There are few urban advocates standing up for the vacant lot — an increasingly endangered species in many cities, as condos and other new developments spring up at a breakneck pace. In this post, Spacing Radio — in partnership with The STEPS Initiative — brings you an interview with Montreal-based artist Emily Rose Michaud. Emily is a founding member of the gardening collective Sprout Out Loud! (a.k.a. Le Pouvoir Aux Pousses!), which created the site-specific  project on a vacant lot in Montreal's Mile End. The city-owned green space is one of the last undeveloped spots in ...

Spacing Radio is back — just in smaller doses! We're calling our new format Spacing Shorts. This means that whenever we have a story to tell we'll simply post it on the website and deliver it to you through iTunes. There will be audio postcards, urban snapshots, interviews, soundscapes, dispatches, and more... So stay tuned! To start off our new season we're talking about highrise apartment buildings. Earlier this year, a United Way report called many of Toronto's highrises "sites of concentrated poverty." So how do our highrises compare to those ...

The votes have been counted and Toronto has a new mayor. But what now? We sit down with Alan Broadbent, chairman of the Maytree Foundation, for his take on what lies ahead. As residents of News Orleans can tell you, the importance of strong leadership becomes particularly apparent when disaster strikes. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, producer Mieke Anderson asks what role public spaces are playing in the city's rebuilding when she catches up with New Orleans-based journalist Jordan Flaherty. And we travel along with reporter Monika Warzecha to the Toronto Island in ...

Today we're hearing stories about Toronto's Junction neighbourhood and its former stock yards. We're shining the spotlight on interviews Spacing producer Mieke Anderson recorded for [murmur] when the digital storytelling and place-making project collaborated with the Junction Arts Festival to celebrate the area's centennial. In this episode of SUMMER SHORTS we introduce you to James Christie and Ian Wheal. Back in the 1950's, James Christie was just a boy. He grew up around the corner from the abattoir, often helping out at his family's restaurant that catered to slaughterhouse employees. Meanwhile, Ian ...

Many people agree that Toronto's John Street corridor has the potential to be a great "connecting spine" for the area. How best to go about achieving this is now up for debate as the City and Entertainment District BIA prepare to supposedly transform the district with their Master Plan. Spacing's senior editor, Dylan Reid, recently weighed in on the discussion. From Reid's perspective, the City would be shying away from truly transforming the strip by not opting to turn it into a shared street where cars, bikes and pedestrians share the ...

Think of your favorite board game. Maybe it's chess? Or Clue? Or Hungry Hungry Hippos? Now imagine it brought to life. No more fighting over who gets to be the battleship or the dog - in the case of Monopoly - because you and your friends are the pieces. And it's your city's public spaces that form the board. Gentrification: The Game! - created by the artist collective Atmosphere Industries - recently took over Toronto's Kensington Market as part of Pedestrian Sundays. For this SUMMER SHORT, reporter ...

Nothing like closed doors, locked gates and sky-high cement walls to keep us out of some of our city's most interesting public spaces. Doors Open — a celebration held annually in cities around the globe — is all about letting us into these spaces, both public and private (and everywhere in between). Spacing reporter Andrew Walsh checked out two events that last weekend of May. In this SUMMER SHORT we get a sneak peak into the Toronto Transit Commission's Greenwood Maintenance Shop and then tag along on a ...

What do Toronto’s older buildings tell us about the intentions of the city’s earlier planners? Historian, author and University of Toronto professor Richard White takes Spacing Radio reporter Sarah Bridge to Grange Park to reflects on how past planning decisions about its surrounding buildings, and plans for the city as a whole, have affected how Toronto works and feels today. Watch for an article by Richard White in the upcoming summer 2010 issue of Spacing magazine on the history of Toronto’s jog eliminations — a crucial but often unheralded element of city planning and revitalization. Links ...