In Toronto;’s West End where the Barrie GO Rail corridor meets the CP Rail North Toronto subdivision, one north-south track has crossed two east-west tracks at grade for decades. Known as the Davenport Diamond, this busy rail intersection has seen increasing competition from GO trains, VIA Rail trains, and CP freight trains for time through the meeting point. As Metrolinx works on bringing two-way…

In today’s post I outline the new housing-related measures that were announced in the 2022 federal budget and offer my take on their likely impact. Our federal government released its 2022 budget last week, and it included a wide range of initiatives designed to address housing affordability. Let’s start with the three most prominent housing-related items: The First Home Saving…

A Zoning By-law Amendment has been submitted to the City of Toronto to bring added density to a property along Yonge Street, on the path of the future Yonge subway extension to Richmond Hill. A 27-storey mixed-use condominium building has been proposed at 6125 Yonge Street by Mocon Group in Toronto’s Newtonbrook neighbourhood. The site is located on the northeast corner of Yonge…

Pre-pandemic the Bloor and Yonge Subway Lines were becoming unbearable for the never-ending crush of commuters collectively pissed off for cramped cars and ongoing delays. Then COVID-19 kept everyone at home – rarely commuting – and those transit woes were put on pause. But city life and commuting are slowly starting to ramp up again, and for most of us,…

Among the next wave of projects coming to Dupont Street is Lifetime Developments’ Oscar Residences – a nine-storey, Turner Fleischer Architects-designed building west of Bathurst Street in Toronto. As construction of the project is underway, a pit has formed, with a crane positioned at the centre of the site.  A single crane stands tall over the site, image by Craig White Taking a closer look…

Well, that was an eventful week, wasn’t it? Chris, Tara, and Matthew wrote guest blogs?  You don’t say! To be quite honest, I was thinking about pre-writing three blogs, or, as is often the case, writing blogs while I’m away on vacation.  That always seems easy in advance (“I write three blogs per week, I’m sure I can carve out…

There are a plans afoot for Ontario Place, not without controversy, reinvigorations for the lakeside Toronto park that has lain mostly dormant for several years now. While there are no shovels in the ground yet for the big projects, a smaller one is underway to create a nesting habitat for Barn Swallows. The birds are currently nesting on portions of…