Recently, another controversial debate started on the Facebook community group from my neighbourhood. This time was about bike lanes vs on-street parking. A good place to start My convictions are well known and I don’t need to state them here. Actually, I want to dig a little deeper. When it comes to what really matters, … More Real change requires real conversations… and bread
Road Happiness is a sense of well-being or joy induced while moving from point A to point B. If that sounds strange to you, chances are, you are more familiar with its counterpart. So, let’s start with the more known concept. Road Rage is basically an aggressive or angry behaviour exhibited by a driver of … More Have you ever experienced Road Happiness?
Supporting people in self-directed learning processes is to occupy a “between-place”. One of the polarities of this between-place says things like: “I’m with you”“Throw yourself, you have a net(work) here!”“I’ll help you if you need me to”“Besides me, there’s this and this person and this person next to you” At the same time, the other … More A between-place
I was one of the panellists of the Recovery 2020 event broadcasted live on August 13, 2020. This post contains the transcripts of my main contributions with links to many of the projects and ideas I mentioned during the panel. A huge thanks to Mohamed Hammoud for organizing, Paul Seale and Greg Picken for the … More Recovery 2020: Awake, Aware and Ready to Act
OUR PATH FORWARD Many people, cities and countries are realizing that going back to “business as usual” is not desirable. From the Great Realization video1 that went viral worldwide; to the Canada-wide networks of Caremongering2 groups and neighbourhood pods3; to residents and Cities that are displaying great creativity and ingenuity4. People are showing how they want to … More An Inclusive Economic Recovery for Canada
A few months ago, I started a practice called Probing Utopia with a group of friends. In it, we imagine a future where things are a little different from today – a future that all of us would like to live in. The proposal wasn’t to discuss action plans or the steps we need to … More The Power of Collective Imagination
I hope you are healthy and safe. I guess we all realize by now that this crisis is more than just a new disease. It is affecting work, school, social relationships and many other things. Its impacts will extend beyond the sef-isolation period. I think Chris Mackie, our Chief Medical Officer from the Health Unit … More An Open letter to my OEV neighbours
Three brothers were playing in their backyard where there was a garden and a dog. Their mother loved the garden very much. It had flowers in many different colours, shapes, and smells. It also had all sorts of vegetables. It was a garden that provided nurture for the body and for the soul. The dog … More Three brothers
It’s been a few years since the global pandemic. Everything is back to normal now. Well… “back” is not the right word. It is a new normal. I’m still biking to work like I always did, but I hardly have any space left with so many cyclists in the road. Even with the ever-expanding cycling … More A soft reset for humankind
Last Thursday – Feb 13, 2020 – the City held another public participation meeting. This time around, I decided to share my thoughts about our city. It was a bit personal and I was feeling a little hesitant but I did anyway. I’m glad I did it. I got so much positive feedback that I … More The city we want and the city we have
