Gillian Kranias

Mar 21, 2024 | spacing.ca | Roger Morier |Jonathan Schmidt |Albert Koehl |Gillian Kranias

Politicians and government bureaucrats love process. Let’s not rush to blame them, though, because there’s a lot to love. Carrying out a series of planning meetings, collecting relevant data, conducting background analyses, and engaging with stakeholders gives the appearance of good project outcomes. It’s also a good way for a nervous leader or bureaucrat to deflect criticism: “We studied everything we could and asked everybody who might be affected and came up with a reasonable compromise”.

Jan 4, 2024 | spacing.ca | Glenn Miller |Dylan Reid |Albert Koehl |Gillian Kranias

Ontario’s first attempts to keep pedestrians safe on our roads began a century ago in 1923 with the passage of the Highway Traffic Act. Back then, the focus of regulators was on a relatively new phenomenon — the automobile. Toronto’s roads were filling up with cars; paved roads and traffic lights were still a rarity. And the fast-growing car industry had yet to launch its infamous ‘jaywalking’ PR campaign to shift the blame for road accidents from motorists to pedestrians.

Dec 20, 2023 | spacing.ca | Dylan Reid |Gillian Kranias

Walk Toronto was founded ten years ago, in 2013 (I was one of the founders and am still a member of the steering committee). It’s a grassroots, volunteer advocacy group dedicated to making Toronto a better city for walking – which includes not just making it safe, but making it appealing to walk anywhere in the city. Over those ten years, we’ve advocated for a lot of improvements and criticized the City about a lot of shortcomings.

Dec 4, 2023 | spacing.ca | Albert Koehl |Gillian Kranias |Dylan Reid

By Albert Koehl and Roger Morier, road safety advocates and members of the We Belong on Bloor campaign of Community Bikeways. There’s nothing new about NIMBY-ists circling their wagons to bleat about new public infrastructure that causes minor inconvenience to their way of life but delivers major benefits to many others. What’s new about a recent example in Etobicoke is the unified response by City Council to the NIMBY group.

Nov 27, 2023 | spacing.ca | Dylan Reid |Gillian Kranias |Albert Koehl

In the early 2000s, I moved into a new condo building in the Garment District south-west of Queen and Spadina. The area had been mostly an employment area for decades, but thanks to the innovative “Kings” planning policy this somewhat deserted area was starting to host new mid-rise residences. To walk north to Queen West, Kensington Market, and other nearby destinations, we new residents had to cross at Brant and Richmond West, which had no traffic control.