Jocelyn Lambert Squires
jocelynsquires.bsky.social
Jocelyn Lambert Squires
@jocelynsquires.bsky.social
Toronto-centric voice for architecture and urbanism. Transit nerd. Recovering American. Research, writing, bikes, architect-adjacent. (EN/FR, she/her/elle)
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
A win! But it took thousands—including petition signatories, tour participants, emailers, Matlow’s staff, the mayor’s staff, the councillors themselves, and some I surely forgot—to keep momentum and morph this into consensus. Thank you all.
November 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
I was radicalized at 13 when I wrote my Grade 8 speech on light pollution and learned for the first time that a better world was possible
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"

guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
November 13, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Ford turns Ex Place into some kind of amusement park/casino/nightclub, then says it's much better because it's "year-round use", even though Ex Place is already used year-round. That sounds like classic Ford bullshit.
November 13, 2025 at 11:54 PM
I wonder what dissolving the Toronto Parking Authority Board will do for Toronto Bike Share?
Mayor Olivia Chow is up to explain why she wants to get rid of the TPA Board. She says TPA's parking lots are city assets., and they could be raising more funds.

She notes the 2026 city budget is a tough one. "We have to find money."
November 14, 2025 at 2:44 AM
The fascinating lore that is shared in Council! And nice to know Toronto's traffic is and always has been a problem.
Councillor Mike Colle tells us a tale. 25 years ago, the city bought giant yellow plows dubbed "SnowZilla machines" from Nova Scotia.

"They were supposed to go along our main streets, dig up the snow and melt it on the spot. Well, the god damn machines NEVER WORKED! They got stuck in the traffic!"
November 14, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I find the retail in neighbourhoods resolution interesting because it doesn't actually look like it's adding any retail inside neighbourhoods (like what I enjoy in Seaton Village), but rather, legalizing it in areas with existing retail where I had no idea it wasn't legal (like Harbord).
Most significant remaining change in the corner store report is adding permissions for retail along "major streets." Staff have provided maps for each ward showing what would change — retail would be permitted in the orange areas. A few examples attached. www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis... (PDF)
November 14, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Council votes 22-3 to APPROVE the plan to continue negotiations with the Weston Golf Club re: acquiring land for the Humber Trail, with authorization to initiate expropriations if necessary.
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Pizza too!
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
In general, it seems silly for cities with 100k+ populations to have part time councillors. Shrink the councils if you need to, but part time councils in medium sized cities seem built to privilege representation from dual income, upper middle class households who can make this work.
November 12, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
I went back to Family Mini Mart today to show you all what neighbourhood retail actually looks like. No AI. No Music. Time to grow up.
November 12, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
The shamelessness of aping my own documentation and art (their creation on the left, my photo on the right) to exaggerate the impacts of retail… Sad. Derivative. Misleading.
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Toronto Cenotaph — a quiet, carved reminder of the cost of war that has gathered Torontonians in reflection every November 11 since it was unveiled in 1925.

#remembranceday #war #sacrifice #cenotaph #memorial #TorontoHistory #toronto #canada #jeremyhopkin
November 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
A friend is coming from Europe to Toronto in a few weeks (not peak anything) & trying to book a hotel. Found a middle-market hotel downtown for $395. That is bonkers. More expensive than London or Paris in the summer. Toronto needs a whole bunch of new hotels. Maybe dead condo mkt can pivot.
September 17, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Nice house, little of heritage significance, sold for $3.85-million. 100m from Bathurst subway station
November 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
BUT SNOW!!!

#BikeTO
Yesterday there were approximately 9,021 Toronto Bikeshare bikeshare trips
Most used station: 2700 Eglinton Ave W (227 trips)
Least used station: Lansdowne Subway Station and 299 others (0 trips)
Active stations: 984
#bikeTO
November 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
My curatorial debut! Building Value(s) was staged at @azuremagazine.bsky.social's Human/Nature conference in late October. A meditation on demolition, preservation and the value of our buildings — whether expressed in carbon and collective memory.
Building Value(s): Inside AZURE's Human/Nature Exhibition
Focusing on questions of value in the building environment, four thought-provoking exhibitions animated the Evergreen Brick Works.
www.azuremagazine.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
it's *severely* underrated how having frequent train service on GO lines would transform travel in this city + region, and cut commute times in half, sometimes to a quarter even. hundreds of thousands of new transit riders, slashing congestion, cleaner air.

let this one station serve as an example.
November 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
Impressive use of pooch puns. And I’m glad I read this news or I may have called Toronto Animal Services. My fav park. It’s impressive, whimsical work by Claude Cormier.
November 12, 2025 at 12:11 AM
This is my robot vacuum, named Robot. Today, Robot has eaten a phone charger and taken it to the hiding spot under the sideboard. Try telling me Robot isn't a pet.
November 12, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
At this point, I would really love to know what level of responsibility the urban planning field feels for the fact that stacking renters on highways/arterial roads is so common in North America, it is featured in Amazon ads for sound level meters.
ha. Looked on the forest site and the ad even uses measuring traffic noise from an apartment. Just goes to show you it is the biggest source of nuisance noise most of us deal with regularly...
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
I think syntax (linguistics) should be required for CS students. Coding is a human language and its useful to know how that is structured
November 11, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
"There are too many cars and not enough roads. Absent a radical reform like a congestion charge similar to New York City — where a price on driving in the city causes people to look to alternatives — there’s no way to reverse the trend." -Matt Elliott
Matt Elliott: Without acknowledging hard truths, Toronto’s traffic czar isn’t likely to get very far
It’s probably good that this new position will come with a handsome salary because this traffic czar will be given an impossible task. There’s no solving Toronto traffic, writes Matt Elliott.
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
two people at spadina carrying sleds down the stairs into the subway, winter in toronto has officially begun ❄️
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
I wrote about this too. Why isn’t Ontario hitting the barricades in rage? We’ve so little lake access. Entirely privatized shorelines. You could give the province away to oligarchs & people would be meh. Thx to Fatima for calling this early on.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
November 10, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Jocelyn Lambert Squires
I was having a conversation recently about what can push a certain Ontario provincial agency to become better at at value-for-money in delivering projects. Political pressure to do so was my answer.

I regret to inform you that Ontario's voters simply don't care that their money is misspent.
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Ontario Provincial Polling:

PCPO: 51% (+8)
OLP: 23% (-7)
ONDP: 19% (-)
GPO: 3% (-2)
Others: 4%

Abacus / Nov 6, 2025 / n=1000 / Online

(% Change with 2025 Election)

Check out more ON details on @338Canada at: www.338canada.com/ontario
November 11, 2025 at 12:24 AM