Moving forward
How we move forward individually on our feet, and collectively in a city, with bumps along the way.
January-February 2023
The theme that emerged for this newsletter is about moving forward, both literally and metaphorically. Walking on two feet is in some ways the characteristic that makes humanity unique, and it’s also the way we can most immediately experience what humanity has built. But it’s not enough for how we have grown – we now also rely on mechanical transportation, like subways, bikes, and cars. And there are bumps along the way – literally on our roads, and metaphorically as we make additions to increasingly complicated cities.
The Sneak Peek
Toronto’s new subway line, the Ontario Line, is going to be dug right under the end of the block we live on. It’s going to mean years of construction, with noise, blocked sidewalks, rerouted cycling, and detoured driving. And after that, it’s going to mean big changes to the neighbourhood we’ve grown used to, with major developments on our main street that will displace useful shops and transform the skyline.
But it’s a subway line that has been talked about in one form or another for over a century and will bring better transit to tens of thousands of people, while the new buildings will provide much-needed transit-oriented housing. Navigating the tension between our individual good and the good of the many is intrinsic to living in crowded cities.
Even once this new subway was underway, the plans changed considerably (thanks to Doug Ford), and information about the line has come out in dribs and drabs, in controversies and vague official announcements. That’s why we at Spacing decided to dedicate the cover section of our next issue to a deep dive into the first completely new extended subway line (not a stubway, not an extension, not an LRT) in Toronto since the Bloor-Danforth line in the 1960s. It’s a huge undertaking, and deserves a focus. Look out for the new issue sometime in March.
The choreographed chaos of construction, meanwhile, is beautifully captured by photographer Steven Evans in the issue’s Big Pic. (This is of a less controversial but no less ambitious project – the creation of a new outlet for the Don River in the Port Lands.)
The Tidbit
The big toe is, apparently, essential to humanity. In Matthew Beaumont’s book The Walker, he describes how the big toe is what sustains about 40% of our body weight and gives the propulsive force we need for our unique bipedal motion – which is why it’s proportionately bigger than in any other animal. And walking on two feet, many argue, was a basic requirement for us being able to develop our tool-making hands and big brains.
As a dedicated walker and advocate for pedestrians, it’s delightful to think that our intellectual and social accomplishments are dependent on such a humble, grounded part of our anatomy. We admire our heads, but they’re only that way thanks to our feet. It means one of my favourite activities, talking while walking, is perhaps the quintessential expression of being human.
What’s Up
As a cyclist and pedestrian, I’d been aware of the deteriorating state of Toronto’s roads for a long time. But getting a car a few years ago really brought that problem into focus – literally, as I could see the relentless potholes ahead of me just before they jolted my car as I drove over them. So when I read that this year’s City of Toronto budget was deliberately planning for streets to deteriorate even further, I thought about what we could do about it. A partial solution is in the City’s power – a vehicle registration tax that could be dedicated to road maintenance (which would help cyclists, walker, and bus riders too). I wrote about this idea on Spacing Toronto.
Quotable
“Walking makes me realize what it means to get somewhere.”
– Melanie Vogel
This insight is from someone who walked across Canada, but I think it’s equally true of simply walking in the city. When I lived in England a long time ago, I visited London fairly regularly. Staying with family friends in the suburbs, or visiting for a day, at first I mostly used the Underground to go to different central destinations, popping up in them and then going back into the subway. Only when I started to walk around did I realize that a lot of those destinations were actually close to each other (which isn’t obvious from the stylized Underground map) and really get a sense of how the city was knitted together.
Later, I heard from a London transportation planner that they had started encouraging commuters to get out and walk for short transfers, which was often actually faster than going to a different subway line. Even Londoners had the same disorientation as I had as a visitor when they didn’t walk around.
That quote is about long distances, but I think it can also apply to realizing places within the city are more connected than you might think.
Pic Pick
Here’s a nice example of what we notice while walking. I’ve passed by this location on Davenport Road near Yonge many times – walking, cycling, driving – and somehow, until a recent walk, never noticed this amazing treehouse and the passageway beside it. It was remarkable to discover such an edifice in the heart of the city. And it’s a good thing I did see it now – once I walked through the passageway, I saw one of those “development is planned” signs at the front of the property, for a new building. Some things are lost as others are gained.
The Catch-Up
A year ago, in my first newsletter of 2022, I wrote about a fascinating book I was copyediting, Making Worlds: Global Invention in the Early Modern Period. It featured the question “Is cheese rational?” and a ballet about tobacco, among other delights. It’s great to see that the book has just been published!
The Shout-Out
I recently came across a New Yorker article that argued that the civil rights, musical, feminist, and other “youth” revolutions of the 1960s were not actually led by the Baby Boomers, who were mostly still teenagers, but rather by the generations before, notably the “silent generation” (which, it seems, was actually pretty loud in the end).
It got me thinking, because my parents fit into this argument – they were part of the silent generation born in the 1930s, and in the 1960s they were both involved as young people in their late 20s and early 30s in the vanguard of the changes in 1960s Canada (which were rather more sedate than in the US).
But, from my parent’s experience, I would say that the dismissal of the Baby Boomers is misleading. While the leadership might have been born earlier, the 60s movements were energized and inspired by the younger generation born after the war, who listened to the music, attended the rallies, and took up the causes as they reached adulthood. A movement needs supporters as well as leaders.
My parents recognized this, and in 1969 they co-edited a textbook, Student Power and the Canadian Campus, that sought to capture the role of youth in the decade’s transformations. In one of those delightful circles that life brings, my mother-in-law, herself a Baby Boomer, recently took a course at Dalhousie University on “Youth Culture in Canada, 1950s-70s,” and read my parents’ book as part of her research!