damienmoule.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Political context is so weird. You have 3 provincial parties saying semis, townhouses, and plexes should be allowed everywhere, but if you suggest to a Toronto councillor that semis should be allowed everywhere, they would tell you the backlash would trigger an eternal conservative majority.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

A great lede for what continues to be one of the best essays written about municipal government by Jerusalem Demsas. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

I think TRBOT should have spent the effort trying to sketch out a priority network before issuing the report. Your starting assumption has to be streetcar routes are transit priority. You probably can't do more than 2 priorities per street (except University). Where do bikes and peds go?

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

The TRBOT report is really frustrating because they get so close to getting it and then carbrain it away at the last second. Here they're calling for priority networks based on function (good) and then just assume EVERY ARTERIAL IN DOWNTOWN would wind up as priority connector roads for cars.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Flash forward a few years to Statscan sheepishly renaming it to the Surrey Metropolitan Statistical Area.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

One day I need to find an account of how the Ontario Greens have managed to avoid the ridiculous degrowth/only the revolution passivity/mask for immigration opposition issues that routinely plague green parties elsewhere.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

It's not been a policy focused election to say the least. Ideas have been... hard to come by. But it matters to me so I'm glad some of my colleagues managed to dig up what little information is out there and put this together.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Advance voting starts TODAY in Ontario. The province has huge power to make change on housing, but who is willing to use it? We've combed through platforms, records and public statements to see where the parties stand. www.moreneighbours.ca/news/analysi... www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCQe...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Just remembering that the worst epithet LCD Soundsystem could throw at Bloomberg was "convinced he's a king".

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Excuse me, going to go throw up for a while now. We're so screwed.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I didn't expect the NDP platform to address this because they're always weird on the issue, but I can't believe even the Greens aren't trying to roll back Ford's residential electricity subsidies. Incredibly inefficient policy that increases electricity consumption (mostly gas on the margin).

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

University bike lane, south of Dundas. #biketo

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

High speed rail is starting to feel like the new Major Transit Station Areas. Just keep waiting for announcements. It's definitely coming... www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Correctly guessed on my run last night that Martin Goodman trail would be reasonably well plowed. Then threw that common sense out the window and tried to run on Ookwemin/Villiers. What a giant mistake.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

"'I fear we are building a dystopian future,' warned Coun. Lily Cheng (Willowdale) about a Toronto that makes it easier to construct mid-rise buildings." Our current system of veto points, where a few people can stall a project, doesn't match our housing goals. www.torontotoday.ca/local/opinio...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Here is my latest long post on Substack about the Long Modernization of the Italian Railways. I tried to capture how the railways in Italy (and elsewhere) remained relevant to today's world and what this history teaches us. I hope you'll enjoy it. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

How did the Austrian Anschluss alter the electoral politics of Germany? This is a very dumb article. Any world where Canada becomes the 51st state is a world where we are long past anything remotely resembling a free and fair election www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

I had to double check but yes, these two streets in Toronto have the same right of way width. I think superficially similar but Yonge feels way nicer to be on due to smaller setbacks and narrower car lanes with street parking. Just feels like less of a freeway.

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

Visual demonstration that permit parking is too cheap.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Political context is so weird. You have 3 provincial parties saying semis, townhouses, and plexes should be allowed everywhere, but if you suggest to a Toronto councillor that semis should be allowed everywhere, they would tell you the backlash would trigger an eternal conservative majority.

A great lede for what continues to be one of the best essays written about municipal government by Jerusalem Demsas. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I think TRBOT should have spent the effort trying to sketch out a priority network before issuing the report. Your starting assumption has to be streetcar routes are transit priority. You probably can't do more than 2 priorities per street (except University). Where do bikes and peds go?

The TRBOT report is really frustrating because they get so close to getting it and then carbrain it away at the last second. Here they're calling for priority networks based on function (good) and then just assume EVERY ARTERIAL IN DOWNTOWN would wind up as priority connector roads for cars.

Flash forward a few years to Statscan sheepishly renaming it to the Surrey Metropolitan Statistical Area.

One day I need to find an account of how the Ontario Greens have managed to avoid the ridiculous degrowth/only the revolution passivity/mask for immigration opposition issues that routinely plague green parties elsewhere.

It's not been a policy focused election to say the least. Ideas have been... hard to come by. But it matters to me so I'm glad some of my colleagues managed to dig up what little information is out there and put this together.

Advance voting starts TODAY in Ontario. The province has huge power to make change on housing, but who is willing to use it? We've combed through platforms, records and public statements to see where the parties stand. www.moreneighbours.ca/news/analysi... www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCQe...

Just remembering that the worst epithet LCD Soundsystem could throw at Bloomberg was "convinced he's a king".

Excuse me, going to go throw up for a while now. We're so screwed.

I didn't expect the NDP platform to address this because they're always weird on the issue, but I can't believe even the Greens aren't trying to roll back Ford's residential electricity subsidies. Incredibly inefficient policy that increases electricity consumption (mostly gas on the margin).

University bike lane, south of Dundas. #biketo

High speed rail is starting to feel like the new Major Transit Station Areas. Just keep waiting for announcements. It's definitely coming... www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Correctly guessed on my run last night that Martin Goodman trail would be reasonably well plowed. Then threw that common sense out the window and tried to run on Ookwemin/Villiers. What a giant mistake.

"'I fear we are building a dystopian future,' warned Coun. Lily Cheng (Willowdale) about a Toronto that makes it easier to construct mid-rise buildings." Our current system of veto points, where a few people can stall a project, doesn't match our housing goals. www.torontotoday.ca/local/opinio...

Here is my latest long post on Substack about the Long Modernization of the Italian Railways. I tried to capture how the railways in Italy (and elsewhere) remained relevant to today's world and what this history teaches us. I hope you'll enjoy it. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

How did the Austrian Anschluss alter the electoral politics of Germany? This is a very dumb article. Any world where Canada becomes the 51st state is a world where we are long past anything remotely resembling a free and fair election www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...

I had to double check but yes, these two streets in Toronto have the same right of way width. I think superficially similar but Yonge feels way nicer to be on due to smaller setbacks and narrower car lanes with street parking. Just feels like less of a freeway.

Visual demonstration that permit parking is too cheap.

Is anyone else still waiting on their Doug bucks? It's starting to feel personal.

Seems good.

Toronto's solution to the same problem.