Phil
@philmarfisi.bsky.social
Sidewalk enthusiast. Other interests: public policy, housing, urbanism, Waterloo Region, Ontario politics, #cdnpoli, Star Trek, music, news media, international relations, and the Oxford comma. Democracy is good, actually.
People who aren't from Waterloo Region may not be as familiar with Mike, so some local context: I have not witnessed a politician locally who has near universal, cross-partisan appeal at the level he does. If there is anyone who can make the GPC relevant in the national conversation, it's Mike.
Mike Morrice@morricemike.bsky.social · 6h agoLet’s build a future that works for all of us. Join in at mikeforleader.ca
Raises property values, brings in more tax revenue*, lowers heating costs, and makes the streets better it’s insane that there isn’t a Maximum Tree department at every city hall
All major local municipalities (including Guelph and Waterloo's regional government) subsidize a Backyard Tree Planting Program thru Reep Green Solutions that includes onsite consultation with an arborist and delivery and planting. Something we should consider giving more operational funding to!
Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · 8h agoPlanting trees in cities saves lives. A new study in Chicago estimates that planting 14,000 trees per year to increase shade would save 104 lives annually Conversely, eliminating urban trees increases deaths from heat agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
There are entire countries powered by nothing more than various combinations of water, wind, and the sun, at scales and prices the majority of humanity would have thought unfathomable several decades ago.
Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 21h agoFood, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.
I would have more time for the NDP's criticism if they would actually support giving the CAF the resources it needs, instead of whining that the organization they want to defund isn't doing everything they want it too. www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...
Everyone wants to fit this story into a data centre panic narrative so badly, it’s embarrassing. There’s no evidence of any chemical leaks, but why let that get in the way of ~lingering questions~
Waterloo Region Record@therecord.com · yesterdayQuestions linger about substance that leaked from Cambridge data centre www.therecord.com/news/waterlo...
So is the "it was actually a bacterial bloom in a stagnant pond" follow-up going to get as much play as the initial "unknown chemical leak from a data centre" story
Investigation into Cambridge stormwater spill shows 'no evidence of contaminants of concern,' province says | CBC News
The province's Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks said initial samples taken from a stormwater pond in Cambridge, where crews have been investigating an "odorous, white milky substance," ...
cbc.ca
This a well documented global problem and in Ontario, it can serve as a basis for good questions to ask your municipal council nominees this fall: -what are their visions for public spaces? Are they inclusive of the whole city? -how would they tackle equity issues in public space availability? 🧵
America is running out of places to hang out as movie theaters, bars, diners and bowling alleys drop to all-time low | Fortune
Chronic isolation has the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
fortune.com
Kensington Market is popular because it provides a form of urbanism that people love to travel to, but don't want in their own communities. Want to protect beloved neighbourhoods from becoming mini-Disneylands? Disperse demand by legalizing and creating more mixed-use walkable neighbourhoods.
Airbnb says Kensington Market is one of Canada's trendiest neighbourhoods. The people who live there aren't so sure
As Airbnb declares the neighbourhood one of Canada’s trendiest spots, a shopkeeper, a host and a housing advocate debate what’s at stake.
thestar.com
The development along the ION line in KW has probably had similar effects by now, and we need to get better at explaining how our urban infill is helping to subsidize better services for our other towns/city, who often tend to look at LRT as a "service we pay for but don't get".
Jacob Loo Dawang@jacobdawang.com · yesterday🧵 NEW POST: Edmonton’s $15M infill property tax dividend Matching permits to assessment data shows that small-scale infill from just 2024-26 will grow the tax base by $1.8B, and revenues by $15M. That's equivalent to a 0.7% property tax rate increase! #yegcc www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/pr...
This is unfortunate, but it's also true that we haven't participated much in peacekeeping missions like we did up until the late 20th century, and it's probably time we reckon with the fact that it isn't a truly representative part of our culture anymore in the way that people think it is.
Canada cuts its UN peacekeeping forces as it tilts to Europe and Indo-Pacific
After the planned cuts, Canada will rank about 100th in contributions to UN missions
theglobeandmail.com
May I introduce interested parties to the #cdnpoli starter pack? Link here: go.bsky.app/LBk3GdH
Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · 2d agoI want Bluesky to expand so there are more Canadians.
this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d agoIs everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.
A sizeable group of NIMBYs in Waterloo doesn't want to see up to a small midrise apartment building on land the city bought for affordable housing in Lincoln Heights. Anyways, here's a 6 storey building on a side street in a nearby neighbourhood that has, shockingly, not caused the sky to fall.
Notice the lack of a thousand caveats the left typically loves to have with the first phrase
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 2d agoWe can't solve a housing crisis without building more housing. Today we broke ground on the Casanova Residence, which will soon be nearly 100 affordable and supportive homes with on-site services for New Yorkers. Every new home is a step toward a City that everyone can afford.
Folks I won’t tell you not to feel your feelings, but this is rage bait. He’s talking about expanding beyond politics into things like live sports.
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
…you’ll never be able to tax, or price, or regulate suburbia out of existence. Some of it will always be McMansion trash and that’s just a reality. But you can make at least 50% of suburbia radically better (and highly desirable tbh) if you accept people love the idea and it isn’t going anywhere.
The sooner we can accept this, the sooner we can move on to improving quality of life in suburbs that make active transportation and walkability a bit easier. We may only see incremental upgrades in our lifetimes - retrofitting sprawl is messy - but that doesn't mean we can't make improvements.
Johnny “We have the meats” Renton@johnnyrenton.bsky.social · 2d agoThis is something a lot of urbanists, especially those that came up in the late 90’s to late 00’s, fall to grasp when it comes to the suburbs. There is a reason people like suburbia and home ownership, and it’s not all bad reasons. This is especially true is they remember cities in the 50s or 60s…
It’s great we have some weekend trains now but we should have the Kitchener line double tracked so these trains can go back and forth between Kitchener and Toronto all day long every hour including weekends and holidays
If they put me in charge of ION light rail I would call every bus terminal station a connectION
In the very near future, no one will believe we had a policy this good. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...
End of carbon tax rebates a financial hit for Canada’s poorest, research shows
Rebates were tax-free payments that compensated consumers for the cost of carbon taxes
theglobeandmail.com
I will worry about how just the FHSA is right after our comfortably housed chattering classes advocate for ending capital gains on their primary residences. The likelihood that type of introspection happens en masse is less than zero.
They wanted to help first-time homebuyers. Instead, Canada created a $2-billion loophole for the rich
Canada’s FHSA accounts, writes Heather Scoffield, have become de facto tax shelters for high-income Canadians, all while fuelling demand for homes at a time when supply is key to stability.
thestar.com
Average National Post editorial board op-ed when they run out of ideas:
Also how soon until Mamdani gets attacked by the online left for gentrifying neighbourhoods with better bus service
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 4d agoI avoid the term “gentrification” when talking about housing affordability because it mostly describes *how people feel* about neighborhood change, not the change itself. For example, this author talks about how containerized trash pickup will “gentrify” NYC’s streets by replacing parked cars:
Neoliberalism is probably the other most useless term in urbanism, or honestly political discourse generally. It's become a catch-all phrase for anything that involves markets since the late 20th century, and its overuse in the humanities, in particular, is just a self-parody by this point.
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 4d agoI avoid the term “gentrification” when talking about housing affordability because it mostly describes *how people feel* about neighborhood change, not the change itself. For example, this author talks about how containerized trash pickup will “gentrify” NYC’s streets by replacing parked cars:
The United States has 56 MSAs of 1 million plus....formal city boundaries probably aren't the greatest measure of urban populations.
Brilliant Maps@brilliantmaps.bsky.social · 5d agoHow Many Cities Over 1 Million People Does Each Country Have? Sort of crazy that Canada and Australia have more than the UK. Or that Russia has more than the US. Full list: brilliantmaps.com/cities-ov...
“Despite Canada’s long-standing, if complicated, friendship with Cuba, we have done vanishingly little to help the Cuban people withstand Trump’s aggression. If we are serious about reforging a new global order from the fires that Trump keeps starting, Cuba is as good a place as any to start.”
Linda McQuaig@lindamcquaig.bsky.social · 4d agoCanada should show the same guts as Spain, Brazil & Mexico in standing up to Trump as he tightens the noose around Cuba, starving the Cuban people. Good piece by @justinling.ca www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
