Moments of togetherness are often improvised...spilling into intersections or private plazas that were never meant to hold them.

Because in the end, the design of a city is always political, and the right to assemble, to celebrate, or to dissent depends on how we shape our public spaces.

Many North American cities lack these ingredients. We built for cars and commerce, not citizens.

In Toronto, we have some walkability and density in downtown core, but not much of a civic heart.

Sankofa Square and Nathan Phillips Square aren't cutting it.

Places like Athens’ Syntagma Square, Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Tehran’s Azadi Square, Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and Beijing’s Tiananmen Square have each witnessed defining moments of collective expression, both protest and joy.

Their geometry makes gathering inevitable.

They are stages for democracy.

I've been fascinated by and researching what makes a city “protest-friendly.”
Walkability, a critical mass of people, and streets that converge on civic focal points. The architecture of democracy.

The same qualities that sustain protest also sustain celebration.

The level of effort that goes into the process >>>>> the effort that goes into the outcome.

If the outcome is a 100-page document, there will be tens of thousands of pages submitted along the way just to meet made-up requirements, half of which no one will ever read.

I wish we could spend some of that time on conducting deeper research, doing more peer review with SMEs, etc. With tight budget and timeline, there should be a discussion about priorities and where we want to spend most of the available time/budget on...

Working on some municipal projects, sometimes up to 75% of our time/budget/resources go towards planning and preparing for engagement, analyzing feedback, and creating engagement summary reports (the last one I created was 360 pages long which will be an internal document for th City).

Ugh nonsense. 3 more weeks to go

Once there was a new lady at the dog park and when I started talking to her she was like “I’m actually just dog-sitting for this German Shepherd because the owner is at Burning Man. The dog’s name is Hegemony.” This is the story I tell when people ask me what San Francisco is like.

Page 42 and 43 of Part 1, Guideline A
www.toronto.ca/city-governm...

The original diagram showed bidirectional bike lanes, but City's Transportation team suggested revising it to a multiuse trail since the City doesn’t want to promote bidirectional bike lanes.

Does Wellington St., between Spadina and Portland qualify? Bidirectional bike lane and deciduous trees on the north side, garden bed and retail spill-out zone on the south.

We also promoted this idea as part of thermal comfort guidelines, for the same reasons you stated.