Newsstand: February 9, 2010
Duly Quoted: Adam Giambrone
Bob Kinnear isn't Greg Kinnear
Newsstand: February 8, 2010
Scale Model City, Actual-Size Grime
Torontoist has just been named by NOW staff as Toronto's best website and by NOW's readers as Toronto's best blog, all in this year's Best of T.O. feature. We couldn't be more delighted with the honour. Says NOW:
Torontoist is often petulant and snarky, and seems uninterested in the world outside U of T (downtown campus only). Occasionally, its wall-of-text entries are dry and difficult to read, perhaps better suited to Wikipedia.Oh NOW, you do go on. But wait, a compliment is coming!
But overall, there is no other blog that cares so much about covering the city. For that, Torontoist should be saluted—and the rest of the local blogosphere should try harder.Aww. Thanks for the props, NOW. And especially thanks to our readers, our friends, our heroes, our critics, and our competition—you challenge us and keep us sharp, and we couldn't and wouldn't want to do it without you. If you've been reading Torontoist for some time and have been considering adding your voice to it, now's as good a time as any to join us. We've got plenty more stuff up our sleeves, and some of it won't even be petulant!
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Congrats? I guess?
It's always good when bleeding heart liberals have a love-fest for other bleeding heart liberals!
They also love my bank.
Who came second?
The competition for Toronto's best website is terrible, not a big deal to win.
Stop it, you guys! You're making me blush.
Woooooooo!
Maybe "petulant and snarky" refers to the comments section : )
NOW sees this blog the same way I do. I agree that it seems to be almost entirely focused on a small section of the downtown. But when I think about it, that's pretty much the only fun area anyway.
>Maybe "petulant and snarky" refers to the comments section : )
Nah, that's just torontothegreat.
It's ironic that it's NOW complaining about how our "wall-of-text entries are dry and difficult to read."
LOL. Why does Now hate literacy?
Congratulations TOist. Good work beating out spacing and blogto!
Being downtown-focused is why I read it. I'm sure we've all got other places to hang out if we wanted to talk about more general topics.
If the demand for blogs focused on the Outer Yorks and Scarborough is so great, as critics insist, why hasn't anyone stepped in to provide one? The competition to provide the best strip mall reviews should be fierce!
I think the criticism is that little attention is paid to the rest of Toronto, not that the site isn't focused on those areas.
And really, it's the Toronto outside of Queen West/Annex that makes this city remarkable. BlogTO strikes a good balance, TOist does not, but you both do what you do well.
Congrats, anyway. I won't throw in any comments about how I only pick up NOW for the movie listings or how it's worth the price etc.
There is obviously a lot to refute in NOW's begrudging endorsement, but, to pick the one dig we're talking most about here, faulting a city website for being downtown-centric is particularly absurd, as cities are inherently downtown-centric. We've heard this argument against us before, and the more you look at it the more it falls apart. That's not to say that we don't very consciously pay attention to stuff elsewhere, because we do, and I think the argument that we only cover stuff on U of T campus is really easily and wholly dismissed, but nonetheless: our focus is Toronto. Toronto has a downtown, a densely-populated area literally and figuratively at the centre of the city. I don't think we should apologize for giving that area the appropriate amount of attention.
Yes, but, David, are you also going to mention the column by Joshua Errett that all but declares Torontoist a failure in actually being (a) Gawker and (b) snarky?
Oh, and who was the “author” who threatened to sue? It wasn’t me.
Psst, Joe.... Look immediately above this post on the main page.
>Nah, that's just torontothegreat.
HEY!!!!! I resemble that remark
Congrats guys... I think?
@11: Hmm, burn to everyone who lives on Queen West or in the Annex. Sorry, guys, you're dragging the rest of us down.
Why are people in media with Gawker envy insisting the rest of Toronto or Canada also has Gawker envy? Whose 'fault' is it if that style of bullshit doesn't fly here?
joeclark linked to an article that is rather revealing. The author and a partner wanted to bring the Gawker franchise to Toronto, instead of just starting their own blog with their own editorial direction and policies. Torontoist is the byproduct of that, and yet there's no mediacentric bitch-gabbing to be found.
Downtown is the heart of the city, so there's a lot of coverage. What are you going to say about that North York suburb? The Smith family has constructed a nasty new quasi-historical McMansion? The Walmart is the place to be?
Actually, it would be nice to see some attention paid to emerging urban areas like North York Centre, but Torontoist does cover areas outside of downtown occasionally, like Roncesvalles or the Junction. Unfortunately, my Etobicoke friends consider that part of downtown.
I think it would be more accurate to call this place Kensingtonist
Wasn't meant to be Gloria, I live in in the Annex too. My criticism was probably off-base because the kinds of things this site is interested in are most prevalent in the student/arts areas so it follows that coverage will centre on the annex/queen west.
To cover the same sorts of things in the suburbs would require writers from all over the city that really have their ears to the ground. It's probably a big effort to find those kinds of people, and to be fair I think TOist has made some efforts in that regard (though it hasn't succeeded by any measure).
But yeah, the stuff you see in the annex/queen west is common to every city, a lot of what happens is just stuff we copied from other cities (critical mass, nuit blanche, hipsterism etc,). Toronto is truly special for what it's like in the suburbs, what it's like outside of the core. It's a bigger endeavour to try to capture that though, so I admit I'm a bit off in my criticism.
And AR, Mansions, much less McMansions, aren't a common sight in North York. Maybe you should visit some time.
Torontoist puts out a "we're hiring" sign every couple of months, are there no applicants from North York and Scarborough and Etobicoke?
On the flip side, can someone from north of St Clair, west of Keele/Parkside, or east of Woodbine name ten article-worthy or otherwise interesting things that took place there in the last month?
I'll settle for west of Ossington, north of Bloor, east of University Ave.
"But yeah, the stuff you see in the annex/queen west is common to every city, a lot of what happens is just stuff we copied from other cities (critical mass, nuit blanche, hipsterism etc,). Toronto is truly special for what it's like in the suburbs, what it's like outside of the core. It's a bigger endeavour to try to capture that though, so I admit I'm a bit off in my criticism."
What happens in the suburbs is common to other cities as well. Yet we clearly have local interpretations on international concepts and philosophies. We have our own intellectuals, bands, artists, chefs, and architecture and Torontoist provides coverage. It's concentrated downtown, because it's the historical heart.
"And AR, Mansions, much less McMansions, aren't a common sight in North York. Maybe you should visit some time."
Actually, if you're aware of the term McMansion, they're typically more common then real mansions. In terms of mansions, there are plenty of 'em. The Bridle Path, Blythewood, and Yorkmills make an impression. The postwar bungalows in various parts of North York are sadly getting replaced by stuff like this house or, more conventionally, like this house. Is this the typical architecture of North York? Hardly. But it's hardly uncommon.
Not that common, Toronto's got a unique makeup and what happens in the suburbs here isn't also-ran, whereas what happens in the annex/queen west mostly is. But sure, this blog isn't for covering that kind of societal stuff, it's for daily events etc, and it does that well enough, albeit narrowly (even within the core).
As for McMansions, the parts of north york I frequent aren't populated by status seeking new rich.
My Toronto includes East York! REPREZENT!
hehe
Honestly, I don't know why we'd want to have a gawker of our own. Sure, I might take issue with the obvious bias on this site, but at least you report on real issues. Not on where Madonna's gonna live with Lourdes while she argues over the others with Guy.
"On the flip side, can someone from north of St Clair, west of Keele/Parkside, or east of Woodbine name ten article-worthy or otherwise interesting things that took place there in the last month?"
Still waiting...
rek, I can name two things in my hood that are mildly interesting:
1) St. Clair right-of-way, which has been covered to death
2) Artscape Wychwood Barns - look for this to be talked about soon enough. The opening gala's about to happen.
Not really a lot to write about, is it?