Spacing Toronto

Dangerous Development: ‘Boulder beaches’ are unsafe and bad for us and our environment

At a time when Ontario Place has been put off limits, the City's new approach to making beaches is not an improvement

By Steve Mann

I’m one of many who swim and paddle in downtown Toronto year-round. I have no summer cottage. The beach is my cottage. Until our last swim on January 7th, 2024, we swam nearly every day year-round at Michael Hough Beach, Ontario Place West Island. It is now closed for development. This fine pebble beach has been our joy and pleasure for more than 50 years. It looks pretty much the same as it did in my childhood, except that the trees are much larger now. It is Toronto’s... Read more

Housing

LORINC: It’s time to talk about the Committee of Adjustment

These tribunals attract the worst kind of NIMBYism and don't belong in a city that needs to fight a housing crisis on every front
By John Lorinc
Civic Engagement

Youth Design Jam for Downsview

High school students came up with urban design ideas for a prize aimed at getting them excited about planning
By Nathan Abraha
Services

What is the cost of ransomware attack on Toronto Library?

With the City footing the bill for what happened at the Toronto Public Library, a heightened awareness of the importance of cyber-security kicks in
By John Lorinc
Photos

The Urban Photography of Arthur Goss, Part 2: The Housing Series, 1936-1940

Toronto's first official photographer captured the state of housing at the end of the Great Depression
By Peter MacCallum
Services

Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. V

Q+A with Toronto's chief librarian, Vickery Bowles, about how the library is moving forward
By John Lorinc
Services

Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. IV

The library's digital infrastructure was out of commission for months. What did the City learn?
By John Lorinc

Transit

Take the Yonge subway to the future! (expect some delays)

With the opening of the new, unfamiliar "subway" in Toronto today, March 30, 1954, Mayor Bert Xanadu offers Torontonians some tips on how to navigate this subterranean marvel.
By Mayor Bert Xanadu
Services

Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. III

City officials were sternly warned to beef up cyber-security two years before Toronto Library attack
By John Lorinc
Services

Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. II

The ransomware attack on the Toronto Library raises tough questions that still lack complete answers
By John Lorinc
Services

Spacing investigation: Toronto Public Library ransomware attack, pt. I

A cyber-attack in October, 2023, left Toronto's library system hobbled and users in the dark
By Sakeina Syed
Bikes

OP-ED: When Process is the Enemy of Progress

Roger Morier and Jonathan Schmidt argue that road safety cannot be treated like a candidate in a popularity contest
By Roger Morier and Jonathan Schmidt
Transit

Opposing the Bloor-Danforth Subway

Plans to develop what is now the TTC's Line 2 triggered an intense and protracted battle by opponents in councils and courts
By Jamie Bradburn

Culture

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Songs About Toronto

In the Fall 2023 issue of Spacing (coming soon to a store or mailbox near you), we shine a spotlight on five “Toronto Troubadours” — musicians “dedicated...
By Todd Harrison
Pandemic

LORINC: The pandemic is about cities

Viruses, in the abstract, don’t care much about their host organisms, beyond the latter’s on-board, physiological defenses. Yet it’s clear the coronavirus...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 1)

The investigation by Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk into the Ford government’s removal of 7,400 acres of prime farmland and wetlands from the...
By Ian Darragh
Housing

LORINC: The Tories’ use-it-or-lose housing ruse

On the north-east corner of Bathurst and St. Clair West sits a snazzy purpose-built condo sales office, ostensibly there to promote Foret, a giant...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

Q&A with Steven Evans on photographing Ontario Place

With the chaotic Greenbelt scandal swirling in the background, the updated plans for the Ford government’s deeply contentious and destructive scheme...
By John Lorinc
Waterfront

What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 2)

Sequel to Part 1 of “What’s really happening at Ontario Place?“ Ontario Place was conceived by Conservative Premier John Robarts in 1968 as an...
By Ian Darragh

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