Tag: toronto

A Look at Happiness Through Design

The Design Exchange in Toronto has invited Stefan Sagmeister to explore what happiness is all about. The artist has done some great album artwork and is now exploring how to bring happiness via stats and images. It looks like a good show!

In the spirit of design week, join us at the DX for Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show. Running until March 3rd, the site-specific exhibition has “hijacked” the DX and converted it into a happy place complete with bright yellow walls upon which Sagmeister’s very own maxims for happiness have been personally handwritten. From the restrooms to the elevators, no surface has remained untouched. Grab a friend or two, celebrate design and be happy!

If you’re in Toronto and want to know about happiness head on down to the Design Exchange to check it out.

Toronto Uses Billboard Tax to Fund Arts

many years ago, local Toronto artist and activist Devon Ostrom started Beautiful City to get more funding for the arts in Toronto and since then the project has grown to be quite large. This week they saw their dream realized and now Toronto is using a new tax on billboards (which are a visual blight) to fund more outdoor arts in the city.

Under Crawford’s plan, another $17 million would be phased in gradually over the next four years until Toronto reaches its oft-stated goal of increasing its per capita spending on the arts from $18.30 to $25.

All this represents a dream come true for a spirited and resourceful group of young artists who have kept up the pressure for years for a billboard tax that could be used to solve woeful underfunding from the cash-strapped city, which had fallen behind other major cities in its investment in the arts.

Read more at The Star.

An Extra 32 Minutes a Day for People in Greater Toronto

Your32 is an effort by CivicAction to promote a financially sustainable and more efficient transit solution for people living in the greater Toronto area (GTA). This project is a great way to engage the people in the GTA as the region is regressive when it comes to transportation, even going so far to remove bike lanes – the opposite of every other city of comparable size.

Your32 is promoting a region-wide plan that will improve transportation for everyone and echoes what other major cities are doing around the world.

There’s a plan in place to dramatically improve transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area – one that could actually save you an average of 32 minutes on your daily commute. But it will take all of our support to help make it happen. Together, we’ll make transportation in the region more efficient and connect people in ways never dreamed of before. With your help we can create a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area that’s, well, greater than ever.

Find out more and contribute at Your32.com.

Toronto Joins Other Cities and Bans Plastic Bags

Toronto has joined other cities around the world that has banned plastic bags. San Francisco banned plastic bags earlier in the year, and we mustn’t forget that a small town of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba was the first place in North America to enact such a ban. This ban flies in the face of an incompetent and backwards-thinking mayor that wanted to remove a tax on plastic bags, so the councillors voted to ban all bags instead.

“These bags are junk, whether you want to call them biodegradable or not. They end up in the same place: blowing around the streets or in landfill,” said Councillor David Shiner, a member of Mr. Ford’s executive who surprised many by introducing the ban.

“Let’s get rid of the plastic bags. Let’s make today a real statement. Let’s tell the industry that we’re not accepting your baloney any more,” he said.

Mr. Shiner said he didn’t know he was going to move the motion until partway through the debate. He based the language largely on Seattle’s recently passed ban on bags. Retailers will still be allowed to sell or give away single-use paper bags, he said, using the example of retailers such as provincial liquor stores and some department stores who already offer free paper bags to customers.

Read more here.

Bike Lanes Makes Road Safer for Everyone

The worst mayor in Canada hates people who don’t drive automobiles and thinks cyclists deserve to die. The mayor of Toronto wants to remove bike lanes (while every smart city is installing more) despite the fact that the number of cyclists has increased. So where’s the good news you ask?

It turns out (much to the chagrin of mayor Rob Ford) that bike lanes improve safety for all road users!

The Toronto Cyclists Union has drummed up a City staff report that compares crash data in the three years previous to the bike lanes and the one year with the bike lanes. The report finds that the overall crash rate for Jarvis has actually decreased by 23 percent. That’s for all road users—bicycles, cars, and pedestrians. In fact, the report notes that “most of this reduction can be attributed to the reduction in collisions involving motor vehicle turning movements and collisions involving pedestrians.”

But the bike lanes have also been better for cyclists. While the number of bicycle-car collisions has increased from an average of 7 per year in the three years prior to the bike lane to 15 in the year with the bike lane, the report notes this still represents a drop in the rate of collision when you take into consideration the fact that the number of bicycles increased threefold post-bike lane implementation.

Read more at Spacing.