iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by @gamarad.bsky.social

Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

What if a solution to the housing crisis is right in front of us? My long read on the shrinking neighbourhoods of Toronto and Vancouver and how we could fill them up with people again. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

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Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Gentle density reform in Toronto has been a waste of time. After 4.5 years, 1,200 net new homes. That’s 266 homes/year, equal to one highrise apartment building. And that’s not counting multiplexes being “deconverted” to houses. malcolmkennedy.com/to-multiplex...

malcolmkennedy.com

Toronto Multiplex Tracker — Map of Gentle Density Permits

An interactive map of every new multiplex in Toronto: duplexes through six-plexes, laneway and garden suites, and secondary suites. Built from City of Toronto building permits and refreshed every day.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Nevertheless, American democracy will continue to limp along and it’s important to understand the electorate given that reality.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

4 storeys moves you from part 9 to part 3 which adds lots of new costs. (although if that building is greater than 600 sqm it's already governed by part 3)

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

As part of Bill 98, a new regulation has been proposed capping minimum lot sizes in zoning to 175sq.m. In Toronto lot subdivision would be feasible in most of the city. I think that's the effective end of Neighbourhoods policy and with it the OP. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/are-counci...

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Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Public land should serve the public. Sadly in Toronto, the parks department and library actively resist this kind of deal and no one makes them cooperate.

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Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Solar canopies over car lots are a terrible idea relative to just sticking them in a field somewhere but it is an idea that will never ever ever die because it’s like catnip for boomers

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Yeah, for HSR. I was curious because I asked an LLM about it recently and it was insistent that Union station was hopelessly capacity constrained and the only viable option was a deep cavern. The CEO of Alto has also been signalling that the project might not go to Union.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

What approach would you like to see for Toronto?

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I suspect we’ll have solved radical life extension before we can build an interstellar spaceship.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I am particularly annoyed by Toronto's response on minimum lot size. They say they don't want minimum lot size reform because it could limit the construction of multiplexes. This totally ignores that multiplexes have been far more likely to be built in areas that don't have *any* minimum lot size.

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 07/03/2026

From the NY Times write-up of the incident that kicked off billions in sidewalk shed requirements: "Despite the number and density of high-rise buildings flush with sidewalks in [NYC], there have been relatively few fatalities caused by falling objects." timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...

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Uytae Lee @uytaelee.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

NEW VIDEO: North America’s Elevator’s Problem Elevators are absolutely essential to modern cities..... and it turns out North America kind of sucks at them. We partnered with @sightline.org to look into the many issues plaguing our elevator industry, and what it might take to fix it.

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Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Not sure what to do about this. If you try to raise it with councillors, they will ask staff and staff will say that the money in reserves is all allocated and the growing reserves aren't a problem. But, if the money came out of underspending on the operating budget, it sure seems like a problem?

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Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

An important chart to understand as Toronto heads into next year's budget process. We'll hear that the budget is barely balanced, the situation is precarious, the same as we have heard for the last 5 years, despite the City actually posting billions in surplus except in 2023. Why?

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

From the Metro Toronto Planning Board's 1959 draft Official Plan (voted down by Metro Council). You could not say something this obvious in Toronto's Official Plan anymore.

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Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Obviously no one from Toronto is in a position to criticize Calgary since we didn't even pass the citywide sixplex reform that our HAF agreement required. But I feel for Calgary advocates who worked on zoning reform, saw it succeed and people then said "Too much housing. Roll it back."

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

The promise: Subway for the cost of a streetcar The result: Streetcar for the cost of a subway

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

I distinctly remember the consensus in Toronto 10+ years ago that subways were about wasting money to preserve more surface space for cars. LRTs were the sensible progressive option, providing almost as good service for much less money. It turns out the service is... not so great after all.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Great deputation. I would bet that they got the quote from the 1960 planning board report by way of House Divided.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

The estimated budget for the Waterfront East "LRT" (streetcar with tiny tunnelled section) is $2 billion?!?! Subway prices for 4km of streetcar. Glad we'll spend next year's municipal election talking about a made up crime surge. www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Metrolinx: we'll need to do discontinuous electrification at Union Station because we can't touch the heritage canopy SBB/CFF/FFS: we are raising the existing canopy at the Gare de Lausanne by 1 m and move it laterally by 90 cm to slightly modify the tracks' geometry. youtu.be/CNuJLQguRgo?...

youtu.be

Gare de Lausanne; la métamorphose expliquée.

YouTube video by SBB CFF FFS

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Jeff Allen @jamaps.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Charting number of rental units in apartment buildings in Toronto by year of construction (This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago) #toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay

Stacked bar chart showing the number of apartment units in Toronto by year of construction with categories for private, TCHC, and other social housing. The vast majority were built in the 1960s and 1970s, with a minor up-tick in recent years.

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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Are you fucking kidding me it’s like we are living in a cartoon

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Michael Druker 🇨🇦 @mdruker.app · 18/11/2025

The real galaxy brain Canada is to make London Ontario the biggest London, but Canadians are afraid to dream big

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 13/11/2025

“A large housing project delivering more than 500 homes in west London will no longer go ahead…Specifically, [the developer] claims that the most significant reason for its termination was the new requirement to provide two staircases in London for buildings over 18 metres.”

bbc.com

Developer Peabody pulls out of building 564 homes in Southall - BBC News

Hundreds of affordable homes will no longer be built in west London after Peabody withdraws plans.

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

I've done something that I don't do very often. I wrote a short, quick polemic post. It was prompted by a discussion in here. It's about why I'm still skeptical about ALTO's HSR project and why there is no way around transparency in public projects. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

open.substack.com

Why I’m still skeptical about ALTO’s HSR project

A reality check and a plea for transparency.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

What I want to know is if there’s a way to adjudicate cases with fewer resources while maintaining high standards of justice

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Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

This is an incredibly absurd way to develop laws. It’s essentially a fact free vibes Only method of developing rules. It can’t go the way of the dodo fast enough.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

My disdain for these people is indescribable.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

That's what I thought but I was looking at it today and the number for the Eglinton Crosstown seems to include both giving it a much higher cost than other sources transitcosts.com/toronto-egli... schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/wp-content/u...

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

@alonlevy.bsky.social In your transit costs spread sheet, do you usually include things like operations and maintenance or just the capital cost?

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Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Strange scenes at Planning and Housing Committee yesterday: a heritage listing of a 1930s 4plex in Leaside was upheld over objections of residents and neighbours. The residents clearly know what's up, even as the City sticks to canned lines that listing is no big deal, doesn't impede development.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem. It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project. It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

youtu.be

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 21/09/2025

Despite all of these junkets, I don’t think either the Austrians or the Americans really have a clue about what the circumstances are like in the other place. Neither understands the vast gulf in demand, shortage, or construction cost between the two places.

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

In 2020 (technically it started in 2019,) I was at a New Year's Eve party hosted by some of Raman's campaign leads. Several people there were mad at me when they learned I did work for Abundant Housing LA. What a gigantic difference five years makes!

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alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

so okay! first piece out from me at Common Wealth "Beyond Bidenomics: On what is living and what is dead in economic policy" the argument is that progressives should take credit for the successful parts of the pandemic policy response and build the next Thing www.common-wealth.org/perspectives...

common-wealth.org

Beyond Bidenomics | Perspectives

On what is living and what is dead in economic policy.

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gamarad.bsky.social @gamarad.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Even if people stayed 30 forever, that would only get life expectancy into the 4 digits

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