You may recall Khaleel Seivwright, who during the pandemic built tiny homes for Toronto's unhoused. He was charged by the city and forced to cease construction. The city claimed it was their land and the structures were fire hazards.
Inspired by Seivwright, Ryan Donais is constructing Tiny Tiny Homes to solve the same issue. He's incorporated smoke detectors and put the structures on three wheels, therefore qualifying as bicycles under Toronto law.
You can get involved or donate to Tiny Tiny Homes on their website.
Toronto is one of the worst cities I know of to be a pedestrian in. It's my biggest grief about living here — how hostile the city's design, laws, and processes are unless you're in a car. I walk a lot, hours ever day, and cannot tell you how often I see drivers run red lights, ignore crosswalks, or use bike lanes as passing lanes or parking spaces. It is literally every single day if not every single walk.
There is a street near my house, Parkside Drive, which has numerous pedestrian fatalities. The speed camera on that street generates more revenue for the city than any other, yet every day people run red lights on it and the city does nothing.
Someone in Vancouver came up with this crosswalk hack, which is ingenious. We need these on every corner.
Chronolog is a website for archiving "Time lapses of Earth powered by community science." Essentially, they're fixed phone placeholders where passersby can position their phone and take a picture. Then, the photo can be uploaded to the Chronolog website and, over time, you can see a "time lapse" of the location. Because the placeholder is "permanent," essentially every user's phone has the same point of view, forcing the perspective to be fixed, at least in theory.
Toronto only has one Chronolog. Unfortunately, it's placement is terrible. It overlooks Grenedier pond in High Park. It's one of my favorite places in the park, and therefore the city, but just about any other place on the pond or in the park would have been a better choice than this:
I walk by this space daily and though the distant greenery does change a bit, it's mostly a wasted opportunity and I hope High Park, or whoever paid for this particular Chronolog, moves it to a more dynamic location.
These photos were sent to me and they're apparently up around Toronto. Anyone know if there are more? Or who made them? Would like to buy them a drink.
I somehow missed this sweet video a couple months ago. One swan was injured and removed from Bluffer's Park. When Toronto Wildlife Center returned the swan to the park, this happened:
One of the many reasons I'm so down on Toronto is just how oppressively hot it can get. I've lived in some hot places (Los Angeles, Southern Spain, Vanuatu, Cuba, the Dominican, Melbourne...), but Toronto, in my opinion, is the hottest. I don't care what the number on the thermometer reads — I care how I feel. How I sweat. What a slog it is to get from place to place as a pedestrian — and, to me, there is no worse place than Toronto in the summer. (It also has the worst traffic, but that's another post.)
Anyway, there's a great long-form piece by Sam Bloch in Places Journal about Shade.
