A couple weeks back, Spacing Wire posted this brilliant old TTC ad that made us hungry for more forgotten gems of Toronto advertising. The video in question was uploaded by a user calling themselves WNED 17, and their entire archive is made up of similar videos. In fact, their profile page provides a mission statement: "Youtube user WNED17 is proud to present repeat portions of broadcast captured in the 1980s and early 1990s via......

Near Manulife Financial: Bloor East citizens would like less poo in their public spaces. With condo fever gripping the still-shabby southeast corner of Bloor and Yonge due to the future One Bloor 80-storey tower, the Bloor East Neighbourhood Association (BENA) met Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre (333 Bloor Street East) to discuss how their little stretch of street could be transformed to rival the world-class reputation of Bloor West. BENA, representing ratepayers along......

Photo by gbalogh from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The Star's Jack Lakey, aka The Fixer, is invaluable. There is no better way to elicit a favourable response from the City bureaucracy than by sicking him on a case of civic neglect. It really is the most consistent way to get things done in Toronto. (The TPSC got Viacom to fulfill their contractual obligation to put street names on transit shelters simply by getting him......

Today at 2:00 a.m., University of Toronto law graduates received an email from their alma mater, stating that an "unprecedented announcement" would be made at 1:00 p.m. today and inviting them to join the law school "for this special moment" via webcast. Breathless even by U of T law standards, the email left alumni everywhere in suspense. Would it be the launch of a new global declaration on human rights? An announcement that justice had......

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. December will bring about the demolition of the building at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor to make way for the gargantuan condo development known as One Bloor East. Urbanist is generally supportive of the condo boom since it means more people......

On July 27 of this year, 75-year-old Antonio Batista was found guilty of making death threats against his Mississauga city councillor for writing and distributing around his neighbourhood a poem which concluded with the following passage:We are going to dig a pothole about six feet and 3 feet wide and 5 feet deep to hide her body and God will take care of Her Soul, but we cannot forgive her for doing nothing. She......

Ever marvel at the architecture of Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall and the Ontario Legislature in Queen's Park? Those lovely red-brick buildings, dear friends, are the legacy of Toronto's vernacular building material—sweet slabs formed from the banks of the Don herself. From 1889 to 1980, the Don Valley Brick Works made some of the highest quality brick in the land. Why, in 1893, the Don Valley brick was crowned Best Brick at the Chicago World's......

Dual protests are set for tomorrow afternoon in Vancouver and Toronto in an effort to maintain media awareness of the misuse of force by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that led to the death of Robert Dziekanski, captured on...

Continuing a historic tradition of corporately sponsored holiday cheer, the 35-foot "Swarovski Crystal Wish Tree" was formally unveiled last night at the Eaton Centre. The star-studded event––a Children’s Wish Foundation fundraiser hosted by Justin Trudeau (yes, the Justin Trudeau)––drew a sizeable crowd of shoppers. Very few members of the audience seemed to actually know what they were lining up to see, though, as the tree was hidden by an enormous curtain for the better part......

Toronto has been called a city of neighbourhoods: The Beach, Yorkville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, The Annex; all have their defining characteristics that make them appealing to locals as well as visitors. And when it comes down to it, most of these areas are well-defined by the intersection of two major streets. Photo by Cari Miller What are we doing at Bayview & Eglinton? It’s a fair enough question to ponder. After all, there’s not......

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. While Toronto has been making headlines in recent years for its investment in artistic institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Ottawa has been in the spotlight of late because......

A few months ago, Torontoist wrote about the practice of façadism in the downtown core. Façadism—which refers to the practice of retaining the front face, or "skin," of an old building and affixing it to a newer, usually larger structure—has become increasingly popular in recent years as the city continues to grow up and out at its breakneck pace. Façadism began to be seen in Ontario after the 1975 Heritage Act, which gave municipalities......

Last week, Maple Leaf Gardens quietly turned 76. When the Gardens was sold to Loblaw in 2004, it appeared that the grocery store chain would fast-track the historic building into a supermarket. Now the projected summer 2007 construction date has come and gone, and nothing has changed since Torontoist covered the Gardens' 75th anniversary. We worried that the Gardens would be neglected while Loblaw dealt with its financial woes and ailing restructuring of existing......

It's not news that, especially in recent years, a lot of passionate, involved and interested/interesting riders really do give a damn about what the TTC is up to. It's also not news, however, that the TTC is famous for leaving a bad taste in its collective riders' mouths. From its unveiling of crappy transit merchandise (despite ample feedback on merchandise people actually want) to its crappy rider survey (which Torontoist reconfigured to get more......

Toronto councillor Paula Fletcher wants Toronto Public Health to officially categorize bedbugs as a "health hazard," as opposed to their current status, "nuisance,"—that's not a joke; "nuisance" is apparently the official term—after our dear city has seen a recent upsurge...

The proposal: With the U.S. greenback falling in value, Councillor Howard Moscoe wants to ban the use of American coins in parking meters and on the TTC. The stupid statement: "The city's going to lose millions if it continues to accept them." The upgrade cost to reject non-Canadian currency: $450 per parking meter (there are 3,000 of them). The likelihood that TTC employees are going to sort through the fare box: No chance in......

TTC EMPLOYEES WANTED PAY: 26.58/hr JOB REQUIREMENTS: • Able to be rude and unhelpful • Must be constantly late • Willing to waste tax payer moneyTTC service, union wages, and graffiti. If this post gets fewer than thirty comments, we'll be very sad. Thanks to Corinne Alstrom for the tip! And thanks to the people who helped decipher the hard-to-read middle bullet point. Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie, at the southwest street-level entrance to......

Poor OCAP. They can't even complain about the police watching them without the police watching them. At noon on Wednesday, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a press conference (not a rally or an action or a march but...

The Toronto Star. July 18, 2007. Joe Fiorito column: The other day I noticed a Red Rocket, defaced from stem to stern with a depiction of a bottle of vodka and the comely legs of a party girl whose dress was hiked up around her thighs. Let me count the ways this is wrong. But first, my bona fides. I grew up during the sexual revolution. I also learned a variety of useful lessons......

Photo by Try Hank from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The entries are in for our Posted Toronto/Torontoist Flags For All Neighbourhood Flags Contest, and the batch is pretty eclectic. Steven Murray from the National Post and Torontoist's Marc Lostracco...