Spacing Radio

Now that John Tory has officially stepped down as mayor, the field of candidates hoping to replace him is a big one. With roughly 50 candidates on the ballot so far, there's a lot to make sense of.

To help weigh the merits of some of the major candidates, and the ideas proposed so far, we talk to Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc and Toronto Metropolitan University Associate Professor Cheryl Thompson about what stands out in the race so far.

And the new Spacing Magazine is available now, and it's all about the Ontario Line — the new subway meant to connect the downtown to the northeast of the city. Civil engineer and University of Toronto Associate Professor Shoshanna Saxe tells us about her latest Spacing contribution about how to get the most value-for-money from the new subway line.

The term "Smart Cities" has been kicking around for about a decade now. When we began The Future Fix series, that term was headline news. Everyone, including multiple levels of governments, was being asked to imagine a new kind of urban space, where data and technology were woven into the very fabric of the neighbourhood. Since then, the Smart Cities conversation has evolved, important questions have been asked, a global pandemic happened, and we have more examples, from communities across Canada, about what works, and what to avoid.

John Lorinc is a Spacing senior editor and author of the book "Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias." He's been researching data and tech as it relates to cities and urban politics and planning for years now, and his book earned the Writer's Trust of Canada Balsilie Prize for Public Policy.

“Because of the pandemic and because so much of our lives had to go online for this period of time, and in many ways stay online, a lot of the ideas around Smart Cities and this hyperconnectivity and this use of big data became actually part of the way our cities our cities function. Except we stopped calling it 'Smart Cities'.”

Martin Canning is executive director of government innovation at Evergreen. He tells us about what he's learned about data and technology projects in communities across the countries, through his work with the Community Solutions Network, and what makes a "Smart" project successful.

"There's a dark side and there's a light side, and I'll stick to the light side, when we're thinking about the future and where technology is often driving us, sometimes pulling us. But when it comes to cities, and public sector markets, and government innovation and community innovation in Canada and around the world, what I see [...] is not just an appetite, but a culture that is opening to allow for multi-sectoral partnership like we haven't seen before."

Listen to the episode to hear more about the future of "future fixes."

The Future Fix is a partnership between Spacing and Evergreen for the Community Solutions Network: a program of Future Cities Canada. As the program lead, Evergreen is working with Open North and partners to help communities of all sizes across Canada navigate the smart cities landscape. The Community Solutions Network is supported with funding provided by Infrastructure Canada.

Not all technology has to be disruptive, it may actually be most useful as an extension of our ways of life, instead of as a replacement. In the arctic, the Inuit have extensive traditional knowledge of traversing sea ice for hunting, gathering supplies, and travelling between communities. SmartICE is a social enterprise which uses technology to build on this traditional knowledge and map the ever-changing sea ice, so people can make informed decisions about how and where to travel.

Andrew Arreak is SmartICE Regional Operations Lead for Qikiqtaaluk Region, and explains the benefit this technology provides to northern communities.

“Every year the ice conditions are different... if we knew what was coming in terms of ice conditions, I don't think we would need a SmartICE at all up in the north. It is a great adapting tool that we are able to use so we can provide the information for our local people.  Since I've started working there has been less people falling through the ice, less search and rescue callouts, and people are more confident on how long they should be out at certain times of year before the ice starts to break.”

The Future Fix is a partnership between Spacing and Evergreen for the Community Solutions Network: a program of Future Cities Canada. As the program lead, Evergreen is working with Open North and partners to help communities of all sizes across Canada navigate the smart cities landscape. The Community Solutions Network is supported with funding provided by Infrastructure Canada.

We're back for 2023, and there is... a lot to catch up on.

To begin, Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, guides us through Doug Ford's Greenbelt plan. What will the long term effects be? Who stands to benefit? Did certain developers catch wind of the changes to land that was formerly protected?

Then, Ontario Place for All co-founder Norm Di Pasquale tells us about the growing criticism of plans to turn Ontario Place into a privatized tourist destination.

We've had some time to make sense of the Toronto election, and what it might mean for the next four years in this city. Is there a silver lining to be found? Is Toronto due for another urbanist renaissance? We talk to Spacing co-founder and Star columnist Shawn Micallef.

And we talk to the co-editor of the new book "The Signs that Define Toronto" Kurt Kraler about how the project came together, and what signs mean to the look, feel, and culture of a city.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series.

THIS EPISODE: Digital Placemaking

Data and technology allow placemakers to experiment with new ways of measuring, designing, and most importantly engaging with the people they are designing public space for. Ideally, digital placemaking empowers everyone to shape the spaces they use, love, and rely on.

Farhaan Ladhani is co-founder and CEO of Digital Public Square, an organization who's ethos is "healthy communities enabled by good technology." Farhaan explains how digital placemaking can help create ideal public spaces for a wide variety of people:

“Thinking about the way in which these tools can be used to foster engagement in the community can be really useful for all sorts of things, from consultation, through to participation on decision making, through to the provision of information.”

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years.

Lorraine Lam is community organizer who works with unhoused people, John Lorinc is a Spacing senior editor, together, we try to make sense of the encampment evictions of last year, and how the next mayor and council must better serve people who are at risk in our communities.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. This is a special, French-language edition.

Spacing et Evergreen présentent ensemble une nouvelle série de podcast, Face au futur : des solutions pour les communautés du Canada, d’une côte à l’autre. 

CET ÉPISODE: Trois-Rivières : un virage intelligent

Face au futur est presenté en collaboration avec le magasin Spacing et Evergreen dans le cadre du programme Réseau de solutions pour les communautés. C'est une initiative de Villes d'avenir Canada.

Après la ville de Québec, Trois-Rivières est la deuxième ville la plus ancienne de la province. C’est aussi l’une des villes industrielles les plus anciennes au Canada. Comment une municipalité comme celle-ci gère-t-elle ses enjeux de mobilité? Vincent Turgeon et Samuel Laferrière qui œuvrent auprès de la municipalité de Trois-Rivières nous expliquent comment, alors qu’ils tentaient de renouveler les systèmes de préemption pour les véhicules d’incendie, ont décidé de prendre le virage de la mobilité indépendante.

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years.

But the Big Smoke isn't the only municipality going to the polls October 24th. All across Ontario, people are choosing their mayor, their local councillor, even their regional chair in some cases. To get the story outside the Toronto bubble, and to speak to the future of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, we talk to The 905er podcast hosts Roland Tanner and Joel MacLeod. They break down races across the region surrounding Toronto, talk sprawl vs. tall, and how GTHA municipalities can band together to demand better regional transit.

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years.

In this episode, it's a classic transit panel with Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and City Hall Watcher proprietor) and Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing urban affairs columnist).  We talk about lessons we did (and didn't) learn from the pandemic, the need to restore TTC service levels and ridership, and we walk you some of the campaign promises made so far.