From Science Centre to bike lanes, expert advice is ignored or twisted By Terri Chu The premier who abruptly shut down the Ontario Science Centre based on an intentionally misinterpreted engineering report, is now threatening to take away the Bloor Street bike lanes; this time, there’s not even a report to base his decision on, […]

[Read more →]

After two damaging storms in a summer, I’d like to think that the bulk of Torontonians have woken up to the fact that not only do we need to cut back on fossil fuel use, we need to think long and hard about our infrastructure and how we can reasonably survive the next “once in a century” storm next summer.

[Read more →]

In a move sure to enrage car manufacturers, the parking fees for oversized murder machines such as SUVs have tripled. Torontonians can only salivate at the idea of removing 50,000 parking spots. The concessions we give to car drivers are unbelievable in this city. 

[Read more →]

We need to support high-density housing projects in this neighbourhood, but we have to make sure that these new projects come with zero new parking spots. We want walkers, cyclists, and transit users.

[Read more →]

We have been continuing to survey and document the neighbourhood trees for the 10-year neighbourhood tree update. The data is still preliminary but 1 in 4 trees that were standing in 2011 are now gone.

[Read more →]

ARA to resurvey all the trees in the Annex  By Terri Chu There’s a lot to love about the Annex: cultural vibrancy, a wide variety of local independent businesses, walkability and trees.  Can you imagine this place without the big, beautiful maples? The streets would feel empty and dystopian.  No one wants to imagine this […]

[Read more →]

We live in a sea of green, red, and orange signs here in University-Rosedale, and for all the things we might disagree on, our neighbours agree on a few key points: climate change is real, vaccines work, science can move us forward.

[Read more →]

Is it any wonder that there’s a general labour shortage? Inflation is being blamed, in part, on this labour shortage and it is hitting the food business particularly hard.  Let’s take a moment to think about how this relates to climate change. 

[Read more →]

As an environmentalist, few things make me cringe quite like Christmas does. We are heading into the season when Canadians will each discard a staggering 50 kg of trash over the holidays. Experts with the waste electrical and electronic equipment forum estimate that in 2021 alone, the world will discard a mass of e-waste equivalent to that of the Great Wall of China, the world’s heaviest human made object.

[Read more →]

Let’s not go back to unhealthy “normal” By Terri Chu While we all wait for vaccines to bring us back to some sense of “normal” (don’t hold your breath as the variants might beat us at this game), let’s take a moment to reflect on how much normal really sucked: for so many Torontonians, “normal” […]

[Read more →]

When most urbanites think of food, they think of restaurants, grocery stores, markets and the incredible diversity of foods available in a place like Toronto. What fewer of us think of is where all that food comes from, how far it has travelled to get to us, and what it takes to produce it.

[Read more →]

You won’t find true happiness inside a box By Terri Chu As we leave behind one of the most collectively awful years in living memory, let’s hope we find some happiness in 2021. During my own, personal review of 2020, one life lost in particular stood out to me. Tony Hsieh’s death hit me in […]

[Read more →]