# uniteTOlove commons The open research, civic data, and design frameworks behind [unitetolove.ca](https://unitetolove.ca) — a citizen-run, receipt-backed civic project in Toronto. Everything here is free to fork, cite, and build on; the site's own code lives at [github.com/unitetolove/site](https://github.com/unitetolove/site). ## What's in this repo | Folder | What it holds | Formats | Count | |---|---|---|---| | [`data/`](data/) | Cleaned civic datasets (population, municipal finances, rental market, homelessness point-in-time counts, collisions, council asks) and 2026 Ontario municipal election data (candidates, races) | CSV + schema docs | 10 CSVs, 1 schema doc — see [`data/README.md`](data/README.md) | | [`docs/`](docs/) | Standing project policy — methodology, corrections policy, AI-disclosure standard, funding transparency, the sprint covenant | Markdown | 8 files | | [`research/`](research/) | Sealed backgrounders, citizen briefs, explainers, the transit report, the wiki, question banks, discussion guides | Markdown | 237 files | | [`frameworks/`](frameworks/permanent-culture/) | Permanent Culture 3.0 — a full open design framework, with its own README and license | Markdown | 17 files | | [`guides/`](guides/) | Free Toronto guides — situation-by-situation help (housing, food, crisis lines, and more) | Markdown | 142 files | | [`projects/`](projects/) | Project index | Markdown | 1 file | ## License Three categories, three licenses — see [`LICENSE`](LICENSE) / [`LICENSE.md`](LICENSE.md) for the full notices: **datasets** (`data/`) are **CC BY 4.0** (fully open, including commercial reuse, with attribution — upstream sources like StatCan/CMHC/FIR keep their own terms too, see [`data/README.md`](data/README.md)); **prose and research** (`docs/` `research/` `guides/` `frameworks/`) are **CC BY-SA 4.0**; **code** is **MIT**. Content carrying a TK (Traditional Knowledge) Label is excluded from all three and follows that label's own terms instead. ## Cite this See [`CITATION.cff`](CITATION.cff), or cite as: uniteTOlove. *uniteTOlove commons* [data and research]. https://github.com/unitetolove/commons ## Found an error? Every claim on unitetolove.ca carries a source, and every source is checkable here. If something's wrong — a stale figure, a broken dataset, an unclear question — open an issue using the **Correction** or **Dataset problem** template, whichever fits. See [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md) for the safety/legality/verification/dignity bar every submission is held to, and [`docs/corrections-policy.md`](docs/corrections-policy.md) for how a correction actually moves through the system once filed. ## Elsewhere - The live site: [unitetolove.ca](https://unitetolove.ca) - The site's own code: [github.com/unitetolove/site](https://github.com/unitetolove/site) - Contact: [unknownsoldier@unitetolove.ca](mailto:unknownsoldier@unitetolove.ca) --- ## What's built, finishing, and coming next ### What we've built (live now) - **The library** — hundreds of plain-language pages on Toronto's issues: 149 researched backgrounders, 145 citizen briefs, 144 evidence cards, all receipt-backed. - **The transit report** — a full 21-chapter investigation of why Toronto can't move, every claim sourced, published with its receipts. - **Free Toronto** — the atlas of free help, food, programs and crisis lines, plus 21 situation-by-situation guides. - **The wiki** — the city's issues, evidence first, one page per area. - **20 program blueprints** — designs for what Toronto could build, each with a plain-language explainer. - **The candidate question bank** — 66 citizen questions, sourced and sealed, identical for every candidate in every race. - **Permanent Culture 3.0** — a free design framework grown from nature; book online and as a PDF. - **How we verify** — the receipts system: every claim carries a checkable source, every correction is published. ### Finishing now (days to weeks) - **State of the Election** — a data report on every 2026 Ontario municipal race, refreshed every two weeks to voting day. - **The homelessness report** — a full book-length investigation, in final read. - **A major consumer-protection investigation** — verification complete, publishing soon. - **So You're Thinking of Running** — the free starter kit for anyone considering candidacy (nominations close August 21). - **The signature rail and welcome count** — a 30-second, consent-first sign-up with a public counter the whole city can watch. - **Essays** — on building this with AI in the open, on skepticism, on what a practiced city feels like. - **Open data** — our cleaned civic datasets, downloadable with documentation, free to use with attribution. - **The policy pages** — methodology, corrections policy, AI-disclosure standard, funding transparency (to the dollar). ### Building next (this season — help wanted) - **The ward browser** — every candidate, every ward, one fast page a normal voter actually uses. - **The plan scoreboard** — which candidates have published a real platform; presence or absence, no ratings, checkable by anyone. - **The equal-question rail** — this fall we publish what Toronto's rooms said they want and put one identical question to every candidate; every answer (and every silence) published the same way. - **A mobilization toolkit** — host a dinner, start a block circle, run a story-collection night; one page each, free and forkable. - **A citizens' assembly toolkit** — how any room runs real deliberation, with Toronto's own facilitation bench behind it. - **Ward data packs** — turnout history, poll-by-poll results, demographics: free to every campaign identically. - **A press data desk** — story-ready datasets and receipt bundles for any journalist. ### How to help Everything is open, free forever, and forkable. Pick one piece — the ward browser, the scoreboard, the calendar, translations, accessibility — and build it in your own name; see the [good first issues](https://github.com/unitetolove/commons/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22) for a concrete place to start. Nothing to join, nobody paid, receipts for everything. Start at the front door: [sign up for the conversation](https://unitetolove.ca/join.html).