The TTC is many things: essential, frustrating, a lifesaver, a hassle, sometimes friendly, sometimes dirty, sometimes slow. And sometimes, just plain beautiful. Another thing about the TTC: it tends to attract map-makers. There are fantasy maps picturing what a dream transit system might look like in 2030, dynamic maps which show you where streetcars are [...]

“If you have ghosts,” sings Roky Erickson, “then you have everything.” If we’re to take the lyrics of this rock icon at face value, then Toronto certainly has everything. Our urban lore is rife with tales of wraiths, poltergeists, hexes, demons, and just plain spooks. Queen’s Park is plagued by a host of harpies. The [...]

It’s no secret the daily commute in and out of Toronto is dreadful. No one needs reminding—our city’s traffic congestion ranks among the world’s worst. Don’t despair. There’s a place right here in, or rather, above Toronto, where on average 90,000 commuters regularly enter and leave the city, yet traffic flow continues interrupted. Orderly, organized, [...]

Last week, the City of Toronto launched the beta version of Wellbeing Toronto, a brand new website that lets users map and compare social, civic, and economic indicators, and rank the results by neighbourhood.

A screengrab of the map showing Grade 3 reading test results in Toronto. The full interactive version is available here. Every year, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), an independent agency funded by the Ontario government, conducts province-wide tests of elementary and high school students to assess how well those students are handling the [...]

Teen pregnancy, teased-out hair, and Joey Jeremiah’s fedoras: Degrassi Junior High had it all. Long before the likes of Drake and other airbrushed teens reclaimed the famous fictional school for the noughties, the first season of DJH changed not only after-school programming but Canadian television. Critically acclaimed for its frank take on social issues (now [...]

If your attitudes towards to the world were steeped in repetitive viewings of The Kids in the Hall, then chances are you feel a good deal of civic pride living in Toronto. Though the bulk of the seminal comedy show’s sketches and short films were shot at the CBC studios, savvy viewers (and Torontonians) may [...]

Did you guys know they shoot movies in Toronto? It’s true! They shoot all kinds of movies. Big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, artful Canadian dramas, wistful indies, all sorts of stuff. And with the recent announcement that Toronto would be hosting its biggest-budgeted production to date, the forthcoming remake of the 1990 sci-fi epic Total Recall (starring [...]

Map by Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute. The map of Toronto, above—created by research associates at Richard Florida’s Martin Prosperity Institute, or MPI, and released last week as part of a series of mayoral election–themed research briefs—depicts a city divided not by political affiliation (as the electoral colour scheme indicates), but by occupation [...]

Many of Toronto’s avid cyclists are aware of our network of bike trails, but for the most part, the slice of pseudo-wilderness cutting a swath through the Don Valley and along Taylor Creek is one of the city’s most woefully neglected attractions. Those who use it may like it that way (its obscurity keeps bike [...]

Eric Fischer is the Internet’s latest mapping superstar. Using geotagging data from Flickr and Picasa, the thirty-seven-year-old programmer and California resident recently generated a series of maps to visually illustrate major cities’ most heavily photographed areas. Fischer has applied his technique to dozens of locations, including London, Paris, Montreal, and yes, as you can see [...]