Participants in one of the Jane's Walk events pause in the grounds of CAMH on Queen Street yesterday.......

We hope you’ve got your Jane Jacobs cards written and that your presents are all wrapped and sitting under the Jane Jacobs Tree, because this May 4 is Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto. In honour of the urban visionary who died in 2006, May 3 and 4 this year will see the second annual Jane’s Walk held throughout Toronto. Jacobs was born in Pennsylvania but made Toronto her home in 1968, having declared it......

This Saturday marks the return of Heritage Toronto's Walking Tours for the 14th year with a trip into South Rosedale's evolution from wooded ravine to posh residential development over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's the first in a full slate of tours taking place across the city throughout the spring. Researched and led by volunteer historians and neighbourhood groups, the tours focus on different aspects of the city's past, including......

Last week, undergraduate students at UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough) rejected the U-Pass by a stunning margin, with full-time students voting against it 1674 to 622, and part-time students spurning it 53 to 16. Minus the abstentions and spoiled ballots, that worked out to 73% No for for full-timers and 77% No for part-timers. When last we wrote about the proposed offer—a compulsory $60-a-month transit pass for all students, with no potential to opt......

Walking through Grange Park during today's snow storm.......

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. BenchesBY DOSHA UntitledBY BENTHAM Friday (Feels Like Monday)BY LEPAGEJP Balloon BunkerBY COLOUR VOID ObliviousBY DENMAR 7evenBY SIRCHARLIE Just Walking #2BY LEPAGEJP untitledBY TORONTOGAL PHOTOS......

As the early days of autumn bring cooler temperatures and colourful displays of nature, many city folk long to get onto some of the GTA's best hiking trails. If you think that a solitary drive out to the Bruce Trail is your only option, think again. If you can't or simply don't want to drive for an hour or longer just so you can be at one with nature, many local clubs—including the Toronto Bruce......

On Sunday, as an unofficial kickoff to the Walk21 pedestrian conference coming to Toronto next month, the Walking Life exhibit opened at the Gladstone Hotel. The exhibit is an eclectic mix of paintings, maps, architectural drawings, collages and video. It represents images of urban walking from many different viewpoints, from the casual rambler to the urban planner. Highlights of the show include Adam Krawesky’s “Clockwork,” a digital composite showing pedestrians crossing to all four......

From October 1–4, the Walk21 conference comes to Toronto. Keynote speaker Dr. David Suzuki will be joined by a host of academics, urban planners, elected officials and activists to discuss urban pedestrian issues. Lectures, discussions and workshops will cover the theme of “putting pedestrians first” in policies and infrastructure in order to make active transportation viable and attractive in increasingly dense urban areas. Running concurrent to Walk21, the YWALK youth forum is aimed at......

Last night at City Hall, Councillor Adam Vaughan conceded defeat in the fight to keep the John Street Roundhouse from becoming a big box retail outlet. He withdrew his motion [PDF] calling for a temporary freeze on the redevelopment of the Roundhouse into a Leon's outlet. The news derails a movement against the proposed furniture store that had been gathering steam recently. First, a Friends of the Roundhouse group, which included former Mayor David......

Every day, since October of last year, Michael Takasaki has been photographing a door. About a year ago, the TTC installed an automatic door at the Pleasant Boulevard entrance of St. Clair station. Progress stalled, however, and, for months, the doors were functionless, existing solely as decorative glass with masking-taped X's on them. Around the same time, Takasaki bought a camera and decided that he wanted to do "one of those picture-a-day-for-a-year projects," and......

The Art of Time Ensemble played their final shows of the 2006/2007 season this past Thursday and Friday at the Harbourfront Centre. The group's aim is to bring chamber music to new ears by blending it with other genres and new ideas, while retaining its elegance and intelligence. Andrew Burashko created The Art of Time as a way to "test my assumption that we could present chamber music in an accessible way." Judging by......

Torontoist was very saddened to learn of yesterday's passing of Canadian animation legend Ryan Larkin. In an article last December about his station ID tags for MTV Canada, Torontoist wrote of Larkin:Between the groundbreaking (and Oscar-nominated) Walking in 1969 and his equally revolutionary follow-up, Street Musique, three years later, Ryan Larkin cemented his status as among the most daring and brilliant animators of his time, taking hand-drawn animation to a previously-unseen level of surreal......

It’s cold. Horrifically, monstrously cold. Walking around bundled up like six-year-olds—unable to fully bend at the knees and elbows—reawakens childhood memories of freezing one’s butt off. That and thinking how some hot chocolate would help make everything bearable, at least for a little while. But where can an adult, also chilled by global warming guilt, find a cup of hot chocolate to warm the spirit? Nestled in a corner of Toronto Sprouts (720 Bathurst,......

Walking east on Queen St. W from Dufferin, we noticed a string of barely-perceptible lights on the once-rail-but-now-pedestrian overpass that separates Parkdale and West Queen West. At first it seems like the lights are "official," perhaps to warn absurdly low-flying planes that they were about to smack into the Queen Street Subway monument, until you realize that the lights are lots of different colours. Click on the picture above for a larger panorama.......

Between the groundbreaking (and Oscar-nominated) Walking in 1969 and his equally revolutionary follow-up, Street Musique, three years later, Ryan Larkin cemented his status as among the most daring and brilliant animators of his time, taking hand-drawn animation to a previously-unseen level of surreal impressionism. He was the rising star of the NFB, the protégé of, and successor to, Norman McLaren, but the pressure to top his earlier triumphs exacerbated his already-present problems with drug-......

This week, we wandered about the city and did a design analysis of election signs. This post doesn't exactly constitute voting advice -- unless you're often swayed by snazzy typography. At the same time, it's our belief that a terrible sign can tank an otherwise promising candidate and vice-versa. So what about the hotly-contested mayor's race? We have to admit that Pitfield's fiery red-on-yellow has an energy and passion that's missing from Miller's way-cool blue.......

Walking along Queen Street yesterday afternoon, we noticed an interesting collaborative art piece forming in one of the door ways just east of the Drake. Unfortunately, we had disposed of our gum a mere minutes before this discovery.......

Walking through the Toronto Sculpture Garden, we discovered Kiosk 2005. It's an installation by Derek Sullivan which displayed various posters over a 6 month period and also encourages community postering. We were intrigued. Unfortunately, the installation is ending it's run on April 15th. It's a great initiative, too bad it had a winter slot in the sculpture garden, it definitely cut down on foot traffic and participation.......

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Pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, anti-war. His name is Christopher Walken, and he wants to be the next president of the US of A. See Frank Black White's bid for 2008 Presidency. Fats Domino's "I'm Walking" should be his campaign song (because it sounds like Walken). Swords, traditional or non-traditional, are not allowed on VIA Rail. The Strokes involved in a freaking leak controversy? Blog marketing, or marketing to blogs? How well do you know Burt......

Dedicated to you, but you weren't listening is the name of the recently opened 'conceptualism' show at the Power Plant. The show boasts birds singing lilting little bird songs, giant wall murals, and even an 'open access door' that allows one to enter and exit the gallery without the nuisance of paying. But neatest of all is Dan Graham's 1972 time delay video piece. The show attempts to "draw distinction between works that might rely......

As if Torontoist needed another reason to "big-it-up" on the weekends: Walking home last Friday, we happened upon Defense Minister Bill Graham walking down Yonge St. north of College! Graham, often seen carousing in the area south of Bloor, was wearing a long black coat with matching leather gloves. Torontoist shook the Ministers hand and urged him to continue to fool Americans into thinking Canada would join their silly missile defense plan. We were about......