Observing The City
@observingthecity.bsky.social
2.1K followers 97 following 250 posts
Observations from around the city (in most cases, Toronto)
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observingthecity.bsky.social
Imanishi Sando Bar and McCormick Park cafe are amazing, but would not be allowed to exist in most of Toronto. Our parks deserve great independent businesses within them. Our imagination of what can be included in our park space needs to be expanded!
observingthecity.bsky.social
You know @torontolifemag.bsky.social is for a specific demographic when the headline is “where to buy *NEXT*”
jaketobin.bsky.social
New illustration for the latest @torontolifemag.bsky.social on forthcoming developments in neighbourhoods around the city. The brief was to create a fantasy mash-up community with transit, parks, mixed use, sixplexes & high-rises.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Bike share revenue is up over 30% compared to last year, and now has close to 300k unique customers. That is 10% of the population of Toronto! I also think that their internal forecasts are a little pessimistic pinning 2025 rides at 8.1 million. I forecast closer to 8.3M when the year is over.
observingthecity.bsky.social
I was at Wellesley station last night at around midnight. I had never seen such an intense cleaning operation. There was also electrical work going on replacing light ballasts and such. There must have been 40+ employees working. I thought it was just standard nighttime maintenance, guess not.
benspurr.bsky.social
Mayor Olivia Chow at Wellesley station announcing details of a pilot project that will deploy Toronto Community Crisis Service teams to downtown subway platforms.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Or cancel the beltline gap connections project on Marlee.
observingthecity.bsky.social
My hot take is if they had done Danforth/Kingston Road first instead of Bloor West of Jane, we wouldn’t be in this mess with the province. The provincial conservative base of power is in the Kingsway.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Lmao they built it on Palmerston in order to not put bike lanes on Bathurst.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Sorry, I should have been more clear. This is the redesign of Yonge downtown between college and Queen. Not Yonge in North York.
observingthecity.bsky.social
The latest update is 2030-2035 construction (subject to Ontario line). The two first images are still linked on the YongeTOmorrow website. One from the report to council 2021, and one from the website's (current) home page. Now made out of date by the "project timeline" page.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Will anyone take responsibility for what is happening with the Yonge Street re-design. First proposed 10 years ago. Approved 4 years ago with a recommended design. Original timeline had construction starting in 2023. Now apparently there will be 3 (?) more years of design!!!!
observingthecity.bsky.social
Northbound rush hour on University. It’s the traffic lights, not the bike lanes.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Why is the Eglinton bike lane not getting constructed with the roadwork it was originally intended to? You can’t blame the province as Bill 212 would not have applied. Cowardice?
joshmatlow.bsky.social
There’s a place for Purolator boxes. But blocking the view while approaching the main entrance to Davisville subway station isn’t it. I’ve asked the TTC to put it somewhere that isn’t in front of a busy entrance. We should also have more respect for how our streetscape looks.
observingthecity.bsky.social
It doesn’t need permission if contacts had already been awarded, which they had.
observingthecity.bsky.social
These people live in Toronto (Mohawk), Ontario (Iroquonian), Canada (Iroquoian)! That damn woke Jacques Cartier.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Great allocation of road space just north of Bloor! Bus, streetcar and cars all sharing one lane so there can be room for 4 parked private vehicles.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Don’t worry, according to Dianne Saxe there are no issues with traffic/bunching on Bathurst not during rush hour. (Taken at 7pm on a Saturday)
Reposted by Observing The City
rzaichkowski.bsky.social
The Toronto Star published a feature of the cyclist who was recently struck and killed at Church and Gerrard. The 28-year-old was identified as Samuel Willetts; an aspiring cinematographer. RIP. Memorial ride details TBD. #BikeTO #TOpoli #VisionZero #YouNeverRideAlone www.thestar.com/news/gta/mot...
Mother remembers aspiring Toronto cinematographer, 28, after fatal e-bike collision: ‘He just didn’t have time to reach his zenith’
Samuel Willetts died in hospital July 31, two weeks after he was struck by a driver while riding his e-bike near Gerrard and Church streets.
www.thestar.com
observingthecity.bsky.social
A huge congrats to @cycletoronto.bsky.social on their huge charter win. The bike lanes will stay. Join tomorrow for a victory rally & ride!
cycletoronto.bsky.social
Join us to celebrate our Charter challenge win tomorrow, Thursday, July 31st at 5:30 pm. We'll be hosting a rally starting near the Scales of Justice bike rack at 361 University, followed by a ride.

Learn more and RSVP now:
www.cycleto.ca/victory_ride...
observingthecity.bsky.social
Overheard two teens on bike shares on a side street with sharrows in the middle of the lane: “I hate biking when there is a car behind me.” Same.
observingthecity.bsky.social
This is awesome, Toronto is a cycling city. The one area that has a connected grid (west end of old Toronto) has huge volumes of cyclists. Imagine if we replicated it city-wide.
safestreetsto.bsky.social
Red intersections have more bikes than cars! And the size of circles is total number of bikes arcg.is/1nnXC02 #BikeTO #OpenData
observingthecity.bsky.social
Oh btw, this June and July, ridership is up ~40% from last year. The exponential growth continues.
observingthecity.bsky.social
Centre Island Ferry Dock has consistently been the most used bike share station this summer, even on weekdays. All 6 island stations consistently rank among the most used in the network. Most would have told you this was a no brainer for years. What other low hanging fruit exists in this city?
toronto.raccoon.bike
Yesterday there were approximately 38,984 Toronto Bikeshare bikeshare trips
Most used station: Centre Island Ferry Dock (623 trips)
Least used station: Driftwood Ave / Finch Corridor Trail and 38 others (0 trips)
Active stations: 926
#bikeTO
Graph of hourly bike trips over the past 7 days Graph of daily bike trips over the past 30 days Graph of bike trips this year overlayed on previous years' data Map of stations with circle radii corresponding to number of trips yesterday
observingthecity.bsky.social
Absolutely feckless letter from @mayoroliviachow.ca on implementing bus lanes between Eglinton and Bloor. These lanes were first proposed 5 years ago. The “path forward” was presented in the original plan. It could be approved today. It won’t be because the mayor doesn’t care if it is.
Reposted by Observing The City
auguststreet.ca
tomorrow's the last day you can vocally speak up to the mayor and city councillors before they vote on dedicated transit lanes on bathurst+dufferin.

already, it's been watered down to be only south of bloor thanks to nimbys

a thread on how you can speak against the status quo tomorrow ⬇️

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