Subscribe now

37% of Torontonians report feeling lonely at least 3-4 days per week, according to a study from Toronto Foundation’s Vital Signs in 2023. 60% of Canadians feels disconnected from their community, according to a 2024 Angus Reid survey, with that percentage up at 68% for 18-34-year-olds. Implied in these survey results is that the 925,000 lonely people in Toronto would rather not feel that way. They want more friends, acquaintances, to know their neighbours, to feel they belong to a community. And yet, given these numbers have not been improving, they are struggling to make any of those things happen.

Making new friends as an adult is not easy. According to Rebecca Adams, three conditions are required to form a new close friendship: proximity, repeated unplanned interactions, and a setting that encourages vulnerability. To put it another way, we need to be within conversation distance of someone regularly enough to interact with them on a regular basis, and we need to feel we can share something beyond a comment about the weather, something personal. When we are children in school, we often experience these conditions. We’re around other kids our age in classrooms and schoolyard for many hours every day, we have lots of unplanned interactions with peers, and we’re more vulnerable and unfiltered by default given our age. But as adults, we are rarely in circumstances that meet all three requirements.

Jeffrey Hall’s research concludes it takes about 50 hours to move from acquaintance to casual friend, about 90 hours to form a real friendship, and more than 200 hours to upgrade it to a close friendship. Those are some serious hours. The three conditions above are required to light the spark of a potential new friendship, then the two people need to want to spend lots of time together to make it stick. Our city is not designed to make this kind of connecting happen. Our buildings, city blocks, and especially single-family home neighbourhoods are designed for efficiency, privacy, and cars rather than unplanned interactions and expressing vulnerability.

So what does it actually mean to “build community”? We can look at community in two ways: affinity-based and proximity-based. An affinity community is one that forms because of shared interests, identity, or values. Running clubs, religious institutions, university friends, sports teams, and Meetup.com groups are good examples. Proximal communities are people you encounter because of shared physical space. These are your neighbours, coffee shop regulars, parents at the playground, dog owners at a park, the people you keep running into at the grocery store. By definition, you don’t choose these people, and they tend to have much more diverse economic, social, and political backgrounds than in affinity communities. The people in your proximal community are your source of weak ties: acquaintance-level connections that generate a sense of well-being and belonging. Proximal communities force a mixing that flattens status hierarchies and creates a healthy, vital mixing of a diverse set of people.

The “third place”, a concept introduced by Ray Oldenburg in 1989, is somewhere that’s neither home (first place) nor work (second place). It could be a pub, coffee shop, library, park, or community centre. Third places allow anyone to show up, and encourage regular, low-stakes socializing. Over the past decade, third spaces have been disappearing due to zoning changes, higher land costs, more remote work, and increased social media use. A 2024 YMCA study showed that 36% of Canadians have no third place at all, while 65% wished there were more such places. Putting aside the health risks, previous traditions of going to the pub after work had huge benefits for creating a sense of belonging and generating lots of loose ties, some of which developed into friendships. Religious spaces such as churches also served this purpose, but attendance has been steadily decreasing for some time. Even Starbucks has played a role in the decline of third places as they remove seating and reduce the size of many stores, encouraging customers to pick up a coffee and leave rather than hang around for a few hours.

Given all of this, what can we do to build community, increase the number of loose ties people have, and generate more real friendships? “Hey Neighbor”, created by Graham McBain, has a 10-step community building playbook that is rapidly gaining traction and showing great results in many communities. The playbook provides a very practical, step-by-step approach to meeting your neighbours and creating recurring events to bring them together. Steps include defining a boundary of roughly 200 homes, being conspicuously friendly with more small talk, starting with a low-stakes event like coffee on a driveway, and making an effort to get to know the people who turn up. After that, setting up a simple virtual hub such as a Whatsapp group and keeping a steady rhythm of events is important. Over time, expanding the diversity of events and having more organizers will take things to the next level. McBain offers free weekly virtual classes to help you get started.

Because we’ve optimized our city for efficiency, convenience, and privacy, that’s what we got. Third places used to provide a convenient outlet for proximal communities to form, but those have been disappearing. To combat the loneliness and disconnection many Torontonians feel, it will take conscious and deliberate effort. The “Hey Neighbor” approach has proven to be effective and will work in Toronto communities. Whether you follow their template or not, becoming aware of this type of approach can help you increase your number of loose ties, perhaps lead to new friendships, and turn the concept of building community into a real thing.

Subscribe now

The driver and I talked about Uber, of course. How cool it was that he had a new, flexible job he could do any time he felt like it, and how excited he was that some people had started to book rides. Neither of us knew that rideshare would become much more dominant than taxis in the coming years. In 2024, there were 212,000 rideshare trips in Toronto completed by over 26,000 Uber or Lyft vehicles. Compare that to less than 7,000 taxis still on the road, down by half in eight years. The numbers tell us what anyone who has taken an Uber knows: rideshare is a far superior experience to a traditional taxi. Easier to book and track, seamless payment of the amount quoted upfront, no need to provide a destination or directions, and a rating system to incentivize good service. The few times I’ve taken a taxi in the past decade have reminded me how much worse that experience is.

While this level of mobility convenience is fantastic and something we now take for granted, another big change is coming. As you may have heard, autonomous taxis are rolling out at scale across the United States, and it’s only a matter of time until they arrive in Canada. Waymo has already begun lobbying the City of Toronto. While there is no way to predict exactly when autonomous taxis will begin service in our city, my guess is probably less than five years, and perhaps less than three. Transport Canada does not yet allow fully autonomous vehicles, but that will change. In the US, Waymo is operating in six cities and completing more than a half-million trips per week with more than 2,500 vehicles. And they’re growing fast, expecting to get to one million rides per week by the end of this year. That’s a lot of autonomous rides, which gives us a pretty good sense of what to expect once those rides begin and scale here.

There are many pros and cons to this new paradigm. The most significant pro is safety. Humans are terrible drivers, evidenced by the 1M people killed globally on the roadways every year, not to mention the many more injuries and even more minor collisions and near-misses. Autonomous vehicles never get distracted or tired, and do not make the kind of mistakes humans do. They are not perfect, but data shows they are much safer. After all, 94% of crashes caused by humans are due to errors such as the driver being drunk, distracted, or speeding. Putting the statistics aside, getting into an autonomous taxi will feel safer because every car will drive the same way rather than the current randomness of what kind of driver you will get.

The next most significant benefit to autonomous taxis is the one thing that did not change when we went from taxis to Ubers: having a stranger in the car. It turns out that mostly everyone greatly prefers not having to interact with, or be in the presence of someone they don’t know while being transported from one place to another. This is one of the reasons so many people choose to drive themselves around rather than take an Uber, let alone public transit. Removing the driver from the equation while still offering the convenience of a taxi is a big deal, as it provides most of the benefits of driving your own vehicle while not actually having to do the driving, deal with parking, refuelling, or maintenance. Riders in San Francisco are choosing to pay 30-40% more than a human-driven Uber just to be in a vehicle with no driver.

There are other benefits, but these are the two big ones, so let’s get to the most significant con: traffic congestion. Just as the shift from taxis to rideshare shifted people from transit to Ubers and Lyfts, even more people are likely to choose an autonomous taxi instead of taking the TTC. Close to half of current rideshare users said they would take transit if rideshare wasn’t available. While not all Torontonians can afford rideshare over transit all the time, there are a significant number of transit riders who have the means to make that shift more often, and likely will. This will not only impact farebox revenue for the TTC, making it more difficult to maintain or expand service, but will also add more cars to our already congested roads. Curbside congestion is also an issue, as autonomous taxis stop for pick-ups and drop-offs, blocking live traffic lanes more of the time. That said, overly congested roads act as a disincentive for people to choose car-based travel of any kind, especially when a viable alternative like transit or cycling exists. The key is to continue to invest in building and maintaining these travel modes, so there are convenient, safe, and reliable options beyond hailing a Waymo.

The city could also tax autonomous taxis to mitigate the congestion issue. The fee per kilometre could be higher when no passenger is present, encouraging the vehicles to operate as efficiently as possible. It’s also possible to mandate or incentivize some degree of integration between autonomous taxis and the public transit system. For example, these taxis could transport transit passengers to their nearest station in areas where density doesn’t justify fixed-route buses.

Winter weather is not something Waymo or its competitors have much experience with yet, as most of the initial cities they’ve deployed in are warm ones. While there will be issues to address, Waymo has the advantage of multiple types of sensors rather than only cameras. Tesla, on the other hand, is camera-only, which does not work very well in a snowstorm. In the long term, our climate will not be a barrier to this service.

Regardless of the potential downsides, autonomous taxis are coming to Toronto, it’s just a question of when. Now is the time to determine the optimal way to adopt this new technology so it complements the transportation system and leads to a better mobility experience for everyone.

Subscribe now

The incentives of these existing home owners are at odds with what is necessary for Toronto to continue to grow in a healthy, sustainable way. A Toronto with streets that are vibrant and walkable, with a mix of retail, residential, and welcoming public spaces. With a mix of types and sizes of homes, woven into all neighbourhoods, rather than the majority of the city having nothing but detached, single-family homes. Where those who cannot afford such a home are not relegated to a tiny condo unit or to a more suitable home far outside the city limits.

Strong Towns calls this the “next increment of development”. Healthy neighbourhoods evolve gradually rather than being built once and never changed. In my own neighbourhood in uptown Toronto, there has indeed been incremental development over the years. Originally, these streets were lined with small bungalows, most of which have now been replaced with much larger two and three-storey homes. Some of the original bungalows remain, fewer every year. Owners of these homes wanted more space, and could afford to build it. This example of the next increment of development happened because it was aligned with the interests of existing home owners. The next increment after this one, building a variety of types and sizes of homes, will benefit future residents of these neighbourhoods, while existing residents perceive these changes as net-negative.

Existing home owners have the loudest and strongest voice at the table where new development is approved or denied. In Scarborough, for example, the Committee of Adjustment recently blocked the development of a six-storey building with eight three-bedroom units, citing neighbourhood character. This committee is comprised of 35 volunteer residents. What are they missing? Are they right that allowing this kind of development in their neighbourhood only benefits those who would move in, while being a very bad thing for existing residents?

This is at the core of the issue. Building more density and variety of homes into neighbourhoods benefits everyone, including long-term residents.

More neighbours means more customers for local businesses. The most popular neighbourhoods have a local cafe to walk to in the morning, a dry cleaner down the street, and a few lovely locally-owned restaurants nearby. Enough housing density is required to drive enough business to keep these around, and to encourage new small, local retail and dining options to open up. Some of Toronto’s most desirable areas, such as the Annex, Roncesvalles, and the Danforth are popular because of local, walkable retail and dining, supported by the housing density in these communities. More walkable destinations also increases the feeling of vibrancy in a neighbourhood.

Another significant benefit to more housing density is financial sustainability. Low-density single-family homes do not generate enough tax revenue to support the infrastructure and services that a thriving, vibrant city requires. Strong Towns has studied this extensively, and the data is clear. We need to budget a significant amount of money every year just to prevent Toronto from falling apart, let alone build new infrastructure like transit, libraries, community centres, and parks. Shifting the majority of our neighbourhoods from low to medium density will grow the tax base and put the city on much more solid financial ground.

Finally, a neighbourhood with a mix of types and sizes of homes will open up more options for existing residents in the future. As they grow older, their children move out, and they require less space, they can move into a smaller unit while continuing to live in the same community. Or perhaps as those children move out, they may choose to live nearby, renting a unit in a low-rise apartment building or in a garden suite.

Accepting trade-offs is how we move forward. I understand that for someone who’s owned a detached, single-family home for decades, a sixplex or a low-rise apartment seems like nothing but trouble. While there will be some downsides, there are also many benefits to accepting the missing middle into your community. Neighbourhood character is not static; for Toronto to continue to grow and evolve in a strong, healthy way, that character must evolve too.

Subscribe now

That said, I’m not suggesting everyone should give up their cars. Toronto will continue to benefit from the expanding transit network, and perhaps one day will be able to continue building bike lanes so we have a contiguous network. At the same time, motor vehicles will continue to be the dominant mode of transportation in the city, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Electric and autonomous vehicles will change the dynamics of driving in a yet-to-be-determined way, but driving will always remain a very convenient, efficient, and preferred mode of getting around.

Vehicles have been growing over the years. SUVs outnumber sedans, and many people drive pickup trucks even though they never haul anything that requires one. Vehicle weight has increased by 30% since 1981 and vehicle size by 26% since 1990. Even pickup trucks have gotten larger, increasing by 1,000lbs since 1975. In 2010, SUVs were 17% of global car sales, now they are 58% in many cities. You get the picture.

Why do we drive larger vehicles? Some people just prefer it, but it’s important to note that there are a lot of incentives for auto manufacturers to sell more SUVs and pickup trucks and less smaller sedans. Profit margins are much higher for SUVs compared to sedans, and they are often subject to fewer environmental regulations. Everyone has a right to buy and drive whatever vehicle they’d like, but people who prefer to drive a smaller sedan have fewer options, and are bombarded with marketing telling them that SUVs are safer, more fun, and just better.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have mini cars. There are many types of very small vehicles: Kei Cars in Japan (not to be confused with K-cars from the 80s), quadricycles in Europe, and golf carts being driving in some American cities nowhere near a golf course. None of these are permitted on the streets of Toronto.

You may be surprised to know that in Ontario, there is a 10-year pilot going on for low speed vehicles (LSV). These LSVs are electric, have four wheels, travel up to
40 km/h, and cost $10-15k. You need a driver’s license and insurance to drive one, and they are are only permitted on streets with a speed limit of 50 km/h or less. While the provincial pilot started in 2017, the City of Toronto voted to opt-in to this pilot in 2024.

They look something like this:

So yes, for almost two years you could have been zipping around the city in a little golf cart-like vehicle. What’s stopping you? Safety? Yes, that’s an issue. Here’s the conundrum: SUVs are indeed safer for their drivers, but are much more dangerous for everyone else on the roadways, especially those on bicycles or on foot. Mini cars such as LSVs stand no chance in a collision with an SUV, but if you happened to bump into a pedestrian they would almost certainly be fine. This isn’t a convincing argument to drive an LSV for your own safety, but does highlight the net-negative safety impact of more people driving larger vehicles. Winter is also not so great for LSVs, and we all know how long that lasts. That said, it’s likely more pleasant for most people to drive an LSV in winter compared to riding a bicycle.

These are real and valid concerns, and there is no argument to replace the majority of vehicles with LSVs. But they are another option to add to our transportation ecosystem. LSVs could be used in residential neighbourhoods to pick up groceries or access transit when it’s too far to walk. They could provide mobility to seniors or those with accessibility challenges. Amazon deliveries could be made by LSV, reducing the amount of space they occupy while making many stops in a residential neighbourhood. City fleets could also benefit from LSVs, as could students getting to school where transit and cycling is not so appealing.

In most cases, a regular-sized car, transit, a bicycle, or your own two feet are your best choice when heading out the door. But in some cases, an LSV may be just the right thing to meet your needs. Some American cities have built dedicated golf cart lanes that have spurred significant adoption. Given our struggle to build bike lanes in Toronto, doing the same is unlikely, but that doesn’t mean LSVs have no place. Limited, yes, but the more mode choices we have, the better chance to tone down motonormativity just enough to improve our neighbourhoods, our communities, and our city.

Subscribe now

Even more miraculous is that reviews of the line to-date have been quite positive. In contrast to the very slow Line 6 Finch, which has infamously been outpaced by an intrepid winter runner, Line 5 is zipping along at up to 60 km/h thanks to the majority of it being tunnelled underground, avoiding pesky traffic lights and all those left-turning vehicles. Once traffic signal priority comes online and the maximum speed is increased to 80 km/h, things should improve even further, and Line 5 may live up to being called rapid transit.

Putting aside the extreme delays and budget overrun, the opening of this line is extremely good news for Toronto in many ways. 25 new stations and 19km across the middle of the city should draw plenty of new transit riders who would otherwise drive, resulting in less traffic congestion. All of the previous Eglinton bus riders should now have a more comfortable, reliable, and quick commute. And with a Line 5 western extension already in the works, not to mention the Ontario line with 15 stations and almost 16km of its own, Toronto will finally have a more comprehensive rapid transit network.

At the same time, one of the big missed opportunities here was building lots of housing units right above and around the new stations. This was considered early in the project, but didn’t make it into the final design. While the stations are visually appealing and well-functioning, there is a single-storey glass pavilion on top of each one where a tower full of housing should be. Visit other cities such as Hong Kong and you’ll see just that: housing and commercial developments on top of half of the system’s 87 stations. This generates more than half of the Hong Kong transit system’s revenue, which is significant, and funds further transit expansion. While Toronto doesn’t need the density of Hong Kong, this is still a missed opportunity for more housing that’s directly connected to transit. This would also generate significant new revenue to fund more new transit, not to mention paying down the massive maintenance and repair backlog.

Even if the glass pavilion design makes it unlikely housing could be built on top of the stations, there remains an opportunity to build more density around the stations. So far this is happening very unevenly, with enormous intensification around Yonge, Mount Pleasant, and in Leaside, but very little anywhere else. Improving policies around mixed-use zoning and reducing red tape to build more density and retail around more of the stations will mean the new line doesn’t just transport people through these neighbourhoods. More stops can become attractive destinations to live, eat, and spend time, resulting in a more vibrant midtown socially and economically. This is especially important for communities like Little Jamaica, where businesses endured years of construction disruption, many of which disappeared, and could benefit from the kind of thoughtful development that brings foot traffic back.

As construction is already underway on the Ontario line and other existing line extensions, now is the time to incorporate plans for more housing and retail around all the new stations that will come online. At the same time, it’s not too late to transform Line 5 into a true transit corridor rather than a faster version of the old buses. If this is done well, with a mix of unit types and sizes, mixed with various kinds of retail, the impact will be significant. Not only will this improve housing affordability, it will also motivate even more drivers to shift to transit, further reducing traffic congestion. Addressing the two most significant issues in our city at the same time is a rare opportunity, and one that we should focus on next.

Subscribe now

Improving transit reliability, speed, and safety is very important, and will result in more people choosing transit over driving. More transit signal priority, better line management, and funding state of good repair will get us there. And with the Eglinton Crosstown (line 5) finally almost ready to open, even more commuters will live near an (eventually) rapid transit line. The Ontario Line is several years out, but will drive even more transit use, further reducing the quantity of cars clogging up the roads. All good stuff.

That said, even these transit improvements and expansion will not divert enough car trips to eliminate congestion. It will improve, yes, but we need more. One option is to build even more transit lines, but these are very expensive, and getting even more expensive over time. Line 6 cost $2.6B, line 5 is $13B and counting, and the Ontario line is projected at $27B. That’s a lot of billions. Given the state of our municipal budget, and how we should be spending more of that maintaining what we’ve already built (see below), it would be very difficult to fund many more rapid transit lines anytime soon.

While we continue to optimize every last bit of space we have to jam as many cars, busses, LRTs, and bikes through the city, what if we could use the space above the roads? No, not flying cars, although those may be coming too. Gondolas. Yes, gondolas. Stay with me.

Paris just opened Europe’s longest urban gondola in December. Riders coast over the roads for 17 minutes, a trip that takes 40 minutes by bus. 11,000 people are expected to ride it every day, and it’s actually France’s seventh urban gondola, so this seems to be working. This new gondola line cost $138M euros, or about $200M CAD to build. No billions here.

In Medellin, there are 6 gondola lines that carry 220,000 passengers per day. Some of these lines traverse terrain unsuitable for vehicles, and all of them transport people much more quickly than if they took the bus. 2.5-hour commutes have been reduced to minutes. Many of them connect to tram lines where passengers continue their journeys. In La Paz, Bolivia, up to 300,000 people per day ride one of 11 gondola lines. Many trips of over one hour now take 10-15 minutes.

Gondolas are often chosen to replace buses when there are mountains, ravines, or other rough terrain that makes ground transportation more difficult and expensive. But they can be deployed anywhere. Cost-wise, gondolas cost anywhere between $5 and $50M per kilometre depending on the terrain and technology (more on that next), while LRTs are $200M to $700M per kilometre, and subways are $800M to $1B+. For comparison, a typical urban freeway costs $45M to $90M per kilometre. In other words, gondolas are an order of magnitude less expensive to build than rapid transit. The entire Paris gondola system cost roughly 1% of the Ontario Line budget.

I’m not suggesting gondolas can replace rapid transit, or that they should be considered instead of busses in all cases. But given their success in other parts of the world, and with their attractive price point, they could be a viable, innovative solution that makes a lot of sense in some areas.

Where, you might ask? How about the Toronto Islands. While I like a good ferry ride as much as anyone, wouldn’t it be lovely to coast over the lake in a gondola, sipping a beer while watching the islands come into view? They would have to glide high enough to avoid the ships and low enough not to collide with the planes headed to Billy Bishop, but that seems doable.

The Don Valley corridor would also be a great place to build a gondola. Roads and valleys don’t work well together, and cutting through (over) the valley would connect the Danforth to downtown, not to mention the Evergreen Brick Works, a fantastic public space which is currently very difficult to get to unless you’re driving. There are ravines in Scarborough that could also be considered as viable gondola routes.

Traditional gondolas are have fixed points of origin and destination, with some stations in between. But new technology, such as Whoosh (love the name) by Swyft Cities, allows for autonomous pods that travel independently on a network of cables and rails. Instead of running on a fixed route, these gondola pods can make turns, routing themselves to where you want to go. You summon a gondola pod with your phone as you would an Uber, it picks you up at a nearby stations, and takes you to any other station on the line. Now we’re talking.

Let’s not get too distracted by newfangled, futuristic solutions like on-demand, autonomous gondolas. It’s still vital that we invest in not only building transit, but operating it in an efficient, fast, and reliable way. At the same time, outside-the-box solutions like gondolas could be an innovative way to alleviate congestion in specific areas, and elevate our transportation experience in more ways than one.

On a recent Saturday morning, I left my house on foot, walked 12 minutes to the nearest grocery store, listening to a podcast along the way. My noise cancelling earbuds prevented me from hearing if any of the handful of people I walked by said hello, although they probably didn’t since most were also broadcasting something into their ears. Upon arriving at the store, I found the few items I was looking for, again not interacting with anyone I passed, and headed to the checkout. As is common these days, I was encouraged to use the automated self-checkout, as there were three of these and only one human cashier. No human interaction necessary to pay for my purchase and head out. Next, I took the stairs down to the subway and just caught the train before the doors closed. Whether or not my fellow passengers were wearing earbuds, everyone was doing the typical big-city transit trick of strategically avoiding eye contact all all costs. Stare at the advertisements, out the window, or into space, but most definitely not directly at anyone else. So again, no interaction.

Subscribe now

These scenes are common and continuous in our city. Technology is very convenient but removes many opportunities we used to have for social interaction, even in passing. Single-use zoning, where there is separation between where we live, work, and shop also makes it less likely people in the same neighbourhood will interact since there are fewer things to do together near home. Car dependency removes even further points of interaction, especially when people enter a car parked in a garage without ever going outside. “Third places”, such as cafes can help, but not if you place your order on your phone in advance and scroll on that phone while enjoying your beverage.

According to recent data from the Toronto Foundation, we know that 37% of Torontonians describe themselves as feeling lonely most of the week, and that increases to 44% for young adults. These numbers are 9 percentage points higher than the national Canadian average. More than half of people who had had a rich friend network in 2013 no longer do. Around 2012, when smartphone use surpassed 50% and social networks like Instagram and Snapchat launched, loneliness became more common, especially among younger people. And of course the pandemic with its lock-downs also had a major impact. So while loneliness may not be a new issue, it is certainly an issue for many people in our city today, and for different reasons than in the past. Technology and urban design are significant barriers to improving this situation.

Social connection requires skills that atrophy if they aren’t used regularly. Put another way, if you haven’t said hello to a neighbour or chit-chatted with a cashier for a while, it will be harder to do that again. Awkwardness, social anxiety, and change of habit make it less likely social interactions will occur, even when they’re not blocked by technology or urban design. This means that this problem is self-reinforcing; it gets more and more difficult to interact with others the less you do it.

At the same time, we know that there are significant benefits to having “weak ties”, where you’re not necessarily friends with someone, but you interact with them on a somewhat regular basis. Many studies have shown that mood improves when we interact with more and different types of people. For example, a 2024 study found that knowing as few as six neighbours significantly reduced loneliness and improved well-being. Another study done in 2022 correlated happiness with interacting with different types of people (family, friends, coworkers, strangers), so variety matters. Yet another study by Epley & Schroeder in 2014 found that commuters who talked to strangers said they had significantly better commutes, but interestingly they predicted they wouldn’t. A smile and you’ll feel like smiling situation.

These weak connections are also the flywheel for new friendships. It’s not that every casual acquaintance needs to turn into a friendship, but some may. Given how hard it tends to be for adults to make friends, this is an important benefit of having more weak ties. Knowing a wider variety of people also increases the chances you’ll find out about new job opportunities, social events, hobbies, cultural events, and more.

So what can we do about this? Some of the solutions are structural. There’s a recent trend of some retail stores going back to human cashiers to reduce shoplifting. While that’s a different reason for this change, it does put the human-to-human connection opportunity back into your grocery run. Streets that are designed for more than just cars, with benches, wider sidewalks, and greenery can help encourage socializing. Zoning changes that allow retail stores in residential neighbourhoods can result in neighbours meeting each other more often.

Other solutions are personal. Armed with the knowledge that more weak ties is a good thing, each of us can make an effort to increase our frequency of communication with others. Recently, published a piece on talking and listening to strangers with helpful suggestions. Another recent piece about replacing the self-checkout with small talk is also relevant. For a deeper dive, check out the book We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, by Kat Vellos.

I’m sure none of us want Toronto to be known as the loneliest city in Canada. While this is a complex issue with many interrelated causes, it is well worth addressing. Over-optimizing for convenience and efficiency with technology and urban design has had unintended consequences. We can dial that back just enough to give ourselves the opportunity to learn how to talk to each other once again.

Subscribe now

The backlog of of maintenance and repair work grows every year, and is projected to reach $24.7 billion by 2035. This includes $214 million for community centres, $76 million for libraries, and a whopping $2.34 billion for Toronto community housing. Then we have transit, where the TTC’s maintenance backlog is expected to reach $6.1 billion.

What is going on here? Why can’t a growing, vibrant city with a multi-billion dollar annual budget keep everything working well and looking good? Instead of allocating funds to maintain and repair existing infrastructure, we budget to build new things. In the hot-off-the-presses 2026 budget, 53% of the $63.1 billion capital budget is allocated to “state of good repair”. With nearly half of this budget going towards new or improved infrastructure, it’s no wonder the maintenance backlog is growing so fast.

Failing to budget enough to maintain the infrastructure we already have occurs in many cities, not just Toronto. It’s an issue the folks at Strong Towns focus on extensively. They describe it as a Ponzi scheme: cities budget to build new things because they receive immediate revenue from doing so, in the form of development charges, fees, and other taxes. But they do not take into account the ongoing cost of maintaining this infrastructure—that’s a problem for the future. But when that future day comes, the same pattern repeats itself, new things are once again funded while the maintenance backlog grows even further.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Toronto. Until you understand this, it’s difficult to see the pattern. Many of the new and improved items in the budget sound great in isolation, and are difficult to argue against. But as soon as you realize that every new thing we build will not be properly maintained, it becomes clear why the city is struggling with so many issues today, and why those issues will keep getting worse. These maintenance costs are hidden at first because new things don’t need to be repaired right away. The biggest maintenance bills come due 20-30 years later.

To improve this situation, we must increase the percentage of the budget for maintenance and repairs to a point where the backlog begins to shrink. Because of how long this problem has been going on, it will take time for things to turn around, but at least we’ll be headed in the right direction. This is a matter of discipline and responsibility. Just like in your personal budget where you put off a big, new purchase to pay for home repairs, we must defer building new things until we can afford to maintain what we already have.

The City is inviting residents to provide input on the proposed 2026 budget. You can register to speak to the budget committee on January 20 and 21, and submit feedback online.

The longer we defer paying for maintenance and repairs, the worse things will get. Just like when you delay fixing a leak in your roof where it ends up costing much more once you have water damage and the whole things needs replacement instead of a less expensive patch. Similarly, the longer we wait, the more it will cost, and we will end up having to replace rather than repair things like pools, community housing, and transit infrastructure. In the meantime, the experience of living in the cities gets worse, as park get shabbier, sidewalks deteriorate, and buildings feel decrepit.

As the saying goes, the best time to have addressed this was many years ago, but the next best time is now.

Toronto has clearly changed a lot since then. Serious population growth and a massive increase in the cost of housing has resulted in extreme traffic congestion, a housing affordability crisis, and a general sense of frustration and cynicism about our city. To truly improve things and take Toronto to the next level, we need to make trade-offs. The things that worked for that Toronto, free parking, single-family neighbourhoods, everyone driving, made sense when there were half as many of us. But we’ve been trying to hold onto all of them while the city doubled in size. That’s why we’re stuck. We keep wanting the benefits of growth without giving anything up.

Most of the city is still comprised of single-family homes with no retail within walking distance. To increase housing supply, we need more density, which means duplexes, triplexes, and low-rise apartments. This will also increase the variety of types of units, with starter homes available to those just getting started. Retail within residential areas means people can walk instead of driving more of the time, reducing congestion. The trade-off is that the character of neighbourhoods will change.

Roadways are full of cars, and there’s no space to add more lanes. While driving from one place to another is what most people prefer, when everyone drives, the congestion has very negative impacts on productivity, the economy, and our sanity. Reliable, efficient, safe, and pleasant transit, cycling, and walking give people viable alternatives to driving. Once enough people make use of these modes, congestion decreases. The trade-off is giving up vehicle lanes for bike lanes and giving transit signal priority over passenger vehicles.

Less congestion means reallocating lanes to bikes and transit. Affordable housing means more density. Better transit means giving it green lights ahead of cars. Accepting these trade-offs can be difficult because we are used to things working a certain way, and change is hard. The good news is, once we stop pretending we can keep things as they were, the sooner we can resolve these major issues and see Toronto thrive again. Toronto isn’t stuck because these problems are unsolvable, it’s stuck because we won’t choose.

Subscribe now

The City of Toronto now has its first ever Chief Congestion Officer. Andrew Posluns brings more than 25 years of public sector leadership experience to the role, including overseeing the GO expansion strategy at Metrolinx, and leading the transportation plan for the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. Lots of relevant experience coordinating and leading transportation projects, which will certainly come in handy in this new, challenging role.

What motivated the city to create this role, originally dubbed the “traffic czar”, is easy to understand if you’ve spent any time trying to move about Toronto: it takes a lot longer than we all would like. Why? The roads are over capacity. While it really does come down to geometry (not enough space for all those cars), there is no simple solution to congestion.

Many well-informed people, such as (who publishes the excellent ), have pointed out that there is only so much a traffic czar can do, as traffic congestion is not something that can be “solved”. This is true in the sense that there is no magical combination of actions that will make congestion disappear. So it’s important that the objectives of the Chief Congestion Officer are framed correctly. Rather than “eliminate congestion”, I suggest it should be to “move the most people most efficiently”. This shift the focus from cramming as many cars as possible through the streets to making driving, transit, cycling, and walking all work better together. To design a complete transportation system that gives people the maximum number of options, and to make those options reliable, fast, safe, and pleasant.

One reason it’s been so difficult to make progress with Toronto transportation is that there are many players with no single person responsible for the outcomes. This point is very well made in on the podcast (episode 12). Transportation Services, the TTC, Metrolinx, Engineering & Construction, and City Planning are all involved in decisions that impact mobility. Each of these groups is doing their best within their own domains, but nobody is looking at the whole picture, at coordinating decisions across the board to make transportation more efficient. While the Chief Congestion Officer role does not appear to have that level of authority as it’s been designed, there is a huge opportunity to aim for that kind of across-the-board ownership of measurable outcomes.

What can we, the citizens of Toronto and beleaguered users of the transportation system do to help make our new Chief Congestion Officer more successful, and thereby improve our own experience getting from A to B? We should advocate for three things.

While there is only so much that can be done to improve congestion without reducing the number of vehicles on the roadways, smarter traffic signals will help. In his memo, Kurtis McBride, CEO of Canadian intelligent mobility firm Miovision, claims that upgrading all 2,500 Toronto intersections will cost $125M and reduce travel times by up to 20%. This is worth doing, especially considering that congestion costs the GTHA $44.7B annually.

Shifting trips from cars to transit and cycling will have the greatest impact on moving more people more efficiently.

We should advocate for reliable, fast, safe, and pleasant transit that just works. When it does, more people will choose transit over driving. The extremely slow average speed of the new line 6 LRT has everyone from the Premier to the Mayor on down focused on improving transit speed. But this is not a new problem, and not unique to line 6. Streetcars and buses have been plagued with reliability, speed, and bunching issues for decades. The good news is that there are many practical, immediate steps that will improve this that we can take directly from other cities who have already solved these problems. Giving transit signal priority (green lights) and better management of the spacing of the vehicles, for example. In cities like Zurich, trams get automatic priority at every intersection. In Toronto, streetcars wait at red lights while cars make left turns. The Chief Congestion Officer is the right person to finally make these changes happen.

Finally, we should advocate for a complete bike lane network. Today, there are fragments of bike lanes all over the city. While the kilometres of lanes has grown substantially, many more people will choose to cycle if they can always get from origin to destination more safely. As describes in his memo, we could complete the active transportation network in two years. And a well-designed network would carefully consider where to put the bike lanes, staying off of major roads whenever possible so they can be dedicated to vehicles. Most important is that the lanes form a contiguous network, not that they are on every road.

Imagine a Toronto where the streetcar arrives when the app says it will. Where you can cycle from the Danforth to the Waterfront without your route disappearing mid-trip. Where traffic lights respond to what’s actually happening on the street, not a static timing plan. That Toronto is possible. It’s what other cities have already built. Andrew Posluns now has the job of getting us there. We should hold him to it, while giving him the support and authority he’ll need to succeed.

Welcome to Rethink Toronto, the newsletter formerly known as Atom & Byte. As we head into 2026, and after six months of getting my feet wet in the exciting world of Substack authorship, I’ve decided to rebrand and relaunch this fledgling publication to focus more tightly on improving the city I love.

Toronto has changed and grown substantially over the 48 years I’ve lived here. While there have been many improvements, we’re also facing many challenges. Affordability, housing, transportation, and public safety top most people’s lists.

We’re spending more on just about everything, including housing. While the “drive until you qualify [for a mortgage]” method of buying a house has resulted in a huge number of people leaving the city, others are left with a choice between very expensive single-family homes and shoeboxes in the sky. Zoning is changing to try to address this, but there are many other obstacles to truly building out the missing middle. Renters fare no better, as it’s been decades since purpose-built rental apartment buildings were constructed, leaving many of the same shoebox condos as their only option.

If there’s one thing all Torontonians agree about, it’s that it takes too long to get anywhere these days. Traffic congestion is no longer a rush-hour phenomenon, it persists at all hours of the day and night. And while new rapid transit lines are opening for the first time in almost 20 years, they are all incredibly over budget, behind schedule, and not so rapid once they open. Cycling has gained in popularity, with lots of bike lanes being installed and rapid growth of the bike share network. But now the province has restricted building any new bike lanes that remove vehicle lanes, a classic case of “bikelash”.

Toronto is also struggling to find its identity. This is not new; in the past, we often defined ourselves by not being American, or by being somewhere in between American and European. Chicago but run by the Swiss, others called us. As Toronto has grown and developed, these identities no longer seem adequate. Who are we and what are we to be known for? A city of neighbourhoods? Of parks? Ravines? Yes, of course we are, but that’s nowhere near the whole story. That story is yet to be fully determined. We have work to do.

Loneliness is also a major issue for many people in this city. Young to old, people are feeling isolated and disconnected from each other. Social media and smartphones play a role in this, but we are also missing a sense of community in our neighbourhoods. We are lacking the loose ties between neighbours who say hello to each other in passing, who watch out for each other, who are the “eyes on the street” that Jane Jacobs so wisely described as the foundation for a vibrant, safe, welcoming city. This is made worse by zoning that prohibits mixed-use in our neighbourhoods: residential, retail, commercial, and cultural coming together to create places people can not only live, but also shop, play, and spend time together. To get to know each other.

So yes, we have many challenges. But the purpose of Rethink Toronto is not to dwell or ruminate in the negative, not to complain or cast blame. As an unwavering and determined optimist, that is not my way. Instead, this newsletter will focus on ambitious yet practical ideas for a better city, and concrete steps we can all take to make those ideas become reality.

These ideas will come from a wide variety of sources. I consume a huge amount of content from experts, urbanists, policy makers, futurists, and planners, and we really do have a ton of brainpower focused on improving Toronto. However, the vast majority of people in the city aren’t aware of all these great ideas; after all, many of these publications are aimed at other experts or urbanists, not everyday city residents. So I will bring these ideas to you with a clear, easy-to-understand way, with my own analysis, commentary, and input on how to work together to truly make things better.

We have everything we need to take Toronto to the next level, to take the next step towards becoming a truly great city that works for everyone. It won’t be easy, but it starts with a clear understanding of how things work, or don’t work, and what we can do to get from where we are today to a better future.

Stay tuned for regular posts coming your way soon. And if you have any ideas of your own, or requests for a particular challenge or frustration in the city you’d like me to focus on, hit reply and let me know.

Let’s Rethink Toronto together and create a city we’re all proud of.

Subscribe now

Over the past decade, there has been an increased focus by city governments to improve roadway safety. Vision Zero programs have sprung up in virtually all cities, with the aspiration of eliminating deaths and serious injuries. To attempts to achieve this, cities have been trying many things, such as:

• Reducing speed limits to as low as 30 km/h

• Installing automated speed enforcement cameras to fine drivers exceeding the limit

• Adding more signalized intersections

• Installing red-light cameras to fine drivers running reds

• Installing speed humps, medians, raised crosswalks, and bump-our corners to help pedestrians cross more safely

• Building more protected bike lanes so cyclists don’t have to ride in mixed traffic

• Changing signal phasing so pedestrians get a head start before cars

While road user safety has improved thanks to these changes, they also have trade-offs. Travel times have increased, congestion is worse, drivers are frustrated, and the backlash against these measures is real. In Toronto, the speed enforcement cameras were recently deactivated by order of the Premier, who has also banned building new bike lanes that remove vehicle lanes without his explicit permission.

On top of that, there is the consideration of “safetyism”. By implementing policies and infrastructure changes to improve safety, we are shifting responsibility away from individuals and towards government. Individuals feel less accountable for behaving in a safe and responsible way as more and more control over their behaviour is exerted. While this control may indeed improve safety, it has serious and deeper consequences that degrade the overall quality of our communities.

Even the best and least distracted humans are not safe enough drivers to achieve Vision Zero. Freedom is also important to people, and they tend not to like being restricted and constrained while driving around. All of the above policies and roadway infrastructure changes are attempts to grapple with the opposing forces of human performance, preference, and freedom versus safety. The trade-offs are significant.

Autonomous vehicles overcome the whole conundrum. They drive much more safely, even at higher speeds and with fewer safety features such as speed humps or protected bike lanes. If pedestrians or cyclists behave erratically, a self-driving vehicle is very unlikely to injure them since it can react much more quickly than a human driver. With only self-driving vehicles on the road, speed limits could be increased significantly. Traffic congestion is also made significantly worse by human drivers’ tendency to space out vehicles inefficiently. They tend to speed up as much as possible between red lights, causing bunching and not driving in sync with the signal timing plan. Autonomous vehicles don’t have this problem, and would minimize overall travel time rather than driving as fast as possible between red lights.

As I wrote previously, safer streets are an important part building better communities, as they encourage people to come out of their houses, walk, cycle, and interact with each other. Streets become animated and vibrant rather than sterile highways. Achieving this through existing Vision Zero mechanisms comes at the expense of serious trade-offs and diminishing returns due to the inherent limitations of human drivers. A concerted effort to accelerate the transition to autonomous vehicles has a lot of advantages over the current plan. Whether we remove the right for humans to drive is another matter, but even if a small percentage of people continue to drive, the improvements will be immense and these remaining drivers will also benefit from interacting with vehicles that see everything and behave consistently.

What are these policies trying to accomplish?

In years past, corner stores were common in many residential neighbourhoods, and that was a good thing. Walking to a corner store to pick up a few items was a pleasure, and these stores were owned and operated by local residents. Convenient, yes, but also a great way to build community. You bumped into neighbours along the way or at the store, had a chat, and strengthened your local ties. Mixed-use communities also reduced traffic congestion, as you could do more within walking distance.

Cities with multi-unit buildings such as triplexes and low-rise apartment buildings allow residents with different financial means to coexist. Rather than relegating lower-income folks to the extreme exurbs or to tiny condos, they can choose to live in established neighbourhoods that are closer to jobs, transit, and retail (see above). Over time, most people make more money and can afford larger or nicer homes, and having a mix of options means they can stay in the same neighbourhood and upgrade. This creates longer lasting bonds within communities.

Having smaller, affordable units in more communities will directly and rapidly address the housing crisis because people will be able to rent or buy units they can afford in places they want to live. Retail you can get to by foot will reduce the number of trips by car, reducing traffic volume and congestion.

Residents Associations and long-time homeowners in established neighbourhoods aren’t a fan of change. They tend to see things in terms of worst case scenarios. More housing density will definitely mean rude, inconsiderate neighbours. New retail too close to home will definitely result in round-the-clock noise and skyrocketing break-ins. In other words, the stereotypical Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) point of view. And so, as cities conduct public consultations and request feedback about these proposed changes, a significant amount of it has been negative.

Some of these concerns are valid, and it’s important to design the changes to avoid as many issues as possible. Gentle density within single family home neighbourhoods is best, not extreme density. Multiplexes and low-rise apartment buildings have a long history of successfully coexisting with single family homes in many cities. Taller buildings belong on more major streets. Reintroducing retail into residential communities should not be a free-for-all. Restrictions around the size, scale, and type of retail make sense. Think corner stores and cafes, not dance clubs and warehouses.

Ultimately, increasing density in neighbourhoods with single family homes is an effective way to provide more affordable housing. Allowing retail within residential neighbourhoods will improve traffic congestion by providing communities with more options within walking distance. It is possible to implement these changes while protecting the rights of existing residents. City staff, elected officials, and residents must work together to find the right balance.

The Evidence Is Clear

The data makes it clear that speed cameras are effective at reducing speeding. A recent SickKids/Toronto Metropolitan University study found that speed cameras reduce speeding by 45% in school zones and an 88% reduction in vehicles traveling more than 20 km/h over the limit. Anecdotally, I witness drivers slowing down significantly as they encounter a sign indicating a speed camera is in use. So there is no doubt about the effectiveness of the cameras. They are doing exactly what they are intended to do.

The “cash grab” accusation doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. A cash grab implies that fines are being issued and cash is being collected without moving the needle on the desired outcome, which is reduced speeding and increased safety. That’s simply not the case here.

There’s also a certain irony in Ford’s position: his own government passed enabling regulations in 2019 that allowed municipalities to run these programs. What changed between then and now isn’t the evidence, which has actually gotten stronger. All that’s changed is the political calculation.

Subscribe now

Understanding the Pushback

So what’s really going on here? Why all the pushback? It’s not just the Premier; if there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s tuning in to the sentiment of many citizens. Or, in this case, drivers. In each driver’s own head, they feel they’re a good, safe driver, and the bit of speeding they do is not really a problem. They’re not a danger to anyone. So while speed cameras might be a good thing in the big picture, they’re nothing but an annoyance. You either have to drive more slowly than seems necessary, delaying the arrival at your destination by a precious few seconds, or you have to pay an annoying fine. And because you believe you’re a good, safe driver, you don’t connect either of these scenarios to avoiding causing an injury or death.

This creates a tragedy of the commons situation. While each driver wants to feel like they’re getting to their destination faster, collectively faster driving leads to more injuries and deaths. The impact extends beyond individual locations, too. Research from Montgomery County, Maryland found that their speed camera program not only reduced fatal or incapacitating injuries by 39% on roads with cameras, but also saw safety improvements on roads without cameras. This is an spillover effect where drivers simply started driving more carefully throughout the community.

Therefore, while slowing down for a speed camera might feel unnecessary to any individual driver, the collective impact is overwhelmingly positive. Politicians won’t get more votes by asking people to slow down or pay a fine, but ultimately, it works, and each driver should accept that they’re serving the greater good.

Beyond Safety: Building Vibrant Communities

Preventing injuries and deaths is critically important. Road traffic injuries are the number one cause of death in children and youth in Canada. But it’s not the only positive outcome of driving more slowly. When vehicles slow down, something remarkable happens to our streets and neighbourhoods.

Consider the research from Paris, which implemented slow zones across large portions of the city. Researchers found 44% more walking, lingering, and socializing on streets with reduced speed limits compared to adjacent streets without them. Slower traffic brings people out onto the streets.

The economic benefits are also substantial. Studies show that reducing traffic speeds by just 5-10 mph increases adjacent property values by roughly 20%. Walkable urban areas with slower traffic command 35-45% premiums on rent and sales prices compared to car-oriented areas. Despite representing only 1.2% of land mass in America’s largest metros, these walkable areas generate nearly 20% of GDP.

Local businesses thrive when drivers slow down. On Valencia Street in San Francisco, after traffic calming measures were implemented, 40% of retailers reported increased sales. In Washington DC’s Barracks Row, streetscape improvements that slowed traffic led to 44 new businesses and 200 new jobs. In Lodi, California, pedestrian-oriented improvements brought 60 new businesses, dropped the vacancy rate from 18% to 6%, and increased sales tax revenue by 30%.

Speed cameras are part of creating these conditions. When streets feel safe, parents let their kids walk to school. People linger on patios and chat with neighbors. Cyclists feel comfortable riding. Local shops thrive because people can safely walk to them. Drivers themselves feel more connected to the communities they’re moving through when they slow down and have their eye out for pedestrians and cyclists. All of this creates more vibrant, welcoming, and pleasant neighbourhoods, and leads to stronger communities.

The False Choice

Premier Ford has proposed replacing speed cameras with funding for speed bumps, roundabouts, and raised crosswalks. These are good traffic calming measures, but they’re not replacements for speed cameras—they work alongside them. Physical measures affect specific locations; cameras change behavior across entire corridors and, as the research shows, even beyond them. Why ban a proven tool when you could have both?

Putting aside the fact that driving faster than the speed limit doesn’t actually save drivers much time, it’s clear that the perceived benefits to drivers of being able to make a judgment call and drive faster simply isn’t worth it. The evidence for keeping speed cameras is overwhelming: improved safety, stronger local economies, higher property values, more vibrant street life, and stronger communities. These aren’t tradeoffs. All of these benefits come as a package.

Reframing the Debate

The debate here seems to be about tax revenue or driver convenience, but that’s not really it. Really, it’s about whether we want communities designed around the perceived right of drivers to speed, or whether it’s more important to have vibrant neighbourhoods where kids can walk to school, where businesses thrive, and where streets are places for people, not just cars.

One example that struck me as especially poignant is that of the Bloordale Beach. If you haven’t heard of it, get ready for something completely different. Shari Kasman, a local Toronto artist, helped create Bloordale Beach during the pandemic. But it’s not what you think: the “beach” was created on a vacant gravel lot after a high school was demolished and before a new one was built in its place. So why a beach? It’s symbolic. Absurdist. It’s about the vibes. Beach vibes! Plan that.

The idea came to Kasman and her friend after seeing a resident sunbathing alone on the site. They put up signs naming the space Bloordale Beach, and soon after people started showing up to spend time together, make art, music, and just enjoy the impromptu public space. It’s been described as a community centre without the building. Given how many songs, poems, and documentaries have been made about it, it’s clear people loved it.

In contrast, a few weeks ago I attended the 15th anniversary of the Evergreen Brick Works. The Brick Works is a magical public space that was impressively created with a great deal of planning and hard work. An old industrial site that was anything but hospitable was turned into a beautiful space with trees, ponds, lovely hiking trails, and revitalized structures to host events and activities. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Brick Works every year, it’s the home of a huge farmer’s market, and there are children’s programs and other community events. Every time I visit, I feel refreshed, energized, and peaceful.

Bloordale Beach and Evergreen Brick Works could not be more different. One was conjured into being as a bit of an inside joke, the other took big donations and many years of careful planning and development. One was nothing more than a flat, gravel construction site and the other is a lush, natural wonderland. One only existed for a few months and was constantly being shut down by the city, the other just celebrated its 15th anniversary with new features and improvements always underway.

And yet, both are examples of public spaces of immense value to the community. They were/are a source of joy, connection, and improved quality of life. This is a perfect example of the importance of balancing how much planning you do in a city. Not so much that would prevent Bloordale Beach from existing, and not so little to get in the way of bold, ambitious projects like the Brick Works. A vibrant city needs both.

The fine folks in Lafayette, LA are taking a completely different approach. The 24 Hour Citizen Project began in 2012 as a small crowdfunding website. They have been running annual events since 2016 that connect people with community-focused ideas with expertise and financial backers to make them happen. In their own words, “this is an event created for citizens to impact their community directly through the pursuit of citizen-led projects.”

What an incredible way to flip the script and overcome the usual barriers to progress. Citizens put their ideas forward, and the project brings in experts, local government staff and elected officials, and financial backers. The experts and government folks help to refine and ready the ideas, while financial backers provide funding to bring the ideas to life. These are small-scale projects in the $5,000 range, with individuals and businesses contributing as little as $1,500 each. Small means the projects are relatively simple and straightforward to implement, speeding things up and avoiding the obstacles that come with larger, complex initiatives.

While the impact of each project may also be relatively small, the cumulative impact of multiple projects over many years is powerful. To-date, 37 projects have been completed with $170k of funding. Here is a list of all the funded projects so far. It’s fascinating to see the variety and diversity of ideas, and how each one solves a specific problem or improves a specific element of the community.

Imagine if all communities could make this kind of progress, year after year. Like compounding interest, the aggregation of progress over time would be significant, while the small nature of each project makes them much more feasible and likely to avoid roadblocks and obstacles.

In addition to the intrinsic benefits of these improvement projects, this is also a great way to build community. Neighbours naturally get to know each other while working together to propose and implement improvements that benefit everyone. There’s nothing like working through different opinions on how and what should get done when it comes to bringing people together. A sense of shared purpose combined with personal and group incentives to make it all work.

My original plan for this newsletter was to write about cities and technology. Two of my favourite topics, and I was excited to see where things went. But what is it about cities and technology that I really want to write about? The answer, it turns out, is community. You can see the theme of community running through much of my writing so far, but it wasn’t something I was explicitly aiming for. Now it’s clear that this is where I can really dive deep and bring value to you, to my own exploration, and to the improvement of cities.

Community is about the connection between people. Not just existing in the same physical space, but knowing each other, talking, laughing, having shared experiences, and building trust so neighbours can rely on each other in times of need. Feeling that you belong in your neighbourhood, not only because you own your home or pay rent, but because you are wanted, needed, and valued. This sense of community is what makes the magic happen in cities.

And yet, so many people in cities feel isolated, lonely, and disconnected. Even those who have friends and activities to keep them busy often feel that their neighbourhood is nothing more than a convenient place for their home rather than a place they belong with people they know and look forward to seeing.

There are many reasons for this: urban design, car-centric transportation, social media, as just a few examples. Technology can be a major barrier to building community, but it can also help if used in the right way. There is no one solution or one clear plan to building community—it requires systems thinking, experimentation, deep thinking, and collaboration.

So that will be my focus here at Atom & Byte: building community. I’ll explore what is missing in cities that are optimized for efficiency rather than connection, the barriers that exist to people getting to know each other, and how technology can be a tool rather than a goal in itself. Connecting with others takes courage, as we must overcome social norms that are comfortable, yet isolating. I plan to run some experiments around this, to test out new ideas for building community one conversation at a time. Ultimately, we must learn from what works, and trying things out in the real world is necessary, even if it’s scary.

If you feel like something is missing in your city life, that you don’t really know your neighbours, that people seem to be merely existing together and paying more attention to their screens than each other, you’ve come to the right place. I’m excited to explore these concepts together, and come up with new ways to better balance the physical (Atom) and digital (Byte) worlds, and build that wonderful sense of community that will unlock the magic of the city for all of us.

People with money and power want more of both, while those without either are just trying to get by. Homeowners want their property values to increase while renters want stability and predictability. Developers and real estate investors want to maximize profit by adding as much density as possible. Residents’ associations want to preserve neighbourhood character and prevent too-tall buildings next to their homes.

Small businesses want to find their ideal, passionate customers, large businesses want to increase efficiency and serve as many customers in as little time as possible. The mayor wants to look strong and above the frey, city councillors want to serve their constituants and get re-elected, and city staff want to understand what council wants form them while providing service to the citizens with as little stress as possible.

Engineering consulting firms want to increase their profit margins, contract sizes, and market share. Electrical and other field contractors want to do a good day’s work, get paid fairly, and get their work done safely. Unions want to retain their influence, negotiate the best possible collective agreements, and protect their members.

Environmental groups want to protect green space and reduce carbon emissions. Cycling advocates want more protected bike lanes while drivers want more lanes and convenient parking. Police and emergency services want clear access routes so they can respond to incidents more quickly.

All of these groups are not homogenous in their desires, so the above are just examples of what some of them want—there is more. So you can see why it’s so complicated and challenging to make progress in cities. By definition, there are lots of types of people with lots of different backgrounds, experiences, desires, wants, and needs. Many of these seem completely incompatible, but compromises must be found. That takes work, time, effort, dialogue, and patience. While these are often in short supply, it’s the only way forward.

One of the most obvious signs of community is when lots of people know each other. Yesterday, as I was walking around town, in stores, cafes, and on the streets, I noticed people were constantly saying hello to each other in passing. Some stopped for longer conversations, others just left it at a quick hello and carried on. Everyone seemed to really enjoy these interactions. It feels good to know people and to be known. Humans like to feel recognized, seen, and connected.

In a large city, it’s much less likely to encounter someone you known. And because nobody is expecting to recognize anyone else, everyone is somewhat closed off from each other. Two people passing each other on the street are conditioned not to make eye contact, to look down, to walk past each other quickly and avoid any possible interaction, lest it be awkward. This is a downward spiral, as it means it becomes even less likely to recognize anyone, let alone being open to meeting someone new.

The contrast between these two examples is stark. And important. The sense of community in small towns that comes from these casual, daily interactions is undoubtedly a positive thing. Loose connections between many people eventually leads to new friendships, all kinds of unexpected opportunities, and more vibrancy and richness in everyone’s lives. The goal is not necessarily more deep friendships, although that can also be a good thing. The loose ties are valuable in themselves, increasing the sense of belonging and connection.

In big cities, there are communities, of course, they’re just more structured, less natural feeling. Community in big cities tends to come from shared activities like sports, concerts, arts, or other organized group events. While there are good things too, there is a missing opportunity to devleop a more natural, free-flowing form of community. To be “in community” outside of structured events.

Small towns have the advantage of their small size, but in big cities this can happen on a neighbourhood scale. Some neighbourhoods do succeed at this, such as those with families with young children, or amongst dog walkers who find themselves out in the park each day. But in many big city neighbourhoods, few people know each other at all.

Improving this is not so simple. Things have been getting worse over the past decades, with smartphones, social media, and the pandemic causing greater isolation and face-to-face disconnection. All the more reason to try to reverse course and get that neighbourhood community feeling back. But how? Some high-tech attempts have been made with applications like Meetup and Nextdoor, but these have only delivered surface-level improvments. We need more. Somehow, we need to get to a place where neighbours routinely gather, chat, get to know each other. Feel that they belong, not just to houses and streets, but to each other.

This is an important topic that I will cover from various angles in future editions.

John Lorinc’s book Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopia goes into great detail about why things didn’t go as planned. More connectivity and more data doesn’t necessarily lead to a better experience for people in cities. Better outcomes can only happen when you take several big steps back and figure out what a better city actually means. What problems are you trying to solve? How can technology help to solve these problems? What else, besides technology, is needed to solve these problems? Without this kind of first-principles approach, you’ll certainly end up with all kinds of uncoordinated outcomes that don’t solve anything.

More on that another time.

Recently, I’ve been reading and listening to many prominent planners, officials, and community leaders debate the merits of bike lanes, transit priority, pedestrian-friendly streets, road safety, and traffic congestion. This is a complex and important debate with many strong points of view on many sides of the arguments. For example, take Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s attempt to remove bike lanes in Toronto versus former Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan’s successful transportation of New York City with bike lanes and pedestrian plazas. While Ford says he is not against bike lanes, he wants them relegated to streets where they won’t cause cars to experience more congestion. Sadik-Khan’s view is that bike lanes improve the quality of everyone’s experience of the city, and this is more important than prioritizing cars.

These are two of the most opposite points of view you’ll find on this topic, but at the same time, both Ford and Sadik-Khan want to improve cities. They both want cities to be places where people can thrive, have positive expeirences, work, get around, and enjoy themselves. The fundamental difference between the two is the amount of choice they want individuals to have. Ford wants to remove choice by designing streets where only one mode of transportation—driving—is permitted. Sadik-Khan wants to add choices by designing streets where multiple modes of transportation—driving, cycling, and walking—are encouraged.

That brings us back to the concept of smart cities. One way of making a city “smart” is to design it to allows for the maximum amount of choice. Every city inhabitant can choose to drive, cycle, walk, or take transit. They can choose different modes for different trips each day depending on how they’re feeling, the weather, where they’re going, whether there are disruptions, or anything else they care about. Rather than designing a city to limit these choices, a smart city encourages variety and becomes dynamic, agile, and vibrant.

Subscribe now