Installation of Ai Weiwei’s Snake Ceiling at the Art Gallery of Ontario (time-lapse) (by ArtGalleryofOntario)
tagged with toronto
good:
NYC Will Turn 12,000 Old Parking Meters Into Bike Racks
- Adele Peters wrote in Cities, New York City and SustainabilityTwo years ago, New York City’s Department of Transportation decided to transform some of the city’s decommissioned parking meter poles into bike racks. In part, it was a way to help fix a new problem: when the city installed an electronic multi-meter parking system for cars, and took out the tops of the old parking meters, cyclists suddenly had fewer places to lock their bikes. Of course, those were never official bike racks, and weren’t ideally suited for the task. By retrofitting the poles with new circular loops, the city created many more options for bike parking, helping solve the problem of one spot for every 30 cyclists.
After the initial trial of 200 meters was deemed a success, the city has decided to continue to retrofit the rest of the poles—12,000 in total. It’s a smart idea. The city saves money on new bike racks, and makes use of something that otherwise might be torn up and thrown out. And every small step that makes biking easier, whether it’s a better light or somewhere to park, helps get more bikes on the road. Other cities, from Boulder to Sacramento, are using similar designs.
Photo via (cc) Flickr user nycstreets
nice! and i like how the ring/post design reminds me of the unique bike stands in toronto. here is the (jack layton involved) legend of how this bike stand was designed.
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NYC Digital: The Centre for Social Innovation is opening its first New York City...
The Centre for Social Innovation is opening its first New York City location in April 2013. The Centre for Social Innovation is a shared workspace for nonprofits organizations and social enterprises with 1-6 staff. The Centre offers a mix of private offices and private desk spaces and…
they do great things in toronto, i’m excited to see what comes out of their new york office!
this is my current neighbour. built in 1968 by WZMH Architects, it was formerly known as Global House. its design is a a good example of Yamasaki Modern in toronto, due to the closely packed and vertically elongated windows.
the second photo is the proposed new building “the icon” designed by Core Architects. the developer is amexon development corp., who will be adding 37 storeys to the current 18 storeys. (read more here)
the heritage preservationist in me is saddened! i actually like the way this building looks (especially compared to the new proposed rendering). however, i’m glad that the new design is keeping the number of office space floors, bringing the building right up to the sidewalk edge and making the subway station fully accessible. i’ll hold my judgement until more info is available…all i know now is that i’ll probably be hearing a lot of construction out my window for a long time.
japandroids - the house that heaven built (bonus commentary)
Most of the concert footage in this video is from their excellent show at lee’s palace in toronto…
me and my friends make a split second appearance somewhere around 2:17!!! (yep, we’re famous!!)
black out 10th year anniversary party with lemon bucket orkestra.
the band began at spadina and bloor, then using the $3 “concert admission” we all made our way into the subway, a full train down to union, a quick march to the flat iron and finally ending at berczy park. it was a beautiful way to spend a tuesday night in the city and reconsider how we utilize public space.
“…every year we celebrate and we think of what we had that night and what we don’t have normally and what we had that night was public space and community…”
jennifer keesmaat, toronto’s new chief city planner doing a TEDxtalk about walking.
TEDxRegina — Jennifer Keesmaat — Walk to School (by TEDxTalks)
Liars @ lees (Taken with Instagram)
WOW. who would of thought to attach a funding plan to the new transit plan. the above map is the $30 billion, 30 year OneCity transit plan that karen stintz and glenn de baeremaeker have proposed.
the 170km of additional transit would include the following: 6 new/expanded subway lines, 10 new LRT lines, 5 new bus/streetcar lines
the funding model: current value assessment uplift
from the OneCity Website: “Currently, as property values increase annually, the City can only collect the same amount of property taxes every year because of provincial revenue-neutral requirements. The Plan will ask the Province of Ontario to allow the City to capture 40% of the uplift, which is equivalent to a 1.9% property tax increase per year for four years.”
which translates to about an additional $180 a year for home owners and this should all go to a dedicated transit infrastructure fund.
further steps to take: approval by council for further studies, then a vote in october, convincing the province to amend the property tax law, and the province and the feds agreeing to contributing a third of the project.
i think most torontonians know that something needs to be done and are willing to be taxed as long as the money is dedicated to transit.
stintz writes that “We call our plan “OneCity” because this plan unites all parts of our City through transit. This plan will benefit every single resident of Toronto, whether they take transit or drive.”
I passed this the other day while walking up dundas. Soon, there will be a time lapse video released showing the process.
The Andrew Schoultz and Richard Colman exhibit opened yesterday, see info here.
Andrew Schoultz mural in Toronto
