Tag: new york times

• The suburbs, they are a changing

  Earlier today, a good friend of mine shared this New York Times article on my Facebook wall. It talks about how some suburbs are taking action to try and curb the exodus of young people to cities. They’re doing things like making themselves more walkable and building bike lanes. I thought it was an interesting article.

  Of course, it’s not just young people moving from the suburbs to the city. It’s also a case of young people living in the city and never leaving for the suburbs–which they have traditionally done. 

  I’ve talked about this topic a lot here on ATC, but I wanted to share this article because I think it’s one thing to talk about how city centers are on the rise and it’s another thing to talk about how suburbs are starting to take notice and take action to curb their (potential) decline.

  I say potential because some would argue that the suburbs aren’t necessarily on the decline–we just have a scenario where young people are delaying that period of their life, either for economic reasons or for personal/lifestyle reasons.

  I, however, would disagree. I think the growing preference for cities is a real societal shift. That doesn’t mean I think the suburbs are going to die though. There will likely always be a segment of the market that prefers that housing type (or some variation of). I just think the suburbs aren’t going to be what they once were to previous generations.

  2014.04.17

• New York YIMBY

  Yesterday a friend of mine sent me this NY Times article covering a site called New York YIMBY.

  I’ve spoken about the term YIMBY before and this site is exactly that: a site dedicated to “saying yes in my back yard” to new development in New York. It was founded by 23 year old Nikolai Fedak and currently receives 75,000 monthly visitors. He has plans to expand to other cities and I’ve already emailed him to see if he has any plans for a Toronto YIMBY.

  At a time when it’s common to hate on developers and new developments, it’s refreshing to see a site dedicated to the exact opposite. That’s not to say that all developments are good (New York YIMBY has no problem blasting the ones that suck, as it should), but it’s certainly framing development as a positive thing for cities. 

  In growing cities like New York and Toronto, development is going to happen. And so I would rather we focus on how to make it happen in the best way possible instead of just saying no.

  2014.04.11

• I <3 Toronto

  Yesterday I came across an article in the New York Times called “Toronto’s Ethnic Buffet.” It basically talks about how amazing and how diverse our city is, and so I wanted to share it with the Architect This City community this morning.

  It’s easy to take your own city for granted sometimes. You know about all the problems and all the things that you’d like to see happen. And so it can be easy to fixate on them. I just took a look back at my recent blog posts and I’ve certainly been doing my fair share of that.

  So today I’d—instead—like to say: Thanks for being awesome Toronto. You are one hell of a city.

  2014.03.02

• Alleys and laneways

  In addition to having an incredible mountain just 12 miles away, the town of Jackson is also a really cool place in its own right. It’s a cowboy town with endless wilderness all around it. But since it’s such a big tourist destination, the town is filled with great restaurants, art galleries, and the obligatory real estate brokerages trying to sell vacation properties.

  Here’s what the town looks like from the top of Snow King (the in-town ski mountain). Photo credit: David Stubbs for the New York Times.

  

  But from a land use standpoint, I also find the town really interesting because of its network of fine grain alleys. Here’s a picture of Gaslight Alley. For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’re probably aware that I’m a big supporter of laneway housing in Toronto. I think it’s a hidden opportunity. It could be another—more intimate—layer to the city.

  Today, building a laneway house is virtually a non-starter with the City of Toronto. Whether it’s issues of utilities or the fact that laneways don’t easily accommodate service vehicles (maybe we need smaller service vehicles), the city has a litany of reasons for why they just won’t work.

  But I’m absolutely certain that we could figure out solutions to all of the obstacles if we really put our minds to it. It’s not a question of not being able to do it, it’s a question of not wanting to do it.

  2014.02.06

• Highrise

  A friend of mine recently told me about a documentary that he thought I’d like. It’s called Highrise. And it’s an exploration of vertical living around the world.

  But it’s not your typical documentary. It’s a multi-year, multi-media documentary that I’m still in the midst of exploring. There’s videos, interactive web documentaries, blog posts and other stuff planned.

  If you’re interested in highrise buildings and cities, you can start here and here on the New York Times’ website.

  2013.10.19

• L.A.T.

  In case you needed one more piece of evidence that household and family dynamics are changing, here’s a relationship arrangement that you may not have heard of but that’s seemingly growing in popularity: living apart together.

  Essentially, it’s when a couple is together, but has decided to live in two separate places, which could mean down the street, in another neighbourhood, or in a completely different borough.

  This may sound odd, but:

  “The arrangement has surprising appeal, perhaps because it protects against the constant churning in people’s domestic lives,” said Mr. Klinenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. “Many people who live alone are in relationships that are quite meaningful. And the arrangement is especially attractive in New York, which has such a thriving public culture and little stigma about how people live their lives.”

  This certainly reinforces the trend towards more and more people living alone – creating an obvious impact on housing typologies. But it’s not something I see as being desirable. Perhaps because I haven’t been divorced 3 times and become sufficiently jaded towards the institution of marriage.

  What do you think of this? Would you do it?

  2013.09.16