Damien Moule
@damienmoule.bsky.social
Toronto municipal policy wonk, engineer, urbanist, father.
Consider donating to effective charities: https://www.givewell.org/
Consider donating to effective charities: https://www.givewell.org/
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Damien Moule
@damienmoule.bsky.social
· Nov 11
Hello to everyone who found me from a starter pack. For those who don't me, I write (mostly) about housing, urbanism, and Toronto municipal government policy. Here's a thread of some of my longer form writing over the last two years.
A monstrous parallel for him to draw clearly. But "Patrick Condon thinks buildings have the moral standing of people" would explain a lot actually.
one of the most prominent voices in Vancouver's housing discourse
November 28, 2025 at 12:05 PM
A monstrous parallel for him to draw clearly. But "Patrick Condon thinks buildings have the moral standing of people" would explain a lot actually.
Reposted by Damien Moule
one of the most prominent voices in Vancouver's housing discourse
November 28, 2025 at 2:38 AM
one of the most prominent voices in Vancouver's housing discourse
So on this day a few years ago we were headed into the hospital for my daughter to be born. It was snowing. Today I went out walking and it started snowing and I realized I was wearing the exact same outfit as when we left for the hospital. I dunno. Felt nice.
November 28, 2025 at 12:54 AM
So on this day a few years ago we were headed into the hospital for my daughter to be born. It was snowing. Today I went out walking and it started snowing and I realized I was wearing the exact same outfit as when we left for the hospital. I dunno. Felt nice.
Oh joy, a horseshoe coalition of residents associations and left-nimby housing justice advocates have teamed up to crash the Toronto and East York Community Council meeting to oppose an anodyne apartment building in Parkdale.
November 27, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Oh joy, a horseshoe coalition of residents associations and left-nimby housing justice advocates have teamed up to crash the Toronto and East York Community Council meeting to oppose an anodyne apartment building in Parkdale.
Every budget season you will see these charts from the TTC. A lot of people will look at this and say oh there's an enormous funding issue, our SOGR backlog is huge. I urge you to resist that thought. Go look up the projects list and the costs. Compare them to other (non-US) countries.
November 27, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Every budget season you will see these charts from the TTC. A lot of people will look at this and say oh there's an enormous funding issue, our SOGR backlog is huge. I urge you to resist that thought. Go look up the projects list and the costs. Compare them to other (non-US) countries.
Reposted by Damien Moule
What happens when you downzone?
Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago.
Findings:
—Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas;
—Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.
Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago.
Findings:
—Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas;
—Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.
Downzoning Chicago: How Local Land Use Policy Has Reduced Housing Construction and Reinforced Segregation | Published in Findings
By Yonah Freemark, George Kisiel. Downzonings were used by US cities in the postwar period to preserve neighborhood character. These land-use policies were associated with lower housing supply, higher...
findingspress.org
November 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
What happens when you downzone?
Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago.
Findings:
—Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas;
—Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.
Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago.
Findings:
—Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas;
—Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.
Pie and YIMBYism. Yum.
November 26, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Pie and YIMBYism. Yum.
A certain genre of housing article shows up every few months to argue for non-market housing and that's fine. But this is my PSA that the phrase "what kind of housing and for whom" is at this point a cliche that to me is a hallmark of bad analysis and I would avoid using it.
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
A certain genre of housing article shows up every few months to argue for non-market housing and that's fine. But this is my PSA that the phrase "what kind of housing and for whom" is at this point a cliche that to me is a hallmark of bad analysis and I would avoid using it.
I don't for a second think this will happen but I would cackle for days if the feds managed to get an electrified train line into Toronto Union station before GO transit.
Canada actually speeding up the construction of high speed rail?? Do my eyes deceive me??
“This will enable construction on Alto to begin in four years — as early as 2029 — instead of the original timeline of in eight years, towards the middle of the 2030s.”
www.blogto.com/travel/2025/...
“This will enable construction on Alto to begin in four years — as early as 2029 — instead of the original timeline of in eight years, towards the middle of the 2030s.”
www.blogto.com/travel/2025/...
300km/h train through Ontario will happen years earlier than expected
Construction on one of the most ambitious and expensive transportation infrastructure projects to ever be undertaken in Canadian history is now targe…
www.blogto.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
I don't for a second think this will happen but I would cackle for days if the feds managed to get an electrified train line into Toronto Union station before GO transit.
Reposted by Damien Moule
One more design review panel bro. I swear, just one more design review panel.
What if I told you they all look *like that* because of city-imposed design and facade mandates, not because people (or developers) like them?
November 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
One more design review panel bro. I swear, just one more design review panel.
Did a quick check in on financial statements for the Scarborough-Rouge Park by-election to see if any of the major candidates filed yet (no) but there are multiple also-rans who spent thousands of their own money on delusional campaigns and I dunno... seems bad.
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Did a quick check in on financial statements for the Scarborough-Rouge Park by-election to see if any of the major candidates filed yet (no) but there are multiple also-rans who spent thousands of their own money on delusional campaigns and I dunno... seems bad.
I need a unified theory for why some Liberal affiliated politicians stay sane municipally (Matlow, Keesmat, Myers, McKelvie, etc.) and why some go full reactionary (those cited below but most especially Bradford and Kandavel).
November 25, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I need a unified theory for why some Liberal affiliated politicians stay sane municipally (Matlow, Keesmat, Myers, McKelvie, etc.) and why some go full reactionary (those cited below but most especially Bradford and Kandavel).
Reposted by Damien Moule
Fun legal case for the NIMBY haters.
In Northcrest Neighbours v. City of Peterborough a group of neighbours tried to stop a 52 unit supportive housing project.
1/6
In Northcrest Neighbours v. City of Peterborough a group of neighbours tried to stop a 52 unit supportive housing project.
1/6
November 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Fun legal case for the NIMBY haters.
In Northcrest Neighbours v. City of Peterborough a group of neighbours tried to stop a 52 unit supportive housing project.
1/6
In Northcrest Neighbours v. City of Peterborough a group of neighbours tried to stop a 52 unit supportive housing project.
1/6
And right on schedule after we point to the enormous cost problems for TTC capital spending that all our politicians should be trying to address, the municipal right gives us... something completely pointless that would be so laughably unworkable I don't even know what to make of it.
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 PM
And right on schedule after we point to the enormous cost problems for TTC capital spending that all our politicians should be trying to address, the municipal right gives us... something completely pointless that would be so laughably unworkable I don't even know what to make of it.
Reposted by Damien Moule
A new twist on NIMBYism. Neighbours are worried it will be come a memorial park.
Daughter of Barry and Honey Sherman buys property where her parents were murdered
Daughter of Barry and Honey Sherman buys property where her parents were murdered
Neighbours of the north Toronto property, where the Shermans’ house once stood, are worried about what it might become.
www.thestar.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:51 PM
A new twist on NIMBYism. Neighbours are worried it will be come a memorial park.
The estimated budget for the Waterfront East "LRT" (streetcar with tiny tunnelled section) is $2 billion?!?! Subway prices for 4km of streetcar. Glad we'll spend next year's municipal election talking about a made up crime surge.
www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...
www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...
November 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The estimated budget for the Waterfront East "LRT" (streetcar with tiny tunnelled section) is $2 billion?!?! Subway prices for 4km of streetcar. Glad we'll spend next year's municipal election talking about a made up crime surge.
www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...
www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...
Has any councillor's self conception been farther from reality than Kandavel's?
Not the 2 councillors that I might have predicted at the IntegrityTO launch but also not completely surprising. www.thestar.com/news/gta/int...
November 25, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Has any councillor's self conception been farther from reality than Kandavel's?
One thing I'd always like to point out when NIMBYs say some application isn't producing enough green space: we have the room for lots of green space. We just spend it on parking.
November 25, 2025 at 12:39 AM
One thing I'd always like to point out when NIMBYs say some application isn't producing enough green space: we have the room for lots of green space. We just spend it on parking.
Trips holding up really well deep into Autumn this year, though still seeing the footprint shrink the later into the year we go.
Yesterday there were approximately 16,133 Toronto Bikeshare bikeshare trips
Most used station: 365 Lippincott St (342 trips)
Least used station: 552 Birchmount Rd and 201 others (0 trips)
Active stations: 988
#bikeTO
Most used station: 365 Lippincott St (342 trips)
Least used station: 552 Birchmount Rd and 201 others (0 trips)
Active stations: 988
#bikeTO
November 24, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Trips holding up really well deep into Autumn this year, though still seeing the footprint shrink the later into the year we go.
The biggest indictment of the Gardiner is that for all its fabled indispensable utility, it can't handle literally anything fun happening downtown without breaking completely.
November 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
The biggest indictment of the Gardiner is that for all its fabled indispensable utility, it can't handle literally anything fun happening downtown without breaking completely.
For all the complaining about the disorder and anti-social behaviour of certain people in Toronto, the actual centre of anti-social behaviour is the motorists trying to get on the Gardiner on-ramp at Rees street.
November 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
For all the complaining about the disorder and anti-social behaviour of certain people in Toronto, the actual centre of anti-social behaviour is the motorists trying to get on the Gardiner on-ramp at Rees street.
It is extremely disappointing to see members of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust opposing a new student residence on College. Apparently on affordability and heritage grounds (how much affordability and heritage did the former parking lot/garage provide?)
thegreenline.to/stories/kens...
thegreenline.to/stories/kens...
How to chime in on a proposed student rental tower in Kensington Market - The Green Line
On Oct. 16, the City held an online community consultation over a proposed 19-storey student rental tower in Kensington Market.
thegreenline.to
November 23, 2025 at 3:47 PM
It is extremely disappointing to see members of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust opposing a new student residence on College. Apparently on affordability and heritage grounds (how much affordability and heritage did the former parking lot/garage provide?)
thegreenline.to/stories/kens...
thegreenline.to/stories/kens...
Reposted by Damien Moule
We support housing of all types. You can too.
More and more people want encampments evicted. Neighbourhood groups are suing shelter providers. Now, they're attempting to stop supportive housing in Parkdale. You can't have all three!
Please sign and share in support of PARC and supportive housing! tinyurl.com/parcpetition
Please sign and share in support of PARC and supportive housing! tinyurl.com/parcpetition
Build Supportive Affordable Housing at 1499 and 1501 Queen West
The City of Toronto, and Canada as a whole, is in an unprecedented affordable housing crisis. Many struggle to find safe and stable housing in Toronto and Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC) wa...
tinyurl.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:25 AM
We support housing of all types. You can too.
Reposted by Damien Moule
Toronto, and urban history. Notably, Mayor David Crombie and his anti-development Council colleagues were sworn in on December 1, 1972. Local elections matter!
Charting number of rental units in apartment buildings in Toronto by year of construction
(This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago)
#toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay
(This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago)
#toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay
November 22, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Toronto, and urban history. Notably, Mayor David Crombie and his anti-development Council colleagues were sworn in on December 1, 1972. Local elections matter!
Just remembering back to 2020 when the Church of Bubbles bus would roll up to Bellwoods to encourage people to dance together rather than social distance and uh.. I guess it's always the ones you most suspect.
In case you’re wondering:
The key people behind tomorrow’s planned nationwide Ostrich Convoy include an aging Burning Man attendee who drives a psychedelic school bus called the “Church of Bubbles” and a Dutch-born Gen Z social media marketer who imports maple syrup to Utrecht, Netherlands
The key people behind tomorrow’s planned nationwide Ostrich Convoy include an aging Burning Man attendee who drives a psychedelic school bus called the “Church of Bubbles” and a Dutch-born Gen Z social media marketer who imports maple syrup to Utrecht, Netherlands
Leaders of Canada’s Newest Convoy Worry Police Are Trying to Sabotage a Nationwide Protest Avenging a Flock of Dead Ostriches
Convoy organizers say they are at ‘war’ with the federal government, but insist they will remain ‘peaceful’
pressprogress.ca
November 22, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Just remembering back to 2020 when the Church of Bubbles bus would roll up to Bellwoods to encourage people to dance together rather than social distance and uh.. I guess it's always the ones you most suspect.