As children, we rarely questioned why we played the games we did. The games were fun or boring and one game might be favoured over another, but the act of play itself was a foregone conclusion. Somehow, as adults, this sense of play has dissipated and been replaced by a focus on productivity. Yet, an emerging body of research suggests play has value, even if the main objective of the game isn’t tethered to those rewards. Now Torontonians looking for a new way to play can turn to Recess.TO, a meetup started this year that presents an updated, adult take on the kind of games played in schoolyards.

Cities are mutable, both culturally and creatively. Driven by a sometimes carnivorous impulse, the metropolis feeds on its own past, the various pasts of its individual neighbourhoods, in order to evolve into a future version of itself. But what remains of the past? Can we track the cultural, artistic, and social bonds of an area, map the essence of any given ’hood in its progression through time? How is the integral artistic spirit of a place—in the form of art, music, theatre, and storytelling—kept alive in the present?

There was an article in April 18th’s Globe and Mail that began by labelling Kensington Market “the site of the next big battle for gentrification” in Toronto. The central figure in that article was realtor Phil Pick, of Esbin Realty, whose “for lease” signs hang or have until recently hung in the windows of five [...]

Photos by Nick Kozak/Torontoist. Who is moving into the main space in the development at Queen Street West and Portland, abandoned two months by Home Depot? Torontoist got a tip yesterday afternoon that a new primary retail tenant has been locked down, but according to RioCan, the property’s keepers, that’s just not the case. Torontoist [...]

A price has been put on west-end authenticity, and apparently it’s $20. As of today, the Save OSsington T-shirt is available for purchase, the badge of a newly launched local campaign to provoke critical discussion on issues of gentrification and neighbourhood transformation. The organizers intend to “spark dialogue among business owners, residents, and general advocates [...]

Just off West Queen West, around the corner from 48 Abell and the Drake Hotel, on the wall of a long blue warehouse complex that is supposed to come down shortly to make room for a condo, stands Mr. Loogie. It’s a façade in more ways than one. A constructed storefront for a constructed store, [...]

Have a closer look at the posters on 234 Augusta Avenue after the jump. Photos by Jonathan Goldsbie.

When trying to solve the problem of the lack of affordable housing, the thinkers and planners and innovators and design enthusiasts come up with some pretty creative ideas. Like the IKEA House, for example, or the notion of shipping container architecture. A group of Toronto activists are proposing a “use it or lose it” bylaw [...]

Former Torontoist contributor Ted Healey came across a great find at the Wellesley & Ontario condo and townhouse development known as “The Star of Downtown.” Previously the subject of an Ugly Stick here on Torontoist, the condo’s advertisements have seen plenty of scorn since they were put up. The latest addition to the front facade [...]

The elite of the documentary film world gathered this morning at Revival for a press conference announcing the lineup of this year’s Hot Docs festival. It’s a powerhouse program, which TVO’s Rudy Buttingnol attributes to the filmmakers and the growing importance of the medium. “Documentaries are helping change the way people think,” says Buttingnol, who [...]