Evergreen Centre, a prominent downtown drop-in space that serves homeless and disadvantaged youth between the ages of 16 and 24, is planning to terminate the majority of its drop-in programming in early June. Evergreen would be the third local youth drop-in space to close its doors in the past year: Dufferin Mall Youth Services closed [...]

“No person shall, without approval of the general manager, camp, dwell or lodge on a street.” If that sounds familiar, it may be because we first discussed those words last month. They are—or were—part of a proposed new streets harmonization bylaw, which attempts to bring order to a patchwork of regulations left over from pre-amalgamation [...]

WHERE: Roncesvalles Avenue WHEN: Evening of October 18 WHAT: A memorial for Tony Clemens, who passed away on Roncesvalles on October 18 following a recent surgery and a fight with lung cancer, among other health problems. Clemens was a recognizable neighbourhood figure and a source of news and gossip about the street’s tight-knit community through [...]

Despite assurances to the contrary from the City, advocates for affordable housing are concerned that a little-known provision of a proposed new streets bylaw harmonization will effectively outlaw homelessness in Toronto. The draft Streets Bylaw is an attempt to harmonize seven existing bylaws (one for each of the former municipalities, plus Metro Toronto) that govern [...]

June Callwood watches over Cathy Crowe as she delivers the fifth annual June Callwood Lecture. Cathy Crowe remembers June Callwood as “a real doer.” Crowe (a community health nurse) met Callwood (a journalist-cum-activist) when Crowe was new to her job and assigned to volunteer at Nellie’s, helping with the shelter’s Sunday dinner. A single mother, [...]

One of Marie Day’s original drawings of Edward from the children’s book Edward the “Crazy Man.” About 10 years ago, theatre designer and children’s author Marie Day, a longtime Cabbagetown resident, was walking down Parliament Street when a man dressed elaborately in a robe of green and orange garbage bags and dancing down the sidewalk [...]

This tent, constructed by street artist Sean Martindale out of a street advertisement for a condo development, remained in Trinity Bellwoods Park for nearly three weeks before it attracted the City’s notice. Almost a month ago, we wrote about a project by street artist Sean Martindale, who had “liberated” a bunch of condo street advertisements [...]

Photo courtesy of Greystone Books. It’s not unusual for Dave Bidini to travel the world on various near-spiritual sports retreats; he’s written books on the origin and heart of baseball and hockey that have taken him to Italy, Romania, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. But finding himself travelling to Australia with some of [...]

The G20 is coming! The G20 is coming! It’s easy to catch Summit Fever this June, what with every major news outlet in the country covering what might just be the biggest event of the summer (if, you know, you don’t like soccer). Much has been made of the intended discussions, the possible agreements, and [...]

The recession may be officially over for the moment, but it is still unclear what the residual effects will be on the everyday life of Canadians. That’s why for Dr. Mike Wood Daly, executive director of Ground Level Youth Ventures, there was much to celebrate as the Ground Level Café opened its doors to the [...]

Photo by choochootheband. For a Torontonian, walking through downtown Detroit on an ordinary Saturday afternoon is an eerie, Rod Serling–esque experience: where’re all the people? Nobody’s around. From time to time a rolling vehicle will pass by, on the lookout for a safe lot. It is a desolate, almost post-nuclear dystopia, where every storefront and [...]