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And on that front, the most important question to begin with is asking if there's any familiarity with the city's existing plans and strategies. Don't expect any candidate to have an encyclopedic knowledge, as these things are cumbersome, but it's an important lens for everything else.

These lists could go on and on and it's just meant to be a starting point for further thought; nothing here is exhaustive. Also: all of this should take into account existing plans and frameworks that cities have, where possible.

-what neighbourhoods in their wards (or city) are currently underserviced with public spaces? -would they be willing to do a walk audit with residents on public space assets? -are our public spaces culturally inclusive?

-would they be interested in pedestrian streets in core areas? -is there more activation we could do with public spaces in urban cores and parks? -are there privately owned public spaces (POPs) that could use more strategic activation?

-is climate resilience factored into any plans for outdoor facilities? Is tree equity something they're cognizant of? -are there any affordable interventions we can make in low income neighbourhoods for more shade in public spaces?

-are their visions for recreational facilities and spaces in parks inclusive of competing needs across the city or ward? If you're oversubscribed in some amenities, can we expand others that are underserviced? (for example, in KW we could probably use more than a few cricket facilities)

-how do they view the relationship between public spaces and cars? Would they be willing to sacrifice space for cars in core areas to build outdoor 3rd spaces? -are there low cost, fast delivery interventions we can make that haven't yet been thought of?

Anyways, @shawnmicallef.bsky.social explains the problem eloquently here: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Shawn Micallef: Toronto says it wants to protect Kensington Market. But city laws mean we’ll never have another place like itWhen the city had a chance to allow more businesses in local neighbourhoods, just like in Kensington Market, it put off changing the rules.www.thestar.com

I generally leave it up to people's judgement to use these things wisely. The "follow all" button is less useful than it just being a centralized place to find accounts that may be of interest. Everyone's mileage will vary depending on that.

If someone asked how to simplify this locally in a polite way, I'd say "Yeah, it can seem unfair that you don't have the LRT - but the increased property taxes mean more sustainable funding subsidies for GRT, which means we can run better busses to the townships and provide better services overall"

There used to be a fun little preview link for these but alas

Said groups have "generously" said they'd accept stacked towns and middle income families, which says everything we need to know about who they wouldn't accept. This could easily become a big election issue, and we're not as guaranteed to have a council as supportive of housing as the last.

Is it likely we don't see an RFP come forward with something that high density? Possibly. Should we preclude that before we even reach that part of the process? Absolutely not.

The primate city effect probably playing a role here. Lagos, Manila, Kinshasa... not uncommon in countries with megacities that big to absolutely dwarf everything else. Dealing with urban boundaries instead of metro areas is probably undercounting some too.

And on property taxes, well, I don't know what people expect when you vote in several straight elections to choose mayors who lie to you that it's possible to have a world class city with artificially low property taxes.

Tap + late night half hourly trains on LS West to Oakville/Burlington/Aldershot help make up for the lack of flexible weekend options on the KL

(Whether the countryside line is the best way to protect farmland, and whether the land assembly is worth the trade-offs are legitimate policy debates that are separate from the gong show of how they're treating our local governance processes)

There is no solving the housing crisis in an equitable way in Canada without confronting this. We have been building like this for decades and there's many more projects that will get built like this (on arterial roads). ADUs and fourplexes will not solve this problem wholesale.