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Eric Very

@ekvery.bsky.social
195 followers 304 following 227 posts

Writing at www.brockton-history.ca, jogging, coffee, dad. Working on the waterfront.

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Reposted by Eric Very
Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com · 05/09/2026
On the banks of the Emajõgi River, Estonia’s second city Tartu has quietly built a reputation as the country's cycling capital. Its approach is simple but ambitious: build a complete and connected network, treat drivers as guests where space is tight, and make e-bikes readily available to everyone.🧵
Cyclists in casual autumn attire ride along dedicated cycling infrastructure lined with buildings and trees on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia.Cyclists in casual autumn attire ride along dedicated cycling infrastructure lined with buildings and trees on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia.Cyclists in casual autumn attire ride along dedicated cycling infrastructure lined with buildings and trees on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia.Cyclists in casual autumn attire ride along dedicated cycling infrastructure lined with buildings and trees on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia.
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Toronto Boris @torontoboris.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Biked over to Biidaasige this morning to see effects of last night's storm. Looks like the new mouth of the Don faired pretty well. The river is still swollen but from the trails I rode doesnt look like any major flooding was had here. #LoveTheRavines #bikeTO #stormTO
Looking west to the city.Looking east to the portlands.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Hard to imagine how horrific this would have been if this storm went through during an event. Have to ask if this facility had the safe guards in place to make sure that wouldn't happen or if we just got lucky.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Estonia's president-elect wrote a thesis on "The Guarantee of Local Municipal Governments in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Estonia." I'm low key excited the next president is a municipal governance geek. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cl...
en.wikipedia.org
Ülle Madise - Wikipedia
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Worst weeping willow week. Toronto Star reporting one of my favourite trees is down 😢 Wards island willow, famously "the big tree" also fell earlier this week. www.reddit.com/r/toronto/co...
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Dave @davescrivener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What a final act
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Almost 80 mm of rain at Black Creek and nearly 100 mm in Vaughan!
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Still floods
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MapQuest @mapquest.com · 27/08/2026
We’re not changing it.
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
FYI the art installation in the ruins of St Anne's Church is open until 8pm tonight (Thurs - Sundays till 8 + other days/hours till Sept 13) www.cbc.ca/arts/in-the-...
cbc.ca
In the ruins of a burned church, a free Toronto art festival is ready to launch | CBC Arts
Fire destroyed St. Anne’s Anglican Church in 2024. The National Historic Site, which housed murals by Group of Seven painters, has long supported Canadian arts and culture. And though the building is ...
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
How many road companies do you think Toronto had? A couple? Five? More than dozen? Read my research update to find out. brockton-history.ca/2026/08/26/u...
brockton-history.ca
Uncovering the History of Toronto’s Forgotten Toll Road Companies.
General plan of a toll house and gate, c.1845. This illustration appears as an inset on the Map of a portion of the Province of Upper Canada shewing the improved roads, produced by the Department o…
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Digging into the history of Toronto's toll roads. Came across this beautiful sketch on the bottom of a 1845 map of a plan for an Upper Canadian toll booth and gate.
Architectural elevation drawing of a standard Upper Canadian toll house and gate, c.1845, drawn at a scale of four feet to one inch. On the left, a small single-storey wooden cottage with clapboard siding, a low-pitched gabled roof, a central door, and two windows. To the right of the cottage, two stone gate posts with rounded caps support a diagonal-braced wooden gate spanning the road. A smaller wicket gate appears at the far right edge. Ground hatching indicates the road surface and verge.
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JRUrbaneNetwork @jrurbanenetwork.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Below is an excellent summary debunking the pervasive myths about the history of Toronto's transit system and a step in the right direction on correcting the record driving Toronto’s ridiculous transit discourse. A must read.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Estonian folk dancing and singing in the Garden's (now Mattamy Center)
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Estonia Square in Toronto. Started on this journey 11 years ago. Glad to see it almost over the finish line.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Great discussion with Canadian-Estonian architect Alar Kongats and the State Architect of Estonia on urban belonging and creating places. Interesting to hear how Tōnis speaks about how can state create a culture that works at government agencies so the processes enable good design.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Miniature models! Excited to see this.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Not great. "After six months, pupils using ai saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell... But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on ai’s help."
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
New park. Old stamp. THC. Toronto Harbour Commission
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Checking out the 37,000 ton temporary water feature.
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Take the Lane (Kevin McLaughlin) @voilakevin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Amazing photo by @lennoxhuang.bsky.social (via FB) #toronto
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
🇪🇪🇪🇪 New Estonian Community Centre, Keskus, coming to the Annex soon.
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Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
“The project reverses a familiar architectural sequence. Rather than drawing a finished object & ordering whatever is required to build it, the team first mapped materials already circulating through Toronto’s salvage stream …before deciding what they might become” www.designboom.com/architecture...
designboom.com
gxn and ha/f stack toronto’s construction leftovers into pop-up public space
GXN and collaborators turn reclaimed bricks, concrete, timber and urban waste into a reversible public space on Toronto’s Ookwemin Minising.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
First time at Upper Canada Village. Kids free with the Canada Strong Pass.
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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
There's nothing that a walk in a brilliant public space next to a Great Lake can't cure tbh
Biidaasige Park promenade at sunset
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Fascinating visualization of the crossings from the UK and Ireland to Quebec and the settlement of the Westmeath.
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Lanrick Bennett @lanrickbennett.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
#IdeasAtWork Leading with Landscape: Toronto's Waterfront Transformation Oct 1-3 In recognition of the 25th year of the establishment of @waterfrontoronto.bsky.social & the amazing transformation of our waterfront @utoronto.ca will be hosting a major public conference & exhibition Inkd.in/gU6EdBgv
Fadi Masoud • • 1st
Director Master of Landscape Archite...
6h • Edited • O
Leading with Landscape: Toronto's Waterfront
Transformation
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X
SAVE THE DATE
Oct 1-3, 2026
In recognition of the 25th year of the establishment of Waterfront Toronto and the amazing transformation of our waterfront, we will be hosting a major public conference and exhibition at University of Toronto - John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design this Fall.
https://Inkd.in/gU6EdBgvSymposium & Exhibition
October 1-3, 2026
One Spadina Crescent, Toronto
Leading with LandscapeToronto's waterfront transformation is one of the world's most ambitious experiments in landscape-led city building. Once an industrialized and ecologically degraded shoreline, the waterfront is now being reshaped through parks, flood-protection landforms, and public spaces that integrate climate resilience, Indigenous reconciliation, design excellence, housing, and public life.
Leading with Landscape: Toronto's Waterfront Transformation convenes local and international designers, scholars, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, and members of the public to critically examine how landscape architecture has functioned as critical urban infrastructure in Toronto's waterfront renewal. The organizing structure of the conference and exhibition follows the narrative landscape of the waterfront itself: a tapestry of transformational, regenerative, and socio-culturally resonant landscapes. The exhibition showcases Toronto's waterfront parks and public realm projects in thematic and typological clusters, communicating the value of these investments to the public. The exhibit, on display through November 2026 at One Spadina's Larry Wayne Richards Gallery, features drawings, models, artifacts, maps, archival materials, policy documents, and photographs generated through a rigorous design-based investigation of the waterfront. It serves as the intellectual foundation and prompt for the conference's keynote conversations and panel discussions.
Leading with Landscape seeks to enhance the legibility of landscape architecture's role in fostering local civic, cultural, economic, and ecological value while contributing to an international dialogue on resilient, inclusive, and climate-adaptive city-building. As Toronto's waterfront undergoes a profound transformation rooted in regeneration and reconciliation, this investigation examines the implications of this shift for Toronto's emergence as a global 21st-century waterfront city.
This event is free and open to the public.
Speakers / Participants
Ilana Altman The Bentway
Rasmus Astrup SLA
Shannon Baker Waterfront Toronto
Soren Brothers Royal Ontario Museum / University of Toronto
Alfredo Carballo Allies and Morrison
Karen Chapple University of Toronto, School of Cities Julia Czerniak University at Buffalo Zahra Ebrahim Monumental
Grant Fahlgren PFS Studio / Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA)
Chris Glaisek Waterfront Toronto
Adriaan Geuze West 8
Ken Greenberg Greenberg Consultants (Urban Design)
Vic Gupta CreateTO
Marc Hallé CCxA
Stefan Herda Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA)
Matthew Hickey Two Row Architect
Angie Jim Osman Allies and Morrison
Nina-Marie Lister Toronto Metropolitan Universi
Shelley Long West 8
Elizabeth Macdonald University of California, Berkeley
Pina Mallozzi Waterfront Toronto
Liat Margolis University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty Fred Martin City of Toronto, Indigenous Affairs Office Fadi Masoud University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty
James Roche DTAH
Michael McClelland ERA Architects
Emily Mueller De Celis Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVA)
Trina Moyan University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty
Adam Nicklin Public Work
Dorothy Peters Elder, Jima aaganing (Seine River) First Nation
Terence Radford Trophic Design
Chris Reed Stass Landscape Urbanism
Marc Ryan Public Work
Janet Rosenberg Janet Rosenberg & Studio
Brigitte Shim University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty
Laura Solano Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MWA)
David Stonehouse City of Toronto, Waterfront Secretariat (former)
Netami Stuart City of Toronto, Parks & Recreation
Lisa Tziona Switkin Field Operations
Jason Thorne City of Toronto
Michael Van Valkenburgh Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA)
Charles Waldheim Harvard Graduate School of Design Mason White University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty Jane Wolff University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty Rob Wright University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty
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Michael Druker 🇨🇦 @mdruker.app · 08/08/2026
tired: sports rivalries wired: bikeshare rivalries
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Metro train was pepper sprayed. Freakin horror movie as a train full of people start gagging and coughing. Fireworks adventure turned into nightmare.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Live in: 🇨🇦 Born in: 🇨🇦 Parent: 🇸🇪🇦🇹 Grandparents: 🇪🇪🇪🇪🇷🇸🇷🇸 Great Grandparents: 🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸 Been to: 🇪🇹🇪🇪🇸🇪🇺🇸🇮🇹🇪🇸🇫🇷🇳🇱🇩🇪🇬🇹🇧🇿🇨🇴🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇭🇺🇧🇦🇭🇷🇨🇿🇸🇰🇦🇹🇹🇷
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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
“For many years, we’ve been talking about walkable and cyclable cities...[swimmable cities] is the next frontier in urban planning." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: Swimmable cities are better cities
Swimming in a city – which is where most of us live these days – makes your relationship with water more intimate
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Cycle map of the island of Montreal, 1897
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Rational stuff... 🌷🌷🫧🫧
Mr Aschenbrenner is in his mid-20s and runs Situational Awareness, a hedge fund—named without irony—which posted a loss of 67% in July. He launched it in 2024 after writing a 165-page essay with the same title, arguing that artificial "superintelligence" would transform society before the decade was out.
Situational Awareness (the screed) took Silicon Valley by storm. More surprising, investors responded by shovelling money to Situational Awareness (the fund). Within months Mr Aschenbrenner, then aged 22 or so and having never worked as a trader, was managing hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
How Upper Canadian experiment of paying surveyors with land instead of cash flopped. "Disenchantment with the Upper Canada survey system was probably one of the reasons why...moved to Lower Canada... where surveyors were paid in money." champlainsociety.utppublishing.com/digital-cont...
champlainsociety.utppublishing.com
Duncan McDonell Shakes Up Upper Canada Surveying - Champlain Society
In this month's Findings, the petitions of Duncan McDonell tell of the transformations in surveying in Upper Canada in the early 19th century, where changes in renumeration fueled rampant land speculation.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I also wrote about racism on Toronto's first transit system. A Black woman was refused a seat on the city's first omnibus, as James Mink, one of Toronto's wealthiest Black men, ran a competing omnibus line, revealing the contradictions of Black Victorian Toronto. brockton-history.ca/2025/02/26/d...
brockton-history.ca
Denied a Ride – Black History in 1850s Brockton
Brockton is often remembered as an Irish village, but what about its early Black residents? Their presence is harder to trace in official records, but glimpses appear in historical accounts—one of …
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The Weiss/Manfredi & du Toit Allsopp Hillier concept was pretty neat and my second favourite. The massive boardwalk peninsula is a cool idea, but it lacks the focus on renaturalization and bringing the park to the harbour. Rather site on the inner harbour then a wider Keating Channel.
Colour-coded site plan for the Weiss/Manfredi & du Toit Allsopp Hillier "Wandering Ecologies" proposal, labeling zones including The Marshlands, The Lower Don Meander, The Peninsula, The Outlook, Recreational Valley, Lower Don Square, and Central Port Lands, with the meandering river winding through orange and green landscape zones.Rendering of a naturalized river channel lined with autumn-toned grasses and reeds, with a low bridge crossing the water and the elevated Gardiner Expressway running alongside on the right.Rendering of a long wooden boardwalk extending into the harbour at dusk, crowded with pedestrians and cyclists, with the Toronto skyline and CN Tower visible across the water.
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Glendon Mellow @flyingtrilobite.com · 31/07/2026
This is a fascinating thread. #Toronto #BikeTO
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Alexis @alexisg.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Someone found a cat on the streetcar in toronto last night and is trying to find the owner. Cat isn’t microchipped. Story here (I know there are a lot of Toronto people in my Bluesky feed!) www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/...
reddit.com
From the toronto community on Reddit: Found a cat on the streetcar tonight
Explore this post and more from the toronto community
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Lanrick Bennett @lanrickbennett.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
'When it comes to Black history & slavery, many Canadians believe our country's story begins with the Underground Railroad, Canada acting as a benevolent safe haven for enslaved Africans escaping the bitter bondage of the American South...there's more to the story...' @shellenedrakestull.bsky.social
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride is a unique and awesome tradition the TTC runs with the Blackhurst Cultural Centre. A non-stop ride between Vaughan Metropolitan Station and Union Station with singing and drumming to celebrate emancipation day. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
thestar.com
Shellene Drakes-Tull: Canada’s Black history: A deeper look beyond the Underground Railroad
There is more to Black history in Canada and its history with slavery than the Underground Railroad.
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Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 30/07/2026
Most of the world’s fastest-growing megacities will soon be in Africa— Many cities across East Asia and Latin America have grown quickly over the last few decades. Since 1950, São Paulo’s population has grown sixfold. Shanghai’s nearly tenfold.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
As we celebrate Biidaasige Park's opening, a quick look at the designs that didn't win. The winning design by MVVA is very recognizable in the park we got: the meandering river, the big park on the harbour, and a focus on keeping the Keating Channel while naturalizing the harbour and river. 🧵
2007 rendering by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA) for the lower donAerial photo of Biidaasige Park on Ookwemin Minising, Toronto, showing curving pathways and green lawns along the park's harbour edge, with small marsh islands offshore, construction areas to the south, and the industrial Port Lands and inner harbour visible in the background.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Last map is 1840, and this is where it shifts. Shank's old holdings get bought up mostly by Walter O'Hara. King's College ends up with a big chunk of Crown land, and the first small building lots show up along the major roads and at Dundas and Dufferin, the corner that becomes Brockton Village.
Map of west Toronto in 1840 showing widespread change from the earlier two maps. Most parcels are now green ("large lots sold"), David Shank's former holdings have been broken up and bought largely by Walter O'Hara, King's College now controls large institutional blocks, and small red parcel, subdivided building lots are clustered on Davenport, Queen Street and at the corner of Dundas and Dufferin where Brockton Village will take root.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Looks like the Main Sewage Treatment Playground is getting a new name, Ashbridge’s Bay Sports Hub. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
Map showing the Location of the Main Sewage Treatment Playground by Lake Shore and Emdaabiimok Ave.
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Climate change isn't mentioned, but it's got to be a major factor in this stat: "across the 60 most populous cities across the continent, nine of the top 10 into which animals are most likely to be moving are in Canada (number 11 on the list is Toronto)." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: The Great Urban Shift is here, and our urban ecosystems will never be the same
Urban ecologists have discovered over the past couple of decades that cities, long derided as ‘biological deserts,’ are often more biodiverse than the areas that surround them
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Second map is 1830. Ten years on and not much had changed. Shank and the Crown were still sitting on most of the land. A couple of gentry families were slowly expanding their holdings. An Irish newcomer, Bartholomew Bull, bought 100 acres and built the west end's first brick house on Davenport.
Map of west Toronto in 1830 showing the same parcels ten years later. More land has shifted to green ("large lots sold"), especially around the Denison family holdings and along Dundas Street, but the overall pattern is similar to 182. David Shank and the Crown still hold much of the land, with Bartholomew Bull's new Springmount estate on Davenport Road the notable addition
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
First of the three maps looks at 1820. Land here was still mostly in the hands of the Crown and the original grantees. David Shank alone held close to a quarter of all the privately owned land in the area.
Map of west Toronto in 1820 showing land ownership by parcel, colour-coded by status. Most land is still held by the Crown or original grantee families (shown in gold and grey); David Shank alone owns a large connected block running from Bloor Street down to Queen Street. Only a few large lots (green) have been sold, concentrated near Crookshank's farm along Bathurst Street; none have been subdivided into small lots.
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The Globe and Mail @theglobeandmail.com · 28/07/2026
There are more than 870 wildfires burning across Canada as of Tuesday, with several threatening communities and forcing residents to flee or prepare to evacuate at a moment’s notice. Here’s an overview of the current situation – in maps and charts: bit.ly/can-wildfire...
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Eric Very @ekvery.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Always excited to see a small business hit a milestone! It ain't easy out there.
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Marta O'Brien @archhistory.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Excellent & well-presented info from @ekvery.bsky.social.
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