Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist. Start with a filling, usually beef. Add varying degrees of spiciness. Cover with golden, flaky pastry. Result: a staple of Jamaican cuisine. Whether you buy one that’s [...]

In typical fashion, we’ve all been talking for decades about a fixed rail link between the busiest airport in Canada and the busiest surface transit hub in Canada, but despite near-universal agreement on its necessity, the project is still vapour. The $200 million+ Blue22 plan designed in the mid-’90s was originally slated for completion right [...]

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...

After intense public backlash over a boneheaded plan to expropriate the storied Matador Club and obliterate it into a paved slab, the Toronto Parking Authority has backed down. Thanks in large part to the Save The Matador movement, today’s afternoon TPA meeting experienced some expropriation of its own when about forty supporters descended upon Meeting [...]

Photos by mishkaoutofcontrol from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Except to its frequent clientele, Toronto’s legendary Matador Club is best known as the setting to Leonard Cohen’s “Closing Time,” which laments a place that “got wrecked by the winds of change.” The Matador’s been around since 1914. Built as a dance hall for WWI soldiers, it [...]