Spacing Radio podcast is back and we have an interview with Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson. This Q&A was also used in the new national edition of the magazine (out Feb. 6, 2012).

Freshly re-elected, the mayor of Canada's largest west coast city explains to Spacing Vancouver editor Erick Villagomez why he and his team at Vision Vancouver are going to make the city the greenest in all of North America.

photo by Mischa Bartkow; music by New Pornographers

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 order to find out what it's like to live there once the weather turns cold and the tourists stop visiting.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 025:

• Maytree Foundation website and the Maytree team
• Jordan Flaherty's new book, Floodlines: community and resistance from Katrina to the Jena 6
• Toronto Island Community: website
• Take a winter ferry ride: listen to Spacing Radio's episode 17
• Our musical guest is PS I Love You: Paper Bag Records and MySpace page

As election day nears in Toronto, we hunt down mayoral candidates Joe Pantalone and Rob Ford. And our reporter Daniel Guillemette discovers that neither one is doing much campaigning in our public spaces these days. We also talk to Councillor Joe Mihevc - who recently put his support behind George Smitherman (we featured Smitherman last episode) - about what the next mayor needs to do on his first day on the job.

And we take you to the American Rust Belt. Contributor Edward Birnbaum recently visited Buffalo and Detroit to find out how the exodus of residents from the region is affecting those sticking around, including the increasing popularity of architectural salvaging.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 024:

• Mayoral campaigns: Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, and George Smitherman
• Architectural salvaging in Buffalo and Detroit
• Our musical guest is krupke: MySpace page

photo by Stan Wiechers

Spacing Radio is back for Season Four and we’re jumping right into Toronto’s election debate!

This election has been zany, to say the least. We go to Toronto Star columnist Christopher Hume for his take on why candidates have strayed so far off topic. And leading up to voting day, reporter Daniel Guillemette is on the campaign trail looking at how the front-runners are using our public spaces.

Also in this episode, all the election talk about the so-called "war on the car" got producer Mieke Anderson thinking about the traffic lights that control our movement. And reporter Andrew Walsh rarely knows when his streetcar will be arriving and sets out to investigate the technologies designed to reduce his frustration.

And we want to hear from you! Host David Michael Lamb will be at Spacing magazine's release party Wed. Oct. 6th asking: "What do you think is the first thing the new mayor should do on Day One in office?" We’ll be featuring your responses in an upcoming episode. (If you can’t make it out, we invite you to answer the question on the blog).

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 023:

• Christopher Hume: The Toronto Star, columnist page
• City of Toronto: Transportation Services
• TTC Tech Info: website
• Laurence Lui, transportation planner: Blog
• Our musical guest is A.M.: website and MySpace page

In this episode of Spacing Radio — the last of season 3 — our cast of contributors explore the theme of how we get around cities. First up are a handful of clips from Jane's Walk, the yearly festival of walking tours in Toronto and over 60 other cities across North America. Then Spacing magazine's senior editor Shawn Micallef takes listeners to Yorkville to discuss the ethos behind his new book Stroll. Our new reporter Katie Harris examines the impact the Winter Olympics had on Vancouver's transportation network. And Spacing Radio producer Mieke Anderson takes a walk with local Toronto historian Madeleine McDowell to chat about the need for places to sit in the city.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 022

• Jane's Walk: web site and photos of walks
• Shawn Micallef: Stroll on Coach House and Shawn's Spacing columns
• Vancouver: Traffic during the Olympics on re:place magazine
• Sittable Spaces: The Spanish Steps on Project for Public Spaces

We begin this episode of Spacing Radio in Toronto’s Alexandra Park, where Spacing producer Todd Harrison speaks with Jane’s Walk executive director Jane Farrow about this weekend’s upcoming Jane’s Walks and how the event — and the discussions it inspires — has evolved both at home and abroad. Up next, Spacing producer Mieke Anderson takes us to Cleveland, Ohio where she meets up with local newspaper critic Steven Litt, to discuss the drawbacks of the city’s Public Square and what one group is proposing to do to reinvent the space. In Montreal, reporter Adam Bemma visits the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex to discover how a former limestone quarry-turned-landfill-site is being transformed into one of the city’s largest public green spaces. And finally, we get a glimpse of one of Toronto’s oldest and most unlikeliest parks - Mount Pleasant Cemetery - when reporter Pattie Phillips takes a tour of the grounds with cemetery manager Nathan Johnson. Music on this edition of Spacing Radio can be found on Broken Social Scene’s forthcoming release, Forgiveness Rock Record, in stores May 4th.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 021

• Jane's Walks: website
• Cleveland's Public Square: Steven Litt's blog, Project for Public Spaces, Field Operations and their work on NYC's High Line
• Montreal: Saint-Michel Environmental Complex and La TOHU
• Mount Pleasant Cemetery: Friends and Neighbours of Mount Pleasant and some notes on the cemetery from Parks Canada
• Broken Social Scene: official site and mySpace

On this episode of Spacing Radio producer Mieke Anderson takes you on a walk with Cindy Rozeboom through the east end of Toronto, along the Danforth, to explore the potential of empty storefronts. In other cities, street food is a major component of public life, but in Toronto food vendors don't seem to get any respect from city hall, BIAs, and urban designers — reporter Pattie Phillips talks to Marianne Moroney of Toronto's Street Food Vendors Association. The release of the new book "Rediscovering the Wealth of Places" examines cultural mapping and how it applies to cities. Reporter Sarah Bridge talks to the book's author, Greg Baeker, about how we can all learn to appreciate and re-imagine local cultural assets. This episode's musical guest is Toronto-based Heartbeat Hotel.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 020

• Art of the Danforth: web site
• Street Vendors: Toronto vendors' association web site
• Greg Baeker: Rediscovering the Wealth of Places web site
• Heartbeat Hotel: web site

Photo by Kevin Steele

This episode of Spacing Radio continues with our look at the Rules of the city (to complement the release of our new magazine issue) as producer Mieke Anderson examines the arcane permit process in Toronto. Reporter Sarah Bridge sits down with internationally renown architect Jack Diamond to discuss the success and failures of renovating Toronto's Union Station. And Montreal correspondent Adam Bemma explores the Berri Square, one of the city's most socially challenged neighbourhoods.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 019

• Rules of the city: Look up any bylaw in Toronto
• Union Station: Current plans to renovate the transit hub
• Berri Square: Posts on the square on SpacingMontreal.ca

photo by Miles Storey

It's budget-time in Toronto and while City Hall is busy at work approving the final numbers, host David Michael Lamb sits down with Spacing contributing editor John Lorinc to talk about the pitfalls of having to pay the bills. Producer Mieke Anderson stows away with the crew of the Toronto Island Ferry Ongiara to discuss the realities of operating the ferry throughout the winter months and, in the process, discovers one of the city's best-kept secrets. Meanwhile, nearly 3,500 km away in Vancouver, reporter Pattie Phillips visits the Olympics and takes a stroll with Erick Villagomez, editor of the online magazine re:place, to explore what these Winter Games will mean for the city and its urban landscape in the years to come.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 017

• Budgets: the Toronto 2010 operating budget
• Ferries: Toronto Island Ferry winter schedule and a short video of what you might see from the ferry on a winter's day
• Olympics: the Vancouver Olympic Village and re:place magazine
• Music: Bruce Peninsula's official site and on MySpace

Photo by Miles Storey

In this podcast we embrace the winter (well, for at least half of the episode): Spacing Radio producer Mieke Anderson gets to the bottom of how the city moves and removes snow, while reporter Sarah Bridge goes to Nathan Phillips Square and Mel Lastman Square to see who takes to these iconic Toronto outdoor rinks. We listen to the man behind Vancouver's Chinatown gates. And our newest contributor, Pattie Phillips, sits down at the 8-80 Cities conference with urban thinkers Gil Penalosa, Cheryl Brinkman, and Elena Santogade to discuss car-free streets in North American cities.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 016

• Snow removal: Info on Toronto snow removal
• Skating in the City: The rinks of Nathan Phillips Sq. and Mel Lastman Sq.
• Ciclovia: Link to 8-80 Cities
• Vancouver: Stories from murmur's Chinatown project