What's Next for #streets4peopleTO?

The month of April saw Torontonians ramp up their calls for Mayor John Tory, Toronto City Council, and Toronto Public Health to create #streets4peopleTO as cities across Canada and the world have done. While the City had consistently resisted this move and became a national outlier, there has been a gradual shift in attitude while some other improvements have been made. Let’s review what has happened and celebrate the 4th anniversary of the Bloor bike lanes being approved by city council.

The Value of Tactical Urbanism

For those who aren’t already aware, the term “tactical urbanism” refers to the use of temporary, low cost materials to help improve public spaces and neighbourhoods. The practice has been around for a long time, but this term has been popularized over the past few years including by Mikael Colville-Andersen during his TV series “The Life Sized City”. Last weekend, 8 80 Cities and Better Block took this concept to a whole new level by building a pop up complete street on Danforth Avenue known as 8 80 Streets Danforth; a first of its kind for Canada.