Dystopian Dockwalls

Many of Toronto’s dockwalls and breakwaters are falling down! Luckily, there’s a plan to fix them eventually.

At our Speaker Series event on September 30, 2025, Merrilees Willemse of the Waterfront Secretariat and Jennifer Ogrodnick of Create TO gave a great talk on the City’s new process to fix these crumbing and sometimes dangerous structures, which in some cases are over a century old. Their slide decks are here and here.

Latest posts

Recommending Sandford Borins' excellent blog post on the lessons for us today from the Pickering Airport debate and analysis in the 1970s:

In 1972, it was clearly understood that air traffic in Toronto was increasing, and it would be accommodated at either Pearson or Pickering. Both were seen as having a regional economic impact, in that Pearson would contribute to growth on the west side of Toronto, while establishing an airport at Pickering would shift some growth to the east of the city. Overall economic activity in the GTA would be the same whether Pearson was expanded or a new airport built at Pickering. This is different from the Toronto Port Authority and Ford Government refusing to acknowledge that, if Billy Bishop is not expanded, traffic will be accommodated at Pearson, and overall economic activity will be the same.

Click here to read "We Were Much Smarter 50 Years Ago"

Share this post

Sign up for updates

Email: