Dave LeBlanc recently published an article in the Globe and Mail called, "How wide is your sidewalk?" And in it, he links to this sidewalk map of Toronto (pictured above), which uses open data from the city to plot sidewalk widths.

It was originally intended as a map of where social distancing is possible (oh, how far we've come), but today it serves as a really interesting way of looking at the city. What it makes clear to me is that we could use a lot more sidewalk, and that too many areas of the city have a discontinuous public realm.

Sometimes there's very little that can be done until an adjacent property gets redeveloped. And when this does happen, the city will demand pedestrian widenings. But in other cases, there are solutions that could be implemented today, without private participation.

So I sure hope that someone is looking at a map like this and trying to come up with holistic solutions for making Toronto a more walkable and more pedestrian-friendly city.

Note: Sometimes a narrow sidewalk does not necessarily equal an inhospitable street. I mean, look at this example.

I have written before about how Lisbon’s kiosks both anchor and beautify the city’s public spaces. I have also written about how Toronto should have something similar — #KioskTO anyone?

Some of you might remember an expanded street food program that the city piloted many years ago. It was a complete and utter failure. In my opinion (and from what I can remember), it was too heavily regulated. The food ended up being far too expensive and, frankly, none of it was very good.

That’s not how this should work. The entire point of things like food trucks and street kiosks is that they are cheaper alternatives to a conventional physical location. You can also more easily place them in locations where demand is being underserved.

The one pictured here is in Catania, Sicily. I carried my beer over from a panini shop down the street and then we ordered three espressos for a total of 2€. I tried to sit on a crate they had lying on the ground but I ended up breaking it. Sorry, guys. So we stood instead. It was all rather civilized.

Let entrepreneurs figure out what to sell and where. It will be a boon for both small business and for our public spaces.

P.S. I tweeted this photo out earlier today and it elicited a good discussion on Twitter. Toronto wants this.

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 public spaces and that (2) Lisbon's kiosks are a truly beloved urban feature.

I'm putting this all out there because I received a ton of inbounds following these tweets, and I would love to find a way to execute on the kiosk idea that I outlined in the above twitter thread. So if you'd like to help, please continue to get in touch.