I was struck by how little things truly make a difference in a city at our neighbourhood barbershop this week. Under its previous owner, the Cook Street Barbershop had become grimy and seemingly unloved. Walking past on the way to the grocery store next door, there was never a reason to pause. The windows were dirty, the inside looked grim… Read more »
This post is a love letter to my five all time favourite kid’s books about cities, neighbourhoods and community. Well worn and ragged, each has been well tested at my family’s house and and are the kind of picture books that can be enjoyed over and over again by younger citizens and their older fans alike. Important to me, none… Read more »
From the Vault: I originally wrote the following story for Momentum Magazine in 2003 and had completely forgotten about it until speaking the other day with a co-worker interested in aquaponics. That chat made me remember the first time I’d ever seen water, plants and urban fish in action together, in Kolding, Denmark. While over a decade has passed since this… Read more »
We all know the power of images. Making a visual impact is even that much more important when trying to engage citizens in community decision-making, particularly when it comes to communicating project benefits and trade offs. Two great examples of visually communicating recently came my way and I thought I would share them. Example 1: City of Victoria 2015 Property… Read more »
It goes without saying that changing technology has had huge impacts over the last 20 years, and its impact on how we plan cities and transit systems is no different. This post is about some of the best parts of those changes…and a love letter to the “old school” practice of marking up maps that I still believe is an… Read more »
The other day while gingerly nestling my bike against another unknown person’s at a bike lock up it crossed my mind that no car driver would ever tolerate parking their vehicle by rubbing it up against someone else’s. I started to grumble and launch into an internal diatribe. But then I stopped and thought again. Because maybe this wasn’t something… Read more »