"This advertising space and/or building for lease" Photo of the west side of Yonge, at Gould, by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

As the popular phrase goes, when one video store door slams shut, another one opens. A new video store has sprung up on Dundas (just west of Dufferin) catering to "women and the LGBT community." The store––called West Side Stories––has a broad selection of old and new queer/transgender movies and documentaries, as well as a section for "women in film" alongside the usual array of new releases and cult classics. It's encouraging to note that......

On the west side of Dufferin Street, just south of Bloor, is a Wal-Mart. It is (currently) the only one in the former City of Toronto. On the other side of Dufferin is Dufferin Grove Park. It is the very antithesis of Wal-Mart, a collective community creation that is an exemplar of neighbourhood engagement—public space of, by, and for the people. Tonight, the Toronto Public Space Committee and Friends of Dufferin Grove Park invite......

We've previously written about renowned architects designing furniture, but those creative design types also like to get their fingers dirty with paint on canvas. What could be more appropriate than an art exhibit from the guy who designed the OCAD tabletop building? Starting tomorrow, modernist British architect Will Alsop will be premiering Cultural Fog in Toronto—his first North American art exhibit. Alsop says he's been inspired by city neighbourhoods, which include Riverdale, Roncesvalles and......

Earlier this evening, at around 6:15 p.m., a big crowd was gathered on the west side of Parliament St., just above Shuter St. An ambulance was being loaded up on the east side. At Shuter, Metro's finest were cordoning off the block with police tape. Just inside the tape, a man in a gray t-shirt sat on the curb, crying and shaking. A woman, dressed in white, was explaining to a friend what had......

Each weekday for the next two weeks, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome. View the full ladder here. Today's matches, Region I + II, 2nd Round: The Giambroney vs. St. Clair ROWCN Tower Ice vs. ParkdaleThe Beaches vs. Toronto IslandsJane Jacobs vs. Gas-Fired Power PlantWest Side Lofts vs. Condo Boom416 vs. Queen WestYonge Street vs. Anagram MapMiller's Hair vs. ROM......

Each weekday for the next two weeks, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome. View the full ladder here. Some highlights from yesterday's matches: Jane Jacobs makes Yonge-Dundas look square (107-95): The usually untouchable Jacobs was thrown off her game early on by anti-gun rallies, massive video billboards and a late-game PR stunt by a chewing gum company, but pulled ahead......

We rarely do an Extra, Extra, but tonight's an exception for two reasons: first, two major crime events -- a bus hijacking and a shooting -- happened in downtown Toronto over the past twenty-four hours that merit mentioning; and second, in each story the facts are getting lost along the way and, as usual, the media is muddling the details of what actually (seems to have) happened. It's our goal in this recap to......

Blame international architect Will Alsop for the latest Queen West trend. When his design for the Westside Lofts condo presentation centre was constructed near Queen and Gladstone, many regarded the multi-coloured swiss cheese structure as garish and ugly. At yet, the building's hideousness has proved the secret to the condo project's attention-getting strategy. Clearly, other Queen West businesses have taken a cue from Alsop's design. Art supply store Woolfitt's sits in the shadow of......

Artists Jenn Goodwin and Jessica Rose are known around town as the artists behind the Movement Movement, a series of art performances that involve running around art venues like the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, or the Theatre Centre and even non-art venues like City Hall. This time the artists will be running for their homes. It turns out Jessica Rose lives in the condo threatened 48 Abell building. A long time home for artists......

Our friends over at Bostonist beat us to it but we've recently discovered the timewasting wonders of Wikimapia. The site merges Googlemaps with a wiki like interface that allows people to place description of places on the map. Toronto has over 2700 entries, and most of the major Toronto landmarks are there but with very little descriptive information. A few things are also missing, a scan of Queen West doesn't turn up the Drake......

Whilst out for a walk on yet another balmy (read: malodorous) night, this Torontoist and her partner in crime noticed the very large billboard for Roots on the west side of Yonge at the Eaton Centre, featuring a very languid Wayne Gretzky. Now, this is really apropros of nothing, but it shocked and amused us nonetheless: when did Wayne morph into what seems to be a blonde k.d. Lang? We were perturbed, as those caught......

One of the cabbies stabbed yesterday sadly did not recover from his wounds and died in hospital yesterday. The fact that his killer was caught on tape and his picture is now everywhere is only small consolation. The Boulevard Club has withdrawn its application to take over a chunk of Parkdale beach. Sadly the Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club and the Palais Royale parking lot are still in the works and threatening west side beaches.......

The jury deliberating on the Lisa Posluns case was withheld some very gruesome evidence on the history of accused rapist/murderer Nelson DeJesus. The Star has the details here, and the Sun doesn't get left behind either. Members of Toronto's Chinese community protested over Rogers' attempts to bring a number of stations owned by the Chinese government to Canada. The protesters argue that the stations are propaganda, Rogers argues that they're merely trying to serve the......

Everyone's been reporting on the Tim Horton's explosion/fire but the Sun gets at the most important question, just what will this do to Tim Horton's stockholders? The answer, probably not much. We're getting smacked around with another mild dose of winter weather. Don't take Torontoist's word for it, take the Weather Office's. The city is staging a five day blitz on idling drivers. They're targetting the busiest part of Front St. right around Union Station.......

- Curiously, recording artists Jamie Lidell (take a blue cd and multiply?), James Blunt (yuck.) and Bluth family member Tobias Funke all have an affinity for blue. - It's Mozart's birthday today. That guy was hilarious at the end of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. - $25000 to anyone who finds the stolen slippers. Or, anyone who can create a reasonable facsimile using cheap slipper material and a bedazzler. - Cubano hip hop! Revolution......

Since there's been so much coverage of condo development in the media lately, particularly concerning the Queen West-West area near The Drake, we're surprised we haven't really seen any discussion of the ghastly new West Side Lofts sales centre that's getting set to open at Queen and Abell. After three months construction, the worst condo sales centre in the world is soon to be open for business, selling the stacked townhouses that are already being......

Torontoist likes to think that we don't scare quite as easily as we did when we were 7 (when we were terrified that aliens would come and steal our hair), but on Yonge Street this afternoon we were given quite a fright by this singing, dancing robotic (and possibly demonic) Santa. Happy December, everyone. If you find yourself on Yonge between Charles and Wellesley, you might want to stick to the west side of......

Eglinton Station, renowned for its creepy washrooms, is also this month's culture station for the Live With Culture 05/06 campaign. And aside from the controversial public space buy-back problems, the station looks a-okay. Above we have the entire west side of Yonge Street, taken strip by strip.......

They’re finally making some decent use of that Fascist-looking slab of concrete otherwise known as Dundas Square this summer with free screenings of classic Hollywood musicals every Tuesday night at 8:30. Tonight’s offering, to both Glenn Sumi's and our delight, is one of our favourite cinematic renderings of our other favourite city. West Side Story, a modernized Romeo and Juliet with a stunning score by Leonard Bernstein, marked the beginning of Stephen Sondheim's career as......