On July 27 of this year, 75-year-old Antonio Batista was found guilty of making death threats against his Mississauga city councillor for writing and distributing around his neighbourhood a poem which concluded with the following passage:We are going to dig a pothole about six feet and 3 feet wide and 5 feet deep to hide her body and God will take care of Her Soul, but we cannot forgive her for doing nothing. She......

These 45 seats might be empty now but come November 13 we'll get to help decide who should fill them. Yes, the municipal elections are upon us. So where should those addicted to municipal politics go for their online fix? Spacing Votes is the go-to choice. Matt Blackett and the team that brings you your favourite horizontally-inclined magazine has gathered a gaggle of bloggers, students and journalists to cover the election. They link to......

Jane Pitfield should send a thank you card to Royson James' office. The Star columnist must've hit a nerve with the mayor's office with yesterday's column. It accused the mayor's office of sitting on a proposal to buy the Green Lane landfill and possibly costing the city millions. The mayor denies this and talked to the Star's publisher. Jane Pitfield's campaign is capitalizing on this mistake. The fire department is estimating that yesterday's huge warehouse......

Council met behind closed doors yesterday and the end result is that the city is buying the Green Lane Landfill in London. The deal is still being negotiated but the city is keeping mum on the terms. Opponents of the deal are critical at the way the deal was sprung on them. The mayor of London is none too happy about not getting any notice. Royson James reports on Senator Jerry Grafstein efforts to find......

City staff are hard at work looking for a place to dump our sludge. Fortunately Mayor Miller has said that the city is not considering dumping sludge into the lake. Like, we needed any more gunk in our lake. Those of you going away to the cottage better bring your candles and hand-cranked radios. Cottage country got battered by Wednesday night's storm and many areas might still be without power. A security breach grounded a......

A man was stabbed to death in North York at a party celebrating Ghana's victory over the USA at the World Cup. Apparently gang colours may have been a trigger for the tragic attack. A memorial to the victims of the Air India bombing has started construction in a Toronto park. Bombardier defends itself against its rivals and their claims that they can build the TTC's subway cars cheaper. Siemens acknowledges that its estimates might......

Union Station is getting a $100 million facelift. Commuters will not just be getting wider platforms but a whole new one when engineers and construction workers finish moving a sewer by 2008. In other transit news, ridership is up all over the country but especially in the GTA. GTA ridership increased by 4% despite rising prices and crumbling infrastructure. Council restricts garage sales to two a year. The reform was designed to take out those......

Students at West Toronto Collegiate are being tested for tuberculosis after one of their classmates tested positive for the lung disease. Health officials are just being cautious and don't think TB has spread. Cecilia Zhang's killer will get at least 15-years without parole. It's more than the 12 his lawyers were asking for and less than the 17-20 the Crown wanted. Parts of the city including the DVP are on flood alert. We're expecting 40......

Torontoist wants to join in on the chorus of people complaining about Dalton McGuinty's announcement yesterday that Toronto city councillors' terms have been lengthened to four years instead of three. It seems like a minor change and in fact many city councillors were strongly supportive of the move. But let's look at what's actually going on here. Of course city councillors would be supportive of this move, a good number of Toronto's 44 councillors were......

On Halloween afternoon last Monday, Ryan Carriere, a young father, husband, mail carrier and comic book artist was killed , hit by a truck while cycling near the Gladstone Hotel on Queen West. Unless TOist is missing something, some buried byline or wire story (and we hope we are), it's been one full week since the accident and the mainstream media has remained deafeningly, appallingly silent. Perhaps there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this blatant......

Just last week we were annoyed that Royson James had taken the petty route, or, not picked on someone his own size. But perhaps Councillor Pantalone, or, the Titan of the Trees, has gotten in over his head, despite assurances that he has "done nothing wrong." Maybe the real question is what the MLS-mess will do to Mayor and Deputy Mayor relations? We had already planned the post-political careers of the Mayor and his deputy.......

Mayor David Miller, partially elected for his vibrant hair, may be going white. Over the last year, Miller's hair has gone from a salt-and-pepper grey in 2004 to a more uniform white we see today. It's said that hair loses its pigment after a traumatic event, and we can perhaps point our finger at the patterns of gun violence in the city this summer or even the on-going attacks by Royson James in the Star.......

Torontoist applauds our civic leaders for their vision and steadfastness. We here at Torontoist know that truly great cities like truly great people don't follow trends and weather adversity. And Toronto's councillors showed what rebels and iconoclasts they are by going it alone rather than following the environmentally minded sheep in 1500 other cities that celebrated Car Free Day yesterday. Torontoist applauds the grit and determination of councillors Ford, Lindsay Luby, Ootes and the others......

- We wanted the Mayor to hold his ground on the whole pageant pickle, if only because it's fun to have such a gosh darn ridiculous battle playing itself out on the City pages, but the Globe reports that Mr. Mayor and Miss Prettier-than-the-entire-World kissed (demurely) and made up this weekend at TIFF. - But Mr. Mayor's shorter compatriot did no making up. Joey Pants gets a bizarre dressing down from Royson James in......

Since Torontoist generally concentrates on peeving off the city's pizza eaters, it becomes quite the spot when commenting about the spate of gun violence in the city. But the situation has long since become unavoidable. We notice that Royson James thinks no else in the city cares, the Globe and Mail suggests that guns aren't coming from the US, and John Tory thinks he's didn't get beat in the last mayoral election. We also notice......

Two scoops of Mayor this morning, and both of them nearly as awesome as the Ist List's Number One Gelato Emporium (see above). - First, theatre eater JKelly tells us that Mayor Dave fringed it up at the beer tent last night, chatting with Fringe honcho Derrick Chua, and giving money to those who needed it. - And second, Royson James reports that Mayor Miller agrees that the Toronto Unlimited campaign is an embarrassment to......

Royson James reports that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and a coterie of staff will be visiting Toronto to swap notes with Mayor Miller. There's plenty that Chicago's mayor can teach us: how to develop a working, people-focused waterfront, how to get money from higher levels of government and more. We here at Torontoist thinks Mayor Miller should also meet up with a few other mayors from around the world:......

Toronto Star columnist Royson James ruled out running for City Council today, stating that he is not a politician. In an exclusive question/answer period, James said, "No, not for me. Politics is too hard." James said he had never really considered taking a post at City Hall, nor has anyone ever suggest that he should. The columnist was amused at Torontoists suggestion that he should be the next Joe Pantalone; "I don't want people to......

Imagine the life of a Toronto City Councilor - the jet setting, the screaming fans, the intense media scrutiny. Toronto City Councilor Paula Fletcher works under this pressure everyday. And, like all Toronto City Councilors, she must dress accordingly. To know more about Council fashion, follow roving Torontoist affiliate Terry Woo as he gets elbow-to-elbow with Royson James, Dave Miller, and Denzil Minnan-Wong last Thursday at City Hall. Torontoist is proud to present Terry's quick......

As the ideas come pouring in about the best way to avoid the looming TTC fare hike planned for February, one reporter at the Star has called the hike a simple threat that won't be realized. It's all part of a plan to get more money out of the provincial government, while keeping the other city departments at bay. Royson James argues this is what happened last year and it will happen again. Remember when......