Urban Affairs Archives

October 16, 2025 A Sudbury Thursday Morning
July 22, 2025 Sleepwalking Towards Union: Missed Opportunities on the GO Train from Kitchener
June 30, 2025 How a Pilot Project Hurts Service Rather than Improves It (On the failure of Metrolinx's GO Train Extension to London)
June 19, 2023 Video Creative
June 3, 2023 My Father Drew Libraries for a Living
January 4, 2023 On Train Service to Timmins and Weekend GO Service to Stratford
May 22, 2022 The Rise and Fall of the Scarborough RT
February 17, 2020 The Streetcars of Mattapan and Boston
April 5, 2017 On Heritage LRTs
March 30, 2017 Giving NIMBY a Bad Name
November 10, 2016 No...! No what?
September 21, 2016 It's the Little Things that Count...
July 7, 2016 Reflections on Humber Bay
May 22, 2016 Smile If You're Riding Minnesota's LRT
May 17, 2016 Zephyr and Starlight
April 26, 2016 Only 16 TTC Flexity Streetcars from Bombardier To Come This Year.
February 19, 2016 Don't Not Do It, Just Do It Right
February 7, 2016 How Do We Solve a Problem Like UPX?
January 22, 2016 Making the Best of a Bad Decision
December 11, 2015 An Uber PR Problem For Toronto Taxis
October 7, 2015 Streetcars and Cheesesteak
September 25, 2015 This Street is Made for Walking
August 3, 2015 A Summation of Ontario's Transit Policy
July 21, 2015 The Night Girl Acknowledgements
July 6, 2015 Sacramento Dreaming
June 23, 2015 The Trans-Border Express
June 12, 2015 What's Wrong With the TTC?
April 15, 2015 Amazing. I did not think it was possible to make this building uglier.
December 12, 2014 The Surprisingly Useful White Elephant
(On the Union-Pearson Express)
September 23, 2014 Whoop Up
September 12, 2014 The Conversation We Did Not Have
March 19, 2014 Chair Seiling Upends the Table (on Waterloo Region, Cambridge and the LRT)
February 21, 2014 The Pendulum Swings From Side to Side, Never Going Forward
February 4, 2014 Good Idea, Bad Idea
December 12, 2013 The Naming Fad
November 10, 2013 Power
November 4, 2013 No Surrender. No Retreat.
July 20, 2013 Clever Vandalism
June 14, 2013 This McDonalds is Not Abandoned
March 7, 2013 The TTC Skidaddler
January 6, 2013 The Story of the Mall that Committed Suicide
December 26, 2012 What Makes Toronto a Good City, Revisited
September 30, 2012 The Last Northlander
July 24, 2012 The Ruins of Budd
July 17, 2012 Under the Rainbow Bridge
July 8, 2012 Toronto Transit After Hours
May 26, 2012 The Man I Was - III
April 24, 2012 The Fall of the Northlander?
April 23, 2012 So Big, and Yet So Small
April 19, 2012 The Man I Was II
April 6, 2012 Put Your Faith in God, my Boys, And Keep Your Powder Dry
March 28, 2012 A Question of Marketing
March 21, 2012 Ford Doesn't Scale
March 7, 2012 The Coffee Shop Gap
March 4, 2012 The Profits of Privatization
March 2, 2012 The Point of Compromise
March 1, 2012 The Rise and Fall of CN's Turbo
February 27, 2012 Ford and His Allies Discover Good Taxes
February 25, 2012 Streetcars and Subways Are the Same Thing
February 24, 2012 Hyperbole and Axes to Grind on St. Clair Avenue
February 22, 2012 Who You Calling Incompetent?
February 18, 2012 Dispatches From Other Blogs
February 17, 2012 On the Union-Pearson Air Rail Link
February 15, 2012 Kitchener-Toronto VIA Trains Add Stop at Malton
February 11, 2012 Traffic Education
February 8, 2012 An Open Letter of Apology to Councillor Karen Stintz, Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission
February 6, 2012 Why Transit?
February 5, 2012 I am not Anti-Subway, I am Pro-Transit
January 31, 2012 The Hill He Chose to Fight On
July 11, 2011 It Takes a Big Man...
June 30, 2011 On Top of Mount Trashmore
June 29, 2011 A New Identity
June 14, 2011 Why Waterloo Region Needs an LRT
June 11, 2011 The Difference Between Political and Partisan
May 29, 2011 A Dose of Fiscal Reality
February 24, 2011 Fiscal Inanity and Arrogance
September 13, 2010 Rossi's Tunnel Vision. Rossi's Gift.
August 24, 2010 An Open Letter to Rocco Rossi
August 2, 2010 Run, Tory, Run!
May 14, 2010 On Waterloo's Roundabouts
March 16, 2010 Your Morning Smile
March 14, 2010 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Ontario?
March 9, 2010 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Toronto?
March 3, 2010 George Smitherman Keeps it Simple, Makes it Stupid
January 17, 2010 In Praise of Mall Playgrounds
November 27, 2009 Artificial Lightning in Philadelphia
November 11, 2009 On the TTC Riders' Strike this Friday
October 8, 2009 Combating NIMBYism in the K-W LRT Debate
September 25, 2009 Farewell Mayor Miller
September 23, 2009 The Importance of 'Wasted' Space
June 11, 2009 Clock Ticking on Toronto's Streetcar Deal
June 1, 2009 On Waterloo Region's Car-Dependency
Part 3: The Bad News
May 13, 2009 Human Shields on the Gardiner?
April 22, 2009 How Long Does it Take for Suburbs to Disappear?
February 27, 2009 On Waterloo Region's Car-Dependency
Part 2: The Good News
February 9, 2009 On Waterloo Region's Car-Dependency
December 12, 2008 A Local Venture
December 10, 2008 Ah, but could Goodyear Rubber have prevented this accident?
November 20, 2008 Updates and Thank Yous
September 21, 2008 Why Me? Why LRT?
September 4, 2008 Dear Dalton McGuinty: Show us the Money!!
June 26, 2008 GO comes to Cambridge? Greyhound goes to Hell
June 25, 2008 Fuel Prices: How We'll Adjust
June 18, 2008 The Long and Winding Day
June 6, 2008 Oh, How I Love to go up in a Swing!
May 21, 2008 Terrorism in Toronto's Subway... in 1985
May 16, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
Part VI (Conclusion): Bill Davis
April 26, 2008 On the TTC Strike, ATU Local 113 and Essential Services
April 22, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
Part V: Bob Rae and David Petersen?
April 16, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
Part IV: Mike Harris and Ernie Eves?
March 25, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
Part III: Dalton McGuinty?
March 19, 2008 Being Partisan Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
March 16, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
Part II: Mel Lastman?
March 14, 2008 Toronto: Whose Fault is it?
February 29, 2008 The Death of the Suburban Dream?
February 7, 2008 Remembering the Canary
February 3, 2008 Exhuming Taddle Creek
January 31, 2008 Making PATHs
December 6, 2007 My Speech to the Assembled at the Rocket Riders Forum on the Queen Streetcar
October 17, 2007 "Expert" Advice?
October 7, 2007 The Case for Howard Hampton
August 25, 2007 The Names of Things IV
Ontario Highways Edition
August 22, 2007 An Open Letter to Royson James
August 20, 2007 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Gardiner
August 18, 2007 Mediocre Media Against the NDP
August 17, 2007 I Get Letters...
July 21, 2007 This City Lives
July 19, 2007 Politicians to City: Drop Dead
July 11, 2007 A Long Life, Well Lived. Honest!
(Ed Mirvish, 1914-2007)
June 22, 2007 McGuinty Busts it Open
June 6, 2007 Italo Calvino and Me
May 20, 2007 Does Anybody Remember Blinky?
April 27, 2007 Yet Another Toronto-based Political Blog, But...
April 12, 2007 David and Goliath
March 5, 2007 Strange Bedfellows Indeed (Harper and McGuinty Seduced... by Transit)
January 17, 2007 Portrait in Bubble
November 18, 2006 The Rise of Willis Way
October 3, 2006 Elected to do Mostly Nothing
October 2, 2006 The State of Waterloo's Economy
October 1, 2006 Waterloo Region Ponders Reforms
September 27, 2006 Jane Pitfield Brakes For Bad Drivers
September 12, 2006 Driving Airport Road (Mono Road)
August 22, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street X:
The End(s).
August 21, 2006 Brantford Turns a Corner?
August 19, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street IX:
The Great Divide
August 15, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street VIII:
Drivers' Paradise
August 11, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street VII:
The Downtown that Mel Built
August 7, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street VI:
Suburban Gateway
August 6, 2006 Accidental Spaces
August 4, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street V:
Midtown
August 1, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street IV:
Heart of Yonge
July 30, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street IIIa:
Why is Temperance Street So-Named?
July 29, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street III:
In the Shadow of Other Streets
July 27, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street II:
At the Beginning
July 25, 2006 To the True End of Yonge Street
July 12, 2006 I Was Thinking of James Howard Kunstler...
June 30, 2006 The Problem of Public Transit III: Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic
June 10, 2006 Mike Filey's Ninth Toronto Sketches Reviewed
June 8, 2006 Why Mess With (Near) Perfection?
May 30, 2006 The Moment I Realized I'd Left Reality and Was Now a Resident of Cloudcookooland VI
May 19, 2006 The Court Jesters Speak the Truth
May 11, 2006 The Problem of Public Transit II: Not Spending Where it's Needed, Not Needing Where it's Spent
May 8, 2006 Walking for Wendy
May 4, 2006 The Problem of Public Transit I: The Silent Necessity Grows Louder
April 25, 2006 Jane Jacobs (1916-2006)
April 19, 2006 The Eleventh Province Revisited
April 13, 2006 Greyfields Illustrated
April 9, 2006 Three Restaurants
April 1, 2006 Erin Reads at the Brantford Armouries
March 30, 2006 The Don Lands Rise At Last
March 15, 2006 You Can't Go Home Again...
March 12, 2006 You Don't Know What You Got Until...
March 10, 2006 I Hear Tinfoil Works Well...
March 5, 2006 The National To-Do List
February 25, 2006 Throwing Caution to the Wind
February 17, 2006 Quick Hits - February 17
February 8, 2006 Oh, Dear God.
February 4, 2006 On the Forsythe
February 1, 2006 There's Something Happening Here...
January 7, 2006 Carnage
January 2, 2006 Quick Hits - January 2
December 14, 2005 Bound for the Discovery Channel...
November 7, 2005 Uptown Waterloo Receives Free WiFi
October 4, 2005 Time to Talk Trash
August 25, 2005 Patriotism Really is the Last Refuge of the Scoundrel
August 9, 2005 So, what was that about peak oil?
August 4, 2005 The Conservatives Are On Their Trolley
August 1, 2005 The Passing of King Fahd
July 25, 2005 Integrity
June 16, 2005 The Mystery of the Lost Heads
June 11, 2005 The Conservative Critique Ia - Urban Affairs Redux
May 30, 2005 The Conservative Critique I - Urban Affairs
April 16, 2005 The Stories of the City
April 2, 2005 April Fools III
January 3, 2005 Eating in America ("I [don't] feel [so] good!").
November 2, 2004 Hope For Weston
October 9, 2004 "OCAP Setting a Poor Example"
September 18, 2004 Our Last Best Chance to Control Our Future? IV
September 10, 2004 Road Hog
August 24, 2004 Our Last Best Chance to Control Our Future? III
August 19, 2004 Our Last Best Chance to Control Our Future? II
August 16, 2004 Our Last Best Chance to Control Our Future?
June 19, 2004 Why Cities Matter
May 31, 2004 Falling Down
April 23, 2004 Blame Canada!
April 1, 2004 Unfortunate Connotations
March 30, 2004 Eulogy
March 29, 2004 Distinguishing the Candidates
March 11, 2004 How to Spend a Billion Dollars Without Really Trying
February 16, 2004 Can You See Me?
February 7, 2004 Patience...
February 2, 2004 Top Blogs!
January 16, 2004 Monorail Redux
January 14, 2004 Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
January 2, 2004 What Provincial Investment Means to the TTC
December 26, 2003 Our Next Cities III - What's Coming Next
December 23, 2003 Free Advice For Our Prime Minister
December 19, 2003 Our Next Cities II - The Cycles of Planning
December 17, 2003 Our Next Cities I - The Arrogance of Planners
December 9, 2003 The Uptown
November 12, 2003 Big Day Today
November 10, 2003 Election Day Speculations
October 21, 2003 Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood.
October 7, 2003 In the Year 2525
September 24, 2003 Bad News For Eves: No Clear Winner
September 8, 2003 The Belle of Eden Mills
August 9, 2003 The Dance of the Daring Automobiles
July 5, 2003 The Little Train that Couldn't
June 30, 2003 Shrink Toronto Council?
June 27, 2003 Facing the Future
June 16, 2003 Putting On Your Public Face
June 12, 2003 The Use of Space
June 8, 2003 An Open Letter to the Mayor of the City of Kitchener
May 25, 2003 The Pearson-Union Rail Link
May 24, 2003 Chicago's Circle Line
May 7, 2003 Broken Windows, Broken Dreams
April 16, 2003 My Town - A Sense of Optimism
April 4, 2003 My Town - A Sense of Similarity, A Sense of Difference
March 29, 2003 My Town
March 13, 2003 The Names of Things II -- So, You Want to Rename Your City...
March 12, 2003 The Names of Things
March 5, 2003 To Toll or Not to Toll?
March 1, 2003 My Home Town
February 20, 2003 Our Municipal Fall Guys
February 19, 2003 The Federal Government Ignores Our Cities, Again
February 16, 2003 Protest is Good for You
February 9, 2003 Drivers Flow Like Water
December 30, 2002 What Makes Toronto a Good City
December 27, 2002 Whither the Sheppard Subway
December 12, 2002 Greyfields: Coming Soon to a Mall Near You
December 9, 2002 The Spadina Streetcar/LRT
December 7, 2002 Lament for Detroit
November 26, 2002 Liberals Lack Lustre
November 18, 2002 The Village of Weston is Dying
November 15, 2002 Transit: the Silent Necessity
August 28, 2002 Reasons for Optimism
July 18, 2002 Burn Some Here, Save Some There
July 17, 2002 Not the World Cup.
May 31, 2002 Toronto Should Be Canada's 11th Province
May 28, 2002 Toronto's Official Plan
May 6, 2002 Power to the Cities
April 30, 2002 My Subway Fantasy
April 17, 2002 Overheating in Ontario's Cruel Spring
March 31, 2002 Why Two-Tier Regional Government Works
March 18, 2002 The Box Store Paradox
March 1, 2002 Maybe it Shouldn't go into my Backyard?