This morning I woke up to a tweet from somebody asking me why–despite my obvious love of cities and real estate–do I seem more influenced by venture capitalists on my blog. He wondered if it was because of a lack of public/online real estate thought… Read More
A reader recently suggested that I do a post explaining why we aren’t seeing more midrise buildings going up in Toronto. Specifically, why are midrise buildings considered to be “too risky” for developers and what could be done to improve the situation? So today I’d… Read More
This morning I’m going to a memorial service for a close family friend. His name was Ed Hung. You may have read about him in the Toronto Star, because on March 16th, 2014 at 11:00AM Central European Time he died by way of an assisted… Read More
Last night I attended the kick off party for a new loft / laneway / condo development called Lanehouse. It’s in the Bloor and Dufferin area of Toronto, which is an area I know quite well as I used to hang out there when I… Read More
A friend of mine who lives in New York recently sent me this interesting article: “The Perverse Effects of Rent Regulation.” And he sent it to me, because he wanted me to take note of this stat: There are, effectively, two rental markets in Manhattan.… Read More
As of this week, Architect This City is now being syndicated on MobilityLab. Here’s the first post. MobilityLab is a US-based think tank focused on “transportation demand management”, which is just a fancy way of saying that their focus is on optimizing for the movement… Read More
This past Sunday I was over at my father’s place for dinner and we were talking about the high transaction costs associated with buying and selling homes. That is, we weren’t talking about the high price of homes in Toronto, we were only talking about… Read More
If you’ve ever ridden a busy Toronto streetcar, you’ll know this story: You’re waiting outside in the cold for a streetcar. When one–actually 4–finally arrive all bunched up together, they’re so packed with people that you’re not actually able to get on. You try one… Read More
This may sound crazy, but I’ve never been to Chicago. It’s on my list, but I just haven’t gotten around to it and I’ve never had a specific reason to go. Hopefully I can make it this summer. Lately though, I’ve found myself reading more… Read More
If you’ve been reading this blog since last year, you’ll know that I’m hugely interested in Detroit. I went for a visit last fall and I hope to go back sometime this summer. I think the city has tremendous potential and I would love to… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 