I am leaving this morning for my annual retreat to the mountains. This year we are going to Park City, Utah, which we decided to do about a year ago. The reason we chose this particular place is because Vail Resorts spent $50 million over the… Read More
https://500px.com/embed.js What is a night mayor, you might ask? Well, just as the name suggests, a night mayor is the chief executive officer of a city’s nighttime activity. And in 2014, Amsterdam became the first city ever to have one. Why is this important, you… Read More
The Martin Prosperity Institute here in Toronto recently published a new report that looks at worldwide venture capital investment by city. The report is called Rise of the Global Startup City. The data is from 2012, because that’s what was available from Thomson Reuters, so… Read More
I am more than happy to trade-off living space (that I don’t really need) for a better location. It means I get the benefit of driving less and enjoying the city more. But as more of us move to urban centers, we are finding ourselves… Read More
I just backed this project on Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wmougayar/the-business-blockchain-books/widget/card.html?v=2 I haven’t backed a lot of projects on Kickstarter, but I definitely enjoy the process of discovering a project that I’m interested in and then providing a small, seemingly insignificant, sum of money to help make it… Read More
Charlie Gardner (aka the Old Urbanist) recently published an interesting pair of posts (here and here) about the decline of homeownership in the United States. What really stood out for me, though, was this chart (showing the percentage of household real estate equity): And this… Read More
https://500px.com/embed.js UberPOOL launched in Toronto last week. It was tested in Toronto last summer and it’s been available in other cities for awhile, but now it’s officially here. If you’re not yet familiar with UberPOOL, it basically allows you to share your ride with other… Read More
Here on ATC, we’ve talked a lot about the changing nature of work and what that could mean for cities. We talk (and debate) about the value of density and of being in close proximity to others so that ideas can percolate – whether that… Read More
When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Toronto, I never played in the backyard. I played in the streets. That’s where all the kids came together. We would play baseball in somebody’s driveway, using one of the garage door “squares” as… Read More
Earlier in the week, I came across this post (via Fred Wilson), arguing that rapid technological progress is causing systemic deflation in the broader economy. Here’s a chart that illustrates the author’s point: What is happening here is that despite advances in technology and increases in… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 