Electric Cities

Enabling missing middle housing as an as-of-right housing type in low-rise residential neighbourhoods has become a hot topic in recent months as a possible solution to address the housing affordability crisis. And it is has gained the support of provincial policy makers and industry representatives. But not everyone is fully on board, particularly many local residential ratepayer associations. For this episode, Jeremy spoke with Cathie MacDonald, co-chair of FONTRA, a prominent and well-organized not-for-profit organization that represents 35 ratepayer association from across midtown Toronto. Cathie shares her views on missing middle, ‘nimbyism’, and her concerns with many of the recommendations proposed in the Province’s Housing Affordability Task Force report.

In this first of a series of episodes on the housing affordability crisis, Jeremy spoke with Frank Magliocco, National Real Estate Leader at PWC Canada. Frank provided an excellent overview of the key factors contributing to the crisis, along with suggested ideas and related challenges to address the problem. The podcast was recorded in November 2021, shortly after ULI and PWC released their Emerging Trends in Real Estate report.

Each year, the prestigious ULI Hines Student Competition attracts graduate student teams from all over North America to tackle complex urban design and development challenges. This year’s competition was won by a team of 5 graduate students from 3 Toronto universities, the first time the annual competition has been won by a team outside the United States. Jeremy sat down with the 5 graduate students and their 2 academic supervisors to learn more about this demanding competition, their fabulous submission, and what it took to capture the grand prize of $50,000 USD. His 5 student guests were Frances Grout-Brown (Ryerson), Leorah Klein (Ryerson), Ruotian Tan (University of Toronto), Chenyi Xu (University of Toronto), and Yanlin Zhou (York University). Professors Steven Webber and Victor Perez-Amado, both from Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, also joined the discussion.

With the necessity to avoid crowds and indoor gatherings of any kind due to the COVID-19 pandemic, arts and culture in Toronto has been hit particularly hard. Yet despite the challenges, this sector has found ways to quickly adapt and deliver programs that are innovative and inspiring, and in some cases even broadened its appeal to larger audiences. On January 7, 2021, Jeremy chatted with Celia Smith, the newly appointed CEO for Luminato Festival Toronto, to talk about the impacts of the pandemic on Toronto’s arts and culture scene and her optimistic outlook for the industry’s future.

During these pandemic times the TTC is dealing with a dramatic drop in ridership, particularly along its once busy subway routes. This has imposed enormous fiscal strain and forced the TTC to quickly re-adjust to our new reality. On October 30th, 2020, Jeremy spoke with Stuart Green, the TTC’s chief spokesperson, to learn more about the pandemic’s impact on the TTC and what they are doing to respond.

The pandemic may have beaten our city down, but it has had the opposite effect on cycling. In recent months cyclists have surged onto Toronto bike routes and many urbanists are applauding the addition of new cycling infrastructure hastily being added across the city. Could this mark the beginning of an emboldened era for Toronto city cycling? On July 31st, 2020, Jeremy interviewed Barbara Gray, the City of Toronto’s General Manager of Transportation to find out and learn more about Toronto’s plans for its cycling infrastructure and the impacts experienced as a result of the pandemic.

Before the pandemic hit, considerable shifts in the retail market were already taking place with the rapid rise of e-commerce and declining foot traffic to traditional brick and mortar retail. With the pandemic now upon us, those impacts have been accelerated as both large and small retail destinations struggle to survive and adapt to the new world of physical distancing. On May 29th, 2020, Jeremy interviewed Jamie Tate, founder and president of Tate Economic Research, to talk about the pandemic’s impacts on the retail market and the ways in which the industry is responding.

Lisa Bate, a global sustainability lead and principal with Toronto’s B+H Architects, joins Jeremy to discuss B+H’s ability to adapt under the global impact of COVID-19. They also discuss the correlation between global health, resilience and the environment; Lisa’s perspectives on working abroad; notable sustainable building design projects; and some final thoughts on inspiring women in architecture.

Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management is a multi-billion dollar juggernaut, with global investments in real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy and private equity. Despite a portfolio of mega-sized investments across the globe, Brookfield is showing increasing interest in the Greater Toronto real estate market, including a new partnership with InterRent REIT and CLV Group to develop a huge multi-family, mixed-use development on the GO Transit Rail lands in Burlington, Ontario. Jeremy sits down with Ashley Lawrence, Managing Director and Head of the company’s Canadian real estate division to talk about Brookfield’s real estate activity both abroad and closer to home.

As the real estate investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension plans, Oxford Properties Group is one of the world’s premier real estate investment, development and management companies. They manage over $60 billion worth of real estate assets, with a global portfolio spanning over 100 million square feet in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the recent opening of Hudson Yards in New York, the largest private real estate development in the United States. In this episode, Jeremy interviews Michael Turner about the company, its Toronto roots, and the phenomenal scale of projects it currently manages abroad and closer to home.

This podcast is a ‘welcome mat’ for visitors coming to Toronto, eager to learn what makes this city tick and why it continues to be one of the fastest growing urban regions in North America. Visitors to Toronto include the thousands of ULI members that will be descending on our city from other parts of North America, Europe and Asia to attend the ULI Spring Meeting later this year, from May 12-14, 2020. Jeremy sits down with Joe Berridge – one of the most respected registered professional planners among Toronto’s planning and development community. A partner with Urban Strategies, Joe has over 40 years’ experience providing advice to an extensive range of government and private sector clients, in Toronto, across Canada and in an impressive number of cities around the world.

After the recently elected Ontario PC party slashed the number of City of Toronto councilors from 47 to 25 in the 2018 municipal election, a lot of questions were raised about the current state of municipal governance in Ontario and the municipality’s ability for self-determination. In this episode Jeremy sits down with Prof. Zachary Taylor to explore the complexities and challenges of municipal governance in Ontario, how it compares with that of the United States, and some alternative ideas being raised to give cities, particularly the City of Toronto, the opportunity for greater autonomy. Professor Zachary Taylor is an assistant professor of political science and director of the Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance at the University of Western Ontario. He is also author of a new book entitled: “Shaping the Metropolis – Institutions and Urbanization in the United States and Canada”.

Canada’s aging population hit a major milestone in 2017, where for the first time in Canada’s history, the number of seniors exceeded the number of school-aged children. And it is projected that by 2041, seniors will comprise roughly one quarter of the country’s population. Jeremy sits down with Gil Penalosa, founder and Chair of 8 80 Cities, and President of Gil Penalosa & Associates, to talk about this significant demographic shift and the challenges of designing our cities and communities for an aging population.