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 Wheal worked at the stock yards in the 1960s as a young man and remembers his shifts vividly.

Note: This SUMMER SHORTS episode brings us to the end of our summer series. Full-length programs of Spacing Radio will return in the fall with the launch of Season 4. Stay tuned!

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 019:

• About [murmur] and their Junction project
• West Toronto Junction Historical Society website
• Background on the Junction stock yards and the connection to the railway

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 roadway.

In search of some clarification from those directly involved in the project, producer Mieke Anderson met up with Harold Madi (an urban designer with The Planning Partnership) and Stephen Schijns (the manager of Infrastructure Planning for the City of Toronto). Currently, the City seems to prefer a narrowed street or extended sidewalk alternative, but elements of the shared street and pedestrian mall models appear to be catching on.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 018:

• Toronto Entertainment District BIA Master Plan
• Councillor Adam Vaughan's tour of John Street for Jane's Walk 2010
  

You know when you're exploring a city for the first time and you turn a corner only to stumble upon something completely unexpected?

This is what happened to Spacing producer Mieke Anderson on a recent trip to London, England. Initially, it was only a faint sound barely within earshot. Then suddenly she was face-to-face with the St Mary-le-Bow Church and consumed by the ringing of its famous bells. Wandering the streets of London you'll still hear people say that you're only a true Londoner or Cockney if you're born within the sound of the Bow bells.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 017:

• A brief history of the Bow bells

If you live in and around Toronto, or have ever visited the city, you've most likely passed by Etobicoke's Richview Cemetery. Most likely in a car and traveling at a high velocity. Awkwardly situated amidst the onramps at the intersection of Highways 401 and 427, the Richview Cemetery is not your average resting place for the dead. Reporter Andrew Walsh explores this historic geographic oddity.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 016:

• A brief history of the village of Richview

photo by Sean Galbraith

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 Andrew Walsh brings us the sounds of the game, while producer Mieke Anderson catches up with one of the game's creators, David Fono, to talk about the importance of public play-time and tackling the subject of gentrification.

Note: Atmosphere Industries invites anyone interested in exploring making big/public-space games of their own to get in touch!

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 015:

• NYC's Come Out & Play festival
  
• London's Hide&Seek festival

photo by Kevin Steele

George Smitherman loves to walk. Earlier this week, in fact, he walked along Eglinton — all the way across Toronto.

Spacing's Todd Harrison caught up with him yesterday in Leaside, and they walked and talked until just west of Victoria Park. Todd asked how Smitherman’s vision for Toronto applied to walkability, and what he as mayor would do to improve walking conditions in suburban communities.

Smitherman, however, does not see walking as an issue-in-itself. Integration is his buzzword, and as such, he thinks of walking primarily as a means to connect people to “higher-order” forms of transit. “The walkability’s got to get you somewhere,” he says.

He sees the individual health benefits of walking, but has yet to investigate how walkability initiatives can impact people’s abilities to better traverse their own neighbourhoods.

The interview also included discussions about road cuts and the new pavement degradation fee, urban design, bike lanes, public transit, trash, and trees.

Links:

• George Smitherman's mayoral campaign website
• A Toronto Star article about the walk
• Spacing Toronto post about the City's Public Realm office
• Paul Hess's walkability studies

Have you ever taken a nap in public? Or have you only ever dreamed of it?

Z's by the C is a public napping project - created by Calgary-based artists Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton - that strives to legitimize taking a snooze in public. The project is a reaction to the increasing privatization of our public spaces, including the implementation of by-laws banning loitering and curtailing who, how, and when we are allowed to use our spaces.

Since its inception in 2008, Moschopedis and Rushton have been encouraging people to nap in Zürich, New York City, Ottawa and Calgary. Spacing producer Mieke Anderson caught up with Moschopedis this past weekend when Z's by the C took over a proposed park in Toronto's west-end.

Note: Z’s by the C got a permit to host the event.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 014:

• Z's by the C website
• The Theatre Centre website
  
• Spacing Toronto post, Reclaiming parks, one nap at a time

Photo taken in New York by Bryce Krynski, courtesy the Theatre Centre.

Sometimes exploring a city means just shutting your eyes and listening. In this soundscape, Spacing producer Mieke Anderson takes you underground into the Glasgow subway system.

Affectionately known as "the Clockwork Orange" because of its orange subway cars and circular route, Glasgow's underground dates back to 1896 making it the third oldest in the world. Recently, the city was considering shutting down parts of the system if they couldn't come up with the money for a massive modernization plan (the route itself hasn't changed in over a century). In April, an upgrade worth £290 million was approved guaranteeing residents and visitors many more years of fun lurching and hurtling round and round the city.

So close your eyes and let us take you for a ride!

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's Summer Shorts 013:

• Strathclyde Partnership for Transport: Glasgow Subway
• Herald Scotland: Closure 'an option'
• BBC News: Go-ahead for £290m Subway revamp

Photo by Karoly Lorentey

Today is the final installment in our week-long G20 Special. A lot remains up for debate but we couldn't wrap up this particular discussion without drawing attention to the ways our public spaces were divided and designated into zones in order to control protesters (and residents), peaceful and otherwise.

Tor Sandberg is the program director for Rabble TV and was in charge of coordinating their video coverage during the Summit. Sandberg met up with Spacing producer Mieke Anderson at Queen's Park, which only a few weeks ago was Toronto's only official protest zone, a.k.a. "designated free speech area."

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's G20 Special, pt. V:

• Rabble TV: Tor Sandberg
• G20 Security Zone Map, The Toronto Star

photo by Kate Raynes-Goldie

Discussion in the leadup to the G20 Summit took a far more serious and ominous turn on Friday, June 25, when the Toronto Star ran a front-page story about an amendment to the virtually unknown Public Works Protection Act. The change to the law, the Star reported, was passed quietly by the Provincial government, and gave the police broad powers.

The amendment was brought to the Star’s attention by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), a group that distinguished itself as a steady and sober voice for the rights of civilians caught up in the law-enforcement web. Nathalie Des Rosiers, CCLA general counsel who has become a go-to source for reporters, spoke with Spacing’s Todd Harrison about the laws surrounding public protest, her group’s response to the G20 arrests, and the upcoming review by the Toronto Police Services Board.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's G20 Special, pt. IV:

• The CCLA's G8 and G20 statements and actions
• The Star story that broke the news about the Public Works Protection Act
• A great primer on the Act from law blog Slaw.ca
• The Act itself, and the controversial amendment