The Van Horne Mansion was a classic greystone house in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. It was the home of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, the man who built the Canadian Pacific Railway. Despite public outcry, the mansion was demolished in 1973. This lit a fire amongst conservationists, thus initiating the heritage conservation movement in Canada. Today, heritage conservation is an important part of city planning. But what tradeoffs can we afford as the housing crisis in cities across the country gets more dire? We’re telling the story of the Van Horne mansion and its legacy in heritage conservation, asking: Who decides what to preserve, and who are we preserving it for?

The Spadina Expressway was one of five urban highways that were nearly built in Toronto in the 70s. The plan would have bulldozed neighbourhoods so that suburban commuters had a direct route to drive downtown. But campaigners like Bobbi Speck and Jane Jacobs stopped it, saving iconic neighbourhoods like The Annex. Today, Toronto is one of the worst cities in the world for traffic. Should the expressway have been built anyway? We tell the story of the grassroots movement to stop Spadina with the people who were there firsthand. Does the movement perhaps offer tips on how to solve Toronto’s notoriously bad traffic?

Who decides what progress means to a city? In the new season of City Space, join host Irene Galea as she delves into the stories of changing cities and how they're holding on to their identities in the face of 21st century problems. Season 4 will tell stories of progress and preservation — and look for common ground in city spaces across Canada.

Festivals can transform cities by making space for overlooked people and cultures. Cities all over the world are facing major crises — from mounting inequalities to climate emergencies. And arts and culture have a surprisingly critical role in tackling these urban challenges. How do we make sure festivals remain authentic and true to their communities? In this episode, we hear from Mischka Creighton, the CEO of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, one of the city’s marquee events. Adrian also speaks to Trudie Walters, an adjunct associate professor at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. She co-authored a paper about how festivals can help or harm marginalized groups.

City Space is now in its third season and we’d really love to hear how you feel about our show and what we can do to make it better. Visit cityspace-survey.ca and fill out the brief survey to give us more info. As a token of our thanks, you’ll be entered into a draw to win one of three online retailer gift cards worth $100.

Last year, the federal government set an ambitious new immigration target — to bring in half a million permanent residents a year by 2025. While the country is already dealing with a pretty profound housing crisis, it’s likely everyone will feel the housing crunch even more as a record number of immigrants move to Canadian cities in the near future. Where will all these newcomers live and whose job is it to make sure the country is prepared? In this episode, we hear from Mike Moffatt, the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute at the University of Ottawa. We’re also joined by Gregg Lintern, the Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, who discusses how Toronto’s housing goals can be met in time.

Whether we really think about it or not, cities are habitats for animals. Beyond a flock of pigeons or dogs on a leash, cities are home to all manner of wildlife - depending where you are, you might have bats, coyotes or even bobcats roaming around. How can cities better accommodate the land we share with our beastie brethren and what might be some potential benefits if we get better at it? This episode we’re joined by Peter Alagona, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities. We’re also joined by Erica Spotswood, a senior ecologist at Second Nature, an urban planning consultancy specializing in integrating nature into urban design. She's also the coauthor of “The Biological Deserts Fallacy”, a paper that outlines the unique ways that cities contribute to regional biodiversity.

Our population is getting older – and fast. By 2046, Canada expects its seniors to outnumber children by 2:1. And by 2050, the number of people over 65 worldwide is expected to reach 2 billion. These demographic changes have huge impacts on how our cities run, from work to health care to design. So how should we reimagine and redesign cities as they become increasingly populated by the elderly – which, if you’re lucky, will one day include you? In this episode, we hear from Joy Loverde, an advisor in aging and eldercare-related issues and the author of Who Will Take Care of Me When I’m Old and The Complete Eldercare Planner. Adrian also explores the case study of Toyama, a Japanese city with one of the oldest populations in the world, to discover if there are lessons Canadian cities can adopt. And finally, we hear from Thiago Hérick de Sá, who leads the Department of Age-Friendly Environments at the World Health Organization, to learn how the WHO is trying to help more cities reach a higher age-friendly standard.

Burning hours in an ER waiting room has long been a fact of Canada’s public health care system, but that wait time is starting to spike. Now, in Ontario it hovers at around 20 hours on average. And our cities, home to more people and more various determinants of health than anywhere else in the country, bear the brunt of it. In this episode, we’re looking at some issues that impact the growing hospital emergency room wait times: What factors are contributing to the problem? And can anything actually be done to alleviate it or is it a pipe dream?

The smart city movement — driven by the idea that we can leverage data and technology to optimize life in our cities — is attractive for many reasons. But critics say that smart cities may not be so wise, and in some cases, they’ve proven to be dangerous for democracy. In the first episode of season three, we’re doing a deep dive into this very concept: What are smart cities, and who are they for? Where has smart-city technology helped, and when does it start to wade into surveillance-capitalism territory ? Adrian speaks to John Lorinc, an urban affairs journalist and the author of Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias, about how the perception of smart cities has shifted over the years, and how smart city technology can both improve and disrupt our lives. Plus, Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane shares his reporting from his new book, SIDEWAYS: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, which looks at Alphabet’s failed attempt to build a smart city in Toronto and what that high-profile example tells us about citizen engagement and good governance around the world.