iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Where’s the barbaric cultural practices hotline when you really need it?

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Emancipated chairs in a park setting, plus a sculpture depicting the resulting political battles, as imagined by municipal officials…

081

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Phillips Square, downtown Montreal. Lovely day, lunch-ish hour. This space achieves that amazing equilibrium - people sitting but also places to sit if you happen by. Why? There are *enough* tables and chairs and benches. No evidence of vagrancy for the pearl clutchers. The E=MC(2) of public space…

290

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Everyone loves the Plateau’s townhouses with their crazy exterior staircases, but these fourplexes (and similarly configured sixplexes) are the workhorses of Montreal’s post war suburbs. Thousands of them.

191

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

#topoli Look Toronto, a square in a downtown location (in Montreal) with comfortable seating, moveable chairs, shade, a bit of landscaping, even a low maintenance water feature. (Not rocket science… 👀)

0194

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#cdnpoli Everyone who’s ever dealt with a three year old is nodding vigorously at this headline…

13811

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

#topoli Pearson International Arrivals. The happiest spot in the GTHA.

190

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

#cdnpoli A very strange argument from ex Globe columnist @johnibbitson.bsky.social, who is suggesting that columnists/opinion-makers who objected to Alberta’s demands are somehow responsible for the referendum mess. Should they…not express their views…? www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

8339

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

#topoli A deliciously analog hour spent at UofT’s Thomas Fischer Rare Book library reading a hard copy of a pamphlet by CCF MP Agnes Macphail on the need for wholesale prison reform. Coming soon in @canadashistory.bsky.social.

0122

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#topoli Toronto’s version of the Battersea power station, at UTSC.

0100

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

#topoli Gutter & storm sewer: de-schmutzed. It would be terrific if the City could actually do its part now & remove the detritus.

270

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

#topoli Spring in Toronto: sun is shining, birds are chirping, the quote-unquote moveable chairs are chained up in Berczy Square & Market Lane is lined with parked cars. Sigh.

0170

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

#topoli Walking thru Seaton Village this am: older people out for a stroll, kids going to school, birds chirping - and all this despite the presence of a sky-is-falling small apartment, going up on Barton. (Sky: still overhead.)

0192

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

#topoli Biidaasige Park, looking great in winter.

0182

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

#topoli Line 5: that new rapid transit scent…

0220

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

#topoli More than a week after the storm, this is the sidewalk next to a primary school…

1168

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

#topoli Wychwood Barns community-made rink, all frozen and cleared and ready to go. ⛸️🥅🏒🇨🇦

0253

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Why does it need to be a zero sum game btwn road clearing and sidewalk clearing? Surely this operational riddle cdn’t be that difficult to solve. And yet… #topoli

3193

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

#topoli A question that pre-dates this week’s epic snow dump: why does the City not shovel/plow the sidewalks that edge city parks, even when internal park paths are cleared? The answer, I suspect, is jurisdictional (PFR vs Transportation services) but the upshot is, well, tough walking…

480

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Regardless of your age, this is the winter you remember from your childhood… ❄️

24510

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

#cdnpoli If NATO/the world capitulate on Greenland, I’m confident that Canada’s arctic islands will be next.

64617

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

#topoli #onpoli Re-upping my yearly scroogish gripe-question: Why aren’t infantalizing Xmas songs on an endless loop in big box retails (Loblaws, looking at you) classified as workplace (mental) health hazards subject to Ontario labour/health&safety standards/penalties? There, I said the thing.

2312

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

#topoli Any transit geeks out there who know what this thing is? In the Queen subway…

5113

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

#topoli The social and ecological disaster created by the Chorley switchback continues apace. @shawnmicallef.bsky.social

2310

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

#wantitall What’s with Colonel Saunders sitting behind home plate?

7181

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

#topoli Just one of many reasons why I still get the paper. A keeper.

41446

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

#topoli Apparently the bespoke at-home retractable security bollard has become a thing…

570

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

#topoli Parks are for parking Episode whatever. Wychwood Barns. Note the toddlers in the background. Cc @alejandrabravo.bsky.social

3175

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Let’s give this thing the right description: a concentration camp. Cc @nytimes.com

093

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

#topoli A friendly Canada Day reminder that we somehow forgot how to build very ordinary and very effective apartment buildings like this guy - 88 units on Bathurst, no angular plane nonsense, no ridiculous windows, no bowling lane lay-outs. Just wide and light filled 1s and 2s. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

2385

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

#topoli Twenty units on two residential lots on a residential street. This is how to do it.

5495

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

#topoli Literally on today’s council agenda…city PFR vehicle. And yet. Cc @alejandrabravo.bsky.social

361

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

#topoli Happened to pass one of the most egregious cycling infrastructure fails in this city: the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t grade separated lanes on Eglinton near the Crosstown stops. This image is s.e. corner of Bathurst/Eglinton.

5142

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

#topoli Calgary loves its new Central Library (Snohetta) so much there are dance classes in the foyer…

070

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

#topoli The launch party for Messy Cities: Why we can’t plan everything (Coach House Books) will be June 3 at Henderson’s. Please join us!

2274

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

#topoli Spring has sprung: Birds singing, flowers blooming, and city/contractor trucks parking in parks…. (Wells Hill if anyone on this platform is paying attention.)

1110

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

#cdnpoli The Victims of Friendly Fire, Season 2.

1113

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

#cdnpoli The photo editors know before everyone else…

150

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

#cdnpoli The Ides of March arrives (albeit a few days late) at Conservative Party HQ.

290

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

#topoli When the short and notably undistinguished architectural history of the CoT Midrise Guidelines is written, I firmly believe that Monza on St. Clair West will be seen as the nadir of this soon to be eliminated form.

190

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

#cdnpoli #booksky. Philip Roth, 2004. Handmaid’s Tail-level prescience.

2100

John Lorinc @johnlorinc.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

#cdnpoli Life came at you fast, eh Pierre? (Source: CBC poll tracker newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/po...)

392