youtu.be/Eztf53wAhXo?...

What level of extremely online is it that I knew what this was gonna be before I even clicked play

Well we may have lost today but we did have to listen a lot of people speculate that one day they might be confronted by the reality of living in proximity to millions of people, so in many ways we also suffered.

The actual dynamic I’ve observed here is the ignorant scaring the ignorant into action. Neighbourhood retail=pot shops is one I hear a lot. Well, you can’t have pot shops 200m from schools. And the bubble has burst. And (legal ones) have low margins so need traffic/visibility of big streets.

Nearing 2800. I’m hoping to wake up to 3k. Tell all your friends that signing this will help the blue jays or something. I dunno.

I submitted this letter into the public record ealier today telling the committee we had over 2600 signatures on our petition. When I do my deputation tomorrow, I will gleefully be telling them we have over (at least ) 2700.

I don't think everyone needs to take up street photography or even choose the mundane subjects I focus on...But I do think it's nice to meditate on simple beauty during your morning commute.

In the City survey, 72% supported small businesses in Neighbourhoods, with 50% wanting more permissions than are proposed. But many RAs are writing in opposition, despite the proposal being watered down after they asked for more consultation last year.

I’m sick of sharing this link so help me bury the NIMBY opposition to cute neighbourhood shops! They just put a petition with a measly 209 signatures into the record to kill—not modify, kill—this small step towards maybe having corner stores again Let’s tell them what we want: c.org/fYSGWfvYJv

How many petitions and walks does it takes to pass a piece of policy that cranks are mad about but that the general public is overwhelmingly in favour of? Because whatever I did is not enough—still think this has dicey chances.

I’m like if Snow White gave urban walking tours

Three neighbourhood tours in two days. After hours of having to be “on” in overstimulating environments, can’t wait for the quiet peace of my apartment. The quiet peace of my apartment:

The Slovenian urge to yap in front of a garbage bin

Extremely kind words from Josh. Appreciate him coming on the walk today and his continued and consistent support for expanding options for neighbourhood retail! Also he’s very nice lol