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

Remember my post from a few weeks ago about “planners on bikes getting coffee?” Well it happened. That’s the potential of blogging and Twitter. (I sold $TWTR too early.) 

Here is the selfie to prove it:

Jason Thorne and I met up with Gil Meslin and Liam Hanebury (Liam needs Twitter) of Artscape and they toured us around a few of their projects, including one of their first artist live/work projects on Queen West.

I do, however, have to confess that we didn’t have any coffee. I can’t drink coffee in the evening because it keeps me up at night. I already have too many things on my mind.

Trying to hold a group conversation on a bike is also not as easy as talking in a car, but I would still label the inaugural session a success, even if I was posing as a planner without a bicycle helmet.

If any of you have any suggestions for the next meet-up or I would like to join, drop me/us a line on the Twitter machine.

Over the weekend, Jason Thorne, who is the General Manager of Planning and Economic Development at the City of Hamilton, tweeted this out. He said, if Jerry Seinfeld can do Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, then he was going to do Planners On Bikes Getting Coffee. And that’s exactly what he did in Barrie with their Chief Planner, Andrea Bourrie.

I immediately responded by asking: Is this really a thing you are doing? Because if not, it is something you should absolutely start. He was kidding but I think the response he received on Twitter got him reconsidering if he should make it a thing. I think this is a great idea, and so I hope he does consider it. If you agree, maybe send him a tweet.

I have a GoPro, gimbal stabilizer, and a bicycle. So if this doesn’t become a thing, maybe there needs to be a Developers On Bikes Getting Coffee.