Lots of cities around the world, including Toronto, have (at least partially) what is called a combined sewer system. If the sewer system was built prior to the 1940s and it hasn't been replaced, there's a good chance that it could be a combined system. About a quarter of Toronto and about 60% of New York City still run on combined systems.

What this means is that both stormwater and sewage run in the same pipes. Most of the time this is fine, but if there's a heavy precipitation event and the system backs up, then you have poop getting diverted into rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. In Toronto, this happens in places like the Don River and the inner harbor, and in Paris it happens in places like the Seine.

I was recently reading something suggesting that sewage generally gets dumped into the Seine about 12x per year as result of major rain events. This is why it's such a difficult and expensive task to make these bodies of water swimmable, which is something that Paris wants to do before it hosts the Olympics next year.

Thankfully, Toronto also wants to do the same. And in 2018, it started construction on the largest stormwater management program in the city's history. The overall budget is about $3 billion. Once complete, it should more or less eliminate combined sewer overflows, meaning our waters will become a lot cleaner and more swimmable.

This certainly isn't the sexiest capital project to announce and talk about. It largely happens behind the scenes. But it is going to lead to a significant quality of life upgrade for the cities willing to take it on -- one that will pay dividends well into the future.

Photo by Andre Gaulin on Unsplash

I had a friend -- who I know from architecture school -- visiting from Detroit for the weekend, so we did a little building tour on Sunday morning.

This is the elevated (and half-finished) CIBC Square Park that spans over the rail lines leading into Union Station. The benches are beautiful. On the right side of the second photo are also fire pits that are in the process of being setup.

This is us nerding out (photo credit to Neat B).

And this is the view looking down Bay Street from the stairs that lead up to the park. We tried to snoop around inside a little but a security guard asked us to leave.

This is T3 Bayside -- a new timber office building going up on the waterfront. Apparently it is the tallest of its kind in North America at the moment. I am also embarrassed to say that I just learned that T3 stands for timber, transit, and technology, and that it is part of a broader office development strategy that Hines is rolling out.

This is Tridel's Aquavista. I'm looking forward to the ground floor spaces getting leased up in this area. All of the ingredients seem to be here for a vibrant waterfront community.

This is the next Aqua-something project. We all assumed that there must be strict umbrella rules in place.

This is Monde by Moshe Safdie & BDP Quadrangle (architects) and Great Gulf (developer). It kind of reminds me of 56 Leonard Street (New York) from this elevation. I guess I'm not used to seeing it from the south side.

Finally, this is Sherbourne Common, which is both a park and an important piece of stormwater infrastructure. It treats stormwater before it gets discharged into Lake Ontario and it also helps to reduce poop from flowing into Lake Ontario as a result of combined sewer overflows.

It's fun being a tourist in your own city. We should all do it more often. It makes you appreciate what you have.