I know why the chicken crossed the road…
Along with a long list of accomplishments as a Toronto City Councillor, Joe Mihevc also introduced the backyard chicken bylaw where residents could keep up to four chickens in their yard. Here’s how it’s working at his home, especially breakfast-wise.
– Elizabeth Cinello
Salsa on St Clair: the city and citizens can do great things together
“Let’s shut down the street,” was John Montesano’s rallying cry, 15 years ago, about St. Clair West – and a great Toronto street festival was born.
– Elizabeth Cinello
On Being a Raptors Fan
A city often divided between the urban centre and the GTA feels cohesive. People in the gym. And outside the gym. The diversity of Toronto reflected in the arena, in the bars, in Jurassic Park. The Raptors bringing Toronto together.
– Emma Katz
How the Mighty have Fallen: the demise of our tree
It seemed in the end as if the tree itself declined our efforts to save it. During the windstorm on June 13, 2018 the one remaining large top limb of the old Norway maple in front of our house fell.
– Schuster Gindin
Saved!!!
Windstorm-damaged tree gets a reprieve! We are still happily shaded with a view of tree branches from our bed.
– Schuster Gindin
Negative Windfall
Sometimes, watching the wind whip the limbs around our century-old Norway maple, the thought did occur to me that someday this tree is going to kill me as I lay in bed. That didn’t happen, but the latest windstorm storm did take down most of the tree.
– Schuster Gindin
A Horlicks Saga
In search of the iconic malt drink that shaped my childhood taste buds in Wisconsin, I was surprised where my quest led me in Toronto’s multicultural abundance.
– Schuster Gindin
Build it and they will come
The renovated building on St. Clair West is bringing new life to a tired corner. A co-working space, a café and the offices of an award-winning architecture firm will be creating a fresh community hub.
– Miria Ioannou
Staying Alive: Columbus Centre members fight to save it from its own board of directors
The Columbus Centre, considered to be the heart and soul of the Italian community in Toronto, is besieged by its own board. Forced by the city to hold a public meeting in May, Villa Charities Inc., finally revealed its highly unpopular plans for the much-loved centre.
– Elizabeth Cinello
Tantalizing Possibilities: Expo for Design Innovation & Technology
EDIT is a design and technology exposition with big aspirations to change the world. Installed for a week (Sept 28 – Oct 8) in a huge derelict soap factory the intention was to inspire, connect, demonstrate, and share solutions to global problems.
– Schuster Gindin
Toronto’s Urban Forest
Our ravines and parks provide wonderful recreation places for city-dwellers while at the same time cleaning our atmosphere and combatting global warming. A historical, geographical and a literary appreciation.
– Robert Fisher
York University: from brutalism to beauty
From its origins as a suburban, brutalist response to the need for more universities in Toronto and Canada, York University has transformed into a vibrant, lively campus of beautiful new buildings and world class academic programs.
– Robert Fisher
Lake swimmers update
Record rainfalls and high water levels have transformed our shoreline. We went beach prospecting to see conditions for ourselves. Will Toronto still be a lake swimmers’ city?
– Schuster Gindin
“Jazz at Massey Hall” Day
On May 15, 1953, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Bud Powell played together at Massey Hall in Toronto in a recorded concert that became “Jazz at Massey Hall: The Quintet”. To Ambrose Roche and jazz lovers everywhere, the sounds were revolutionary.
– Ambrose Roche
Common Gr
ound: revitalizing Oakwood Collegiate’s landscape
A historic Toronto high school is being revitalized with the help of a local community group. Here is the plan for a new recreational and green space for students and neighbours. You’re invited to help and celebrate!
– Schuster Gindin
A Horoscope for Toronto
What is Toronto’s future? Should it build a subway out to Scarborough? Should it raise taxes or cut services? Since we can’t trust our politicians to be guided by the facts, is there another solution? Can the sun, moon and stars offer some insight what we should do ?
– Elizabeth Cinello
Ryerson 
University’s Newest Building: putting students at the centre
Ryerson University’s new Student Learning Centre is architecturally innovative in a sea of bland new construction. More importantly, it’s an effective instructional space, especially for students learning how to solve big-city problems.
– Schuster Gindin
Distilled Light
Once again in Toronto someone is out to prove that you don’t have to be athletic to enjoy going outside in winter. That’s right, no skiing, skating or sledding involved.
– Schuster Gindin
Sold! Two historic Toronto schools gone and more on the block
Since Ontario school boards are no longer allowed to raise tax dollars, the Toronto Board has begun selling off older schools, often historic buildings, for cash to make repairs on other aging schools. Many of the sold properties are demolished, usually not in the best interests of their communities
– Elizabeth Cinello
Music on Every Scale
Toronto offers a rich array of live classical music on every scale of performance. In addition to large concert halls, there are small venues where you can hear solo and ensemble performances by musicians at every level of professional accomplishment playing stimulating new, unconventional, or seldom heard compositions.
– Schuster Gindin
Transi
t Geek in the City
Councillor Joe Mihevc’s dedication to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is unwavering. Like a proud father, the self-described transit geek dotes over this growing colossal public service, which in 2021 will celebrate its 100th anniversary. His own father was a TTC mechanic.
Trinity Bellwoods: Reshaping an Urban Landscape
Trinity-Bellwoods Park is a hub of urban activity in downtown Toronto. It was not always so. It used to be a 50-acre field with a small river famous for its salmon fishing. Our resident historian Robert Fisher traces the history of the park from its bucolic days to its bohemian times to its current artists’ oasis.
– Robert Fisher
Gardiner of Earthly Delights
Returning home to Toronto recently, Ambrose Roche found comfort, excitement and inspiration in the fascinating and varied gardens of the Gardiner Museum.
– Ambrose Roche
India’s Great Diversity Lives in Toronto
India is a kaleidoscope of a country with 14 official languages and four major religions. Luckily, this dizzying diversity has been transplanted to thriving neighborhoods in Toronto.
– Robert Fisher
Luminato: A
dventure at the Hearn
Our thrilling trek though the derelict industrial site of the Hearn Generating Station, now the locus for the Luminato Festival.
– Schuster Gindin
Taking the Plunge
We know that Lake Ontario is slow to warm in the spring, but the heat and pea soup humidity around here drove us to the beach. The dip was exhilarating!
– Schuster Gindin
Umberto Eco and Toronto
The late great Umberto Eco was a frequent visitor to Toronto and was especially fond of the Robarts Library at U of T. He considered the city ‘very civil’ and said that after New York and – Schuster GindiParis, Toronto would be the only other city he would move to, to live and work.
– Elizabeth Cinello
GET INSIDE: The Winter Stations at the Beach
Winter Stations are back, and we explore the installations both outside and in.
– Schuster Gindin
En Rout
e: where am I?
Taking the world’s shortest ferry ride to Toronto’s island airport is a unique experience for travelers. The new tunnel that’s supposed to get you there more efficiently just makes the transit feel like every other generic airport drudge. For now, we still have the two options. Let’s keep the one that makes trips to and from Toronto memorable.
– Schuster Gindin
Singing her Heart Out
Barbara Bailey is a Toronto graphic designer who loves Bollywood dancing and singing in a choir. The latter diversion happens to involve Choir! Choir! Choir!, the local phenomenon lauded nationally and internationally for its exuberant approach to crooning with a crowd, in harmony.
– Miria Ioannou
Finn with an Oyster: The Story behind Toronto’s New City Hall
Its two curved towers elegantly embrace the centre of our civic life, and stand their ground amidst the rising condo chaos taking over downtown. Fifty years ago, against a backdrop of opposing visions for a growing and changing city, a familiar refrain for Torontonians, our City Hall took shape. See city hall’s story in Michael Kainer’s documentary film.
– Elizabeth Cinello
Community in Motion; Walking with Momentum1
Here’s an easy way to find walking tours in Toronto and Ontario – especially if you don’t want to walk alone. Momentum1 ‘Community in Motion’ has launched a new website.
– Elizabeth Cinello
A TIFF MOMENT
; An Outsider Looks In
A Torontonian puts her book down to experience TIFF, and finds the interminable line-up and the screaming insanity over the movie stars of a light-weight comedy drama drives her back to real life in the city.
– Elizabeth Cinello
Swimming Toronto’s Beaches
Toronto is a beach city and summer isn’t over yet. We checked out all 11 designated swimming beaches from a swimmer’s point of view.
– Schuster Gindin
1000 Strings in Yonge Dundas Square
1000 Strings create a transcendent aural spectacle in Yonge Dundas Square.
– Schuster Gindin
GLIMPSES OF PARADISE: the gardens at the Aga Khan Museum and Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre
Just as the eyes are the windows of the soul, so are gardens windows of the world’s cultures.
– Robert Fisher
Island 
Hopping
In Toronto, taking the ferry over to Centre Island can be something of a cliché since it’s been a thing for city-folks for so many years. It’s often one of the first outings that recently arrived immigrants do when they get to the city – that and Niagara Falls.
– Miria Ioannou
A Different View
Ever done the Edgewalk at the CN Tower? When visitors to Toronto really want to do it, you pretty much have to comply.
– Anya Orzechowska
DOORS OPEN 2015
Doors Open 2015 is coming very soon. There are so many venues to choose from so we thought we’d help you out with some recommendations.
– Miria Ioannou
OAKWOOD COLLEGIATE: The School that Built a Community
Before there was a neighbourhood, streets or public transit, there was a school. Since 1911, Oakwood Collegiate has been an anchor at the heart of a community. That is how we used to do city building – first the infrastructure, then the housing.
– Schuster Gindin
Racoo
n Revenge
Toronto’s Mayor John Tory and his entourage were giddy at the news conference announcing the new raccoon-proof green bins, declaring, “….we cannot be defeated by these critters.” At first, I was giddy, too.
– Elizabeth Cinello
TORONTO THE GOOD, TORONTO THE ESOTERIC: Buddhism in the City
Toronto has changed from a mostly Presbyterian city to one that includes people from all the religions of the world. Among the many places of worship across the GTA, there are Buddhist temples in the unlikeliest of places. Here’s an overview of the locations and the philosophy that inspires them.
– Robert L. Fisher
Little Kingdoms
Tonga calls itself the land where time begins. Situated immediately left of the International Date Line, Tonga is the first place on earth to greet each new day. That’s where Mary Li will spend the next year. But she’ll miss so many things about Toronto.
– Mary Li
Kensington Market Winter Solstice Parade: 25 Years of Revelry
So long darkness, hello sunshine. For 25 years Torontonians have congregated in Kensington Market to ignite the darkness of the longest night.
– Elizabeth Cinello
Incense 
and Song: Toronto’s Orthodox Churches
Created in exotic, even fairytale, shapes these churches contrast with the mercilessly functional buildings of many North American cities. They are fabulous gems set down, as if by an archangel’s hand, in the great urban sameness.
– Robert L. Fisher
Low Down Walking
An October walk through Cedarvale Ravine, an easily overlooked topographical treasure.
– Schuster Gindin
Don’t become a victim of Election Fatigue!
It’s true, it feels the mayoral campaign has been going on since the beginning of time. And it all seems to be about the personalities instead of issues. Don’t let that put you off.
– Schuster Gindin
Midnight Cherries
A cherry tree planted at a city parking lot?
There’s going to be jam tonight!
– Schuster Gindin
The Bucket Is Gone
Streetscapes of the city continue to evolve as midsize condos go up along the avenues. Sometimes there is a certain continuity in the development…
– Elizabeth Cinello
11 Division’s Police Station: a success in architectural preservation
What does it take to not only save a grand old building but to incorporate it into a new one? Citizen involvement, the will of some politicians, sympathetic architects, tenacity and patience. Here is the first-hand account of a Toronto resident who played a major role in the saving and building of a landmark.
– Claude Bergeron
Our Big City Mayor and Our Dirty Little Secret
We’ve moved up in the world, that’s why the international media is here covering our mayor. We’re the fourth largest city in North America, a major investment centre, a place where people want to live, work, study, and play. Our standard of living is consistently ranked amongst the top ten cities worldwide. Toronto has snuck its way onto the world stage and now everybody knows our dirty little secret – our relationship with a maelstrom of a mayor…
– Elizabeth Cinello
Why Mayor Ford Matters: thoughts after a gun crisis at work
Many people are suggesting that Toronto is too full of itself and that we are making too much of Mayor Ford’s appalling behaviour. I ask those who live in other places to consider the following…
– Sarah Shartal
LIVING TORONTO 