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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 7h

That is basically Ontario as well. Which probably explains our collective struggles.

Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 8h

I skimmed through the Vancouver plan as well and I still think the GLU map they added is better work than the horrible kludges we've attempted in 6 years here.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 8h

That being said I definitely much prefer the city plans of Edmonton and Calgary to the ODP. Possibly Montreal's plan as well.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 8h

Having now glanced through the draft OPD, I think in moving from Vancouver Plan to OPD, they will have accomplished roughly the same thing Toronto has been trying to do with EHON+Avenues Policy Review+MTSAs but more coherently, with fewer howling exceptions, and in probably a quarter of the time.

Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 14h

Behold, the Vancouver Official Development Plan Generalized Land Use Map

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 10h

Boy do I have some bad news about the rest of our bylaws.

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 11h

"I think we need to do better, and I think we need to chart a clear path toward the legal pathway to riding an e-scooter in Toronto," says Cheng, pointing out that it doesn't really make sense for the city to have bylaws it can't enforce.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 11h

Should have just put him on General Government if he didn't want to take any hard votes. ECDC is already stacked with Chow supporting councillors.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 11h

I hope Chow got some agreement from him to support her on key votes in exchange for these committee roles that will force him to take no hard votes.

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 11h

Via show of hands, Council votes to appoint newbie councillor Neethan Shan to the Economic & Community Development Committee. And also the zoo board. Lucky guy. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Agenda Item History 2025.MM33.39

secure.toronto.ca

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 13h

Answered my own question. Not a fan of this style of approach. Think it's worked out pretty poorly in Toronto.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 14h

Is the plan for GLU areas to be implemented directly in zoning or are these policies areas that guide what rezoning applications will be approved?

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 14h

It's about prioritization I say sternly as I completely dodge the question about what to prioritize.

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 15h

Myers, the TTC chair, asks Bradford where the TTC should reallocate funds to pay for more special constables.

"I'm not on the TTC," Bradford says. "So I've asked the TTC to look at that."

Myers says the TTC is facing a $90 million budget shortfall.

"It's about prioritization," Bradford says.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 15h

So am I just living in a different universe or something? No one I know in my neighbourhood thinks the TTC is too dangerous to take. They think it's too slow, sure. But we all take our kids on the streetcar or bus.

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 15h

"I had some problems with my car this week, and I had mentioned to someone that I was going to take the TTC. And they said, 'Are you crazy?'" Councillor Thompson tells us.

"That's the view," he says. He supports this crisis worker program to help address the issue.

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Reposted by Damien Moule

John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 17h

Today in Toronto East York Community Council: the Craven Road NIMBYs (I suppose NIMFYs?) are being thrown a bone in terms of street-specific garden suite zoning rules. Doesn't look fatal to ADUs but I'm irritated by this entire process. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Agenda Item History 2025.TE26.6

secure.toronto.ca

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

With all due respect, to the group of people protesting at University and Richmond as I biked past, I saw 4 signs with what appeared to be completely different causes, and I've been unable to find any information about your protest on news sites or Google. You need better comms.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

The only tax Holyday doesn't care about is the one that might make housing more affordable. Perfect.

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 1d

"I've had smaller developers mention to me that, you know, what a burden the DCs are on them kicking off their project, because they'd like to see it financially viable. And my response is, 'That's not my problem,'" says Holyday

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

Matt does track this as part of the councillor power rankings
toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/the-2025-c...

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

There still is a very unofficial NDP slate, and I think that if parties were allowed it would be bad for that affiliation to be what matters rather than those councillors developing a municipal platform separate from the needs of the provincial and federal parties.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

The upside of this for Toronto is that if the results in the Alberta municipal election convince Doug Ford to allow municipal parties in Toronto, we should found an ideologically urbanist party, disconnected from provincial parties, designed to persist past the first leader.

Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

In the middle of the video, they spend some time contemplating why the boroughs system is producing good results (because local control often produces bar results elsewhere). My squaring of this circle is that the combination of *local ideological* political parties produces the result. 1/

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 4d

This video is a long time coming.

People always ask me: what makes Montreal so ambitious on urbanism? (At least for bikes and pedestrians.)

I've been thinking through this and asking Montrealers, and in this video I want to cover *part* of the answer.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

Ya Ensemble win we'll see if they have an agenda or is just SMF becoming the centre of a personalist party, Peronist style.

Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

A Coderre personalist party trying to sustain itself that may or may not morph into an ideological party.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

So I think Project Montreal being an ideological party in a system that mostly wasn't gave them a big advantage to getting things done. What I would watch out for in Montreal is the party either devolving into a personalist party or the emergence of an ideological suburban party.

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

You also get the advantage of recruiting for *your issues*. You have a (partial) block against the national/provincial parties using municipal politics as a farm system. No issue or loyalty tests for non-municipal stuff. 5/

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

If you can form a party with a municipal ideology Montreal's system gives you a lot of advantages. You can implement policy in boroughs you control, especially if remaining councillors are less or non-ideological. 4/

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

On the negative side it makes the system even more vulnerable to personalist politics than other municipal systems (which is a lot). Most of Montreal's history is just personalist parties and I think personalist parties + local control is a bad mix for decision making and corruption. BUT... 3/

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

I think municipal political parties are good but what's different about Montreal is they aren't allowed to affiliate with other levels. I think this comes with some positives and negatives 2/

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Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 1d

In the middle of the video, they spend some time contemplating why the boroughs system is producing good results (because local control often produces bar results elsewhere). My squaring of this circle is that the combination of *local ideological* political parties produces the result. 1/

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 4d

This video is a long time coming.

People always ask me: what makes Montreal so ambitious on urbanism? (At least for bikes and pedestrians.)

I've been thinking through this and asking Montrealers, and in this video I want to cover *part* of the answer.

The Secret of Montreal’s Urbanism Success

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

youtu.be

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