Chicago Kills Coal
Great news out of Chicago yesterday. After a two-and-a-half year campaign, a well networked citizens campaign has managed to secure the closure of two outdated and heavily polluting coal-fired power…
cities
Rivers Forgotten – The Underground World Beneath City Streets
I was in Toronto last week and finally had a chance to get my hands on Rivers Forgotten, Jeremy Kai’s stunning book of underground photos (Koyama Press, 2011). Kai has…
The Universal Student Transit Pass
I have an opinion piece out on the City of Ottawa’s universal, student transit pass–also known as “the U-Pass.” Points raised in the op-ed include the following: -U-Pass programs exist…
Adapting KUALI financials for cities: Marin County is looking for Partners
Readers of my blog will be familiar Kuali – the coalition of universities that co-create a suite software core to their operations – as I’ve blogged about several times and…
Republicans and Democrats Together on Climate Change…in Florida
It’s easy to forget that climate change hasn’t always been such a partisan issue. This is Mitt Romney, current Republican front-runner, in 2003: “I think the global warming debate is…
New Sustainable Cities Research Program – New Job, Exciting Prospects
Vancouver-based NGO Sustainable Cities International is an excellent outfit that runs a network of cities focused on green urbanism that spans the globe. The research that I’ve been able to…
Montreal’s Collective Push for Urban Agriculture
We are all still trying to figure out what a sustainable city is. Yes, we’ve got some good ideas. But to go beyond marginal changes and begin retrofitting, or building,…
Is Toronto Lost?
Has Toronto lost its way? That's been the word on the street, and pretty much everywhere else, since Mayor Ford took office a little less than a year ago.But as…
The Privatization of Social Housing
Last weekend, I spoke on a panel at the Annual Conference of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association. The panel was inspired in large part by the recent debate in Toronto…
Open Access Research: Cities and Climate Change
It may be an urban legend, by they say that the average academic article is read by a grand total of 6 people. That's not an inspiring thought, especially for…
Cities—the provincial option
The possibility of Toronto becoming a province has popped up in the news again. The idea has floated around for years, supported by a variety of civic thinkers including the…
Letter to Toronto City Councillor, Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32)
Dear Councillor McMahon,I am a resident of Ward 32, and am writing to express my concerns regarding the service-cutting fiscal plan proposed by Mayor Rob Ford. As I am sure…
EcoCity 2011 – Networked Urban Sustainability: Breaking the Integration Barrier
September hit with the usually flurry of activity, which means that I'm only now putting up this version of one of the two talks that I gave at the 2011…
The Economy: Stealing The Future, Selling it In The Present, and Calling It GDP
In this TED talk from last month, futurist Alex Steffen shares a vision of the way our cities offer the key to addressing climate change. Cities, Steffen says, can help…
Tax value
This piece in the Globe today by a Toronto architect, Jack Diamond is worth a read because it's the kind of case that's not often made these days for what's…
On the Green Party platform.
Finally -- for now, at least, until the Tories and NDP release the rest of their platforms, and the Libs release anything at all -- I'm going to take a…
On the Ontario PCs’ platform
So, here we go with the Ontario PC Platform, the Changebook (warning: PDF). Or is that the Change Book? ChangeBook? I don't know, and I don't think they do, either.According...
On the Ontario PCs’ platform.
So, here we go with the Ontario PC Platform, the Changebook. Or is that the Change Book? ChangeBook? I don't know, and I don't think they do, either.According to this,…