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Today while waiting for the bus, four very happy and well-dressed (albeit casually) people in their 30's ran up to me. Two were holding colourful recorders (i.e., the instruments), one was holding a kazoo and one was holding a list. They explained that they were involved in an amazing race type of event for Corporate Challenge (local businesses compete against each other in a variety of games for points)...

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While flying back from Omaha through Minneapolis on Friday night, my connecting flight to Edmonton was cancelled and I was rebooked for the first available flight on Saturday morning. Many people would be frustrated at the idea of being stuck in a foreign city overnight, but my first thought was: I wonder if there will be any opportunity for me to see the city?...

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When you fly to a new city, does it feel good to be there? Does it feel like you have arrived somewhere special? Is there anything positive which greets you?

An airport is a very common way for people to be initially introduced to your city, and it provides a great opportunity to say "Welcome" to visitors (and "Welcome home" to your local citizens)...

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Choices, if they are legitimate, and provide some reason or incentive to do the “right” thing or the “sustainable” thing, are great. However many times the general public is offered a rather false choice…

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Planners and engineers often tend to think in terms of blocks and squares and 90 degree angles, but it doesn’t always have to be this way...

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Let's say you are reviewing some planning documents for a particular quadrant of your city. You're new on the job (though even if you've been on the job a while, this will be valuable), and you have some questions. Which approved plans should you be basing your decisions on? Where has precedent been set? Has an issue you are being asked to report on been addressed before?...

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As much as we would like to be, we can’t be everywhere at the same time. Often there are many good conferences targeting the same audiences going on at the same time, and we have to make some tough choices about where to go and why...

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As reported by Reuters, we are witnessing the "biggest environmental catastrophe" in U.S. history. For almost 45 days now, many millions of gallons of crude oil have been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, little appears to be changing. One would expect to see someone axed, a major process changed, something…

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I remember regularly taking the train in my university days. On early morning and late evening trips the staff on board would warn me that although they would do their best to wake me up at my destination, they had a whole train to look after and would not be responsible if I missed my stop. Now the same thing appears to be happening on airplanes...

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Kudos to David Hulchanski and Emily Paradis from the University of Toronto Cities Centre, and others who are contributing to a Charter challenge on the right to housing, arguing that homelessness violates human rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms...

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