It was a beautiful weekend in Toronto. Yesterday, I cycled another 50 km for Bike for Brain Health. So as far as I'm concerned, it's still summer. And one of the themes for this summer — at least on this blog — is the urban swimming movement. Here's a post I wrote saying that Toronto could use a (stronger) summer bathing culture. And here's a post I wrote called The urban swimming renaissance.
In that last post, I also mentioned that Globizen had applied to be a signatory to the Swimmable Cities alliance. Well, now it's official. We were admitted in the last round and now join nearly 200 organizations, spanning 100 cities and towns in 34 countries. Other signatories include the City of Paris, the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Sid Lee Architecture (Montréal), Gehl Studio (Copenhagen), and many others. (The full list can be found here.)
As a city-building group focused on creating better places, it only made sense for Globizen to join this alliance. It’s clear that the urban swimming movement is gaining momentum around the world — and pretty soon, we believe it will be the norm. Cities that don’t adhere to these principles will be left behind.
Logo: Swimmable Cities
Hotels are an important city-building tool. Let me give you an example. Each year, Conde Nast Traveler publishes a list of the best places to visit right now. Here's the 2025 list. If you scroll through it, one of the 25 places you'll find is Marseille. And if you look at the first picture, you'll find a hotel/restaurant called Tuba Club.
Long-time readers of this blog will know that I'm a big fan of Marseille and that, back in 2021, Neat B and I stayed at this hotel. In fact, the whole reason we even decided to stop in the city for the first time was so that we could check out this exact place. It opened the summer before and I had seen it written up somewhere.
I can also tell you that if you flip through Monocle's new handbook about France and go to the hotel section, you will likewise find Tuba Club. The place is seemingly everywhere and now has a loyal following.
