This is an interesting chart from Nathaniel Bullard over at Bloomberg Green. In 1985 (the start of this chart), coal-fired power was responsible for about 38% of global electricity generation. This particular stat hasn’t changed all that much since then — the current figure is… Read More
Monthly archives of “June 2022”
[Video] City building to achieve our carbon emission targets
Today was the SvNSpeaks event that I blogged about last week. As a reminder, the conversation was about how best to remove overly prescriptive and rigid development policies in order to better achieve our climate change goals. John Lorinc and I ended up agreeing on… Read More
What should Toronto do with its major streets?
The City of Toronto’s Official Plan directs growth to areas of the city that it refers to as Centres, Avenues, Employment Areas, and the Downtown. In other words, these are the areas where most new development is intended to take place. So if you own… Read More
Phoenix’s cool pavement pilot program
When I was in Phoenix this past spring I noticed a number of people carrying their big dogs around. At first I wasn’t sure what was going on. I thought maybe the dogs were injured and couldn’t walk. But then it dawned on me that… Read More
The story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you’ve ever been to Paris, you’ve probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven’t seen or noticed them in Paris, but you’ve seen similarly pixelated mosaics in… Read More
Mid-market missing middle housing in Victoria
I am a big fan of Victoria-based developer Aryze. And their Pearl Block project is a good example of why. Developed on an awkward triangular lot that had been sitting vacant for nearly 65 years and that presumably every other developer had been overlooking, the… Read More
Zoning controls, sprawl, and housing affordability
Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but I continue to feel like there is a groundswell of interest in trying to improve housing supply and overall affordability. The YIMBY movement continues to gain steam. Here are are few excerpts from a recent M. Nolan Gray article where… Read More
Learning from Lisbon
This happened earlier in the week: And it got me thinking about how much I love Lisbon: But the important story here is that these tweets made it abundantly clear to me that (1) people from all over want far more from their parks and… Read More
SvNSpeaks: How to remove overly prescriptive and rigid development policies
This event poster has reminded me that, every now and then, I probably need to pull out a cooler headshot. In any event, next week I’m going to be a guest on SvNSpeaks, along with John Lorinc, talking about the obstacles that overly prescriptive and… Read More
Autonomous trucks are coming
I hate driving. So I’m looking forward to the day when autonomous vehicles will be able to take me where I need to go, such as out for a late-night poutine. But as we all know, autonomy has proven to be a trickier problem to… Read More