A couple weeks back, Spacing Wire posted this brilliant old TTC ad that made us hungry for more forgotten gems of Toronto advertising. The video in question was uploaded by a user calling themselves WNED 17, and their entire archive is made up of similar videos. In fact, their profile page provides a mission statement: "Youtube user WNED17 is proud to present repeat portions of broadcast captured in the 1980s and early 1990s via......

Whilst performing our pre-read ritual of tearing out Toronto Life's 8,000 annoying snot-glued ad inserts and heavy stock subscription cards, we suddenly came across Torontoist's name in the mag's "Roundup" feature. The chart compares Toronto's four major city blogs: Torontoist, Spacing Wire (now Spacing Toronto), BlogTO, and the newish Torontopedia. Torontoist's raison d'être is listed as "news, arts, culture, snark"—and we won't argue with that—while BlogTO is like "your geeky friend who's always in......

While researching the proper name for the device shown above, we stumbled across this page on the City of Toronto's website. (It's a "pushbutton," "push-button," or "push button," depending on which paragraph you believe.) And, what do you know, the more mundane elements of transportation infrastructure are fascinating stuff. If you agree, you might want to apply for a position on the Toronto Pedestrian Committee. As reported by TPC co-chair Dylan Reid on the......

Reader Amanda Happé came across this sight yesterday morning: city employees carving up and taking away Trinity-Bellwoods' much-loved painted blue and white tree trunk (also known as the Universal Love Machine). Neither felled by nature or protected by nature-lovers, we've yet to find out the reason for its removal—though Amanda suggests, and we agree, that it was pretty rotten-looking. Painted tree stumps can only live for so long, ya know. Either way, we've sent......

Developers RioCan bought the parking lot at the corner of Queen Street West and Portland back in 2005. Immediately, rumours started to circulate that a big box store, like Home Depot, was going to be built at the site. At the time, The Globe and Mail reported that RioCan planned to start building in 2007. Which is now. So what's happening with the project? In August 2006, Spacing Wire reported that activists had met......

...need to know the latest bridge strategies. Businesses rushed to latch onto hippies during the "Summer of Love" as their next target market, if only to convince squarer clientele of how their product swung with the times (and there was a lot of swinging going on within the pages of Toronto Life's first half-decade). The pair on the right appears to be part of a Velvet Underground-style band—he with Sterling Morrison/Andy Warhol pockmarked skin,......

Yesterday the City of Toronto unveiled the designs submitted for the "Coordinated Street Furniture Program," its plan to grant a billboard company a twenty-year monopoly on providing and maintaining bus shelters, garbage bins, benches, and other items for Toronto’s sidewalks. The "renderings" have been posted on the City website as epic PDFs, but our friend Joe Clark has also extracted the images from the PDFs and posted them to his Flickr account for convenient......

Holy crap. Earlier today, Spacing Wire found and posted some YouTube videos of the TTC's temporary re-routing through Lower Bay station that we told you about back in December. The detour through the long-closed station—often used as a set for movies and commercials, and as a training area for TTC conductors—is only in its second day, so we bet that many of you haven't had a chance to experience it yet. And golly gee, it......

This article is a response to a series of comments you can find on Spacing Wire, in which someone compares Toronto to a "crossroads" or "meeting place." The poster claims this label makes sense because the word Toronto originates from an aboriginal word meaning "meeting place." There was no post contradicting the definition, probably because we have all heard this claim before and most of us accept it. Upon further investigation of the matter,......

Two months ago, I Want Rhythm organizer Nicole Stoffman was just another former Degrassi star-turned-crooner of French torch songs, eagerly handing out "Let's dance in the street!" flyers to people leaving Spacing's not-a-mayoral-debate. Now, five installments of I Want Rhythm later (having been written up on Torontoist and the Spacing Wire multiple times, as well as in the "real media"), Nicole is one of Toronto's new "It" girls of public space interventionism. So come......

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......

As pointed out by an astute reader, Spacing Wire and Ward 20 candidate Chris Ouellette's blog, there exists another option (that has been getting little media attention) for solving the dual waterfront barriers of the rail tracks and the Gardiner Expressway: the Toronto Waterfront Viaduct. The proposal calls for a massive, attractive, elevated structure supported by pylons and cables that carries CN, VIA and GO rail traffic, east-west automobile traffic, pedestrians, cyclists and light rail......

"Overheard" on the Toronto Livejournal community: ME (On Bicycle): What kind of bike is that? COP (On horseback, in the bike lane): WHAT? ME: What kind of bike is that? COP: It's a horse. ME: Great! Get the @#$% out of the bike lane then. We have to admire this guy's moxie and want to point you to Matt Blackett's passionate rant about mounted cops from the Spacing Wire.......

If nothing else, we like two things at Torontoist: the TTC, and bands about spoons. But before there was Spoon, one of the best bands currently making music (and certainly the best one out of Austin, Texas) there was The Spoons, a new-wave band coming straight from the hip and edgy streets of...Burlington. The band enjoyed some short-lived success in the 1980s, especially on the college circuit, and fizzled out as the decade came to......

Bring out the balloons, noisemakers and confetti. Spacing Wire, the blog arm of Spacing magazine turns one today. We want to thank them for bringing their attentive Toronto-loving eyes to the blogosphere. Keep up the great work.......

The CBC reports that the Toronto Port Authority, that lovely little federal body responsible for trying to build a bridge to the island airport and complicating waterfront development, has sued community advocacy group Community Air. The $3 million lawsuit alleges that the non-profit group has defamed the TPA. Spacing Wire has their analysis and John Barber dedicates his column in today's Globe to the lawsuit. We're echoing Barber's complaints about the lawsuit. This is a......

Dylan Reid over at Spacing Wire is slowly fanning the flames sparked by a Kenneth Kidd article in the Star over why about half of Toronto cyclists don't wear helmets. We enjoy a good comment thread so we're going to try to help Mr. Reid out a bit. First of all, Boy Reporter wears a helmet, always has and pretty much always will. Riding a bike in this city isn't as safe as it should......

Spacing has apparently been getting calls from city staff about these "Keep Toronto Clean" posters. There are no stylized illustrations of brooms on them so it couldn't have come from Mayor Miller's office. We're thinking civically engaged hypnotists. Story from Spacing Wire......

Spacing Wire pointed out that the National Post has run a contest to redesign Toronto's flag (grand prize a National Post mug, hopefully unused). Their chief complaint, "what's with the obsession with the Maple Leaf?" Torontoist wants to be the voice of dissent and gives our reasons why the flag shouldn't be redesigned. First, the flag's blue and white colour scheme reminds us a little of the Quebec flag. Now we don't think that the......

Torontoist has mentioned his love for green roofs before so we're happy that Jane Rabinowicz, who helps run Santropol Roulant, a Montreal community group that organizes rooftop gardens, bike workshops and meals on wheels programs, will be lecturing tomorrow night 7:15 at Innis Town Hall. She'll be joined by members of Foodshare, the Toronto Food Policy Council and others. Thanks Spacing Wire for the tip.......

Yesterday we wrote about the destruction of the Inn on the Park, a Modernist landmark that will probably be missed in 20 or 30 years when architectural historians are looking for good examples of Modernism in this city and notice that everything has been torn down. The Star's Christopher Hume was upset about how council dragged its feet on issuing the permit that would've saved the building. There's general discontent on the Urban Toronto forum.......

A TTC janitor might just be subject of one ot those TTC employee ads after spotting a four-year old boy that was snatched and Amber-Alerted. A 34-year old woman was also arrested. The Post reports on what happened to the Redpath Sugar sign on the waterfront. Bob Rae and Carolyn Bennett are both now officially in the Liberal Leadership race. A car ran into a streetcar on Queen and River injuring three people. Spacing Wire......

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......

Torontoist is kicking himself for missing this article but we're glad that the eagle-eyed people at Spacing Wire caught it. Actor, sometime mayoral candidate and now Globe and Mail writer Albert Howell wrote this reasoned analysis on why cyclists ride on sidewalks and why pedestrians shouldn't be blaming cyclists but the municipal government for its lack of adequate cycling infrastructure. We agree with Howell, riding on the sidewalk, contrary to popular belief is not......

Kevin Bracken sent us these photos of road signs he spotted along St. George. We haven't had a chance to look but we hope they're still there so that all the early-morning commuters can see them. Here's a quick video clip too. Also on the Spacing Wire.......

Torontoist doesn't want to touch this argument with a ten-foot pole. But if you want to there's this story in the Spacing Wire and you can vote on the signs right now. So if you live in the Beach/Beaches go, or you might be stuck with a name you don't like!......

Spacing Wire and Photojunkie both report on whether the secret swing is finally dead this time. According to Photojunkie, this time the swing really does appear dead. Someone has taken the extra step of installing chainlink fencing and removing the metal bar that held the swing. While we're sad to see the end of a little piece of urban art we agree with Matt B.'s assessment at Spacing Wire: In just two weeks we’ve lost......

Yesterday at The Isabel Bader Theatre, David Miller delivered this year's Davey Lecture on "Building a Great World City for the 21st Century." Unfortunately, it was far more election speech (and a boring one at that) than anything remotely motivational or inspirational. Plus, he was kind of mean afterwards. So, in lieu of inserting a nice flattering photo of Miller, Torontoist feels it would be more appropriate to include this one, of his face......

Chinese architect Yongsang Ma has won the Mississauga competition to design the Absolute tower in Mississauga. The lithe looking glass tower was a heavy favourite to win the contest and he beat out six other finalists. Queen West residents group Active18 and bird-friendly condo development WestSide lofts trade press conferences and barbs tommorow (thanks Spacing Wire!). Active18 is showing the press the results of its recent Queen West community design charette and WestSide lofts is......

The Spacing Wire has been hard at work reporting on the destruction of the sidewalk carvings on King and Simcoe. What Torontoist finds even more interesting is how vocal the comments have been. They've called the city on its callousness in destroying one man's years of hard work, and yet another on the city's blindness to a unique, piece of urban beauty. Matt Blackett gives us an update on it here. Photo from Spacing......