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zoecoombes.bsky.social
Toronto, yo. Tell me about single stair buildings, skylit mezzanines, on-street trash containerization, small elevators, life / safety review, windows in bathrooms, zero lot line buildings- all the things that feel seemingly perfectly impossible. šŸ™
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ā€œOne NIST team that has been fearing cuts because of its number of probationary employees is the US AI Safety Institute (AISI), which was created after former President Joe Bidenā€™s sweeping executive order on AI issued in October 2023.ā€ Fascinating
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Never bet against New Yorkers. I love this post.
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Dolkart fandom! Excellent thread for a few reasons.
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Thereā€™s going to be a mandatory elevator by code so no oneā€™s taking those stairs regularly- imagine all those spaces as living rooms! Is shallow ground floor lobby really worth it?
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At this width, you could almost just do a scissor stair, no? Say, 3 more feet?
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Why give the staircase great views and windows rather than living space? Is it not possible to bury this stair mid building?
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Counter argument: purging flavor complexity from time to time is good for maintaining reasonable appetite. Make that one dish that fills all needs that you can make on high repeat with little time and little prep. Too much restaurant food (ubiquitous in cities!) makes you too food focused.
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Interesting. The ability to combine the best of both cultures (given we donā€™t have a revolution in our past and given we have decedents of continental colonialists in Quebec,) should be to our advantage. Blending the best of the old and new world.
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Wouldnā€™t AI be a perfect tool for scanning this immense body of regulatory text - looking for inconsistencies for starters?
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Not to damage what was meant as punchline, but- what are examples of this? Decoupling from America sounds like a terrible approach right now, but Iā€™m all in favor of expansions by way of integrating the best of European products!
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Sunlight and ventilation is kinda the luxury though- not stairs (exercise!), not points (Whut?), not access, or fire egressā€¦ so I kinda like it.
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Fire regulation has stripped this project of all Canadian softwood lumber :( šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦
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The urban house (standard in Toronto) is this too: I want to feel like Iā€™m in virgin nature when I look out to the garden, but when I step outside my house, I want to be surrounded by amenities reflective of dense urbanism. Worst actor in the collective action problem, is the goal.
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The focus on preservation made more sense when the problem everyone was trying to solve wasnā€™t scarcity, but rather ā€˜blightā€™. That said, ā€˜blightā€™ as much as that is an ill defined phenomenon, was not a problem in 1999.
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For toronto perspectives, Thatā€™s my houseā€¦ ha.
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Iā€™d see if you could talk to @stephenjacobsmith.com Heā€™s read a lot of urban history, nyc in particular, and I feel like he might have an interesting perspective to addā€¦
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Incredibly hubristic of Jacobs to imagine her ā€˜communityā€™ came up with ideas that did not involve ā€œtrade offsā€. Jesus Christā€¦.
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Right- so would she have advocated for ā€œwhat the community wantsā€ (homogeneity no corner stores? Or ā€œwhat she wanted- (the mixed use of hudson st?) Did she recognize this cleft?
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Karin Templin could write this! @karintemplin.bsky.social ā™„ļø
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Do you think she would have had great conflicts today with the residents associations who, by and large, oppose retail in ā€˜residential zonesā€™?
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Did Jane Jacobs do this?
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Nytimes missing an opportunity to note New Yorkā€™s role in the development of the elevatorā€¦ but ok.
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Second most common language spoken in Toronto? Canadaā€™s official second language is French, but we have very few Francophones in TO, so just wondered which logic prevailed?
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I just zoomed in to see if the second language was mandarinā€¦.
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Thx for your patience with all my dumb questions!
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secure.toronto.ca/council/#/co...
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@anotherglassbox.bsky.social what happened to your petition which made front page of the Star? Were promises made? By who? Thoughts?
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Gord Perks, Brad Bradford, Jamaal Myers, Frances Nunziata, Michael Thompson and Josh Matlow. Would more than two of these people object to corner stores?
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If so - who is enthusiastic about greater mixed use? Ie who brought the energy to study this to begin with? Someone in planning? A planner?
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The housing committee lead by Perks you mean?
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Ok so maybe I conflated ā€˜plannersā€™ with ā€˜the committeeā€™ if so- who is the committee who is sending ā€˜please killā€™ smoke signals?
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Another dumb question but- Iā€™m serious. Who goes to planning school but is deeply freaked out about corner stores?
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Why would planning want this voted down?
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Sorry to be so dumb- but what do you mean!? Ironic excitement? Earnest enthusiasm?
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This camera changed my life- Best street style camera ever because no one recognized it as a camera. Had video too! I loved that thingā€¦ ā™„ļø youtu.be/l2IhbitjfBs?...
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Not a pdf but also this: www.centerforbuilding.org/blog/we-we-c...
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This may be too Toronto focused but perhaps this: environmentaldefence.ca/wp-content/u...
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Fire burns different in English, innit?
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Embrace the absurd was the GenX cope to broken homes, and a diminished cultural landscape where tv became babysitter. I like that you want to actually *fix this* - but points to SO-IL for that celebration of safety, haha.