Toronto Residents Organization
Research, Education, Analysis and Tools
Senior Editor This selection of photographs by Peter MacCallum documenting Weston Road is published in conjunction with Spacing’s new issue themed around main streets. In July, 2020, after searching in vain for new subjects to photograph in my Queen and Spadina neighbourhood, I decided to travel by TTC to a less popular part of Toronto, Weston Road north of … Read more
By SHANE DINGMAN | PUBLISHED DECEMBER 9, 2020 | The entire purpose of Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment is to make exceptions to the restrictive zoning rules that govern what gets built where in the city. But a recent decision highlights how what we accept, or deny, can affect housing affordability and inequality. On Dec. 2, … Read more
By Ashley Salvador | December 8, 2020 | Here’s the understatement of the year: the pandemic has been brutal—absolutely brutal—for small businesses and local economies. Depending on who’s doing the estimating, somewhere between 40% and 85% of restaurants won’t survive the winter. Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern warned back in August of a restaurant “extinction event.” … Read more
By Karen Longwell | December 5, 2020 Toronto is on track to have about 100 new laneway houses this year and the newest builds are a creative way to increase rental housing options in the city. A few years ago, Toronto councillor and deputy mayor Ana Bailão, along with several other councillors, advocated changing the city’s … Read more
Better Dwelling | DECEMBER 5, 2020 | Toronto may finally start taxing vacant homes. City of Toronto staff recommended a vacant home tax to council this week. The tax would place a penalty on those that use residential property in the City for less than half the year. By doing so, the City hopes to … Read more
Better Dwelling | NOVEMBER 25, 2020 | Greater Toronto real estate is on fire… just not condo apartments, which is seeing a lot of sellers. Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) data shows condo apartment prices slid for a fifth month in October. Condo sales are fairly in line with last year’s numbers, except in the city. … Read more
As COVID creates urgency around homelessness, frontline workers say the affordable housing solutions fail to address the root causes
Nathan Torgelson, Director | City of Seattle | Sept. 20, 2020 | An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a separate living space within a house or on the same property as an existing house. These units are not legal unless they have been established through a permit process. A legally permitted unit in the home … Read more
By Heather Mallick | Star Columnist | Sept. 19, 2020 | What can be done about Toronto NIMBYs, angry at being caught up in an era that demands overwhelming change in how humans live and nest? I suspect there is a little NIMBY in all of us, including me. Maybe people can’t live together. Maybe … Read more
JOSH GORDON | PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 | If you follow the housing debates in Toronto and Vancouver, you’ll have undoubtedly heard the claim that the affordability challenges facing both cities are the result of supply problems. Common complaints include a lack of new housing, burdensome regulation and flawed zoning. This “supply narrative” has been … Read more