Jennifer Keesmaat – the former chief planner of Toronto – recently published an article in Maclean’s called: Toronto’s unaffordable. Why can’t Halifax or Saskatoon take advantage? Her argument: “The hard truth is that many mid-sized cities won’t win the future because they are stuck on… Read More
Throughout US history, economic growth has typically spurred an “enormous reallocation of population.” Here is a graph from a recent New York Times article called: What Happened to the American Boomtown? The argument, here, is that restrictions on development have made it so that the most prosperous… Read More
When I was in New York a few weeks ago, my friend (a New Yorker) said to me that he couldn’t imagine owning a car (he used to but got rid of it with zero remorse). He then elaborated on all of the nuisances that… Read More
The following image is a geographic representation of Lafayette, Louisiana’s finances. It is from this excellent article by Charles Marohn. What this 3D map shows is the city’s revenues and expenses by land parcel. The green areas are where the city is making a profit… Read More
Toronto-based heritage architect Michael McClelland recently published a piece in Spacing called: Misuse of Heritage Conservation Districts can deaden both past and future. Here are a couple of snippets: The City of Toronto believes it has found a silver bullet to control development pressure in… Read More
I’ve written a lot about mid-rise development on this blog and elsewhere. I recently wrote this post responding to a tweet by the Chief Planner of Toronto. And towards the end of last year, I wrote a longer piece for developer Urban Capital’s annual magazine.… Read More
Ontario is looking to pass legislation that would allow municipalities in the province to implement something known as inclusionary zoning. If passed and should municipalities decide to use this tool (Toronto almost certainly would), developers would then be required and/or incentivized to include some percentage… Read More
Last night when I was thumbing through Twitter before bed, I came across this blog post describing Vancouver’s land use types. The blog itself is called Mountain Doodles, but it’s not exactly clear who the author is. In any event, what she/he did was analyze… Read More
Today I spent the day at the 11th Annual Land & Development Conference here in Toronto. I found it particularly good this year, but it’s now late, I’m tired, and I want to go watch game 6 of the NBA finals. So I think this… Read More
Blitz by Tristan O’Tierney on 500px Back in 2011, the The Pembina Institute published a report called, Building transit where we need it. And in it they quite clearly outlined the population densities that are needed to make various types of transit investment cost effective.… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 