The Star reports that many nightclubs are flouting city bylaws by allowing patrons to smoke inside their premises. I wonder if that's really the most pressing problem down in Toronto's little Gomorrah on Richmond Street. The city has chopped down nineteen healthy trees in a park near Don Mills and Leslie in a strategy designed to reduce teen loitering and drug dealing by making parts of the park more visible from the road. No......

Of all the things Canadians will boast about, our banking system isn't one of them despite being one of the strongest and most advanced in the world. Early co-operation between the financial institutions allowed Canada to become world leaders in the use of debit cards and internet banking, and we have the highest number of ATMs on the planet, per capita. That means we have no excuse for not doing what people in other countries......

GTA resident Suresh Joachim is going for another record. This time he'll be trying to karaoke for 50 hours straight to raise funds for the Canadian Red Cross. Joachim is infamous for breaking inane world records. In the last few years he's broken the record for balancing on one foot, dribbling a basketball, dancing with a partner and watching TV. In this photo he's breaking the record for crawling. The previous karaoke record was 25......

All the news outlets are talking about the TTC strike but lots of other things happened on the weekend. A couple was killed in a bad traffic accident on Saturday night. Police suspect street racing as a possible cause. Leslie Scrivener of the Star writes a nice synopsis of the city's cycling culture. The story includes decent photos of scantily clad cyclists.... HOT. Mayor Miller is pissed off at ads that the Port Authority is......

Like anyone else, Torontoist can't help but be occasionally overwhelmed by the traumatic events in other areas of the world. This week is obviously one of those occasions. Our thoughts are in Louisiana. DCist has copious links and information on Katrina relief efforts. We'll post a comprehensive list of Ist posts and information shortly. In Canada, efforts are underway across the country to send relief to New Orleans. Celine has donated $1 million to the......

It is very obnoxious to call old people cute. Probably on par with collecting things with cow prints on them. And yet, TOist is going to go one beyond cute, and call Kroum and Eve Pindoff, the elderly couple behind the largest Canadian Red Cross donation ever, wickedly adorable. The Pindoff's are sort of an archaic and magical success story. They made their money selling records, they survived two wars, they trade in neat and......

We can’t all be humanitarian celebs, donating US$1M to the Red Cross’s good work (Sandra Bullock) or warbling on a fundraising single (Boy George, Cliff Richard et al.). Enter Nathalie-Roze Fischer, go-getting local columnist (and chief glamazon of her accessories fempire). With a little help from designers-about-town, she’s organized a massive designer jumble sale taking place this Saturday at Bellefair United Church (2002 Queen St. East in the Beaches, across from Kew Gardens), 10am -......

Streeter from TOist Molly: The blessed return to work after the holidays. Like returning to school after a summer, the small talk is usually predictable and redundant: You: How was your Christmas/Holiday? Coworker: Great thanks, how was yours? You: Great as well, ate too much turkey, drank too much eggnog. You know, the usual. Perhaps you'll move on to what you got for Christmas, perhaps it will end there. In consideration of the recent natural......

Torontoist reader Janos points us to the irony of talking about great DVD's in the wake of so much tragedy. And indeed, as the numbers swell, and the destruction becomes more evident, TOist has been struck by the horror of it all. Yesterday, we debated whether Canada was doing enough, over a delicious tortiere, and the richness of it made us feel fortunate beyond belief. Canada has pledged over $4 million in aid, but how......