Editor's Note - Cross-posted from Spacing Toronto Memories, memorials and raw thoughts are flowing across the city and country this morning remembering Jack Layton. Here's the moment where it all started in Toronto for Jack, when he won his city council seat in 1982. There will be a memorial today in the East Garden at Toronto City Hall at 4PM. Here's the text of the letter Jack Layton's family just released to Canadians:

HALIFAX – Over the last three years, HCC has made a significant contribution by lending a unique voice to the city’s active transportation discussions and encouraging all-season bicycle use in the greater Halifax region. Though the organization has a wide base of support, this is your chance to get further involved with the organization as it attempts to build a broader coalition. The Annual General Meeting will include a quick presentation on activities and projects concluded over the past year. Working groups will be formed at the meeting surrounding various topics of ...

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. • Kottke highlights Ron Gabriel's video - 3-way Street - a look at bad interactions between cars, bikes, and pedestrians at a typical NYC street intersection. It offers a visually interesting perspective on the ways modes interact and conflict. • Artist Candy Chang shares some notes on her recent public space project, Before I Die. With permission from the building's owner, Chang's chalkboard invited citizens to share their preferred ending to the sentence "before I die…". Says Chang of her project, "I believe the design of our public spaces can better reflect what’s important to us as residents and as human beings."

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. • Regina Urban Ecology showcases the delightful guerilla gardening technique of Pete Dungey: pothole gardens. • Those of us in cities with food-vehicle woes will particularly appreciate the wares of  Los Angeles-based catering company, Heirloom LA. Their full-service food truck offers locally-sourced meals and frequents favourite watering holes and farmer's markets. (GOOD) • On the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Thomas Campanella laments the diminished role of planners from visionary professionals to bureaucratic hall monitors. (Design Observer)

Halifax, NS -   Back in the day and perhaps based on class demographics at the time, Halifax developers and planners did not include driveways next to or close to homes in Halifax's North end neighbourhooods. Today, this is often seen as an attribute of the neighbourhood character, with it's narrow streets and parking on both sides. For car owners, today however, that are forced to commute to work, the HRM Winter Parking ban forces many HRM residents to struggle with the logistics as well as the finances to pay to park ...

Fredericton, New Brunswick photo by Rod Thorne, member of  the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool

Halifax - Facing one of the biggest changed to Halifax's transportation diversity in the Crosstown Connector, the Halifax Cycling Coalition is primed and ready to celebrate it's 3rd Anniversary! Come on out for an epic movie, pizza, door prizes and fun! When: Friday, November 19th from 6PM to 10PM Where: The MacMechan Auditorium, Killam Library, Dalhousie (6225 University Ave, Halifax NS) What: Treats, prizes and the film "Where are you Go?" which follows the longest cycling tour in the world: the Tour D'Afrique. We're also teaming up with ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdyK4Z_HS_w[/youtube] St. John's - On Saturday, October 30th from 10am to 1pm. a public dialogue will be held in the Foran room of city hall. This public dialogue is not an initiative of council to  review of our out-of-date municipal plan, but a continuation of the work of HappyCity.ca, who organized a public forum on smart growth in downtown St. John's back in February. Since February, Happy City has been using their newly updated website, facebook, youtube, and ...