It’s hard to live in the city

When I’m not moonlighting as a millionaire-playboy transit enthusiast, I have a day job as a mild-mannered policy analyst.  Sometimes, however, my alter egos overlap and I find some pretty cool stuff.

I came across this research from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Services when I attended a presentation by one of the authors, Dr. Richard Glazier.  The study utilizes a whole whack of data, ranging from Stats Can to City of Toronto GIS data.  It looks at diabetes prevalence across Toronto, and adds a whole bunch of fun map layers.

Most interesting is the links that are drawn between diabetes prevalence and how the urban form contributes to it.  The authors developed a measure termed the “Activity Friendly Index (AFI).”  Basically it combines a number of indicators (crime rates, income levels, car dependency, land use) which can be used to rate an area on how easy it is to be healthy.

The result? The lower the AFI score, the worse health problems an area will have.  Check out some of these maps.

[NOTE: All images from Glazier RH, Booth GL, Gozdyra P, Creatore MI, Tynan, M, editors. Neighbourhood Environments and Resources for Healthy Living—A Focus on Diabetes in Toronto: ICES Atlas. Toronto: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; 2007]

Here is what the diabetes rates in Toronto look like (click for larger version of all images):

Compare this to the socioeconomic status of neighbourhoods.  Notice any trends yet?

Note that dark = rich

Next let’s look at how people in these areas get around, first by TTC trips per person:

Daily TTC trips per person

And by walking or biking:

Trips by walking or bicycling

So if we are talking active transportation, it is clearly concentrated in the core of city and along subway lines.

And how hard is it for people with the highest rates of diabetes to access a park or get healthy food?  There’s a map for that:

Modeled walking time to a park

Modeled TTC commute time to healthy food

The urban form also plays an important role in maintaining health.  Check out this comparison of year of construction to auto dependency.  As development patterns shift towards car dependency post 1940’s, it’s fascinating (and scary) to tie it back to the previous maps:

Year of Construction

Average number of vehicles per household

And finally, the compiled AFI for Toronto:

Activity Friendly Index

So what’s the point of all these maps?  There are very clear correlations between the level of activity a person engages in and their rates of diabetes.  More importantly, there are a host of factors that contribute to how active a person can be, including the built environment, availability of mass transit, walkable neighbourhoods and access to affordable, healthy food.

Each one of these factors on their own is enough to cause significant changes in health; taken together you can see how they can change the health of hundreds of thousands of people.

A Weekend of Canadian Music

I had a full plate of Canadian music this weekend in Toronto.  Friday night I was lucky enough to check out my second Rural Alberta Advantage show, and Saturday I was able to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert for the first time.

It was nice seeing both bands within 24 hours of each other.  Despite over 50 years of seperation between RAA and Gordie, the common themes of Canadian place and identity were present in both concerts:  “Alberta Bound” and  “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” for Gordie and “The Ballad of the RAA” and “Frank, AB” for RAA.

I’m no music critic, but I can tell you that I enjoyed both shows.  The RAA show Friday was at Lee’s Palace and was jammed.  The band seemed a little surprised at the crowd and people were lining up out the door to listen.  It was a hot, sweaty mess and I enjoyed it all.  But the best part of the evening came after the show.  As you can see below, I totally scored a photo op with Amy Cole (vocals, keys, percussion).  However, if it was up to me I would have just stared wistfully as she walked by.  Luckily, my good friend RB chased her down and forced her to stand next to a overly geeked and sweaty me.

The single greatest moment in my life (next to meeting my wife)

Sorry for the crappy crop, there was a cowboy hat in every freakin' shot

Saturday night brought me, my wife and family to Massey Hall.  This was the first time I’d been there.  Knee breaking small seats notwithstanding, it’s a beautiful venue and a perfect space to check a Canadian music legend.  I’d been warned that his voice was really starting to show its age, and in a couple spots I could tell, especially during “If You Could Read My Mind.”  That said, it IS Gordon Lightfoot, after all, so he still brought it.  “Sundown” was especially strong and my personal favourite from the night.  Well, that and his kick-ass red velvet jacket he wore for the first set.  I would totally rock that if I could.

I need that jacket.

2nd act and still going strong.

So a terrific weekend for music, and just one more reason I love living where I do.  Now if I could just get Amy Cole and my wife onto polygamy…

Sue Ann Levy: Bloated and Mismanaged

Just wanted to relay a fun little back and forth on Twitter today involving Sue Ann Levy.  For those who don’t know her, Sue…Ann is a columnist for the Toronto Sun who ostensibly monitors the City Hall beat.  Or, to quote her delightful witticism, “Socialist Silly Hall”.  Do you see what she does there?  You see, Silly Hall is a lot like City Hall, and Socialist is, well, the opposite of this conservative ink slinger.  For our U.S. viewers, imagine Glenn Beck with a little less hysterics, the same level of hyperbole and lack of journalistic integrity, and arguably worse hair.

In any case, I’ve about had it with people in Toronto bemoaning the recent TTC fare increase (for a solid analysis of this increase check out Steve Munro’s blog).  Sue Ann, of course, had to weigh in via her Twitter account:

 

 

 

 

 

Sliding the Past into the Future

Came across this terrific slide show (in more ways than one, waaah wah) posted on the NY Times examining the fall of the Berlin Wall.  First time I’d seen a technique like this presented so elegantly.  Check it out, I guarantee you’ll get hooked on sliding the pictures back and forth. (As an aside, I can’t figure out if photographers were commissioned to recreate the old pictures, or if they are stock photos photo-shopped to match – anyone know?)

Anyway, as cool as this is, the real reason this grabbed my attention was the perspective it offered on both the loss of older buildings in a city, but more importantly the reuse of older buildings.  Some are restored, some are integrated into newer buildings.  Before/after photo comparisons aren’t anything new, but the ability to seamlessly layer the pictures in this way provides a terrific opportunity to examine what happened to the buildings in the photographs.

Toronto has design lessons to teach?

Don’t you just love when you come up with a timely post that is validated by someone else?

Benjamin Forgey (all the smart people are named Ben) had a nice piece in the Washington Business Journal recounting his recent visit to Toronto and his impressions of the AGO, ROM and OCAD, and what lessons Washington D.C. planners can take.

His take on the AGO is especially nice, and sums up what I tried to express in my previous post by saying the AGO makes me “happy”.  He just does it a bit more elegantly.

Check out the article here, it’s worth a read.

Thanks go to Urban Toronto contributor yyzer for the tip.

Architecture and Anger

Interesting piece from Christopher Hume yesterday examining Alain de Botton’s new book The Architecture of Happiness.  The basic idea is that architecture has the power to influence our emotions positively or negatively (or in Toronto’s case, not at all).  De Botton points to the shift towards modernism in the 20th century, the advent of the automobile, and the decline of female influences in architecture as examples of where missteps occurred.

The result? Architects who engage in “endless ‘professional posturing’ and the absence of beauty as a goal of architecture.”  We are left with architecture that rarely makes our spirits soar, often angers us and typically leaves us unimpressed.  Think of your typical reaction to this scenario: a mid-rise historical skyscraper is slated for demolition; the replacement, a towering glass cube bereft of character, architectural details and, yes, emotion.  I tend to experience equal amounts of despair and resignation when this scene plays out, as it does many times in a city such as Toronto.

Rules of the Road – or lack thereof

It is good to be back.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been motivated to take keyboard in hand once again thanks to a random incident a couple of weeks ago.  Let me set the stage.

So, November 3 was a cool and blustery Tuesday.  I had the day off work and decided to go for a bike ride.  I headed south-east from Yonge and Eglinton to Pape and Danforth, just for kicks.  For anyone who hasn’t ridden in Toronto, any time you are heading south it is all downhill.  Conversly, the way home can be a major pain.

So, on the way back home I’m headed uphill with a nasty headwind to boot.  As I’m chugging along a gentleman in a silver PT Cruiser slows down next to me, lowers his window and shouts, “Hey buddy, there’s no bike lane here!”

Ben Co. is dead. Long live Ben Co.

That’s right, folks. After an extremely extended break I have finally found my muse. All thanks to a jerk in a PT Cruiser (more on that in a while).

In any case, for anyone still out there, Ben Co. will be going through a metamorphoses. We’ll be cocooning for a little bit while we update the site and develop some new material, but will emerge as a glorious, focused, slightly (very slightly) more mature site: Third Rail Repository.

So, dust off that RSS feed and get ready for some new tasty bits from your favourite contributors.