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A press release from the City of Toronto today sure to strike fear into the hearts of commuters and downtown residents: the intersection of Queen and Spadina will be shut down to all vehicular traffic from 5 a.m. on this upcoming Monday, July 9, until 6 p.m. on Monday, July 23. The closure is to allow the TTC to continue its track-replacement work. Pedestrians will be able to continue accessing the intersection, which will hopefully take the sting out of things for businesses on the adjacent blocks.

Toronto, we often hear, needs to get over its insecurities and embrace itself—stop worrying and wondering what others think, and enjoy the city we have. One excellent way to do this: Jane’s Walk.

Held the first weekend in May in cities across the world, Jane’s Walk celebrates the life of urban theorist Jane Jacobs, and the attitude of urban appreciation she cultivated in her work. Volunteers sign up to create and lead tours which are as varied and eclectic as life in the city, exploring everything from edible gardens to historical homes to social and political issues.

Because the schedule, with its dozens upon dozens of walks, can be daunting, we’ve pulled out a few themes and suggested some walks for each. Some Jane’s Walks to consider if:

• …you have kids, or are one (either actually or at heart)
• …you’re into burroughs and ‘burbs
• …you’d rather bike
• …you like parks
• …you want to find out for yourself whether St. Clair is a disaster or not
• …you’ve always wondered what’s at the west end of the Queen Streetcar line
• …you like eating your way across the city
• …you’re interested in social justice

Toronto: not just for grownups. While that is not, nor ever shall be, the city’s motto, it’s decent slogan material for the following kid-friendly city strolls. (Kelli Korducki)

TITLE: Toronto: City as Urban Playground

STARTS AT: Saturday, 10 a.m.

MEETING SPOT: Central fountain at Berczy Park, behind the Flatiron Building at Front and Church

Recommended for kids aged 5-12 years, this walk covers the ‘underground city’ of the PATH system, public art, and the financial district’s distinctly downtown-y architecture. It should also be mentioned that this walk includes a treasure hunt—for the kids, that is.

TITLE: These are the People in Your Neighbourhood

STARTS AT: Saturday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: In front of St. Anthony’s Church, 1041 Bloor Street West

This particular walk—a kid-guided neighbourhood tour that demonstrates how Sesame Street utopia can be found right here in the grand ol’ smoke—is an interactive performance piece brought to you by students from Ms. Brougham’s and Ms. Furdyk’s Grade 4/5 class at Dovercourt Public School.

TITLE: Why Cheap Parks are More Fun

STARTS AT: Sunday, 3 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: MacGregor Park (on the west side of Lansdowne about one block north of College)

Beginning and ending with grill pits and “campfire treats” at two area parks, this walk includes craft making, a show-and-tell of Lansdowne Avenue lore, and kid-friendly discussions about low-cost community approaches to invigorating public space.

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If you’re into burroughs and ‘burbs…

Toronto’s not just about the city centre, as Jane’s Walk helpfully reminds us. With walks further afield, the weekend invites downtown bubble-dwellers to be intrepid tourists of the megacity. (Kelli Korducki)

TITLE: Albion Road, Exploring the Fringe and its Food

STARTS AT: Sunday, 12 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Front Doors Sikh Spiritual Centre, 9 Carrier Drive, Rexdale

Guided by Sony Rai, this walk traces the influences of the area’s South Asian, Caribbean, and African diasporic communities through a jaunt down Albion Road. A chai break will be held in the middle of the excursion.

TITLE: Gleaning Walks

STARTS AT: Sunday, 4:15 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: 96 Cornell Park Avenue Markham

This tour begins in Cornell, Markham’s pedestrian-friendly planned enclave, and ambles into the York Durham Line beyond the Rouge, to pick apart the interaction between Greenbelt conservation and New Urbanism.

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If you’d rather bike…

Why Jane’s walk when you can Jane’s ride, with these bike’s-eye-view perspectives on the streets, backstreets, and non-existent streets around town. (Sarah-Joyce Battersby)

TITLE: Jane’s Bike Ride

STARTS AT: Sunday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Eglinton West Subway Station

For those more interested in the “Jane” part of Jane’s Walks than the walking part, the good people at Bike Pirates present a bike tour of Jane Jacobs’ Annex neighbourhood. The 90-minute jaunt will focus on what the area would look like if the Spadina Expressway had been built.

TITLE: Hidden Laneways of Ward 19 Bike Tour

STARTS AT: Sunday, 2 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Main gates of Trinity Bellwoods Park (Queen and Strachan)

The Toronto Cyclists Union (or should we say Cycle Toronto) will lead this tour through west-end back alleys. Pausing to note laneway landmarks like nice graffiti spots and tucked-away houses, the tour also promises to equip participants with some alternate routes to avoid traffic and one-ways.

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If you like parks…

Because, really, who doesn’t like a stroll through a park on a spring day? These walks in and around parklands, from the waterfront to the woods, will cover the terrain, the tactics, and the toilets that make up the city’s parks. Yes, we said toilets. (Sarah-Joyce Battersby)

TITLE: High Park Habitats

STARTS AT: Saturday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: 440 Parkside Drive

Strap on the hiking boots for an all-ages tour of the flora and fauna that inhabit High Park. At 90 minutes, the trek will cover wetlands, woodlands, and lands in between.

TITLE: Trinity Bellwoods Park

STARTS AT: Sunday, 1:30 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Northwest corner of Queen and Gore Vale

You think you know Trinity Bellwoods, but you have no idea. For instance, did you know the park was home to one of Toronto’s oldest trees? Check out this walk to hear the tale of the 200 year old Bitternut Hickory Tree, the park’s role in the War of 1812, and what happened to Garrison Creek.

TITLE: Why Cheap Parks Are More Fun

STARTS AT: Sunday, 3 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: MacGregor Park

This walk hits two parks—MacGregor and Campbell parks in the Lansdowne and Bloor area—and boasts a campfire at each end, complete with “campfire treats.” Leading the tour from one fire to the other is local firebrand Jutta Mason, a woman we can all thank for the wonderfulness that is Dufferin Grove Park. This walk will include a bit of history, some fun and games for the kids, and did we mention “campfire treats”? (Also recommended above, for those want to experience a kid-friendly walk.)

TITLE: How Parks Work: An Eastern Beaches Walkabout

STARTS AT: Sunday, 4 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Balmy Beach Club parking lot, at the foot of Beech Avenue

Lead by City staff, this walk gets into the nitty gritty of what goes into making a park, from the planks on the boardwalk to the newly renovated public washrooms. While the potty may not be the prettiest part of any park, there’s always the view of the lake to ease your eyes.

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If you want to find out for yourself whether St. Clair is a disaster or not…

If you believe Mayor Rob Ford and his pals, the installation of a streetcar right-of-way has destroyed St. Clair Avenue, leaving motorists angry and businesses faltering. But is St. Clair the hopeless basketcase those people make it out to be? Hardly—and these Jane’s Walks are out to prove it. (Jamie Bradburn)

TITLE: #StClairDisaster: Seeing is Believing

STARTS AT: Saturday, 2 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: St. Clair West Subway Station entrance, in front of Loblaws.

Journalist John Lorinc, who has written extensively about “the St. Clair Disaster” will show walkers “the good, the bad, and the indifferent” of post-ROW St. Clair Avenue. See if criticisms of local transit service and its implications on the rest of the city are valid or not.

TITLE: St. Clair Kick It! Soccer culture on St. Clair Avenue West

STARTS AT: Saturday, 5:30 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Chappa Corner Café, 1340 St. Clair Avenue West

Whenever global soccer fever hits Toronto, St. Clair Avenue is flooded by sports fans. Starting with Italy’s 1982 World Cup victory, the street has filled with honking cars and people waving the flags of their ancestral home. This walk promises “photography, anecdotes and debate, in multiple languages.”

TITLE: Changes in St. Clair West with the NEAT group

STARTS AT: Sunday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: North exit of St. Clair West station.

The NEAT (Newcomers Explore and Appreciate Toronto) West walking group explores the demographic and historical elements of a changing neighbourhood, including Wychwood Barns and the gentrification of St. Clair Avenue.

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The answer is three of Toronto’s earliest commuter suburbs: Long Branch, Mimico, and New Toronto. Explore one or all of these communities through the following walks. (Jamie Bradburn)

TITLE: Mimico-by-the-Lake

STARTS AT: Saturday, 11 a.m.

MEETING SPOT: Norris Crescent Parkette

A look back at Mimico’s history, and a discussion of its revitalization plan, Mimico 20/20.

TITLE: Long Branch: A walk along the “Main Street”

STARTS AT: Sunday, 10:30 a.m.

MEETING SPOT: Parking lot of Long Branch Beer Store, 3580 Lake Shore Boulevard West

An exploration of the business heart of Long Branch, Lake Shore Boulevard, which is springing back to life years after the construction of the Gardiner Expressway/Queen Elizabeth Way caused its decline. This walk will end at the Lakeshore Hospital Grounds, where it will meet up with a concurrent Long Branch stroll…

TITLE: Long Branch to the Lakeshore Hospital Grounds

STARTS AT: Sunday, 10:30 a.m

MEETING SPOT: East parking lot of Marie Curtis Park (Forty Second Street south of Lake Shore Boulevard West)

This walk examines the history of Long Branch, from prehistoric times to the 20th century. Learn how the area evolved from an aboriginal hunting ground to an early incarnation of cottage country, along with the story of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.

TITLE: New Toronto

STARTS AT: Sunday, 12:30 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Assembly Hall, 1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive

Discover why the Grid called New Toronto one of the city’s most underrated neighbourhoods.

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If you like eating your way across the city…..

Toronto, always interested in food, has been paying even more attention to the state of eating in our city of late. From food trucks rolling out across town to temporary restaurants popping-up in unexpected places to the availability of more (and better!) street food options, it’s a great time to be a foodie in Toronto. Here are a few sidewalk strolls for city slickers that like to take a walk on the savoury side. (Jess Davidson)

TITLE: An Insider’s View of Ossington

STARTS AT: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: In front of Bellwoods Brewery, 124 Ossington

A walk though one of Toronto’s culinary hot spots begins at one of the city’s newest breweries and continues along a city strip chock full o’ restaurants, coffee shops, and watering holes.

TITLE: Albion Road, Exploring the Fringe and its Food

STARTS AT: Sunday, 12 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Front Doors Sikh Spiritual Centre, 9 Carrier Drive (Westmore Road and Carrier Drive)

Concentrated on the two centres of Albion Road between Highway 27 and Islington Avenue, this Jane’s Walk explores a few of Rexdale’s South Asian, Caribbean, and African communities. While sampling some of the area’s local cuisine, walkers will gain insight into how Albion Road has adapted, changed and thrived. (Also recommended above, for those want to learn more about Toronto’s suburbs.)

TITLE: Momos and Moo-Moos: How Food Has Shaped Parkdale

STARTS AT: Sunday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: Parkdale Community Health Centre, 1229 Queen West and Gwynne

A stroll through the diverse foodie community of Parkdale includes Tibetan cuisine, community gardens, the PARC kitchen, Cowbell, Mitzi’s Café, the Sorauren Farmer’s Market, and the West End Food Co-op. Participants will indulge in treats (and tales) along the way.

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If you’re interested in social justice…
A weekend of celebrating Jane Jacobs and her vision for better cities just wouldn’t be complete without exploring local social justice issues. These walks take a look back into history at how far we’ve come in achieving a more equal city for all residents, and a peek at the present (and future) that provides insight about how far we still have to go. (Jess Davidson)

TITLE: A Poor People’s History of East Downtown Toronto

STARTS AT: Saturday, 10 a.m.

MEETING SPOT: 51 Division Police Station (Parliament and Front)

Focused on the history of low-income people in the area, this Jane’s Walk will explore the significance of industrialization of Toronto in the early 1870s and how this led to the formation of slums in the city. A walk perhaps suited for Occupiers, it will also look at the role played by the 1% in the creation of one of the country’s largest skid rows.

TITLE: A Pioneer in Social Welfare: Walking the History of the Central Neighbourhood House

STARTS AT: Saturday, 1 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: 84 Gerrard St West (corner of Elizabeth and Gerrard)

If you don’t know much (or anything) about Central Neighbourhood House, this is your chance to gain insight into both the history of the House and the neighbourhoods it serves. This Jane’s Walk will be followed by an archival photo exhibit, a multimedia presentation, and light refreshments.

TITLE: A Walk on the Radical Side: Gentrification and other downsides of becoming a desirable neighbourhood

STARTS AT: Saturday, 3 p.m.
MEETING SPOT: Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre, 870 Queen St. East (site of the former Dunlop Tire factory)

This Jane’s Walk will explore rising inequality in Toronto’s east-end as neighbourhoods become wealthier and less racial diversified. Leave your Starbucks travel mug at home for this one.

TITLE: A Fresh Look at Social Housing

STARTS AT: Sunday, 2 p.m.

MEETING SPOT: The courtyard, 1555 Queen Street East at Craven

An east-end tour focused on social housing with the chance to hear from people representing Toronto Community Housing, Innstead, Riverdale Co-ops, and Project Amik. An interactive Jane’s Walk that asks walkers to join in a 15-minute game of “spot the social housing.”

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Toronto’s Board of Health meets today, and on their agenda is a new major study which examines the question of walkability—how conducive our neighbourhoods are to pedestrian activity—and the relationship between walkability and health.

Unsurprisingly, the study (available online [PDF]) found that walkable neighbourhoods are healthier neighbourhoods. Also unsurprisingly, it found that there is a significant number of people who wish they lived in more walkable neighbourhoods than they do—that walkable neighbourhoods are generally attractive. But perhaps the most interesting discovery is that neighbourhoods shape our health regardless of how we feel about them: whether or not you value walkability, whether or not you state a preference for walkability, if you live in a walkable neighbourhood you will walk more, and be healthier.

Last week we chatted with Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, to learn more about the relationship between our neighbourhoods and our health.

Torontoist: What is “walkability”?

McKeown: Walkability refers to features of neighbourhoods that make it easier for people to get around on foot. We’re not talking about recreational walking—where you might go to a park and take a walk with your children—we’re talking about walking to get to school, to get to work, to get to the store.

That sounds like the sort of thing an urban planner or a designer would look at. Why did Toronto Public Health decide to look at the question of neighbourhood design?

There’s been growing evidence that the shape of our neighbourhoods makes a difference in some of the behaviours that are important determinants of health. Today in most populations in Canada the big health problems, the ones that are the leading causes of death and hospitalization, are chronic illnesses—cardiovascular disease and cancer and respiratory disease. We know that what we eat and how physically active we are are very important risk factors for those diseases. Features of our neighbourhoods, research has shown, are very influential in how physically active we are, and as well in terms of how much access we have to services like food stores. It influences our weight and our health both through physical activity and nutrition… There’s no question that people who live in less walkable neighbourhoods, on the kind of measures that were in this study, are less healthy. They drive more, and they weigh more, and they exercise less in terms of utilitarian walking. That was true independent of people’s attitude or feeling about it—they may well enjoy the neighbourhoods that they live in, but it is nonetheless associated with a health impact.

One of the study’s findings is that people who don’t currently live in walkable neighbourhoods often wish they did. Another finding is that there is significant overlap between neighbourhoods with low walkability scores and those with low-income residents. Could you describe the correlation between walkability and affordability, and is there some sort of necessary connection between the two?

We certainly do see a pattern. We know that people who live with a low income have poorer health—lots of previous work has documented that. It’s apparent that in addition to all of the other impacts that having a low income has, it also means you are more likely to be living in a neighbourhood which is not very walkable. I would mention previous work by the United Way looking at the prevalence of poverty in high rise buildings in the inner suburbs as an example of places where a lot of low-income people are living, particularly newcomers to the city, which are not very walkable at all. They’re not walkable in terms of the proximity of services that people would need to get to; they’re not walkable in terms of street patterns—all of the features that make a neighbourhood walkable.

Is there a necessary connection? I don’t think there is a necessary connection, but there is an unhealthy correlation between low income and low walkability urban form.

I suppose that leads to what I’ll call the gentrification question. Features that make a neighbourhood walkable also tend to make it more attractive, and neighbourhoods that are more attractive also tend to become more expensive. How do we enhance neighbourhood features that increase walkability without pricing lower-income residents out of those neighbourhoods?

Clearly affordability is a clear issue—in fact, respondents said that affordability was one of the key issues in their choices of where they were able to and wanted to live. But when we asked people about trade-offs—we asked “for the same price, would you prefer to live in a neighbourhood with larger lots and larger houses and quieter streets or would you prefer to live in a neighbourhood in which all of the things you do every day are closer, so that you can walk to them, even if it means that you have a smaller house, or maybe not a house but an apartment, and less property?”—in a way the differences in affordability were factored into the way in which we asked people about their preferences. Even taking into account the impact of less affordability, people still had a strong preference for more walkability.

There’s been a recent upsurge of downtown vs. suburbs rhetoric in Toronto politics. The study shows that while Torontonians in every part of the city value walkability, it ranks higher the closer you get to the urban core. How do you avoid the charge that this is yet another case of urbanites telling suburban residents how to live?

I think what you’re seeing is a preference for walkability in neighbourhoods that are more walkable. Really that’s just an expression of people living where they want to live, and actually the majority of people living in low-walkability neighbourhoods, the majority were quite happy, and they valued different things: they valued larger homes and quieter streets and that’s fine. But what the study shows is that it does have an impact on their health—there is a health impact of urban form despite preferences.

This study is not trying to tell anyone what to think, but it is trying to point out that there is a relationship between the kind of neighbourhood you live in and certain important aspects of your health that affect chronic disease—and that’s something that we should think about not only as we plan neighbourhoods but as we choose neighbourhoods.

What steps should Toronto be taking to facilitate walkability?

There’s not an easy short list of the top three things you should do. There’s a lot of small changes that can be made. I think the Official Plan has the broad strokes roughly right but when you look at how it’s implemented, that’s when there’s an opportunity to make decisions that support health. Fundamentally it’s important for planners and developers and residents to understand that you can only be as healthy as the neighbourhood you live in, and the decisions that we make about those neighbourhoods are really health decisions.

We talked earlier about low income tower communities. There are some rules about how those neighbourhoods are treated in relation to the development of stores and services. That would be an example—what the City says about what sort of services can be in those kinds of residential neighbourhoods. That would an example of an implementation issue that would actually change the walkability.

This interview has been condensed.

WHERE: Village of Yorkville Park (at Bellair and Cumberland Streets)

WHEN: Saturday, February 25

WHAT: The Bloor-Yorkville Icefest was a rare chance for Torontonians to catch a glimpse of frost during this unusually warm winter. This year’s installment of the annual ice-carving competition had a Canadian wilderness theme. Sculptures included a wolf, a snowboarder, fish, and even a snowmobile. You can still see the finished sculptures in the Village of Yorkville Park—if they haven’t melted yet.

Photos by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

A Leonid meteorite over Toronto, in 2009.

But we were there for the meteorites.

Meteorites are just about as exciting as it gets for space geeks—being rocks formed outside of our own planet, their very constitution reveals tremendous amounts of information about the solar system. But figuring out the stories behind those space rocks without completely obliterating them first poses a unique challenge.

“As a museum, obviously conservation is key,” explained Brendt C. Hyde, a mineralogy technician at the ROM, in a talk on the balance between science and conservation. “But to study meteorites you have to pretty much destroy them.”

Hyde explained that meteorite analysis involves cutting the rock into thin sections in a “somewhat blind manner.” You randomly cut, and hope for the best—that is, that the cut will be optimal for examination. “Usually,” said Hyde, “in a lot of cases, you only get to cut once.”

Which is why the ROM’s recent acquisition of a fancy new micro-Raman spectrometer is particularly exciting. “It’s a microscope hooked up to a laser,” Hyde said. “You can stick a whole meteorite in there, focus on an area with the microscope, and you can shoot the laser at a very small area and you can say something about what it’s made of.” One thing scientists would love to discover using this technique is evidence of water having come into contact with a meteorite during its formation—suggesting, ultimately, the possibility of life-sustaining conditions beyond earth.

Recently, a Martian meteorite probed by ROM researchers working alongside the Canadian Space Agency revealed just that: water contact. While some analysis eventually proved that the interaction with water had occurred after the rock had landed on earth, there was still something remarkable about the discovery: there was jarosite present in the rock. Jarosite is a mineral that forms only in acidic conditions, so it’s typically found only in mine drainage sites. But this particular rock was found in a desert; the only water it could have interacted with would have been a little rainwater and air humidity, but hardly any of the “nasty stuff that makes jarosite,” according to Hyde. In other words, water from the earth that wasn’t acidic interacted with this meteorite and became acidic, thus forming those minerals. If that could happen on earth, Hyde suggested, why not Mars?

Meteorites are an especially hot topic at the moment, given that, last December, a piece of one roughly the size of a basketball landed just north of Peterborough, in Selwyn, Ontario. University of Western Ontario researchers captured the fireball’s landing on camera, and, along with ROM researchers, immediately turned to the public for help locating its fragments. That local researchers now have the technology available to delve into the make-up of these space rocks while preserving their physical integrity is huge.

Said Hyde, “We’re really refining ways, at the ROM, to look at meteorites—these rare, expensive specimens—and getting a lot of information from them without destroying them.”

Here’s hoping for evidence of aliens.

CORRECTION: February 8, 1:45 PM As a reader kindly pointed out to us, the photo originally published with this article (this one) featured a meteorite-resembling, slow-motion airplane that was not, in fact, an actual meteorite. We regret the error.

Team Argentina practices at the Bunker last night. Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnightmatinee24/6436825009/in/photostream/"}Midnight Matinee 24{/a}/Joe Mac.

Hell on wheels. Brawny bruisers. Fishnet warriors. Booty-short brawlers. Flat-track fighters. Sure, these terms are catchy, but when it comes to describing the women who play roller derby, there’s one word, above all others, that should be applied: athlete. And when the World Cup—the very first of its kind in the history of modern flat-track roller derby—kicks off at the Bunker today, there’s a possibility that this historical moment will precipitate another: there’s a slim, but real, chance that the tournament could be covered as a legitimate sporting event.

Maybe we get sucked in by the “By day, X is a mild-mannered school teacher; by night, X is a rock ‘em, sock ‘em roller derby blocker” narrative—an overplayed scenario that seems to lead, or punctuate, just about every derby-related story that gets pumped out by the mainstream media. I get it, I really do: it’s cute. And it demonstrates a valid point: that roller derby players, like most unpaid athletes, are human beings with day jobs. But it also undermines what these women accomplish on the track. When the focus is on anything but the sport (be it on what the players wear, the names that appears on their jerseys, or the number of visible tattoos that the reporter can count on a given athlete), something—actually, the most important thing—gets lost along the way. And that “thing” is the game.

Members of Toronto’s CN Power (in pink) bump up against Michigan’s Killamazoo Derby Darlins during a February 26 match. Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

The World Cup presents a unique opportunity for reporters: to create a new mould, and a new precedent, for flat-track roller derby coverage. Team Canada, Team USA, Team Sweden, Team Argentina, Team Australia, Team Brazil, Team England, Team Finland, Team France, Team Germany, Team Ireland, Team New Zealand, and Team Scotland have rostered the international “superstars” of the sport—that’s right: the best players in the world. Period. So we’re no longer dealing with one local rec team challenging another; this is a different league of competition entirely. But—and here’s the real question—how exactly will this level of playing be reflected in local sports coverage?

Jon Filson, the Star’s sports editor, takes partial editorial responsibility for the “preview”-style World Cup story that appeared in the newspaper’s Saturday edition. “It was a joint effort,” he told me, explaining that he and the Star’s features editor, Alison Uncles, assigned the story to Mary Ormsby—a feature writer and former sports reporter. Ormsby’s article included interviews with some of Team Canada’s top players—like ToRD’s Brim Stone and MTLRD’s Georgia W. Tush—and a few “scenes” from one of ToRD’s recent Bunker-housed practices. Although the kicker seemed a bit familiar (“Georgia W. Tush owns a sports store. Brim Stone is a biology grad who minored in English. 8Mean Wheeler has four kids, three dogs, a tank of fish and a fire-bellied toad”), it was clear that Ormsby had done her homework. She’d taken the time to actually understand some of the mechanics of the sport.

Due to the physical intensity, roller derby is heavily officiated. Numerous referrees are on duty during the bouts, while paramedics are also on site in case of serious injury.Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

But can we expect this kind of mainstream coverage moving forward?
 
“That’s a tricky one,” says Filson, who has, in fact, assigned a reporter to cover the World Cup. “This is a one-off. We’re covering [the Cup] as an event. Future coverage? That would all depend if the interest is there. If we see a mass level of interest [in roller derby], then we’d look to up the coverage, but I’d be very doubtful.” Another reason that the Star might not spill as much ink on derby as it would on other sports? Filson pointed to (what he called) roller derby’s “logistical issue”:

“Frankly one of the problems derby has is it’s unnecessarily complicated. It is! Try to explain it to somebody—it’s difficult. There’s a lot of lingo to it. There’s a lot of rules. It’s like trying to explain what ‘offside’ is to someone who never watches hockey.”

True, roller derby isn’t the easiest sport to explain to the uninitiated, but many would argue, and I would too, that it’s no more difficult to explain than hockey, football, or baseball. It’s just less visible, and therefore coherent coverage often necessitates a short summary of the game.

Dave Miller, better known to his flat-track friends as the Derby Nerd, does what no other local writer is even attempting to do in Toronto: he provides “hard sports” coverage of both local and international bouts on his blog.  Of course, Miller isn’t being paid to write these features—and he doesn’t have a house-style to conform to, or Editorial Powers That Be to appease. Still, he’s mastered the art of writing derby play-by-plays coupled with thorough and informed analysis. When asked about the “difficulty” of covering derby, Miller had this to say:

I’ve always written (including a little bit about other sports), and the roller derby pieces are no more difficult to write than anything else. The process of writing itself has its challenges, and sports writers are usually pushed to a deadline by a paycheck. Roller derby isn’t quite at that point yet, so covering it in any sort of depth requires even more discipline and dedication.

Miller, who confesses to always being “a bit of a sports nerd,” discovered flat-track roller derby when he was living in Montreal. After moving to Toronto a few years back, Miller said he felt “comfortable enough to start writing about [derby]“—and thought that Canadian derby deserved the same calibre of coverage that some of the American bouts were receiving.

Brim Stone, member of ToRD and Team Canada. Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnightmatinee24/6205479683/in/set-72157627675776589/"}Midnight Matinee 24{/a}/Joe Mac.

In my brief interview with Filson, the longtime editor says he’d observed that the sport was “struggling with itself.” This thesis of sorts was what what ultimately predicated Ormsby’s article.

“[Roller derby] does have those WWE elements to it,” he contends. “You know, the silly names and all that. It’s fun; and when I say silly names, I don’t mean that as a negative—it’s part of the appeal of the sport. But it makes it hard to put roller derby beside more serious sports.”

As an amateur derby player myself, I can’t help but wonder: does the name on my own team jersey—one that doesn’t match the byline on this article—make my game-day efforts on the track any less legitimate? And the fact that roller derby is (like hockey or football, I might add) a contact sport—does that one factor, when coupled with a few pairs of ripped fishnet stockings, warrant a staged-wrestling comparison?

“I think that the WWE elements are slowly fading away,” says Miller. “I also don’t think that it’s fair to say that the sport is struggling with itself; I would say it’s maturing, and there are growing pains along the way. People often forget how young flat-track roller really is, probably because they equate it to the banked track roller derby of the ‘60s and especially the ‘70s when it had turned into sports entertainment.”

Miller also suggests that both Canadian derby and the Canadian media have a bit of catching up to do. “In the US, which is about three years ahead of Canada in terms of playing and covering roller derby, we are finally starting to see an increase in [in-depth] coverage. I think that it will start here eventually.” 

Maybe it’s easier to think about derby players as Clark Kent–esque comic book characters, whose seemingly dichotomous lives and eye-catching uniforms render them categorically “other” to say, swimmers or runners or speed skaters. But this kind of thinking—and subsequent reporting—just won’t cut it any more. The World Cup is a world-class tournament featuring some of the world’s best roller derby athletes, and the tournament’s stories deserve not only to be told, but to be recounted by informed reporters.

“I wish [the players] luck,” says Filson, who underscores that “it’s tough for women’s sports to get any kind of credibility,” because “the interest just isn’t there. Lacrosse went though this 15 years ago—and there were a lot of doubters. But it become a legitimate sport quite quickly. So the model [for roller derby] is there.”

Model or no model, given names or nicknames, the inception of the World Cup tournament signals a historical moment for women’s flat track roller derby. The question remains, though: will the weekend’s coverage reflect this?

The Roller Derby World Cup starts today and runs through Sunday. Most tickets sold out, but webcasts will be shown on the Cup’s website.

CORRECTION: December 1, 2011, 1:11 PM The first photo was originally credited to Midnight Madness, rather than Midnight Matinee. We made a Midnight Mistake.

CORRECTION: December 1, 2011, 6:20 PM Dave Miller was originally and mistakenly identified as Derek Miller in the article.

“Service will be changed, to reduce the TTC’s operating costs.” “Service will be changed, to reduce the TTC’s operating costs.”

It repeats, over and over again, a litany of regret or perhaps a PR measure to make sure we know who to blame. Earlier this afternoon the TTC released a list of the surface routes that will see service levels diminish in the new year, brought to your commute courtesy of Rob Ford’s edict that all City departments, agencies, boards, and commissions all City departments, agencies, boards, and commissions except for the police cut their budgets by 10 per cent. The TTC, and especially TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence), have taken a firm stance on not cutting any routes entirely or scaling back hours of operation, which means that they must instead look to reducing the frequency of service on a large number of routes in order to balance the books.

Today’s press release explained that “With an estimated ridership of 503 million in 2012, the TTC will have enough buses and streetcars on the road to meet next year’s ridership demand using the pre-2004 loading standard. This approach will save the TTC $15 million next year.” In other words: the Commission is giving up on service improvements introduced just a few years ago, as part of its Ridership Growth Strategy [PDF]. In the document outlining that strategy, the TTC wrote:

One of the objectives of the TTC’s Ridership Growth Strategy is to help encourage more people to adopt this [transit/walk/cycle] lifestyle by enhancing both the quality and availability of transit service in the City. To achieve this, transit must be an attractive alternative to the automobile, both in the peak periods for travelling to and from work or school and at off-peak times.

The cuts announced today are to service levels on 52 bus routes in the peak periods, and 36 bus and streetcar routes in the off-peak periods. This will lead to more crowding, longer wait times, and less reliable service as the impact of small delays for one vehicle will have larger ripple effects. (From the Ridership Growth Strategy: “The key factors governing mode choice are speed, reliability, comfort, convenience, and cost.” Three of those five will be impaired by these cuts.) On the upside, the TTC is increasing service on 21 bus and streetcar routes whose ridership has been increasing significantly.

The full list of service changes:

Jan 2012 Service Changes

WHERE: Streets surrounding Nathan Phillips Square

WHEN: Saturday night

WHAT: This year, Newmindspace’s annual game of Capture the Flag moved north from its previous field in the financial district to the quieter, less traffic-laden environment around City Hall. Several hundred participants gathered to hear the rules and were split into two teams, wearing either a pink or blue glowing band. With each team assigned one half of the match zone—bordered by Dundas to the north, Bay to the east, Queen to the south, and University to the west—battle commenced. After much running, skating, biking, dodging, and sneaking, the pink team emerged victorious.

Let’s be honest: zombies don’t really walk. They lurch, they stumble, they stagger. Those who’ve lost their legs army-crawl along, dragging their stumps and leaving two zig-zagging trails of blood in their wake. At least that’s what we’ve gleaned from watching enough zombie flicks and episodes of The Walking Dead to be sort-of experts. But, however they travel, zombies en masse and on the move make for a glorious gory spectacle.

On Saturday at 3 p.m., an estimated 7,000 of the aspiring undead gathered at Trinity Bellwoods Park for the ninth annual Toronto Zombie Walk, before moaning and groaning their way along a five-kilometre route east on Queen, north on Spadina, and west on Dundas back to the park. This year, two of them even got married: Toronto Zombie Walk founder Thea Munster and one of its organizers, Adam Pearson, vowed to spend the rest of their un-lives together. Aww.

All photos by Miles Storey.