Here is a report that was just published looking at the feasibility of a fixed transport link between Great Britain and Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea. It is part of a study known as the Union Connectivity Review, but according to the report, this… Read More
Monthly archives of “November 2021”
Crypto energy consumption
One of the main criticisms of cryptocurrencies is that they consume a lot of energy and are therefore not sustainable. But all blockchains are not created equal and there are different ways in which transactions on a blockchain can be validated. Bitcoin and Ethereum use… Read More
Should we be building more live/work spaces?
Lately, I’ve become very interested in live/work uses. This is not something that I have written much about over the years, but it is now on my mind for a few reasons. One, many of us tried working from home for the first time over… Read More
Why construction productivity sucks and how it might be fixed
We are living through an inflationary hard cost environment. In speaking with one of our cost consultants the other week, he was predicting that overall we could see another 9-10% increase next year here in the Toronto area. Now, who knows what will ultimately happen.… Read More
Being a real estate developer means asking a lot of questions
I was having coffee with a developer friend of mine this morning and we got onto the topic of asking a lot of questions. We joked that that’s what we do all day. Development projects happen because of teams of very smart people all working… Read More
Decentralization, centralization, and new frontiers
In this recent post by Naval Ravikant, he argues that innovation seems to like two things: decentralization and a frontier. He starts by giving the examples of more decentralized states (i.e. smaller federal governments) and the Wild West. The American frontier was, as you know,… Read More
Dwelling in peace
These “aesthetic monsters” are part of a new NFT collection that I recently bought into. They’re called Angomon (supposedly “ango” translates from Japanese into “dwelling in peace”). And they can be purchased on the Magic Eden NFT marketplace. At the time of writing this post,… Read More
Toronto is on the verge of finding the missing middle
Toronto’s chief planner Gregg Lintern (who you can follow over here on Twitter) was recently in the Toronto Star talking about the city’s plans to allow more multi-unit dwellings in our low-rise single-family neighborhoods. I was careful to say “more” because they are already permissible… Read More
How developers in London responded to an expansion of inclusionary zoning
Eric Jaffe, of Sidewalk Labs, recently wrote about an interesting research paper — from the Journal of the American Planning Association — that looked at the developer response to an inclusionary zoning policy change in London. The full research paper can be found over here.… Read More
Toronto has issued nearly 200 building permits for laneway suites — is that enough?
We talk a lot on this blog about laneway housing and ADUs, including, of course, the one that Globizen built earlier this year. But beyond being exceedingly cool (see above), what has this policy change meant at the macro level? To what extent is it… Read More