It's that time of year again. Monocle just released its annual survey of the most liveable cities in the world.

If you're a regular follower of the magazine and/or its quality-of-life survey, you'll know that North American cities don't generally fare well in this ranking. This year, the only one to appear is Vancouver. You'll also know that there are some usual suspects that appear near the top (here comes the spoiler). This year's top city is Tokyo.

One of its standout features, yet again, is its liveability and orderliness despite being one of the largest urban regions in the world. But there's also talk about some of its grandiose city-building initiatives, one of which includes the new Takanawa Gateway City.

The 13-hectare (32-acre) development is a transformation of a former rail yard in south Tokyo into what is being called a futuristic "global gateway." The megaproject includes retail, office, hotel, residential, and cultural uses, plus a 1.1-kilometre elevated pedestrian promenade that stitches it all together.

There are also autonomous mobility devices called "iino" that actively roam the district and offer pedestrians free, futuristic rides. Here's a video and an image from JapanStation:

We talk a lot on this blog about Tokyo's granular, small-scale urbanism. But obviously the city also builds big, though it's not exactly what you'd find in other cities. For one thing, the development is vertical in a way that is difficult to achieve outside of cities like Tokyo.

Here's a comprehensive walking tour of the district. At 42:02, you'll see a rooftop public space that is extremely well used, especially given that the development only recently opened. I also find it remarkable that so many people in the video have taken their shoes off to use the free, public foot bath.

Could you imagine doing that in your city? It's perhaps a perfect example of how Tokyo miraculously pulls off being both big and liveable.

Cover photo by Tsuyoshi Kozu on Unsplash

This is a stretch of College Street (here in Toronto) that I find particularly nice. It's the stretch running west of Bathurst Street to Manning Avenue. What makes it relatively unique is that it's a bit wider than our typical downtown Toronto main street (it's 30m versus the typical 20m) and the buildings are of a scale and height that go beyond the typical 2-3 storey mixed-use structures you'll find all across the city. The extra street width also allows for a nice dedicated cycle track. The result is an urban grandeur that I notice every single time I pass through it.

Now, some of the buildings (and retained facades) are older stock, and some of the buildings are more recent builds. So one could argue, "Hey, this is a built form that Toronto has been building successfully for centuries." But the fact that it stands out to me suggests that it still isn't pervasive enough. Wouldn't it be nice if Toronto had more streets like this? Perhaps there are some lessons if we look to the past.

At the southwest corner of College and Markham sits an old brick-and-beam office building that was (according to this source) designed by Frank R. Cowan and built between 1913 and 1914 to house clothing workshops and space for the Pedlar People Company, a decorative sheet metal manufacturer. For some further history, in 1929 the building was sold for $140,000 (about C$2.5 million in today's dollars) and, at some point in its history, a 6th floor was added on top of the building.

But more important for this discussion is that it is another example of a building built before Toronto had modern zoning. This was a utility building. It was built lot line to lot line, with no setbacks or stepbacks. What Toronto cared about most at that time was whether the building would catch fire and set the block ablaze, not whether it met urban design guidelines. And yet, here we are over a century later and we have urban nerds like me talking about the nice street wall it creates.

The important question for today is how we might best unleash a similar market response along Toronto's major avenues. They may not be for clothing workshops and sheet metal manufacturers, but we have other needs, such as housing, that could be satisfied with similarly unfussy fabric buildings. Ironically, we have policies that now support 6-storey buildings that are roughly of this ilk, but we are not yet seeing a market response at scale.

History tells us that the solution is less complexity and greater simplicity.

Aerial and street view image from Google Maps

Here is an interesting study that compares changes in isolation and mental health between people who are able to work remotely and those who cannot. The results indicate that despite many people having a preference for remote work, it's not good for our mental health.

The study found that relative to those in "nonremotable" jobs, post-pandemic remote workers spent about one additional hour per weekday alone, increased the number of days spent entirely alone, and decreased the amount of after-work socializing. This was particularly acute for people living alone.

At the same time, psychological distress was shown to increase — as well as the frequency of depression, mental health care utilization, and antidepressant prescriptions. Importantly, people who were recently, but not currently, employed in a "remotable" job did not show the same mental health deterioration, suggesting that it is very much tied to working arrangements in that moment.

The obvious lesson is that more time in person is almost certainly good for our well-being. But it's also a reminder that one of the reasons why cities exist and are so sticky is that humans generally want to be around other humans. Of course, not all cities are created equal. The most successful ones strengthen connections rather than isolation.

Cover photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash