The problem is that the function of arterials is still seen only as moving cars and trucks By Joe Cressy and Albert Koehl Residents of downtown Toronto will soon start to notice an important change on their streets — a change that is going to make life safer for all our neighbourhoods. In the coming […]

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Greenspace, heritage, and integration at top of list as Westbank opens Markham House Westbank opened its Markham House Citybuilding Lab to great fanfare during the Mirvish Village Sidewalk Sale on Sept. 19. Featuring a model of its proposed redevelopment for the site including Honest Ed’s and Mirvish Village, Markham House (610 Markham St.) will be […]

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Just as the stigma surrounding mental illness has started to dissipate, the College Street location of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is facing a crisis of its own. Its landlord, a numbered company owned by Brookfield Asset Management, is playing hardball during a scheduled negotiation in which it is seeking to increase […]

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It’s as though the Conservative Party of Canada is making it up as it goes along. There is very little meat in their policy platform outside of the rhetoric of getting tough on crime, keeping a steady hand on the economy’s tiller, and protecting us from terrorists. The platform plank, the Home Renovation Tax Credit, […]

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In calling for bike lanes on Bloor Street, the Gleaner’s editorial (“It’s really a village, not a freeway”, July 2015) makes an obvious, yet routinely overlooked, point about how transportation planners still rank the movement of (single-occupant) cars far above neighbourhood values. Bloor Street may be officially a highway, or a “major arterial” under Toronto’s […]

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Thank you for your thoughtful editorial in the July 2015 edition. I think you articulated very well the many reasons for replacing one lane of car traffic with bike lanes on Bloor Street. You are right to note that if next summer’s pilot project is to succeed, it will be crucial that sufficient parking for […]

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The thought of bicycling down a highway is a frightening prospect. It is dangerous, and that is why it is prohibited. Bloor Street is technically a highway too, King’s Highway No. 5 to be exact, named in 1925 for King George V. Those high hydro poles whose lights appear only to serve to illuminate third […]

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Westbank Corp. has submitted its building application to the City of Toronto for the redevelopment of the Honest Ed’s site and the adjoining Mirvish Village. The store has been saying a long goodbye for some time now but it’s finally slated for closure Dec. 31, 2016. Though the building application is in, it is far […]

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Avoiding the consumer trap that awaits new parents About five years ago, the first of my friends had a child. I was viewing the periphery of this mega-industry and didn’t really appreciate what the environmental impact of having a First World baby was until I was faced with having one of my own. The industry […]

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The City of Toronto’s Official Plan, enacted as of June 2006, is an all-encompassing document providing a roadmap for how, where, and when the city should develop. Its sections set out heritage policies, identify areas best suited for intensification, define the unique characteristics of individual neighbourhoods, and limit height and density where necessary. In short, […]

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The recent unveiling of plans to redevelop the Honest Ed’s site and adjoining Mirvish Village left a largely local audience in awe. At the opening curtain on the proposed plan, yet to be submitted to the City for approval, Westbank Corp. of Vancouver displayed an innovative plan of multiple residential towers, “small-grain” retail, open public […]

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