1. When I once lived on Barton Avenue, there was shop located on the residential street (market/cleaner). It was 💯 a local asset and amenity. https://twitter.com/alexdrmather/status/1338150900146311170
2. Unfortunately, when I last checked, it seemed as though the retail space had been converted to residential use. If so, that asset and amenity has been lost – it cannot be returned to its former use.
2. Unfortunately, when I last checked, it seemed as though the retail space had been converted to residential use. If so, that asset and amenity has been lost – it cannot be returned to its former use.
2. Unfortunately, when I last checked, it seemed as though the retail space had been converted to residential use. If so, that asset and amenity has been lost – it cannot be returned to its former use.
2. Unfortunately, when I last checked, it seemed as though the retail space had been converted to residential use. If so, that asset and amenity has been lost – it cannot be returned to its former use.
3. This is the thing – not only can these local shops not be created, but as legal non-conforming uses, they can only, over time, be lost to attrition. Once the use lapses, it cannot be restored. It is a ratchet that, over time, means they will all eventually become ghost shops.
3. This is the thing – not only can these local shops not be created, but as legal non-conforming uses, they can only, over time, be lost to attrition. Once the use lapses, it cannot be restored. It is a ratchet that, over time, means they will all eventually become ghost shops.
3. This is the thing – not only can these local shops not be created, but as legal non-conforming uses, they can only, over time, be lost to attrition. Once the use lapses, it cannot be restored. It is a ratchet that, over time, means they will all eventually become ghost shops.
3. This is the thing – not only can these local shops not be created, but as legal non-conforming uses, they can only, over time, be lost to attrition. Once the use lapses, it cannot be restored. It is a ratchet that, over time, means they will all eventually become ghost shops.
3. This is the thing – not only can these local shops not be created, but as legal non-conforming uses, they can only, over time, be lost to attrition. Once the use lapses, it cannot be restored. It is a ratchet that, over time, means they will all eventually become ghost shops.
4. You’ve heard the phrase, ‘how buildings learn’?

This is how buildings forget.
4. You’ve heard the phrase, ‘how buildings learn’?This is how buildings forget.
4. You’ve heard the phrase, ‘how buildings learn’?This is how buildings forget.
5. (not dissimilar to the process by which rooming houses, duplexes, triplexes & subdivided houses are lost to conversion to single family use. Decades of policy making it easy for things to become a house, and hard for a house to become anything other than a bigger house.)
6. If we aspire to neighbourhoods that are walkable; that offer a range of housing choices; that offer local service/amenity; that have a sense of place; that don’t become single-use single-class enclaves, then ‘gentle density’ and ‘gentle mixity’ are the lowest-hanging fruit. https://twitter.com/dylan_reid/status/1338193219226660867
7. (also on Barton Ave.) https://twitter.com/g_meslin/status/1117202621406875650
8. For neighbourhood-scale shops and multi-res, this would be a good place to start: the collectors & minor arterials, served by transit, yet lined with houses, that run perpendicular to Avenues and through Neighbourhoods. https://twitter.com/plannersean/status/1153643650733289472
You can follow @g_meslin.
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