Some months ago we looked at many of the back lanes of Celebration in Florida, one of the most successful new urbanist towns around. Then at Tradition, by Minto, which has given up and gone traditional suburban with garages facing the street. Garrison Village had parking off back lanes. Many of these lanes were classic new urbanist, and could have been mistaken for Celebration: Mostly one-ways, they created a nice environment for slow motorists and playing kids with wheeled toys. They actually felt like places; and kids might have fond memories of playing there. With clusters of townhouses or duplexes … Continue reading Garrison Village, the rear lanes

Regular readers may recall some previous drop ins — and critiques –to New Urbanist towns. Sometimes these are new new towns, sometimes they are old new towns. Today, Garrison Village, near Niagara on the Lake, On.   This is a new town that wears that moniker proudly on all its marketing materials. The sales office comes complete with a library of books on Seaside, Celebration, and other notable new urbanist stories. The entrance street off the highway into Niagara on the Lake has a fine row of red brick federalist/georgian/colonial homes. They are close to the sidewalk, and strongly convey … Continue reading Garrison Village, new urbanist development, NOTL

Ontario released its new Cycling Strategy on Friday. One of the areas that caught my interest — partly because I sent in comments on the first draft — is intercity tourism. Cycling is a great form of staycation, ie a way to encourage Ontarians to vacation near home. It could also be an economic way for frugalistas like myself to vacate. Of course, it also has a function of encouraging non-Ontarians to vacation (and spend their money) here. I was therefore quite disappointed to see no mention of actually building much infrastructure to accomplish these tourism goals. In fact, the … Continue reading Encouraging cycling tourism in Ontario

  The Marilyn Monroe towers on Absolute Drive in Mississauga have a fairly small ground floor footprint. The interior lobbies were finished with lots of spit and polish and glitter, all expressed in round shapes. The perimeter elements were granite; the core reflective materials. Note in the above photo the womb chair in the background.     Like the building above, the lobby was extreme, all furniture being thematically linked to curves.   Circular lobbies aren’t my forte, and I found myself continually almost bumping into shiny things. Could it be better outside the doors?   The exterior landscaping continued … Continue reading Inside Marilyn Munroe

Too many developers claim that their podiums (the part under the “slim” tower above) contain townhouses. They rarely do. They sometimes contain two storey apartments at the ground floor. But most often the podium is simply more apartments, but the balcony being at ground level can have a walk-up feature. Many of these access features are cosmetic and do not contribute to liveliness on the street. A recent example of developer bumpf regarding townhouses is Taggart claiming they are building townhouses along Norman Street when it looks like, reads like, talks like, and indeed is simply an apartment building with … Continue reading Townhouse Podiums

Older apartment and condo buildings reflect the design, technology, and economic trade-offs of their day. Newer buildings offer features like higher ceilings and much larger windows. Apartments in older buildings are often cheaper than new ones, on more spacious sites. Ideally, one could buy and older unit and get the benefits of new designs. But there is only so much a new kitchen or bathroom can do. Structurally, the buildings are locked in place. But not all the buildings, all the time. There is a high rise out along the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway and Richmond Road, originally marketed as Olympic … Continue reading Can an older condo building compete with new?

  With all the brou-ha-ha and controversy about the routing of the WLRT along the old CPR corridor adjacent the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway, the complainants frequently raise the issue of “property values”. Supposedly they will be harmed by the provision of rapid transit near their homes, even if underground. Much of this reasoning follows the “I don’t like it so I’ll think up arguments against it” school of reasoning, since the potential offsetting savings in property taxes isn’t mentioned. However, if property values go up, someone is sure to complain their taxes will too, since logic is being supplanted … Continue reading Western LRT and the Best Time to Sell

  While in St John’s a few weeks back I noticed their bus system had a neat slogan: Get On, Be Moved.  Does OC Transpo have one? If so, what is it? If not, do you want to suggest one (serious or facetious)? If OC had to think up one, I’ll bet it would be painfully obviously the same in both official languages. Continue reading Does OC have a customer slogan?

When the NCC first proposed the Fallen Firefighters Monument on Wellington Street at Lett (near the Mill Brew Pub) I predicted it would be a dreadful isolated lonely spot, a dead spot on Wellington: https://www.westsideaction.ca/dead-spot/ Since the monument was completed, I’ve made a point of cycling by it frequently   often  occasionally   once in a while.  It’s  always … dead. Except once, I actually saw signs that someone might have visited:   Notice that the visitor seems to be a fan of the 100 m diet; and also that the bench has a divider on it designed to prevent someone … Continue reading Monument of Death

Continue reading Sign Challenged

  These overhead lights in the Santa Monica Place (a shopping centre, you saw it in the Day After Tomorrow when the characters fall through a snow bank on the skylight) in California show the availability of parking spaces in the garage, so you don’t have to drive down an aisle looking in vain. The lights align nicely so it is really easy to both drive the end aisle and scan the side aisles looking for a space. Ain’t technology wonderful? Continue reading Finding a parking place

Continue reading Another quirky sign

Mr Beaver, eating lilly pads: Continue reading Beaver tales on the parkway