Just over a year ago, Toronto's former chief planner, Gregg Lintern, announced that he would be retiring at the end of 2023. Here's the post I wrote thanking him for everything he had done for our city. He was a positive force in so many ways and I remember feeling sad at the time.

Following the announcement, nobody knew who would replace him. But I remember thinking to myself, "you know who would be fantastic for this position, Jason Thorne." Jason and I met when Slate first started investing in Hamilton (he was the general manager of planning and economic development). I then became an avid follower of him on Twitter, which is the case for many people in our industry.

In 2018, we even got a few planners together for a bike ride around downtown Toronto to look at some new city building initiatives. In a nod to Jerry Seinfeld, we called it "planners on bikes getting coffee." We really should reignite this meetup.

Fast forward six years and this week it was announced that on December 30, 2024, Jason will assume the role of Toronto's chief planner. This is great news for our city. He is a true city builder and he understands the task at hand. Toronto is one of the fastest growing global cities in the world and yet we are battling with the transition from a car-oriented suburban region to a multi-modal urban center.

This is why traffic is so crippling and housing is so expensive. We haven't fully embraced this future urban state. But real progress is being made, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who cares more about cities and who spends as much as time as he does thinking through the ingredients that make them great places to live, work, play, and invest.

Congratulations on the new role, Jason!

If you'd like to follow Jason, check him out on Bluesky. I think this is where he is now most active.

Cover photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Asian cities will often have buildings that look something like this:

In this particular case -- Tokyo -- the building type is referred to as zakkyo. And apparently, it is something that emerged over time:

Another is the city’s iconic multistory zakkyo buildings covered in neon signs, like those lining the famous Yasukuni Avenue, which house a spectacular variety of businesses. Zakkyo largely started out as office buildings and transformed over time to house everything from mahjong parlors to karaoke boxes. Almazán and McReynolds point out that these buildings offer a density of destinations rarely found in the West because they offer a vertical—not just a horizontal— dimension to walkability, with elevators that open onto the street and take customers directly up to businesses. Zakkyo are on narrow lots that pull pedestrians along the streets that they line. Unlike larger U.S. office buildings, their small lot sizes also facilitate the easy reuse of zakkyo space for different purposes.

Okay, so small lot sizes seem to help. But what else is needed? Is there a world where this is possible anywhere in the West? It's probably hard to imagine. Conventional real estate wisdom would tell you that multi-storey retail buildings don't work.

But they work in Tokyo, and probably for two reasons. The first is density. Tokyo is dense and I am told that zakkyo buildings tend to emerge around train stations, where foot traffic is high and people are generally looking for things to do and/or consume.

The second has to do with rules. Tokyo has an overall policy framework that allows for micro-spaces and micro-businesses. Said oppositely, Tokyo hasn't erected so many barriers that the only way to open a business is with scale and lots of money.

Liquor licenses are a perfect example:

So maybe these are possible in the West, after all. Assuming you have any sort of meaningful pedestrian density, the only real prerequisite might be to just get out of the way of small business.

And I think this is a powerful way to think about cities. We often think about doing new things to elicit certain outcomes. But what outcomes are we missing out on and not seeing because of the rules that we've already put in place?

This deserves a blog post. Below is a great tweet by Jason Thorne. Jason leads the department of planning and economic development at the City of Hamilton, where, full disclosure, we have a development project.

I have said this many times before on the blog, but the challenge with most "community engagement" is that cities typically hear from the people who disagree. Those voices are then taken as representative.

My gut tells me that we need to make it easier for people to agree. We need to reduce the barriers. Some will take the time to write a thoughtful letter. But most won't.