One year ago today, City Council's Executive Committee approved [PDF] the awarding of the street furniture contract—for the purposes of designing, building, owning, and maintaining bus shelters, garbage bins, ad pillars, and more for a period of twenty years in exchange for advertising rights—to Astral Media Outdoor, despite the fact that the company had absolutely no experience with "street furniture" and maintains dozens of illegal billboards in defiance of City Council.......

It's 1:45 a.m. now. The TTC strike is done: twelve hours ago, TTC employees were legislated back to work by the provincial government; nine hours ago, TTC service started back up; not too far from now, employees' Monday morning shifts will start as usual, in time to transport the morning rush. But you wouldn't know that from the Star's Strike Watch blog, which the front page of the Star's website still links to, which......

In the fall of 1997, the Metro Toronto Zoo had something of a clearance sale, divesting itself of merchandise branded "Metro Toronto Zoo." On January 1st, the Megacity would be coming, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto would be no more, and the Zoo—to be renamed simply the "Toronto Zoo"—would be prepared for the change. The Metropolitan Toronto Police, however, were not quite as on the ball. Two years later, in 2000, the organization finally......

Well, it's that time of year again: time to hate the TTC! This time, it's the threat of a distant strike and the Star's devotion of its usually excellent Fixer feature to all things TTC (and broken) leading the charge. When Eye's Dale Duncan recapped the past week, she remarked: "Maybe it’s just me, but rage against the TTC seems to be growing." It's not just her. "Seems," though, seems to be the key......

Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks. Pigott Construction was based in Hamilton, where company president Joseph Pigott contributed heavily to the community as a president or board member of institutions such as McMaster University and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.......

So, you may have noticed it snowed this weekend. If you don't believe us, go check out the Toronto Star's website, where nine out of ten local stories are about the snow, people dealing with the snow, and celebrities talking about the snow. Notably absent among them: the probable cause for all of this snow. Rare meteor lands somewhere near Georgian Bay. This would as opposed to the common, everyday type of meteor that......

Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but......

In the music industry's latest attempt to lazily claw itself out of the grave, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is proposing a $5.00 per month licence fee on Canadian Internet accounts that would legalize music downloads. They're calling it the Right to Equitable Remuneration for Music File Sharing, a "reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation" that will allow consumers to fill their bellies full of all the music they can handle from any......

The problem of abandoned and unwanted pets is not unique to Toronto. A recent Toronto Star article, however, has highlighted the plight of abandoned animals who may no longer be collected by City of Toronto shelters due to budget concerns, ultimately leading to an overflow of dogs and cats in neighbouring municipalities. According to the article, one of the biggest fears is an explosion in the feral feline population, since—as everyone knows—cats are raging......

Photo of d’bi.young.anitafrika and her son, Moon, courtesy of Women’s Press. Last week’s literary listings featured a number of events celebrating one man (Michael Redhill, who is likely exhausted and has since gone back to Narbonne, France) and One Book (Consolation). This week the obvious literary picks are two very talented, very different women. Recent winner of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist award and one of Canada’s most celebrated young performers, d’bi.young.anitafrika......

An ornately set table. A fine bottle of pink sparkling wine. A bouquet of flowers purchased in a hurry on the way home from the office. A filter on the window to simulate a blue moon. Andy Williams crooning "Moon River" or the 101 Strings playing "Light My Fire" in the background. All of the necessary mood-enhancing ingredients for a cozy tête-à-tête on Valentine's Day. There's a good chance many of these evenings from......

Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day (or so), poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. It's about time someone took out the trash. DiManno Watch has been dormant for two months. The last article on Torontoist––three DiManno articles in one––was a little much; no-one can take that much Rosie DiManno, and it sure is easy to get carried away......

We hate to burst your bubble, but there's a good chance that the government of Australia hates Canada and all Canadians...especially you. This is, of course, nothing more than a wildly inappropriate and unverifiable allegation on our part, but we do have a bit of evidence to support our theory. You see, Australia's official position on Canada is that we're a dangerous country to visit. What did we do to incur the wrath of......

More Rosie! More Slinger! More Star PM! (Well, okay, maybe not that last one.) The Star has just announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with its unions, which means it'll be business as usual, at least until the paper implodes in a year or two. Photo by 6oh from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.......

Unionized Toronto Star employees met at a downtown hotel yesterday and voted 96% in favour of a strike, or as the Star itself might say, "Star Employees Vote To Strike At Hotel." In another sign of potential economic trouble on the horizon, the benchmark TSX stock index dropped 623 points in two days. While most issues declined, analysts declared themselves bullish on several sectors, including rural real estate, bottled water, and firearms. The San......

Good newspaper headlines are concise, descriptive, clear, and––occasionally, just occasionally––nothing short of genius. And then there's "Man who stole car with baby faces more charges." Originally published yesterday on The Star's website without a clarifying subheadline, the wonderfully ambiguous title evokes at least three possible scenarios when left by itself: 1. The man and baby stole the car together. As infants are both prone to fits of uncontrollable rage, and are technically able to buy......

Antonia Zerbisias is back! After the fade-out of Azerbic, the smart, entertaining and well-loved blog she wrote for The Star, she's just recently returned with a new blog, Broadsides. For those who are uninitiated in the ways of this fierce and funny columnist, she is a regular contributor to The Star's Living section. Now, it's irksome that the topics she regularly discusses––which typically include current issues tied to women's rights and freedoms––are relegated to......

After reading today's ad, Torontoist is certain of one thing—modesty was not a key element of the "Yorkville style," especially when it came to attracting dancing queens and boogie kings looking for a place to strut their stuff. The neighbourhood had a cluster of disco floors waiting for John Travolta wannabes to demonstrate their dance skills and soak in the attitude. One might have been lucky enough to see celebrities like Sonny Bono indulge......

Photo by matthewfromtoronto from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Ten years ago today, Premier Harris forced us all to play. On January 1, 1998, Metropolitan Toronto's six constituent municipalities were merged into one, creating Canada's largest city and a strangely powerless political behemoth. The popular view at the time was that the so-called Megacity was born largely of political vengeance. It's conveniently forgotten that many advocated for amalgamation before the fact, only to predict death, destruction,......

Reader Ted M. tipped us off this morning to the extremely unfortunate ad placement on the Star's online article about an eight-year-old girl who drowned after being trapped inside her mother's car when it slid into a river: a Flash ad for Expedia asking the reader, "Feeling trapped this winter?" Whoops. The ad server that served up the ad based (presumably) on only certain keywords in the article's content (just as it's decided that......

'Tis the season for gift certificates. Whether you're scratching your head trying to figure out what to give to an impossible recipient or selecting your loved one's favourite store or service, the selection of certificates, cards and vouchers seems unlimited. More than a few local sports woke up on Christmas morning three decades ago to find one of today's passes for the Blue Jays' second campaign as a stocking stuffer. The Jays finished their......

Craig Silverman, author of "Regret the Error," has published his annual compendium of errors and corrections in global print and online media, and it's a doozy. Culprits are fairly evenly dispersed, with errors from America (Obama? Osama?), the UK, Australia and Russia all figuring prominently. But don't fear! Southern Ontario media did us proud by contributing their fair share. The Toronto Star makes the list—twice. And both about the happy subject of death!A Nov.......

Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day (or so), poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. It's about time someone took out the trash. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "busy" as "occupied with constant attention; actively engaged; doing something that engrosses the attention." We've been that recently, too engrossed with things like the ROM bomb scare to think too much......

A longtime staple of the holiday season is a special visit from jolly old St. Nick to the nearest shopping mall or department store. Kids relish the opportunity to tell Santa that they want the latest hot toy, peace on Earth or an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model air rifle, while retailers hope these gift lists translate into sales. If the establishment has hired their Santa carefully, kids will not need to......

Many of you may remember 25-year old Jason Jones, who was on the front page of the Toronto Star last February as a graphic indictment against "the miserable state of dental care for our working poor." The resulting outcry led to demands that the indigent and working poor have better access to dental care. Jones' story had a happy ending: offers poured in from readers to help pay for the dental work he desperately needed,......

The good folks at TiVo have decided that now would be the optimum time to unleash their initially-much-talked-about-but-not-so-much-talked-about-anymore product on Canadians, a mere eight years after its release to the U.S. and U.K. markets. (Way to capitalize on a phenomenon, fellas!) TiVo can be credited––at least according to Canada.com––with "making TV watching less of a laborious task," which is a relative understatement considering how exhausting sitting through commercials can be to the average viewer. Don't......

Photo by gbalogh from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The Star's Jack Lakey, aka The Fixer, is invaluable. There is no better way to elicit a favourable response from the City bureaucracy than by sicking him on a case of civic neglect. It really is the most consistent way to get things done in Toronto. (The TPSC got Viacom to fulfill their contractual obligation to put street names on transit shelters simply by getting him......

The short story is an unfortunate middle child. Not romanticized like poetry, nor widely read like novels, the short story finds refuge in literary journals, the New Yorker, and writing contests. In fact, the Toronto Star, Broken Pencil, and Eye Weekly all have contests ready for your masterpiece. First, stalwart Toronto Star has its annual short story contest. The top prize includes $5,000 and tuition to the Humber School for Writers for Creative Writing.......

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......

Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day, poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. Torontoist, for one, can't take it anymore: it's time to take out the trash. The Evidence DiManno Watch needed a bit of a breather for the past week, and, really, we have no one other than DiManno to thank for that. Sure, she's subtly insulted immigrants......