Months after cancelling the construction contract for a new downtown pedestrian bridge in the face of “unforeseen challenges,” city officials have called off the project altogether....
Its a shame when projects like these are cancelled. It really shows how “car centric” North America can be in that a simple pedestrian bridge is harder to build and costs more then one designed for cars.
In a time when we should really be shifting to a more “pedestrian focused” design and “livable cities” in general, project like these are in the correct direction.
But when people walk across a pedestrian bridge society profits. Healthier population both physically and mentally. Greater happiness and less stress. Less pollution, pretty much all these benefits put less “burden” on peoples pockets financially, either both directly and indirectly through taxs.
Unfortunately probably all hard to quantify though.
“What is up with some people’s complete disrespect for our public spaces? It doesn’t require a huge amount of effort and discipline to keep our streets, sidewalks, parks and shorelines clean. Yet some of us appear incapable.”
Condos need to be built for families, give me more three or four bedrooms in the city, and make it more affordable.
Condo developers can’t build these affordable three or four bedrooms though, because on average these layouts are about 20% larger in size to their comparable European unit layout. This is all to due to building code, and something called “point access layout” vs “common corridor layout”.
If we could get more families in the city buy making costs comparable in sq/ft to a single family home in the suburb we could make cities more enjoyable and give people a better sense of belonging, as opposed to just commuting in for a few hours.
Fyi, my fiancée became a Canadian resident a few years back. When you become a new resident Canada gives you a welcome package, in this package you get a one year voucher for free visits to any national park (ie, not provincial parks).
So the closest national park to us is like 6-7 hours away. We do the drive and have no way to use this voucher, even in the one year window. To add (if I remember correctly) it was also only a voucher for a day visit, so parking…
I have a feeling like 90% of these voucher do not get used.
It reminded me of the time a handful of years ago VIA Rail did a promotion for anyone under 18-19. You would received a voucher to travel VIA rail from one side of Canada to the other. I don’t remember the specifics but it was only for the train ride with unlimited stops 2-ways.
Absolutely, a welcome package for a new Canadian is not something we as Canadians should be angered about.
You don’t freak out when the new person that just joined your office you been working at got a new pen, and maybe a shinny new stapler?
What we really should be angered aboot, and ashamed of as Canadians, is that its actually cheeper for us to go on vacation to Europe for 2-3weeks instead of being able to visit parts of Canada. A train ride to Vancouver is just as expensive as a plane flight if not more, and if you want to go to any of the northern parts you will need a car. Not to mention the price of accommodations such as a hotel or airbnd.
There should be more trains that take you to national and maybe even provincial parks and surrounding towns.
Though they would also need to be financially sound at the time they became a full on citizen, own a car (to make us of the day pass free parking), and be able to take the time off, to actually go see these parks.
Remembering the voucher kicks in on the day of becoming a citizen and then expires exactly in exactly 1 year.
I guarantee you if someone becomes a citizen in their teens and originally immigrated on their own with no family (which happens), they would more then likely not benefit from this, and probably not even have the means to see these parks in that one year window, and make use of the free day pass voucher for free parking…
Seems like it was 12-25 years of age and 150$ for a month of unlimited travel. It was a good deal but only available for 1 month, and i was already to old :'(
Would of been nice to use the pass and only sleep on the train as opposed to finding hotels.
I believe I have heard about the rule being implemented recently within BC. Which is great!
Myself I am located in Ontario, but seeing first hand on highways I don’t believe trucks have any limiters on them here. They pretty much drive in all lanes as well weaving in and out all over the place.
Many times I am pushing on average 110-115km/h down the Hwys here (such as the 401) and a 53 footer barrels past me at around 120-130km/h
Not sure about others, but I for sure don’t feel safe, let alone thinking about my kids on the same hwy. No reason so much weight should be traveling at such high speeds.
I agree on all points you made. Especially the need for Canada to get its shit together and get rail back in play for long distance freight. No reason to use 53’ for everything.
I would even go as far as mandate if freight travels farther then a set distance rail is mandatory. Maybe 80km from a distribution hub?
Rail should be for long distance, with products coming to distribution hubs within towns/cities by rail. Then shipping for last mile delivery should be on smaller 10’-15’ truck or a 9’ cargo van for anything within city limits.
Hopefully someone from one of the european countries can chime in on this.
From my own experience driving in Europe in areas like Spain and Germany larger trucks are limited to 80km/h Max and cannot pass each other on hwys. Unless its a very specific section and especially not on uphill sections at all.
From what I seen as well is when one truck trys to pass another the truck being passed drops speed to allow the overtake to happen as quickly as possible allowing the truck to merge back into the far right lane.
Though trucking is alot more regulated in the EU in terms of size and length of trucks and trailers, as well as safety and speed.
Never too late or too soon to go out and improve aspects of your community.
Simple items like picking up a few peices of litter on your streets, in your local parks, or on any nearby trails. Every little bit helps, and the more local residents in the area do the same thing, the more beautiful and inviting your city becomes.
Producers and retailers should be held responsible for taking back all packagings and products that reach their end of life. This should then be recycled by the manufacturer and producers.
We should really take more issue with manufactures charging us for products, and the then us also having to pay in our taxes for the disposal of those products when they reach end of life.
I want to be able to return the plastics and packagings back to the store once I don’t need them anymore, same as I want to be able to bring my TV and appliances back to the same store and get a small credit back for the materials of those items.
I don’t want manufactures taking advantage of the garbage collection services that I pay for in my taxes. Or at the very least I want them to pay the full cost of those services in terms of social and environmental costs.
The largest gold heist in Canadian history was carried out with remarkable ease: A fraudulent shipping document for a load of farm-raised Scottish salmon was used to brazenly snatch $14.5 million in gold bars and nearly $2 million in bank notes
Its a good point, reuse is always better then recycling. But if we can reduce the amont of trash being sent to landfills that would have not been reused and help recycle it, this would be a win IMO.
Most glass bottles for example can be reused, but get a dollar to promote it being recyclable is better then not getting anything and sending it to the landfill.
10 dollars for a old phone in your pocket is better then you paying out of your pocket in taxes for local garbage and litter collection.
I think also worth noting is the 10$ for the phone is the “material cost”, the cost of the gold, silver, copper. Its not the “intrinsic value” of the phone, as the phone is not being resold, but in a ideal world being torn apart to build a new one.
I guess if every Canadian started calling every staples store in Canada asking about this, it would be a great way for this program to get implemented right away. No reason we can’t have this here aside from perception.
We need fourplexes, we need multi-generational homes, and low rise residential 4-5 floors in height. We need self sufficient communities with transit and less car centric developments.
Our suburban developments as they are currently being constructed are so inefficient in usage of space. Especially since 50% of the land is paved, and subsidized.
Ontario is in the process of shifting the cost burden of trash away from municipalities and onto companies that make and sell products that generate waste....
After reading this article I started wondering if there are any foods and products I buy that come in fully compostable packaging.
The only one I seem to be able to think of is egg cartons, but I wonder if the ink on the packaging is harmful.
Though I hope the Ontario government follows through on its decisions and holds manufactures and retailers responsible for taking back packagings and products that reach their end of life use.
It would be nice, though I do think with this electronics disposal program we have in Ontario we should and can always be doing more.
The eco fee that consumers pay for should be used as an incentive for consumers to bring the electronics back to the manufacturer. And i feel this is what ontario wants to do with the bluebox recycling program now.
An example would be a “community drop-off location” (like penguin pickup) run and paid for by the manufacturer and retailers. (Not tax payers). It could be collaboratively run between multiple retailers as a “recovery point” if they were smart.
The way the eco fee I believe is currently run is local governments charge a fee to manufacturers (which is passed to the consumer) for the municipality to operate their own hazardous waste pickup and disposal points. This fee is not recovered by the consumer. (The consumer is charged twice, once for the fee and other in taxes)
The beer store and lcbo for example change a recovery fee for glass bottles and aluminium cans. This fee is then recovered by the consumer and not passed on. (The consumer is only charged once in taxes).
It would be nice similar to a car battery where I am charged $20 extra on the new battery to bring back the old battery to recover my $20, and do the same for things like TVs, printers, phones, packagings, bags, containers.
It feels like Canadian governments have forgotten how to plan. As the op-ed states, we don’t have the sewer/water/road/fire for the 5,800,000 houses we’re building by 2030. And politicians aren’t budgeting for it’s construction....
100% agree and I have been saying this for sometime myself, we need to make north america cities more family focused. COVID made it more visible that no one actually lived in cities.
Most restaurants closed for example, restaurants that you thought were “community focused” were actually only serving commuters into the cities. Nothing was “keeping” people in the surrounding area, no families, no roots.
North america cities for some reason are designed for commuters instead of the people that actually live there. On top of that most new condos and developments are geared to investment properties, meaning small units maybe max 2 bedrooms.
You can’t raise two kids in a two bedroom unit. And if you happen to find a three or four bedroom in the downtown core it’s priced substantially higher for lower square footage than a single family home in the suburbs.
It’s usually easier to do nothing and say we tried, then to try and fail. Seems this has been the moto of Canada for some time now.
When you do nothing everyone loses but people remain “happy”. When you do something to improve the quality of life some people may lose, but a greater number may win. Governments don’t want to lose the votes of the losing groups.
From the article “they’ve also reached agreements on introducing new processing licences and increasing processing limits, in an effort to promote more competition”
I’m not 100% sure but it seems an increase in processing limits means an increase in finishing?
My concern is that with an increase in the artificial limits already in place it will strain an ecosystem that is already reaching a tipping point and potentially a full collapse in a few generations.
Ohh well, I suppose our children will tell their children it was worth it as for a brief moment in time we increased shareholders profits.
Looking at trash and litter everywhere you walk, seeing crumbling infrastructure all around both in the city and suburbs, lack of decent transportation, sky high prices on homes and common goods. Homeless being more prominent and visible, it all adds up.
This issue had become more visible ever since the early days of COVID. Cities and urban cores became “ghost towns”, plenty of local business that serves the local community actually only catered unspokenly to commuting office workers, failing to stay afloat and many closed down as a result. It became apparent no one actually lived in the surrounding areas.
Our cities were and still area geared to single working individuals or couples without children. Nothing ties our city dwellers to their surroundings communities or business. What north america style cities are missing are a larger influx of families in cities.
Families provide strong ties and a sense of community. Very rarely do we see children walking in the downtown area or even playing on neighborhood streets. Instead most families move outside of cities as they grow in size for many reasons, housing and affordability being one of the big ones.
There are ways to fix this though. One of the main ways is city zoning policies. More “missing middle” style housing in needed.
“Missing middle” housing is the many different housing styles that sit between the standard sized suburban single family home and a typical downtown condo unit.
As we can see in north america families have limited choices and options when it comes to housing as they grow in size. Very rarely will a family be able to find a 3 bedroom apartment in a downtown core, and if they do a single family home in the suburbs will be priced more competitively and usually be larger in size.
Here is a great video talking about some of these points.
As an end note. Cities that design with a sense of place (referred to as “third place”) are always IMO more successful in providing a strong sense of community. You will see these “third places” all over European cities.
I will drop this last video here for anyone that is interested in knowing more about this.
You know, you’re right. I read the article once more over and there does seem to be more of a push into urban sprawl as a good thing.
Though as another commenter here has already stated urban sprawl is financially unsustainable in the long run and has had many studies done on the topic. Urban sprawl is also what feeds to an urban decline IMO specifically related to my point about families not being present in urban communities.
Are microplastics from car tyres contributing to heart disease?
"Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and stress: microplastics.
"In a study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of physicians and researchers showed that surgical patients who had a build-up of micro and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a 2.1 times greater risk of nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke or death from any cause in the three years post surgery than those who did not."
So it's not just the sedentary lifestyles that car-dependent planning encourages that's causing health issues.
And it's not just exhaust fumes either.
There's also the health impacts of microplastics, including from car tyres.
Worth noting as well that internal documents from the big oil companies show that they knew since the 1970s that recycling wasn't going to solve the problem of plastic pollution. They promoted it anyway: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112064312364853769
This is the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about or admit. Even in large environmental groups, if you bring this subject up at a meeting no one will say a word as everyone drives to the meetings.
There are things that can be done though to reduce this until an alternative to the materials used in tires is found.
For example, buy local as much as possible, and opt for purchasing items within walking distance on your local street or within quick hop of your local tram/street car/subway network. (This second part may not be possible in a car centric north american city/suburban neighborhood). Opt to use a bicycle over a car to reduce your footprint in tire use (it’s still the same rubber but two less tires). Biking has the added benefit of no exhaust.
Advocate for dedicated and protected cycle lanes on roads and streets so our children and community can cycle without fear of being hit by a car, as well as push your towns and cities for bicycle corridors/trails. Bicycle corridors are cycling trails that are not on a street and far from any car traffic and are more enjoyable for larger distances.
Other larger scale items that you can advocate for include urging shipping companies to prioritize rail over trailers for long distances, and opting to use small delivery vans for the last mile delivery inside town as opposed to 50 footer trailers. This has the added benefit of smaller streets and more vibrant and livable city centers. Also allowing customers to pickup deliveries in person using public transit such as trams/street cars/subway. There should not be a reason pickup centers should be located in areas that individuals can only reach by driving.
Vote and urge your towns and cities to implement more rail and subway systems. Use public transportation as much as possible and urge your cities and municipalities to implement more frequent and dedicated transportation routes. Each car lane and car parking lot removed or converted in your city is a step in the right direction (though it may not feel like it at first), for overall health and wellbeing for your neighbors and yourself.
Standard time is sometimes referred to as “winter time” or “normal time”, while daylight savings time (DST) may also be called summer time, especially in the UK.
More than 60% of the countries in the world use standard time all year.
The remaining countries use DST during the summer months, generally setting clocks forward one hour from standard time.
Canada is divided into six time zones. Most areas of the country’s provinces and territories operate on standard time from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March and daylight saving time the rest of the year.
In the regions of Canada that use daylight saving time, it begins on the second Sunday of March at 2 a.m. and ends on the first Sunday in November at 2 a.m. As a result, daylight saving time lasts in Canada for a total of 34 weeks (238 days) every year.
From what I understand Doctors and Dentists that immigrate into Canada have a hard long road of needing to be “recertified”. This means extensive money spent going back to university for a few years prior to even being able to work in the field or even open their own practice.
A family friend was a dentist overseas with his own practice he ran for years, it took him years to be “recertified” like many other dentists coming to Canada. He spent thousands of dollars in fees alone.
His wife was a dentist as well but ended up not going through the process when they moved as money was tight for both of them. Instead she had opted to recertify as a dentil hygienist.
Both are amazing in dentistry and IMO are better dentists than the few different practices I have been through in my life. So good that I travel 2 hours to go specifically to their practice.
City scraps downtown pedestrian bridge project in Guelph Ontario. (www.guelphtoday.com)
Months after cancelling the construction contract for a new downtown pedestrian bridge in the face of “unforeseen challenges,” city officials have called off the project altogether....
"Thought-Terminating Cliches" (lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/15464125...
Were living in the 21st century — let's learn to pick up our own trash (cultmtl.com)
“What is up with some people’s complete disrespect for our public spaces? It doesn’t require a huge amount of effort and discipline to keep our streets, sidewalks, parks and shorelines clean. Yet some of us appear incapable.”
Toronto developers are getting desperate as no one is buying condos anymore (www.blogto.com)
Condo sales numbers in and around Toronto have taken a drastic tumble so far this year, and now that the market is starting to lean towards buyers …
Federal gov’t sparks outrage for giving newcomers free access to Canada’s parks (torontosun.com)
While many have to pay to access any of the dozens of parks across the country, there is a group that has been granted free admission.
Truck hits recently renovated Queen and Dufferin bridge, road closures in area. (www.cbc.ca)
The bridge had just gone through extensive renovations and updates with construction finished late summer of 2023....
As a long-time user hearing YouTube wants to play extra ads when I pause a video (lemmy.world)
New truckers in Canada aren't being trained well enough. How do we fix that? (www.cbc.ca)
Cyclist cleans road signs as a hobby (www.bbc.com)
A cyclist’s new hobby of cleaning street signs has already taken him as far afield as Belgium....
Ottawa wants to find how much plastic producers are making, and where it ends up (www.cbc.ca)
Plastic producers will be required to detail the quantity and type of plastic they put into the Canadian market under new rules announced Monday....
Canada’s gold heist: Inside one of the biggest thefts in the annals of crime | CNN (amp.cnn.com)
The largest gold heist in Canadian history was carried out with remarkable ease: A fraudulent shipping document for a load of farm-raised Scottish salmon was used to brazenly snatch $14.5 million in gold bars and nearly $2 million in bank notes
Staples new plan is to recycle nearly everything — and pay their customers for it (www.thecooldown.com)
Check out the full list of what staples accepts now part of their expanded recycling programs....
Toronto the Good? Seems more like Toronto the Hostile now (www.thestar.com)
Bike lane in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (video) (social.notjustbikes.com)
Canada needs to build 1.3M additional homes by 2030 to close housing gap, says PBO (www.thecanadianpressnews.ca)
Polish street over the years in Krakow (dormi.zone)
Big grocers, retailers want Ontario's recycling plan changed. (www.cbc.ca)
Ontario is in the process of shifting the cost burden of trash away from municipalities and onto companies that make and sell products that generate waste....
32 per cent of Canadians blame grocery stores for rising food prices, more than any other reason: Nanos (www.ctvnews.ca)
This is me when I've got time (lemmy.world)
Nepal tells Everest tourists to take their shit with them (www.cnn.com)
Canada needs to get real about addressing the housing crisis (www.theglobeandmail.com)
It feels like Canadian governments have forgotten how to plan. As the op-ed states, we don’t have the sewer/water/road/fire for the 5,800,000 houses we’re building by 2030. And politicians aren’t budgeting for it’s construction....
Fish harvesters reach deal with N.L. government to allow catch to be sold to outside buyers (www.cbc.ca)
Young people's happiness has 'fallen sharply' for Canada and U.S. in global rankings (www.cbc.ca)
Toronto falls into the pit of urban decline that's plagued U.S. cities (nationalpost.com)
The GTA has been showing signs of the urban ills that are commonly associated with city life south the border....
Petition - Stop Daylight Saving Time in Canada - Change.org (www.change.org)
Join the petition to ask the Canadian government to adopt Standard Time all year round....
Want more family doctors in Ontario? Pay them better, say physicians (www.cbc.ca)