Taking Our City Back 2
All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Following in the footsteps of the great cities in Europe, Toronto alas has created two (permanent) pedestrian-only streets by closing them off from automobile traffic. This is a significant win for the citizens of Toronto who have been fighting for decades for pedestrian-only streets. The ...
BIXI Coming to Town 5
Image courtesy of toronto.bixi.com BIXI is coming to Toronto – for real this time. Well, unless it gets cancelled again. But it seems more real this year than last year – for real. I’m proud to say that I am now one of the 1,000 “founding members” of Toronto’s BIXI program. For less than a ...
G20 Healing With Positive Memories 1
All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The outrage over how our government handled the G20 weekend in Toronto in June has begun to subside now that several reviews are under way to investigate how the Police handled the summit. In light of these positive developments, I thought it would be appropriate ...
Making The Case Against Cottages 9
All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In the same way wealthy New Yorkers head to the prestigious Hamptons on summer weekends, many wealthy Torontonians have their “home away from home” known as a cottage where they spend their summer weekends. A typical drive for a cottage dweller is anywhere from 1 ...
My Toronto Wish List 6
Earlier this evening I had a conversation with Ward 19 candidate and Rogers Sportsnet host Sean McCormick. He told me about his platform, and I briefly told him what would win over my vote. Unfortunately, it’s not very efficient for Mr. McCormick to have a 30 minute conversation with me about what I would like ...
Making The BIXI Pledge 1
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The City of Toronto originally planned to bring year-round BIXI bicycle sharing to town in 2010 with 3,000 bicycles at 300 stations. It then encountered some funding complications and postponed BIXI Toronto’s inauguration to the spring of 2011 with a reduced fleet of 1,000 bicycles for ...
G20: We Were Duped 8
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The G20 was a historic weekend where Toronto citizens were duped and our rights were stripped in the name of “terrorism”. Our city and our country failed us on so many different levels, and I can honestly say I’m not proud to be a Canadian right ...
G20 Saturday In Photos 1
All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The G20 leaders are in town this weekend, and the protests are abundant. Although there were various causes that I sympathize with, I chose not to participate in the protest this weekend. Instead I jumped on my bike with a friend and set about Saturday ...
Pedaling Po-Po 2
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country When it comes to cycling, Toronto is not at the world stage. So with the eyes of the world on Toronto this week for the G20 summit of world leaders, Toronto will not be showcasing its cycling culture. But despite this, Toronto is doing something ...
A Beautiful Morning in Toronto 2
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country It seems like ages since I posted a “Winter Cycling in Toronto” article featuring me riding my bike on a blistering cold January day. Summer is here now and there are swarms of people riding bikes for transportation now in Toronto. Despite our poor infrastructure, ...