Phill Mendonça-Vieira

Archive

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  1. My Year of Raves

    In my third year of being trans, I discovered that I like dancing. This was a surprise. Dancing is meditative, therapeutic – healing even. Now I try to go dancing as often as I can. This the story of how I learned I love to dance.

    March 24, 2025 | #queer, #toronto, #rave, #music, #politics, #tech, #parenting
  2. I Met Paul Graham Once

    In their rush to conform, to obey, are tech industry leaders planning to discriminate against me?

    January 16, 2025 | #tech, #queer, #politics
  3. Everyone Transitions

    January 3, 2025 | #queer
  4. What is the point of the Liberal party?

    January 2, 2025 | #politics
  5. UIs Should Be Versioned, Just Like We Version APIs

    December 21, 2024 | #antihumanism, #programming, #programming
  6. they’re going to build camps

    November 19, 2024 | #politics, #travel
  7. TCAF 2024 and "The Chromatic Fantasy"

    May 16, 2024
  8. You're not Facebook. Why use their tools?

    April 22, 2024 | #tech, #programming
  9. hyperobjects

    March 25, 2024 | #programming, #tech
  10. I've planted a garden 👩‍🌾🪴🪻

    March 24, 2024
  11. Good News: We Can Fix Traffic Safety!

    Unlike housing or wealth inequality or climate change, traffic safety is almost entirely in control of my local municipality. My city councillor doesn't have jurisdiction over air pollution, or carbon taxes, or whether we roll back the clocks. But the city of Toronto does have jurisdiction over how my local roads are designed and built.

    November 22, 2021 | #deathbytraffic, #toronto
  12. British Columbia is YIMBYer than California

    Comparing new dwelling building permits per capita per year between select U.S. states and select Canadian provinces

    November 17, 2021 | #housing
  13. Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and Haemophilus influenza

    The moment had arrived, the needle was ready.

    October 30, 2021 | #parenting
  14. Remote Work Isn't Gentrification

    Before the pandemic, fully remote work was rare but now it's rapidly expanding. If lots of workers stand to earn good, tech-industry salaries while living outside of tech-industry hubs, could this lead to more gentrification?

    October 26, 2020 | #housing
  15. Bailout Landlords, Get Social Housing

    If scores of landlords become insolvent due to the global pandemic, we should bail them out directly – and nationalize their assets. We could greatly expand the social housing stock, and use it to protect tenants and the homeless.

    April 9, 2020 | #housing
  16. Actually, Rent Control is Great: Revisiting Ontario’s Experience, the Supply of Housing, and Security of Tenure

    Rent controls are criticized for acting as a severe disincentive to new and existing rental construction. In this paper, I documented contemporary Canadian housing policy initiatives and investigated the theoretical and empirical record of rent controls in other jurisdictions. I then argue that rent controls' most important aspect is their regulation of the provision of security of tenure — which should be seen as a right of tenants as well as homeowners.

    September 26, 2018 | #housing
  17. Actually, Rent Control Is Great

    An op-ed summary of my paper on why rent control is good, which was published in the Toronto Star. TL;DR: rent control gives tenants security of tenure — which should be seen as a right of tenants as well as homeowners.

    November 13, 2017 | #housing
  18. The Saints of Little Portugal

    When you next walk through the residential streets of Toronto's west end, take a look at the houses around you. Before long, you'll see the azulejos.

    July 19, 2017 | #toronto, #portugal, #art
  19. How to create relative links in MS Word via MS Excel using Visual Basic

    I once had to do a bunch of work in Visual Basic for Applications and wire together a Word document with an Excel spreadsheet. This blog post documents all the things I wish I'd found by googling.

    May 1, 2017
  20. Canada, Keep the Queen!

    Let's talk about the Queen, shall we? Elizabeth Alexandra Mary has been the Queen of Canada and fourteen other countries since 1952. She is now ninety years old, and she's not getting any younger.

    March 18, 2017 | #canada
  21. Mirvish Village Public Meeting

    I attended a public meeting organized by city hall councillors Mike Layton and Joe Cressy to discuss Westbank's planning application for the Mirvish Village redevelopment.

    March 3, 2017 | #housing, #toronto
  22. How Strikes Are Covered in the Media

    July 5, 2016
  23. Bombing Syria Is A Bad Idea

    November 17, 2015
  24. The Only Correct* Way To Think About Brendan Eich

    April 10, 2014
  25. instagram for fun and profit

    October 22, 2013
  26. Modern Javascript and Server-Side Rendering

    August 3, 2012
  27. A timelapse of the BBC and assorted thoughts

    August 2, 2011
  28. HOWTO: Make a screenshot timelapse video.

    July 21, 2011
  29. The nytimes they are a-changin'

    July 18, 2011
  30. People try to put us down / just 'cause we get around

    July 5, 2011