Results tagged “walking”

City Council is wrapping up its monthly meeting (extended to a third day to accommodate a full agenda and some election-laced rhetoric), one which has been particularly action packed. In addition to banning new bars and restaurants on Ossington for a one year "cooling off" period, and passing a precedent-setting green roof requirement (the first in North America), Council has considered several proposals for addressing the balance—or redressing the imbalance—between the different modes of transit on our city streets. The Jarvis lane reallocation grabbed Monday's headlines, and today Council has voted to install sidewalk, transit, and cycling improvements on Roncesvalles, and also passed a comprehensive Walking Strategy which will (among many other excellent measures that have garnered almost no press) introduce pilot no-right-turn-on-red restrictions on ten especially pedestrian-heavy intersections. Given that the city has approximately 2,100 signalized intersections, this represents the smallest foray, an experiment really, in redistributing roadway space.

Walking down Queen West can be an obstacle course. We've got to navigate the hazards of traffic, meandering pedestrians, and patches of ice at the same time as car stereos, bits of overheard conversation, flashing signage, and the temptations of shop windows all fight for our attention. The chaos of street life can be lively and invigorating, even comforting. Yet a new study from the University of Michigan (as reported by Jonah Lehrer in the Boston Globe) concludes that streets like Queen West are hard on our brains.

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.

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.

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 out—we proffered a qualified endorsement, believing that the goal of discouraging future car ownership was sufficiently noble for us to be able to overlook the scheme's inherent unfairness. But we later recanted "after reading all of the comments here and on the Spacing Wire....and after seeing that even Adam CF doesn't yet endorse it for St. George, AND after finding out that the passes won't be swipeable."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Every day, since October of last year, Michael Takasaki has been photographing a door.

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 the crowd they drew for Thursday's Toronto Songbook show with Sarah Slean, they've succeeded, with audience members last week ranging from tweens to seniors.

Torontoist was very saddened to learn of yesterday's passing of Canadian animation legend Ryan Larkin.

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.

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- and alcohol-dependency. He left the NFB in 1978, and after a "hazy" decade during which he managed to get himself off of cocaine, Larkin took up panhandling outside (the greatest restaurant in the world) Schwartz's deli in Montréal. This tragic fall from grace was chronicled in Chris Landreth's excellent 2004 Academy Award-winner for Best Animated Short, Ryan, which renewed attention on Larkin, who nevertheless chose to continue his long stint on The Main.

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.

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).

the work.' TOist idled away a small chunk of time exploring time, space and why it is we looked so short in the outfit we had on.

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 to invite the MP to the local LCBO sampling station for a quick drink when he darted across the street to the 7-Eleven.