Ever marvel at the architecture of Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall and the Ontario Legislature in Queen's Park? Those lovely red-brick buildings, dear friends, are the legacy of Toronto's vernacular building material—sweet slabs formed from the banks of the Don herself. From 1889 to 1980, the Don Valley Brick Works made some of the highest quality brick in the land. Why, in 1893, the Don Valley brick was crowned Best Brick at the Chicago World's......

Eight months after Torontoist, Reading Toronto, Spacing, and BlogTO all banded together to solicit reader comments to improve the TTC's website and after Adam Giambrone agreed to re-open the Request for Proposal (RFP) to allow for "a more ambitious and exciting project," there has finally been some news to report of late. Last week, Adam Giambrone told Torontoist that the website would launch sometime in the fall, and would definitely feature everyone's top request––a......

Birth control pills can decimate wild fish populations if their presence in waste water is not treated more effectively. The synthetic estrogen in birth control pills decimates the sperm count of male wild fish, especially smaller fish like minnows. Odds that said waste water will be treated more effectively in Canada any time soon: probably quite low. Slain environmentalist likely targeted, Toronto police say. Glen Davis, a major supporter of both WWF Canada and the......

TTC Chair Adam Giambrone has responded to Toronto bloggers' (that's us, BlogTO, Reading Toronto, and Spacing) open letter to the TTC about fixing their website. And the news is allll good. Our third and final main suggestion -- a crucial one that the entirety of the project pretty much hinged on -- was that "the user input our challenge generated and the media firestorm that followed it suggest the RFP [Request For Proposal] be......

Do either of these ads say "Toronto" to you? Captions: at left, "Do you think I need a breast reduction?", at right: "Tonight I'm not Susan. Call me Antoinette." They're the city's new "T.O. Live With Culture" ads. Made from leftover money from the Live With Culture budget, they are supposed to target American tourists: according to CTV, "the ads are destined for alternative weekly newspapers in eight U.S. border cities. Readers in Buffalo, Rochester,......

When Torontoist joined forces with blogTO, Reading Toronto, and Spacing and asked our readers for feedback on the TTC's website at the beginning of this month, we had absolutely no idea that we would get such an enormous response. We'd like to thank you all again for participating, and we've taken each and every one of the ideas that we received to heart. Now, it's time to move forward. The Editors and Publishers of......

Adam Giambrone is about to make some new friends...internet friends! Reading Toronto's Robert Ouellette recently got in touch with the TTC's new chief about the horrid shape of the TTC's website (as Ouellette put it, "the single worst information site found anywhere [and] a true embarrassment") and asked the G-man if he'd be interested in listening to Toronto bloggers' input on how to improve it. We and our readers are, after all, relatively tech-savvy......

Reading Toronto states "the city is a book with 100,000 million poems." Torontoist is aware of many poems that have been written by Toronto poets, but thinks there is ample room in the GTA for a few more (maybe a million-or-two would improve the present un-poetic monstrosity that is Dundas Square). We're also curious to know where new poems are being written: During TTC commutes? On the picturesque grounds of Casa Loma? Under the......

Torontoist wants to make it up to all of you. We bummed you out with all this news about movie theatres closings around the city. So here's a video of the mayor taking shots at the Gardiner. We also want to send a shout out to Robert Oullette and the folks at the always fine Reading Toronto, who took this video and whom we met the other night.......

That little black map on the back of TTC system maps is woefully inadequate. The map currently only shows Toronto's subway stops and the RT which don't even come close to covering the city's vast area. Graeme Stewart on Reading Toronto proposes that the system redesign the map to include streetcars. "Toronto has North America’s largest streetcar network. The network itself is perhaps the urban gesture which best describes the City, at least downtown."......

The Toronto blogosphere is abuzz with the Star's "What If" special issue that ran this Sunday. The special issue was a number of think pieces on how the city could be drastically improved. Christopher Hume wants to see the Hearn turned into Toronto's Tate, something that Reading Toronto latches on to. Christopher Hutsul (or Christopher the Younger, as we like to call him) argues for ways the city can nurture its creative communities, including decriminalizing......

The jury deliberating on the Lisa Posluns case was withheld some very gruesome evidence on the history of accused rapist/murderer Nelson DeJesus. The Star has the details here, and the Sun doesn't get left behind either. Members of Toronto's Chinese community protested over Rogers' attempts to bring a number of stations owned by the Chinese government to Canada. The protesters argue that the stations are propaganda, Rogers argues that they're merely trying to serve the......

We were intrigued by an idea brought up by David Ross on the Reading Toronto site of a high speed train to Montreal. Shanghai has one that takes people from a suburban airport to downtown Shanghai in five minutes. Torontoist has taken this ride in a cab and trust us, it's LOOONG and congested. It currently takes about five hours by train to get to Montreal, a high speed train could do this in one.......

York U prof Amy Harris is the guest editor over at Reading Toronto this week and appropriately enough she's been posting on novels set in Toronto. There are a few stalwarts on the list like Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, Atwood's Cat's Eye and Michael's Fugitive Pieces. She also gives a plug to Dionne Brand's What We All Long For, which TOist reviewed here and is now in paperback. One of the books......

Superkul architects are guest editors over at Reading Toronto this week and they're starting off with an idea of monumental scale. What Toronto needs is a "a mountain for everyone to enjoy, and would topographically link us to Montreal and Vancouver." The mountain would use dirt excavated from developments and leftovers from demolitions. Torontoist also wonders whether this would be an effective solution to the city's garbage problem? Also what would we name the peak?......

Today the city is oficially welcoming the Blue Flag program to a number of Toronto beaches, proving once and for all that Lake Ontario really is safe to swim in, honest. Apparently seven of Toronto's 14 beaches are safe to swim in and four of them will be given Blue Flags, the aquatic equivalent to the gold star you received for a job well done in grade four. Trust the doom and gloom types at......

Digifest presents a reception and talk tonight. And if you are reading a blog, you are probably interested in online media. Good thing the talk is about online media, and more specifically, 'engaging online communities.' The evening's presenters include Alessandro Ludovico of Neural and Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto. Reading Toronto is an amazing site, that we're embarrassed to say we discovered twelve minutes ago.......