For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’ll know that I love to snowboard and that I leave Ontario every winter in search of fresh lines. It is an annual tradition that has been going on for over a decade.

One of the things I wish I had been more diligent about is collecting all of the trail maps. I am sure I have a number of old ratty ones in some of my snowboard bags and snow pants, but none of them are probably worth keeping.

That’s why I think this is a terrific Kickstarter campaign by James Niehues. Over the last 30 years, James has researched, photographed, and painted almost every ski map in use across North America. Yes, these maps are all painted by hand. 

If you would like to back James’ project – a hardcover coffee table book of his work – you can do that here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orsc/james-niehues-the-man-behind-the-map/widget/video.html

The Government of Ontario is currently working on a Housing Supply Action Plan that they hope will address “the barriers getting in the way of new ownership and rental housing.”

Through initial consultations, they have already identified 5 key themes (my words below):

1. The approvals/entitlement process for new housing is too slow

2. There are too many restrictions on what is allowed to be built (that is, we should be encouraging more “gentle density” and “missing middle” type infill)

3. Development costs are too high

4. Tenants need protection; regulation is making it increasingly difficult to be a small landlord

5. Overall housing innovation

The province is also looking for public input and is currently running

This is a great TED talk by Edward Glaeser about why it is time to embrace our cities. If you can’t see it below, click here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILDwnzQNlGc&w=560&h=315]

The talk was filmed in 2012 – right around the time that Triumph of the City was released – but the video was published at the beginning of this year.

It is also a good add-on to yesterday’s post about transportation costs and cities. I love how passionate Glaeser gets about these topics.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’ll know that I love to snowboard and that I leave Ontario every winter in search of fresh lines. It is an annual tradition that has been going on for over a decade.

One of the things I wish I had been more diligent about is collecting all of the trail maps. I am sure I have a number of old ratty ones in some of my snowboard bags and snow pants, but none of them are probably worth keeping.

That’s why I think this is a terrific Kickstarter campaign by James Niehues. Over the last 30 years, James has researched, photographed, and painted almost every ski map in use across North America. Yes, these maps are all painted by hand. 

If you would like to back James’ project – a hardcover coffee table book of his work – you can do that here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orsc/james-niehues-the-man-behind-the-map/widget/video.html

The Government of Ontario is currently working on a Housing Supply Action Plan that they hope will address “the barriers getting in the way of new ownership and rental housing.”

Through initial consultations, they have already identified 5 key themes (my words below):

1. The approvals/entitlement process for new housing is too slow

2. There are too many restrictions on what is allowed to be built (that is, we should be encouraging more “gentle density” and “missing middle” type infill)

3. Development costs are too high

4. Tenants need protection; regulation is making it increasingly difficult to be a small landlord

5. Overall housing innovation

The province is also looking for public input and is currently running

This is a great TED talk by Edward Glaeser about why it is time to embrace our cities. If you can’t see it below, click here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILDwnzQNlGc&w=560&h=315]

The talk was filmed in 2012 – right around the time that Triumph of the City was released – but the video was published at the beginning of this year.

It is also a good add-on to yesterday’s post about transportation costs and cities. I love how passionate Glaeser gets about these topics.