Spacing sat down with Adrian Corry, an international transit consultant, to discuss recent trends in public transportation and how different technologies can be used to serve different civic need. Corry said that in order to get people out of their cars and into transit, the experience must improve. “People are used to riding in their cars. They have their sense of being in control: they have their own coffee, they have their ability to connect, they have their cellphones, they can listen to the radio. And they feel basically that they are in control of the situation,” he said.  Essentially, public transit must be able to compete with this in order to make trading in your car for the subway the more attractive option. He also noted that cities must look elsewhere when considering their own transit options.  “Looking at what other cities are doing, what else is happening around the world is absolutely an imperative,” he said.

Listen to this great chat by pressing the "play in new window" link at the top of this post. Or subscribe to Spacing Radio on iTunes.

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

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 the neighborhood.

Since last summer, STEPS has been conducting interviews with artists, activists, and urban planners working in Canada’s public spaces. Through this series we bring you some of the highlights. Thanks to STEPS volunteer Rebecca MacDonald for conducting this interview!

Links for Spacing Shorts 004:

• Emily Rose Michaud's blog
• The Roerich Garden website & Spacing post
• STEPS (Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Space)

In this edition of Spacing Radio, we're talking about public transit announcements.

Matthew Kupfer started the VoxTranspo project to collect stories about Canada’s transit soundscape, focused on the stop announcement. The crowd-sourced, nationwide project aims to collect all kinds of stories — from small, personal anecdotes to those concerning larger issues like planning and accessibility. In this podcast, Matthew shares the first stories and sounds he's collected — from Ottawa, Toronto and Edmonton.

Have a story or recording to share? E-mail: matthew-dot-kupfer-at-gmail-dot-com.

Links from Spacing Shorts 003:

• VoxTranspo

Spacing Radio is very pleased to announce a partnership with The STEPS Initiative!

STEPS (Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Space) is a national organization promoting the use of art to connect people with places, especially public spaces. STEPS is committed to enabling the use of art to challenge the ways in which public spaces are used, how citizens communicate on environmental issues, and the role of the artist in community development.

Since last summer, STEPS has been conducting interviews with artists, activists, and urban planners working in Canada’s public spaces. Through this series we bring you some of the highlights. This week, we shine the spotlight on Sheetal Lodhia's interview with Toronto-based artist David Anderson. She caught up with the founder and artistic director of Clay and Paper Theatre in Dufferin Grove Park.

Links from Spacing Shorts 002:

• Clay And Paper Theatre
• Touch Tours: theatre that's accessible to people who are blind or have low vision
• CYCLOPS: the cycling-oriented puppet squad

Image courtesy of Clay & Paper Theatre / CYCLOPS

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 of other cities? Kat Cizek has a pretty good idea. She's the director of Highrise, the National Film Board's ongoing exploration of stories inside these tall buildings. The project has posted tales from 13 cities, including Toronto, Sao Paolo, Johannesburg, Bangalore and Chicago... and just last month it won an International Digital Emmy Award for Non-Fiction. Spacing contributor Daniel Guillemette caught up with the director to find out more.

Links from Spacing Shorts 001:

• Check out the entire Highrise project
• United Way report "Poverty by Postal Code 2: Vertical Poverty"

And a very special thanks to the Toronto band Papermaps for letting us use their track "Reunion" this season!

In this special edition of Spacing Radio, we bring you the final installment - PART THREE - of our conversation with Toronto’s former mayor, David Miller. Spacing caught up with Miller on one of his last days in office. And there was so much to talk about that we couldn’t squeeze it all into our latest episode... so we’ve been posting the rest, in chunks, all this week.

A big thanks to Diamond Rings — the solo project of John O’Regan — for letting us showcase music off the latest album Special Affections!

In this special dispatch, we’re bringing you PART TWO of our conversation with Toronto’s former mayor, David Miller. Spacing caught up with Miller on one of his last days in office. There was lots to talk about. Way too much to squeeze into our latest episode... and so we’re posting the rest, in chunks, all this week. Spacing’s publisher Matthew Blackett and contributor John Lorinc led the discussion.

Also, a big thanks to Diamond Rings - the solo project of John O’Regan - for letting us showcase music off the latest album Special Affections!

This episode we take you behind-the-scenes.

First, we go to Toronto City Hall where Mayor David Miller has packed his bags to make way for Mayor Rob Ford. Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett and contributor John Lorinc spoke to Miller on one of his last days on the job. Then we stay up into the wee hours with Edward Birnbaum and Maia Filar. The mission? To explore the late-night restaurant scene that caters to cab drivers.

And finally, streetcars are an iconic part of the Toronto streetscape, but ever wonder who is tasked with trying to keep them on schedule? Producer Mieke Anderson visits streetcar headquarters as the debate heats up over the best way to move people around.

Note: There's more of our conversation with former Mayor Miller to come -- we couldn't fit it all into the episode so we'll be posting the rest throughout the week!

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 028:

• Follow John Lorinc's Spacing Toronto posts
• The Taxi Gourmet Blog: a quest for delicious food, guided by cab drivers
• Steve Munro's take on the future of Toronto's streetcars and TTC Transit City
• Our musical guest is Diamond Rings, the solo project of John O'Regan

In this episode of Spacing Radio we explore the topic of elimination - eliminating jogs, reducing unsustainable quick fixes, and phasing out cash fares.

Spacing contributor Andrew Walsh tours Toronto's newly re-aligned Queen & Dufferin intersection with Councillor Gord Perks to find out how 'jogs' play into a city's street grid. Spacing Atlantic's Veronica Simmonds takes us to Dalhousie University for a discussion on sustainable growth featuring David Donnelly and Bruce Lourie. And, Spacing's Luca de Franco looks into the future of the Presto electronic fare-card system with executive director Ernie Wallace.

Links to stuff from Spacing Radio 027:

• The Dufferin Jog in the news: Blog TO and The Globe & Mail
• Spacing Atlantic dispatch: Green Development and Growth Go Together – hosted by the Ecology Action Centre
• Five-year review of Halifax Regional Municipal Planning Strategy
• Presto in the news: The Globe & Mail and The Toronto Star
• Our musical guest is The Guest Bedroom: blog and MySpace page