The Toronto based installation, Graffiti BoxMen project, was created with the intent to comment on the role of graffiti art in the urban environment. The project calls for individuals to place their own artistically painted people that are designed out of boxes within the city. As a direct output of the war on graffiti in Toronto, the Boxmen project aims to be a demonstration for supporters of graffiti who often remain faceless because of the illegal nature of the art. The BoxMen represent physical people who support graffiti as art and the artist themselves.

In the second part of our series, videographer Mariana Osuna focuses on a wall mural located at a local Becker's on Sherbourne and Wellesley. The mural was a joint effort by the artist and owners of the Becker's to combat vandalism while adding beauty to the community.

If you would like to learn more about the Graffiti BoxMen project visit graffitiboxmen.com for more information

TTC
• TTC warns more time needed on Eglinton LRT construction [Toronto Star]
• TTC doubts Metrolinx will make target for Eglinton Crosstown [National Post]
• Fighting for control of LRT dig, TTC warns of woes on Eglinton [Globe and Mail]
• LRT line will be late: TTC [The Sun]
• TTC up for next LRT fight: this time between Toronto and the province [Open File]

CITY HALL
• Toronto’s land transfer tax keeps on giving [Toronto Star]
• Toronto’s first quarter surplus hits $70M [Toronto Star]
• Peter Kuitenbrouwer: City Hall’s green roof got two brand new signs [National Post]
• City of Toronto predicting $90-million surplus for 2012 [National Post]
• How does a $774-million deficit become a $90-million surplus? [Globe and Mail]
• Land transfer tax cut would raise property tax: Perks [The Sun]
• City surplus sparks money fight [The Sun]
• Toronto budget surplus pegged at $70 million so far [Open File]

GETTING AROUND
• GO Transit girds for on-time guarantee [Toronto Star]
• Life without wheels: notes on a car-free experiment [Open File]
• Car-free by choice: young urbanites ditching wheels in record numbers [Open File]
• Beware the Pedtextrian [The Sun]

OTHER NEWS
• Toronto theatres for sale: St. Lawrence Centre, Sony Centre, Toronto Centre for the Arts [Toronto Star]
• Markham votes to become a city [Toronto Star]
• The Fixer: Big dirt pile is part of the landscape at Etobicoke intersection [Toronto Star]
• Fiorito: Toronto’s western waterfront doomed [Toronto Star]
• Bloor condo hits roadblock as councillor raises concerns with 83-storey project’s plans [National Post]
• Glen Stewart revitalization to be revealed [Globe and Mail]
• City's green building boondoggle [The Sun]
• Caesars eyes Toronto casino [The Sun]
• Bureaucracy stymies moving Toronto Zoo elephants [The Sun]
• Censusfile: why your neighbourhood needs a national census [Open File]
• Toronto housing affordability gets worse, but at least we're still not Vancouver [Open File]

Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist
Jerry Waese.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Last week, India's ruling United Progressive Alliance gave state-run oil companies the green light to increase prices by over a dollar per litre. The result was massive gridlock throughout Dehli as drivers tried to sneak in one last cheap fill up. (GlobalSpin)

Image from GlobalSpin

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

WHAT: Spacing release party for Summer 2012 issue
WHEN: Tuesday, May 29th, 7:30-midnight
WHERE: Evergreen Brick Works
COST: free! (mag costs $5  ///  discount subscriptions at the door)
RSVP: Check out the event listing on Facebook or email us
DIRECTIONS: Check out the different ways to get to the Brick Works

Spacing's newest and most cynical issue to date is about to hit newsstands (should be on shelves after May 31st). In order to celebrate this apocalyptic vision of Toronto we threw aside any notion of modesty in hopes of scaring the bejeezus out of you by producing our first magazine "trailer" promotional video.

The 90-second piece was conceived by the Spacing editorial team and assembled by Sam Javanrouh, Canada's most outstanding photoblogger. The imagery used in the video are photos and illustrations that also appear in the upcoming issue.

Please share this widely with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. Also, we're hosting a party tonight at the Brick Works and we hope you can join us.

Music:
"The Landlord is Dead" by Do Make Say Think
"Gentlemen's Song" by Friendly Rich

Video Production, Editing, and Graphics: 

Sam Javanrouh

Photos: 

Sam Javanrouh, Rob Pinciuc, Toronto Archives

Illustrations: 

Steve Murray, Mathew Borrett, Matthew Blackett

Script:
Todd Harrison & Matthew Blackett

RBC TOWER
• Glass falls from downtown RBC Tower [Toronto Star]
• Falling glass closes streets around RBC Centre in Toronto [National Post]
• Glass panes fall 30 storeys from Toronto’s RBC Centre [Globe and Mail]

ROB FORD
• Conservation officials say Mayor Rob Ford shouldn’t be sold parkland [Toronto Star]

CITY HALL
• Councillors shrug off bag fee challenge [The Sun]
• Taxpayer group takes on bag tax [The Sun]

GARDINER
• Posted Toronto Political Panel: What to do with the crumbling Gardiner? [National Post]
• Toronto's infrastructure woes: what to do with the Gardiner, and when do we build the DRL? [Open File]

OTHER NEWS
• Toronto street food hits the road [Toronto Star]
• Milton council commits to building velodrome [Toronto Star]
• The Fixer: Rock fight between Toronto Water and residents at Gainsborough ravine [Toronto Star]
• Q&A: Toronto’s new art house [National Post]
• Toronto-based bike maker shares in Giro d’Italia victory [Globe and Mail]
• How two property moguls overcame their differences and landed their dream tower [Globe and Mail]
• What's happened to all of Toronto's garbage bins? [Open File]
• How big a risk is Bixi? Montreal told to sell it, TO hypothetically on the hook for $4.8 million [Open File]

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture

Mazen Studio recently designed the interior for a house near Toronto that's an artful combination of high-desert California modernism and a heavy-timbered 1970s ranch house.

I wrote about it for International Architecture and Design; here's the PDF (5 pages). More, and pictures, after the jump..

Working with a couple of clients who travel often to Southern California (and South Florida), Mazen El-Abdallah did a thoughtful job of importing materials and moves that fit in those contexts - spiky grasses, George Nelson furniture, a conversation pit - into an unusual blend.

Mazen, a young architect and designer whose work I've covered here and in Desinglines, usually works in a more contemporary mode. He's achieved something really interesting here, I think. It's not so much that the specific materials or moves are unusual; they are mostly quite common. But it's an un-placeable mashup of details and textures that is impossible to tie to a specific moment in design history. It is, in a word, timeless.

For the gallery, visit No Mean City.

Photo by Scott Norsworthy.

We have received numerous emails asking us about the best way to get to our release party Tuesday night. Here are your options:

1. TAKE THE SHUTTLE
The Evergreen Brick Works run a shuttle bus that you can jump onto outside of Broadview subway station. The bus will be waiting on the northside of the parkette (which is just north of Broadview station's exit). It leaves every 30 minutes. We have extended the service with the last shuttle leaving the Brick Works at 11:15pm. The shuttle bus is wheelchair accessible.

2. TAKE THE TTC & WALK
You can take the subway to Castle Frank station. From there you have about a 20-minute walk — you have to enter through Craigleigh Gardens and take the path/trail that leads to the Brick Works. It's a bit of a jaunt and not advisable if you're wearing shoes with heels.  Here's a detail of the "Milkman's Lane" 1.4KM route that leads from Craigleigh Gardens. You can also go to Broadview station and walk north to Pottery Road and take the deep plunge into the valley.

3. TAKE YOUR BIKE OR WALK
Similar directions to the TTC. The path/trail is loose gravel and most any city bike can handle the bumps and rocky surface.

4. TAKE A CAB
A cab ride from Broadview station is about $8 and a 10-minute trip at most.

The Toronto based installation, Graffiti BoxMen project, was created with the intent to comment on the role of graffiti art in the urban environment. The project calls for individuals to place their own artistically painted people that are designed out of boxes within the city. As a direct output of the war on graffiti in Toronto, the Boxmen project aims to be a demonstration for supporters of graffiti who often remain faceless because of the illegal nature of the art. The BoxMen represent physical people who support graffiti as art and the artist themselves.

In the first part of our series, videographer Katherine Keene gets up close with the artist who describes the importance of the BoxMen project and graffiti. Keene gives viewers an intimate look behind the art by following the artist as he creates one of his pieces from beginning to end.

If you would like to learn more about the Graffiti BoxMen project visit graffitiboxmen.com for more information

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

On April 18, 1906, disaster struck San Francisco. A 7.9 magnitude earthquake ruptured the city, causing over 30 fires which destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. An estimated 3,000 people were killed and 300,000 (of a population of 410,000) were left homeless. Survey the damage for yourself on this aerial panorama taken by George R. Lawrence. (Retronaut)

Image from Retronaut

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

Could there be a more telling detail about the Ford administration’s pathologically perverse position on transit than the revelation, in Friday’s Globe and Mail, that Waterfront Toronto has started building a streetcar spur meant to serve the West Donlands on the q-t?

As my colleague Adrian Morrow noted in a tweet, Mayor Rob Ford refused to comment on the project, which appears to have been assigned a top-secret classification in case Mr. Subway Subway Subway emerges from his bunker to inveigh about the imminent “St. Clairization” (sic) of the waterfront.

However, Ford, though increasingly reclusive, didn’t hesitate to drop by a photo-op to demonstrate that the City’s works department is hard at work, trying to stop the Gardiner’s nether regions from flaking off like chunks of canned tuna.

But tout an almost absurdly modest improvement to the city’s downtown/waterfront streetcar service? Not going there.

Literally.

So allow me: a mayor who can see past the end of his nose would say something like this:

“These few metres of the Cherry Street line represent what I hope will be just the first leg of a fully integrated surface transit network meant to service the tens of thousands of people we expect to move into the new communities now being built in the East Bayfront, the West Donlands and, soon, the Portlands itself.

“This part of the city represents its future and the tracks to be laid on this street provide yet another example of how the City, Waterfront Toronto and the other orders of government are engaged in the collaborative work of city-building. While the line won’t go into service before the 2015 PanAm Games, the future residents of the West Donlands will find their new homes connected to Toronto’s transit network.

“Finally, we’re committed to these improvements because the developers who are creating these vibrant new waterfront communities have chosen to invest in the area on the explicit understanding that we will provide quality transit service. This project shows the City is listening closely to its private sector partners.”

Of course, it’s tough to articulate such sentiments if you happen to be wearing the icky face, or, as is more likely, are still fantasizing about a Jetson-style monorail choo-choo for the Portlands.

In any event, the mayor’s unwillingness to line up public support for the waterfront lines merely underscores an even more serious failing on the transit file, which is his infuriating absence from a positive discussion about the downtown relief line (DRL) at precisely the moment when Metrolinx and Queen’s Park are gearing up to make the case for more revenue sources for transit infrastructure.

Anyone with even a cursory understanding of the city’s transportation problems knows that the DRL is, or should be, Toronto’s single most important infrastructure investment in the next half century. The peak-period crowding at Union Station and at the Yonge-Bloor interchanges has become increasingly untenable, and even the Union subway platform expansion will be over-capacity within a few decades.

The question lurking around the edges of the DRL debate is this: what happens to the office sector in the downtown core — and all those thousands of well-paying jobs — if the subway system can no longer accommodate peak-period demand? This is not an impossibly remote problem. And yet the city and the region continue to make transit investments that pour traffic onto the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Metrolinx, while acknowledging the need to relieve crowding at Union Station within the next two decades, also wants to someday extend the Yonge line up into York Region. Does that happen before or after the DRL?

The DRL, in some ways, is like Toronto’s version of Manhattan’s Second Avenue subway, as veteran transportation planner Ed Levy demonstrates [ pdf, 4.3 MB ] – a tough, expensive but nonetheless essential project that has been perennially on the horizon for generations.

The Second Avenue Subway, however, is now under construction. As for the DRL saga, it reminds me of the fable about the frog in hot water. You keep raising the temperature bit by bit until it’s too late and the frog explodes. As Levy writes, “Track and platform capacity [at Union Station] is, it must be said, finite and could not accommodate long term growth in the absence of massively costly and disruptive reconstruction involving a second track and platform level.”

Metrolinx last fall began considering a pair of options [ pdf ]: first, an additional tunnels for the GO trains to accommodate the very high volume rail traffic that may run through the Union Station post electrification; and second, a variation on the DRL concept known as “Option 4B.” It combines a subway running between Pape and Queen stations along Queen East, but then ducks south from Queen West and terminates at a new GO/TTC/Air Rail Link interchange near Bathurst and Front.

To build a truly regional network that relieves crowding in the core, Levy argues compellingly [ pdf, text-only version ] that Metrolinx should pursue Option 4B and also oversee the transformation of the ARL into an ordinary (as opposed to premium) transit service. And, he says, it’s less important for the proposed DRL line to slavishly follow Queen Street than it is to create efficient inter-connections to the GO/ARL system.

It’s all well and good that experts like Ed Levy and Metrolinx’s planners are actively mulling over these (and other) scenarios. But they will never be more than scenarios unless our political leaders build a broad-based consensus in favour of funding the DRL as a critical piece of infrastructure for the entire GTA.

Yet we live in a weird time when the transit advocates on city council feel they must re-brand the DRL so it won’t be vulnerable to the sorts of AM radio/culture-war attacks that greeted the LRT lines. Meanwhile, the region’s single most visible municipal leader, Rob Ford, can’t bring himself to tout the construction of a few hundred metres of streetcar track, has an aversion to new funding tools for transit, and seems disinclined to try to figure out why the DRL will provide relief to the very suburban commuters whose interests he professes to defend.

Having arrived at a bone fide fork in the road, our incurious chief magistrate is fixated on the rubble lying on the pavement, but seems tragically incapable of reading the map.

WHAT: Spacing release party for Summer 2012 issue
WHEN: Tuesday, May 29th, 7:30-midnight
WHERE: Evergreen Brick Works
COST: free! (mag costs $5  ///  discount subscriptions at the door)
RSVP: Check out the event listing on Facebook or email us
DIRECTIONS: Check out the different ways to get to the Brick Works

What would Toronto look like if a disaster hit our city? What would an earthquake do to our buildings? Are tornadoes a part of our future? What about an extended fuel shortage or a drought in the farmlands of Ontario? And what would happen if the CN Tower fell over? The Americans wouldn't invade us for our water — would they?

In Spacing's most cynical and apocalyptic issue ever, our contributors examine all the big, bad scary things that could rock the foundation of Toronto. And what better place to have it than along the edges of the Don River at the Evergreen Brick Works, one of the many places hit hard by floods during Hurricane Hazel in 1954.

Come out to our release party on Tuesday May 29th at the Evergreen Brick Works. We will have prizes to be won in our raffle (Patagonia stuff, movie passes, bike accessories, etc), a handful of disaster themed activities, and a few new merchandise items for sale.

Magazines will arrive in subscribers' mailboxes during the last week of May and into the first week of June. You'll be able to pick up a copy on newsstands starting June 5th.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please watch our blog on Tuesday for a special treat to coincide with the release of the new issue.

cover illustration by Steve Murray

The people have spoken: "they want subways." Subways, subways, subways. Right? No. We know it's an old topic and the debate is long over, but we thought, what if uncle Rob was right? So we built the Spacington subway system, or the STC, and tested out the benefits (or not) of subway lines. Here are the details:

The subway lines are represented in yellow—It expresses about half the lines in Spacington.

- We spent 200,000 on subway construction—exactly half of Spacingtons funds at the time.

- We built lines to cover the entire city, going both east west; north south. We thought we'd go full out.

- We connect each neighborhood to each other and kept the existing bus routes.

Then we played, and played, and played, and watched. The results: Barely a difference. Though people are using the subway to commute—60% usage at one station, and only one station—It has made little difference connecting any of the residence to their homes/jobs on one side of town to their homes or jobs on the other side. In fact, whether a by-product of the subway system or not, there are now more Sims without work.

What do we think? Spacington subway was a good experiment but it didn't really work out.

Spacington: Want to see previous posts about Spacington? Click on the "Sim City: Spacington" link in the "RELATED" box just below.

Keep up on the action and follow Spacington on Twitter.

TRANSPORTATION
• TTC service boost would reduce crowding on 79 routes [Toronto Star]
• TTC seeks to increase service this fall as ridership climbs [Globe and Mail]
• A majority of Toronto-area residents back lakeshore tunnel toll road, poll shows [Globe and Mail]
• Port Lands chaos leaves East Bayfront streetcar line up in the air [Open File]

BIKES
• Toronto Bike Month: Kickoff fest gets wheels turning at Christie Pits [Toronto Star]
• PHOTOS: Bike Month kick off festival [Toronto Star]
• Faced with legal and financial challenges, BIXI bike sharing program in a cycle of uncertainty [National Post]
• Take a video ride through Toronto’s Bixi bike-sharing network [National Post]
• Quote of the Day: ‘Oh my God, I never want to hurt a bike!” says Rob Ford [National Post]

BAG TAX
• Toronto’s 5-cent bag tax illegal, says advocacy group [Toronto Star]
• Bag levy a green improvement, but councillors still aim to kill fee [Globe and Mail]
• Taxpayer group takes on bag tax [The Sun]

• ROUGE NATIONAL PARK
• Five things to know about Rouge National Urban Park [National Post]
• Canada’s newest national park to get $140M revamp [National Post]
• Ottawa finally shows Rouge Park the money: $140 million for improvements [Open File]

OTHER NEWS
• The Fixer: Canada Post fast-tracks graffiti removal for media, but not for customers [Toronto Star]
• Fiorito: Mimico a feast for developers [Toronto Star]
• California elephant sanctuary official says no to second planned site visit by Toronto Zoo officials [Toronto Star]
• Doors open for all in Toronto [The Sun]
• Past Pieces of Toronto: Eaton's College Street [Open File]
• A simple mistake has the media underestimating the size of Toronto's high-rise boom [Open File]

WHAT: Spacing is looking for photo interns
WHY: We have some cool projects on the go this summer that need some support
WHERE: Walking the streets of Toronto (but you can also work out of our office in the Annex)

Spacing has a variety of projects under way this summer that need photographic support. If you're a student or emerging photographer that needs some real-world experience in the publishing industry — and would like to put Spacing on your resumé! — please contact us by email [ photos@spacing.ca ].

WHAT WE BOTH NEED: In your email to Spacing send along a link to your portfolio, web site, or photoblog. Also let us know why you'd be a good fit for going out into the streets of the city to take photos.  The projects will take place in June and July (and maybe into August). We're flexible with work schedules and will accommodate your time commitment needs/challenges.

Spacing has won or been nominated for numerous national and international design and photographic awards. We place a high standard on the photos we publish on our web sites and within the pages of our print magazine. This is a perfect opportunity to build your portfolio and reach a wide audience in Toronto and across Canada. The internship is unpaid but expenses will be covered and an honorarium will be given upon completion of the project(s).

DEADLINE: send an email by Monday, June 4th (earlier the better!)

Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist
Jerry Waese.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Mario Capro writes about architecture in the age of printing, and the way that urban form has been shaped as a result. Borrowing this concept,  Korean artist Hong Seon Jang has constructed an entire micro metropolis out of decommissioned movable type. The Atlantic discusses what the piece means for reviving and recycling lost forms.

Image from Atlantic Cities

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

WHAT: Spacing release party for Summer 2012 issue
WHEN: Tuesday, May 29th, 7:30-midnight
WHERE: Evergreen Brick Works, Young Welcome Centre
COST: free! (mag costs $5  ///  discount subscriptions at the door)
RSVP: Check out the event listing on Facebook or email us

What would Toronto look like if a disaster hit our city? What would an earthquake do to our buildings? Are tornadoes a part of our future? What about an extended fuel shortage or a drought in the farmlands of Ontario? And what would happen if the CN Tower fell over? The Americans wouldn't invade us for our water — would they?

In Spacing's most cynical and apocalyptic issue ever, our contributors examine all the big, bad scary things that could rock the foundation of Toronto. And what better place to have it than along the edges of the Don River at the Evergreen Brick Works, one of the many places hit hard by floods during Hurricane Hazel in 1954.

Come out to our release party on Tuesday May 29th at the Evergreen Brick Works. We will have prizes to be won in our raffle (Patagonia stuff, movie passes, bike accessories, etc), a handful of disaster themed activities, and a few new merchandise items for sale.

Magazines will arrive in subscribers' mailboxes during the last week of May and into the first week of June. You'll be able to pick up a copy on newsstands starting June 5th.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please watch our blog on Tuesday for a special treat to coincide with the release of the new issue.

cover illustration by Steve Murray

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture

Sorry for the pun. This week at Doors Open there's a great array of buildings from every point in Toronto's history - and also, if you're interested, a chance to visit with contemporary architects at work.

Some excellent firms are taking part, including Paul Raff Studio (that is them above), Diamond Schmitt, AGATHOM, and many whom I write about often: Williamson Chong, Levitt Goodman and Gow Hastings among them. All first-rate architects and they're nice people, too.

Williamson Chong, Natural Light Pavilion (at IDS 11)

Levitt Goodman, Longhouse at Native Child and Family Services Toronto

Gow Hastings, Centre for Justice Leadership, Humber College

Here's a map to the studios of the architects who are taking part. Drop by!