With a federal election taking place in Canada on September 20, I’ve written an 800-word overview of the Conservatives’ housing platform. It’s available here: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-the-federal-conservatives-housing-platform
Continue readingTag: Toronto
Andy Lehrer: Time to reclaim the Sunnyside Bus Terminal: Toronto’s forgotten bus station
The Toronto Coach Terminal’s closure earlier this month was a reminder that the TTC used to operate an intercity bus service called Gray Coach, until it was sold off in 1990. Much like the GO Bus system today, Gray Coach served much of southern Ontario (as far west as London)
Continue readingThings Are Good: Artists Want You to Better Know Your Land
A series of thought provoking art works commissioned by Toronto History Museums wants to shake up your understanding of local history. The collective project called Awakenings approaches tales from the past that have gone unheard, or highlight the efforts of people traditional ignored by historians. The project isn’t just about
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A primer on supportive housing and Housing First
I’ve written a 900-word primer on supportive housing and Housing First. Here’s the link to the English-language version: https://nickfalvo.ca/a-primer-on-supportive-housing-and-housing-first/ Here’s the link to the French-language version: https://nickfalvo.ca/une-introduction-au-logement-supervise-et-le-logement-dabord/
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness planning during covid
The Calgary Homeless Foundation has just released a 12-city scan of homelessness planning during COVID. It’s a national study (which I authored). My ‘top 10’ overview of the study can be found here.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Floating Trash Bins a Great Success, May Influence Policies
We’ve been following the installation and study of Seabins in Toronto for a while now. Good news just keeps happening from these floating garbage cans! Floating trash collectors were put in the Toronto harbour a few years ago and the research team behind the project keeps finding interesting things. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bike Lanes Save Lives in Toronto
Here in Toronto we’ve seen little to no changes in our urban space during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other cities have been closing streets and making more room for people while in Toronto we’ve closed a couple streets on the weekend and gave up sidewalk space to private enterprise. Neighbouring communities
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Canada, Ontario, etc.
Ended up stumbling onto The Agenda, and this episode was great for anyone interested in the plague, or in city planning to respond to it. If you want to be able to speak constructively about when we’ll start going back to work, restart the economy, or get back to normal,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Gary Younge writes about the need to respond to a bleak reality with the dedication to imagine and create something better. And Vickie Cammack and Donna Thomson highlight how the response to a climate breakdown includes mobilizing our capacity to care for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Decolonize Games at the Toronto Biennial
This coming Saturday (Nov. 23) from 2-5pm you can play a game which challenges the colonial narratives present in too many games. Presented as part of the Toronto Biennial, Unsettling: Settlers of Catan uses the bases of Settlers of Catan to get players to think about all sorts of assumptions
Continue readingThings Are Good: Toronto’s Food Waste Powers its Garbage Trucks
Toronto’s garbage trucks are being fuelled by the very thing they are picking up on their routes. The trucks pick up food waste (in a separate bin from recycling and trash) and transport them to a holding facility where the food further decomposes. Since 2015, Toronto has been working to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Floating Garbage Bins Succeed in Toronto
@PortsToronto Infrastructure VP Chris Sawicki talks to media about how our new Seabins work to capture rubbish from #singleuseplastics to #microplastics smaller than a grain of rice. pic.twitter.com/ZWMClUIJzZ — PortsToronto (@PortsToronto) October 10, 2019 Toronto just announced that the Seabin trial project was a success and now they are expanding
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The use of homeless shelters by Indigenous peoples in Canada
I’ve written a blog post about the use of homeless shelters by Indigenous peoples in Canada. The post is inspired by recently-accessed, internal analysis done by staff at Employment and Social Development Canada. One point raised in the blog post is that there is no clear indication from the presentation
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Trudeau’s proposed speculation tax
I’ve written a blog post about the Trudeau Liberals’ recently-proposed speculation tax on residential real estate owned by non-resident, non-Canadians. The full blog post can be accessed here.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Seeding Utopias & Resisting Dystopias with The Multiversity Collective
The Multiversity Collective wants you to think of a better world by exploring alternatives.The collective was created to explore the full potential of Toronto by imaging future worlds (or alternatives to today) that are fully aware of -and engage in – multiple ways of knowing. It’s a call to envision
Continue readingThings Are Good: Toronto’s Bloor Bike Lanes Boost Local Businesses
Despite being only 2.4 kilometres long the bike lane on Bloor street in Toronto was heavily contested. It was debated in local politics for decades and was only declared permanent recently. During the debate car drivers demanded the “right” to occupy land at the expense of others while maintaining an
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Tory is the best Grit
Here’s a poll that will rock Toronto and Ontario politics. And it is not a bad idea. At all. Full story here. It could take a Tory to topple the Tories and lead the Liberals back to power, a new poll suggests. Toronto Mayor John Tory, a former Progressive Conservative
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: What Impact will the 2019 Federal Budget have on Canada’s Housing Market?
I’ve written a blog post about what the recent federal budget means for Canada’s housing market. Points I make in the blog post include the following: -The budget contains several initiatives designed to make it easier for households of modest means to become homeowners. -Such initiatives are often framed as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On Milton Acorn, on his birthday, Canada’s People’s Poet
Today was the birthday of Milton Acorn, the People’s Poet, who lived rough, and died before he was eligible for the Old Age Security, even under the old rules. For those of you who have missed him until now, Milton Acorn is not only Canada’s greatest poet, he may be
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Will Canada Miss the (Electric) Bus?
Electric buses are making a real—and rapidly growing—dent in emissions: as Bloomberg reported, electric buses will displace 270,000 barrels of diesel a day by the end of this year. But despite being home to four prominent electric bus manufacturers, Canada’s transit fleets have been slow to adopt this climate-change-fighting technology, lagging behind
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