metroVS

Ok, this is from last year but I couldn’t resist posting this interview with Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone (who, though respectable, looks 19, there I said it) talking about all things TTC. Stay tuned to the end for some really interesting stats and the suggestion by the TTC as a green organization is none too different from the Incredible Hulk.  Awesome.

An interview with Pap Ndiaye on France 24 discussing the situation of blacks and other minorities in France. Not addressing immigration directly, but rather the condition of being French and non-white, Pap Ndiaye articulates so clearly and constructively the experience of being a minority in France. Read the rest of this entry »

The chair of the Toronto Transit Commission offered to proofread future editions of subway maps after embarrassing typos as well as omissions where found in recently issued versions. The TTC chair explained that there is no one to check the maps before they go out and that this time, he will do the checking personally.

The chair of the Transit Commission has to personally spell check maps? How big is this organization?

Links: National Post, Toronto Star

Pink Tentacle has put together a great little collection of Japanese town logos with explanations.

The logos incorporate typographic elements from the Japanese written language as well as the Roman alphabet (usually form the municipality’s name) to represent the identities of the towns.

Pink Tentacle

Let the craziness begin!

So why would I even try to draw parallels between these two cities that seem to have nothing in common? Why not something more obvious like Paris VS Montreal? (Well, maybe one day) I moved to Paris in 2007 without ever having visited the storied French capital, and then moved to Toronto directly from Paris the next year with even less knowledge of my destination. Granted, I’m Canadian so I knew in general terms what Toronto was, but unlike Paris Toronto is a city unsung. I didn’t really know what to expect.

Obvious differences aside, these cities have some very key characteristics in common. First, they are the largest cities in their respective countries. Canada does not have quite the same master and servant relationship between it’s largest metropolis and it’s other population centers that is more common in Europe, but Toronto is without a doubt the closest thing Canada has to world city. As a result, much like Paris, Toronto attracts the best and brightest from around the country as most big industries are centered here in one form or another. (this differs from a country like Germany which is more decentralized) Because of this, both cities are under constant pressure to keep up with population growth and ever increasing demands on infrastructure.

The other main similarity is that multiculturalism is so integral to the characters of both cities, though they seem to approach them very differently. In Paris, roughly 20% of the population is foreign-born, a high proportion by European standards. 49% of Toronto’s population is foreign-born and visible minorities are expected to make up more than 50% of the whole within the next decade.

Read the rest of this entry »

Watching videos of Tapei’s new Neihu MRT Line, I’m again fascinated by the way other cities manage to build functional (in the case of Taipei, outstanding) transit systems in a relative blink of an eye while here in Canada we continue to debate extensions to our subway lines for decades at a time.

Taipei’s new Neihu line is the seventh(!) line to be inaugurated since the system’s opening in 1996. This collection of news clips on the event is worth watching to appreciate the scale and quality of the system’s addition, but also to sample the garish graphic-yness of Taiwanese new and arch an eyebrow quizzically at the steak and beer contest that seems such a natural fit at the event.

In contrast, here in Toronto the last addition to the subway system was in 2002 when the ambitious five-station Sheppard subway was completed out at the edges of the system. And that after nearly two decades since the last expansion in a city of relentless growth and grinding traffic. Montreal’s story is similar if less extreme.

There are lots of arguments for why this is. Sadly none of them actually stand up to much scrutiny.