Great cities offer choices: for housing, for getting around, for culture/entertainment, for employment. Great cities are not designed as tourist destinations - they are designed as places for people to thrive. Places for living everyday life. Places where newcomers can get a foothold and an education, places where young people can get their start, places where it is possible to raise a family and thrive, places to grow old, and continue to contribute to a community as you do. To get there, a range of housing options that accommodate a range of incomes and household types for all stages of life is foundational to ensuring a vibrant neighbourhood life. But neighbourhoods have trouble thriving when they are infiltrated with cars from elsewhere. So ending the long commute + congestion is in everyone’s interest. More suburbs everywhere need to focus on transitioning to become complete communities - instead of just expecting and reinforcing *a lack of choice* for residents. Having no choice but to hop in the car is a trap. Suburbs can transform. Indeed, many places (Toronto included) are deep into a transition away from that trap. Add density. Add cycling infrastructure. Invest in transit. Mix uses, ensuring offices and cafes and grocery stores and services like dentists and doctors within walking distance of every neighbourhood. I wrote this almost a decade ago. We were in a very different moment as a city, but many of the urban planning principles it espouses are ever green. Take a look: thestar.com/opinion/commenta…

Mayor of Paris is leading the most ambitious effort worldwide to wean people off cars. She is redesigning transport, housing, jobs + public space so residents have the choice of living without long, polluting commutes. Cycling is now key to mobility. This is what leaders do.