Toronto striving for green spaces in a growing city.
Toronto Star Lauren Pelley
April 12, 2015
Excerpt:"Michelle Senayah, co-founder of laneway revitalization effort The Laneway Project, says with around 100,000 people coming to Toronto every year, most people don’t have access to their own outdoor space. It’s hard to acquire new land for parks and squares, but we have a massive untapped resource in the city,” she says, referring to the city’s laneways, which total more than 250 acres of space, and have potential to be beautified and used as places for kids to play and residents to gather." + Read More
How one small idea could bring new life to Toronto’s back alleys
Globe & Mail Marcus Gee
March 20, 2015
Excerpt:"Its organizers have set out to change the city’s relationship to its back lanes. That relationship has always been distant. Most people don’t think much about the lanes out behind their garages or alongside their apartment buildings. As a result, back lanes usually have a neglected, shabby look that can discourage people from using them as anything but means of entry and exit."
Laneways as shared spaces
Spacing Dylan Reid
November 25, 2014
Excerpt:"While we often focus on street art and cool little houses when we talk about laneways, thinking of them as shared streets reminds us of their core purpose, which is transportation and circulation."
5 ways Toronto could improve its laneway spaces
BlogTO Chris Bateman
November 27, 2014
Excerpt:"There are 250 kilometres of laneways in Toronto and almost all of them are underused, according to a non-profit that's trying to tap the potential of the city's back streets. Rather than using alleys for garbage collection and car storage, laneways could be transformed into bicycle thoroughfares, gathering places, markets, miniature strips of bars and cafes, even residential neighbourhoods with just a few tweaks of the rules, they say."
The Toronto Laneway Image featured on this page is courtesy of Brendan Rice a University of Toronto Student (Environmental & Urban Studies) who snapped this on his way home. @brendanric3