Disgruntled Star Editor Takes Constructive Revenge
Over Time, How Fairly Have TTC Fares Fared?
Drop Fees, End Poverty! And Also Do All These Other Things!
Kensington Market's Business, Soon to be Improved
Hog-O-Vision
Masthead
Editors-in-Chief Associate Editor Freelance Editor Books Editor Contributing Editors |
Copy Editors Jennifer Alexopoulos Social Media Director Urban Planners |
Contributors | |
Todd Aalgaard |
Nick Kozak
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Editors-in-Chief
David Topping | |
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Called a "gadfly" by the Globe and compared to Don Quixote by the Post, David Topping probably falls somewhere between relentless nuisance and hopeless idealist. Born in the quiet west end and transplanted downtown to attend the University of Toronto, he has had ample time to develop a lot of love, a bit of hate, and several lifetimes worth of ambivalence for his city. He is probably most famous for taking photos of TTC stations, which he hopes isn't still the case by the time he dies. |
Marc Lostracco | |
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Blown into Toronto from smalltown Ontario, Marc is more tolerant of the smells emanating from a horse than those arising from a city sewer. Still, he loves this city like a fat kid loves cake, except less so in the winter. Marc left Torontoist in 2008 to concentrate on adopting a kid (it happened) but got sucked back in à la Al Pacino in Godfather III, despite the discovery that parenthood totally screws up one's priorities. When he’s not blogging, he’s working on hippie stuff like film, TV, design, and photography. |
Associate Editor
Hamutal Dotan | |
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Hamutal is a recovering grad student currently living in the west end. After a stint studying with rabbis in Jerusalem (brief, apocalyptic) and another studying with philosophers in Pittsburgh (protracted, angst-y), she has returned to her hometown to see what life outside the ivory tower might hold. Hamutal is equally compelled to write about architecture, farmers' markets, and city council meetings, which makes her either a Renaissance woman or a dilettante, depending on your point of view. Tutorials on the pronunciation of her name are gladly provided upon request. |
Freelance Editor
Ashley Carter | |
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Ashley is a film school dropout turned journalism grad with fine words in fine places like Exclaim!, Vice, Broken Pencil, and the bathroom wall at your parents' house. She co-founded JUICEBOXdotcom, a Toronto-based PWYC record label/event promoter/advanced neurosurgical practice lab, and spends far too many sunshine-y hours in dark venues and bars. You don't know her, but she knows you. And she's not overly impressed. Jokes! She thinks you are pretty alright. |
Books Editor
James Grainger | |
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James Grainger is the former review editor and a current contributing editor to Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine of book news and reviews. He is also a books columnist for the Toronto Star, a regular host at the International Readings at Harbourfront series and a contributor to Elle Canada, Driven, Rue Morgue and other magazines. His debut work of fiction, The Long Slide (ECW Press), won the ReLit Award for best short story collection. |
Contributing Editors
Jamie Bradburn | |
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Jamie Bradburn was born in the deep southwest of Ontario, moving to Toronto just before the turn of the century (though he forgets if it was 1899 or 1999). He figures exploring the city and its past is a way to know his surroundings better and justify his history minor in university. He has also discovered his camera has fused itself to his hand, which is great for snapping pictures but lousy for most physical tasks. Online, you'll find Jamie hanging out at JB's Warehouse and Curio Emporium and his Flickr. |
Steve Kupferman | |
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Steve is a relative newcomer to Toronto. He was born in the state of New York, where he spent over two decades waiting for his chance to sneak across the border. He was all set to lash together some inner-tubes and plywood so he could make a go of it on the choppy seas of Lake Ontario. But then U of T accepted him—so that worked out nicely. He's since earned a master's degree, and has spent much of his spare time exploring an urban landscape he suspects he won't ever be able to see enough of.
Writing for Torontoist is just another one of his ploys to insinuate himself into the fabric of his new home. It sure beats the inner-tubes. |
Nicole Villeneuve | |
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Nicole is a transplanted Haligonian who actually became less skeptical of this great city by reading Torontoist, so she's really glad they let her join staff. She is a full-time employee and a part-time student and writer who always forgets to get her hair cut, but doesn't forget much else. Her sense of humour probably most resembles your dad's. |
Copy Editors
Jennifer Alexopoulos | |
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An incurable insomniac, Jennifer often passes the wee hours writing complaint letters about poor grammar to governmental bodies, organizations, and unsuspecting bloggers. As a result, she's convinced she's been barred from visiting a long list of public and private spaces. When not trying to rid the world of errant apostrophes, Jennifer is an adventure sports enthusiast and traveller. While she can ramble at length about many sketchy adventures, her biggest advice to others is never to jump on the back of an ostrich. Jennifer can often be found running trails around the city with other people's dogs. She tries not to lose them. |
Meg Campbell | |
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Meg was born in Oakville, spent her formative years in Calgary, went back to Oakville for high school, and escaped to Toronto as soon as she started studying art at U of T. And after spending a frightful number of years in or near the Annex, she can tell you what it means to know too much about a neighbourhood. Meg now writes and edits things for a living and also sifts through some (very) short story submissions and posts them here. She's also into local infrastructure, local politics, local arts and media, and very local wildlife (her cat, Gustav). She has an unhealthy grammar and punctuation obsession—hence, the copy editing. Psst: her real name is Meagan, but no one really uses that, unless they are her employer...or her mom. |
Social Media Director
Andrew Louis | |
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Andrew grew up in Scarborough (maybe you've heard rumours of this land?) but now calls the Annex home. When he's not taking photos or helming Torontoist's Twitter account (he maintains that he's not a "Social Media Expert") he's slowly disentangling himself from UofT and writing software for a living. He's a man of few vices but can finish a bag of nachos in a sitting and naps slightly more than necessary. He also has a blog. |
Staff
Todd Aalgaard | |
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Todd Aalgaard is an Islander of B.C. extraction, but threw a dart at the map in 1999 and ended up in Toronto. After studying anthropology at York University, he became a writer, musician, freelance journalist, web-ordained minister, and that guy who's not around enough but will totally buy you a drink once he gets paid. Having appeared in places like MONDOmagazine and Momentum, Todd's friends and family best describe him as "tall." Get him drunk enough and he'll probably write a song about you. |
Christopher Bird | |
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The Explosively Talented Christopher Bird (or the ETCB to his family and friends) has worked in no particular order as a filmmaker, waiter, administrative assistant, script doctor, freelance writer, freelance character assassin, web monkey, teaching assistant and hobo who dances for quarters. He is now a student at Osgoode Hall Law School, so Shakespeare wants you to kill him first. Everything he writes that The Man won't allow you to read on Torontoist can be found at mightygodking.com. |
Kasandra Bracken | |
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Some summers ago, Kasandra left a big house in the world's largest hamlet and relocated to an apartment one block away from the busiest pedestrian square in Canada. She made the move for the best journalism program in the nation, yet was wary of the scary city, petrified of nearly three million potential pickpockets. Thus far unscathed (no jinx intended), Kasandra has come to terms with her clichéd "falling in love with the city", and when she's not writing (about the aformentioned city), she likes taking part in the art of Lomography, working towards her master's in Wikipedia, and listening to as much Beach Boys as possible. |
Michael Chrisman | |
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Michael is a born explorer. He spends his time delving into places most people don't know exist or at least prefer to pretend they don't exist. Alleyways, industrial brownfields, vast parking lots; the modern landscape. Michael's interest in the not-so-fine line where the natural environment and the man-made environment meet has influenced his professional work greatly. He splits his time between environmental design and photography to the detriment (and sometimes benefit) of both. Born on the west coast of the United States and raised in Toronto's suburbs, Michael is grateful to have called Toronto home for the past eight years. |
Lori Dance | |
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There is little that can be said about Lori Dance that could instead be expressed on an ironic t-shirt so, really, why bother? In other news, she’s a Toronto copywriter, copy editor, proofreader, and SEO writer who has recently discovered that hiking for hours into some godforsaken forest (and sleeping there) is actually kind of fun. When she’s doing none of the aforementioned activities, she enjoys playing video games, shaking her fist at the kids these days, and hanging out with Ilse, her three-legged cat. Because she hasn’t yet reached her 120-word limit, she’ll share with you her personal motto: “Always expect the worst. When it doesn’t happen, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Oh, and yes—that is her real name. |
Val Dodge | |
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Val is a lifelong east ender who has believed since the age of ten that the west end begins at Yonge St. He started talking to strangers at the same age and discovered that it was the best way to learn about Toronto. Val's habit of wandering aimlessly throughout the city allows him to spend a lot of time looking up at his surroundings, to the constant annoyance of the people he bumps into and curbs he trips over. The most important lesson he's learned in life is that it doesn't hurt to ask. |
Amanda Factor | |
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Amanda Factor has never lived anywhere besides Toronto and isn't gonna. Got that?! She works as a closed captioning editor, which means she gets paid to add sound effect descriptions to the fight scenes in Walker, Texas Ranger. She considers herself painfully uncool because she is constantly "discovering" "new" bands that have been cool for like a year (Have you heard of Vampire Weekend? They're awesome!) In addition to writing for Torontoist, Amanda loves throwing vegan dinner parties (play your cards right and maybe you'll get invited to one). Oh, yeah, and she will out-Simpsons quote you, right here, right now. |
David Fleischer | |
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If you google "David Fleischer" you should know that: first, he is not a Brazilian economics expert; and second, he does not write for The Advocate (not that there's anything wrong
with that!). A native North Yorker, he has written for the National Post and Post City Magazines (no relation) and is a co-founding editor of Afterword, Canada's national Jewish student newspaper. Really. David writes stories no one has published and once wrote songs and played guitar in a band called Urban Cactus. It featured several people who are now sufficiently successful that it would be pathetic to so much as drop their names. |
Alex Nino Gheciu | |
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Alex can most often be found slumming it in Rexdale, where he bathes publicly and competes in tiddlywinks tournaments for grocery money. He has attained degrees in Professional Writing and Political Science from York University, which means he can maneuver a fork with exquisite finesse. In his spare time, when he’s not auditioning for the next season of From G’s to Gents, he’s usually slamming your favourite band in Eye Weekly. If you ever feel deeply insulted by one of his reviews, he is prepared to make amends by throwing a sorbet party in your honour. Otherwise, if you want beef, he’s got plenty. |
Kaori Furue | |
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Kaori is basically a white girl due to having grown up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. She sadly never became fluent in Japanese and thus cannot properly pronounce her own name, which is utterly unique according to Google. She writes technical documentation and tests software for a living, but spends the rest of her time eating and writing about what she ate. Her adventures big and small (mostly small and mostly about food) can be found at her unfortunately named blog: I can’t believe I’m back in Toronto. |
Clayton Hanmer | |
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Clayton (CTON) Hanmer is a Toronto-based creative guy. He has partnered with many good folks over the years ranging from The Globe & Mail, NY Times, and The Walrus to Owl Kids, National Geographic Kids, Nickelodeon, and YTV. His scope of work includes writing/illustrating children’s books & magazine columns, editorial illustration, corporate design and advertising, and a bunch of other fun things. He also creates two regular online comic series, Hog-O-Vision (for Torontoist), and Rodeo Magic (for Open Book: Toronto). One day, he might get a real job. |
Amanda Happé | |
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Amanda grew up around, but not in, Toronto, and now can't imagine calling anywhere else home. She is a communication designer by day, but not by night. Before joining a design studio, Amanda worked in the arts, with a background in contemporary gallery practices and the curation of historical museum collections. She studied art at university, specializing in painting and printmaking, and maintains a painting and photography practice. An accidental writer, Amanda spends the majority of her time walking to her destinations, taking photos, and making images. |
Stephen Johns | |
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Stephen Johns is a proud Northwestern Ontarian who nonetheless spent his childhood wishing he could live in Toronto. It took him twenty-four years (not to mention a five-year layover at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario) before his wish finally came true; three years later and he's now an erstwhile Torontonian who's scratching together a meager existence in Calgary, Alberta while plotting his eventual return. Steve cares far too much about the fortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Minnesota Vikings and Manchester United for his own good; the rest of his life is generally devoted to reading, going to musical theatre and worshipping at the altars of the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. He's currently trying to figure out to incorporate his myriad interests into a lucrative career with minimal hours. |
Nick Kozak | |
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Nick Kozak is a Polak, but he was born in the Middle East in the fine country of Kuwait. At six months of age his parents drove with him west through warring states in a Volkswagen minibus, but would not settle in France—no, these migrating bohemians chose Toronto. A year never went by without leaving the country on some trip and, since graduating from U of T in 2005, Nick has pretty much spent all of his time abroad travelling, working, and studying. With a completed MA in Photography in China, he has returned to Toronto, and thinks that his travel experience should allow him to connect with the multiculturalism of this town. Hopping from one 416 (or 905) area to another to photograph will be a lot cheaper, too. |
Tony Makepeace | |
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Tony Makepeace (panoramaist) was born in Montreal and experiments with photographic processes, from 19th century to current. He is currently on the faculty of the Visual and Creative Arts program at Sheridan Institute. Feel free to contact him with your questions regarding optics, chromatic aberration, and toning formulas. He will also take questions of a general nature. |
Stephen Michalowicz | |
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Stephen was born in Toronto and raised in the suburban utopia of Etobicoke. After studying history and political science at the University of Toronto, he went on to complete his Master’s in American history at the University of Western Ontario. When he’s not napping, listening to political podcasts, or sorting through historical documents, he can often be found composing bizarre articles for his blog. |
Quin Parker | |
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Quin Parker is from the east of Toronto. Very far east, that is: London, England. He's a freelance writer and editor, with over five years' experience in online news and features, and has kept a blog in one form or another since 2001. He has indeed been in Toronto during winter, thanks for asking, and he'd still rather live in Canada than the UK any day. In his spare time, Quin experiments with posting Canadian food items back home (the honey krullers arrived intact, the poutine less so), cajoles people from Mississauga to take public transit, and practices saying "England" after he says "London." He also blogs about expat life in Toronto. |
Brenda Petroff | |
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Brenda spent an undisclosed number of years city-hopping around Canada, inevitably returning to her Torontonian roots. Her bubble of GTA competency is embarrassingly tiny due, in part, to her excessive fear of anything suburban. Brenda is a practicing intern architect with an Ivy League education and a hidden passion for math games and extra-dark chocolate. As a self-proclaimed Archinista, critiquing and perfecting the aesthetics of everything in sight has become a pleasure born through necessity. Brenda is currently working on reducing her carbon footprint and injecting the city with exciting, innovative spaces. |
Sasha Plotnikova | |
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Restless and nomadic, Sasha finds herself hopping from one home to the next, but west end Toronto will always be her stomping ground. At the moment, she's at McGill working away at an undergrad in Art History and Urban Systems while delegating a team of illustrators at the student paper. In her spare time, Sasha engages in flânerie and the occasional catastrophic bike accident, but she always seems to emerge unharmed, ink bottle and sketchpad in hand. |
Kevin Plummer | |
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Kevin Plummer grew up in Saskatchewan then bumped around Canada with stints living on the west coast and the east coast, before finally arriving here in the middle. Now, whenever he needs escape from the clichéd existence of a cubicle worker, he stumbles out to wander the city he loves. He’s got a very diverse set of interests from urban affairs and history to classic film noir to obscure soul music, and finding new ways to procrastinate. |
Kimahli Powell |
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Kimahli is interested in all things culture and politics. A political science major out of University of Ottawa, Kimahli currently works for the Inside Out LGBT Film and Video Festival as their Director of Development (a.k.a “money getter”), and moonlights as a theatre director, most recently directing trey anthony’s Secrets of a Black Boy. Nestled in Kensington Market, Kimahli’s likes include food and running. Dislikes include people who crowd at the front of the streetcar when the back is empty. Follow him at kpowblog.blogspot.com. |
Posterchild | |
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Posterchild is a Street Artist, now living in Toronto. He creates public installations (or "Street Art" pieces) that are both playful and political in order to engage with his environment and those who share it with him. You can see his work at Blade Diary.com. |
Robin Rix | |
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Born and raised in Toronto (thanks, Mom and Dad!), Robin now lives in Bonn, Germany. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of Oxford, he works in climate change and emissions trading policy. Interests include politics, travel, maps, and the Beatles (and he has duly made a pilgrimage to Liverpool). Robin has contributed a chapter to Notes from Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up for Change, wrote Canada25's annual policy report, Canadians & the Common Good: Building a Civic Nation through Civic Engagement, and is a previous national winner of Magna's annual "As Prime Minister..." essay competition. |
Miles Storey | |
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Miles is a professional web developer—or "designer" if he's in hip company. A Brit by birth, Miles grew up on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and thus doesn't get any TV references from the 70s. With the tropics in his blood Miles has never been one for settling down. He is a seasoned traveller who has lived in various parts of the world in the last thirty-something years before finding a relative stability in Toronto. As well as photography Miles also enjoys books, films and the music of Tom Waits. Miles's favourite thing about Toronto is the streetcars, I mean, it's like a train but on the street, how frickin' cool is that? |
Johnnie Walker | |
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Johnnie Walker is a playwright and actor who lives in Little Italy. He spends his time producing his own plays with the theatre company he founded, reviewing other people's for this very blog, and having his bicycle stolen. He has lived in Toronto his entire life and likes absolutely everything about it. Except for all the bike theft. And yes, that is his real name. |
Urban Planners
Colleen Hale-Hodgson | |
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Colleen is a professional writing (read: journalism) graduate who currently works in a field she has no training for (graphic design). She grew up mostly in Cobourg, Ont., but considers Toronto to be her home since this is where all her stuff is now. She's the type of person who references Bob Dylan trivia on a daily basis ("I see you're putting mayo on your french fries, Judas."). A jack of all trades, master of none, Colleen likes to roam Toronto and photograph interesting things, write poetry, collect instruments she never learns how to play, and produce landscape paintings that her more arty friends say "aren't very good." She was once told by an Indigo employee that all you need to get a book published is to be pretty. She hopes to one day obtain the perfect glamour shot so she can finally finish that novel she's been working on. |
Alison Horn | |
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Alison was born and raised in Brantford and spent a few years meandering through Ontario before settling in Toronto's west end. She spends her days fostering the intellectual development of young children. Finding herself often amazed and always entertained by her students, Alison sincerely hopes that many of her pupils will participate in a "Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids" event in twenty years or so. When she is not guiding children along the path of enlightenment, Alison can be found wandering the neighbourhoods of this city, often talking to strangers and failing to look both ways before crossing the street. She enjoys jewellery making, midnight baking, tea sipping, and road tripping. Alison has an inordinate fondness for fresh sheets, all-day breakfast, thrift shops, and lazing under lilac bushes. She is currently working on her first self-published cookbook. |
Anne Joyce |
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Anne was raised in Governor's Bridge Area, a tiny neighbourhood of mythic proportions, in a TV-less home stocked ceiling-high with books. She attended the same elementary and high schools as Margaret Atwood, who inspired her to write from an early age. Although Anne escaped to Montreal to study creative writing, Toronto lured her back. Her poetry and fiction explore the impact of urban landscapes on characters lucky enough to suffer from "outsider syndrome." While her job as a web producer is a huge (and enjoyable) part of her life, Anne still finds time to plug away at her forever-in-progress novel, The Twin Complex, engage in all things social media, sneak backstage at rock shows, and cause trouble all about town. |
Vicky Peters | |
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Writer, photographer and unemployed film industry veteran Vicky Peters returned last year from a self-imposed "wet coast" exile that never managed to shake her Toronto roots. She joined the staff at Torontoist after pondering the idea of city-as-muse and coming to the conclusion that Toronto may be hers. That home-town inspiration might also explain the two recent novels set here—one in the past, one in the future—and a semi-fictional tome (in development) that stretches back fifteen generations on this part of the continent. So far, her novel-writing's on the down-low, but she hopes to change that. On the other hand, when Torontoist was picked as the city's best blog in NOW, she had a bit of a Johnny Fever moment—believing up to that point that no one was actually reading her posts. |
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