I came across this map while reading up on Hurricane Dorian: It is a map showing the tracks of every known hurricane in the North Atlantic (1851-2013) and in the Eastern North Pacific (1949-2013). Major hurricanes (category 3 or higher) are shown in yellow and… Read More
Eduardo Porter recently published this piece in the New York Times on the “relentless economic decline” of small-town rural America. We often talk about rising income inequality, but the greater concern is the alarming rate of joblessness in many of these communities. Earning less than others… Read More
I’m in Muskoka right now, with very little time to write. I had about an hour before dinner, but I decided that a far more responsible thing to do would be to jump in the lake for what will likely be the last lake swim… Read More
In 1933, the United States Congress created the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). With foreclosures rising as a result of The Great Depression, the task of the agency was to provide new low-interest mortgages to both homeowners and private mortgage lenders. Between 1993 and 1936,… Read More
Last week Oliver Moore of the Globe and Mail announced that Toronto mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack transit plan is evolving to feel less like SmartTrack and more like what Metrolinx had been planning all along. Here’s the map from the Globe and Mail: The 3… Read More
I love the work that LSE Cities (London School of Economics) is doing with Urban Age. If you haven’t yet checked out their site, you should do that now. If you’re a city geek, it’s the kind of site you can get lost in for… Read More
If you live in Toronto and only give serious thought to one thing today, it should be to this interactive transit map created by Metro. The map shows all existing, planned, and proposed transit lines in the city, and then overlays population densities, commuting patterns,… Read More
The area that stretches between the property line on one side of a street and the property line on the other side of a street is called a public right-of-way here in Toronto. It may be called something different in other cities and countries. In… Read More
Barcelona is one my favorite cities in the world. I love the intimate laneways in the old part of town. I love how La Rambla functions as a spine for public life in the city–even if it is pretty touristy. I love the weather and… Read More
As I was browsing Tumblr this morning, I came across this image (linked from Quora): On the left is portion of Florence. And on the right is a single highway interchange in Atlanta. Both maps are at exactly the same scale. It’s a stark reminder… Read More
