Spacing magazine expands its reach, launches Montréal blog

Spacing, the three times a year champion of public space, the urban environment and public affairs -- a magazine that punches well above its weight -- is expanding.

Having started in Toronto with a print magazine, augmented by a daily blog Spacing Wire and its election-time blog Spacing Votes, the magazine's publishers have launched a Montreal edition online. No plans to start a print version there. Spacing Wire is now called Spacing Toronto for consistency with the brand new Spacing Montréal blog.

"Montréal and Toronto are faced with a similar array of problems: traffic congestion, urban sprawl, under-funded public transit, and infrastructure neglect," say the editors. "Seeing how one of Canada’s other great cities deals with these issues may help us solve some of our own dilemmas here in Toronto. But Montréal has its own set of public space issues that are completely foreign to Torontonians such as language sign by-laws and no right-hand turns at a red light."

The Spacing Toronto and Montreal sites are now offering advertising for the first time. The Spacing Votes blog features some excellent, daily coverage of the Ontario election, as it did with the earlier Toronto municipal election.

Technically, the Montréal blog has been up and running for a week or so, but this week is its official launch. It does so with stories such as one about a dispute over the closure of a student cafe at McGill.