This morning I rode out to Toronto's new Leslie Lookout Park, which opened two weeks ago. I came down Cherry Street, crossing the new north bridge, and then I went all along Commissioners Street, crossing its new bridge.

It's great to see the Port Lands area continue to develop. Every time I'm down there, it feels more and more real -- like an extension of the city. Now we just need to start developing within the blocks.

If you find yourself at Leslie Lookout, make sure you locate Claude Cormier's heart up in the tower. Claude's firm CCxA was the landscape architect behind the project; but sadly, he passed away last year.

Exactly 1 year before the opening of this park.

This morning I did a hard hat tour of the Port Lands area of Toronto. And once again, I was reminded that this is one of the most important projects taking place in the city right now.

When completed at the end of 2024, the $1.25 billion flood protection project is going to create over 60 acres of new greenspace and parkland, and unlock a significant amount of land for development. Already, it's hard to imagine this part of the city not becoming a desirable new neighborhood and a magnet for recreation.

I was asked not to share any images from within the site (i.e. the non-public areas), so I'm only sharing the above photo taken from Cherry Street. But we did get a chance to stand on the bed of the new river valley that will eventually take flow from the Don River. And I have photos on my phone to prove it. That was almost certainly a once in a lifetime thing.

For the latest on construction progress, check out this video from Waterfront Toronto.

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