Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Slum - Price's Lane (August 27, 1914). City of Toronto Archives, Series 372, Sub Series 32, Item 320. In Low Life, Luc Sante writes of how slum districts in contemporary New York—despite the gentrification of the Lower East Side—are essentially the same neighbourhoods that were slums in the nineteenth century. He writes:......

As part of International Car Free Day, organized in Toronto by Streets are for People, participants took over parking spaces along Queen Street West on Sunday and held concerts, played games, and generally had fun in their rented spots. The band Mr Something Something held a well-attended pedal-powered performance opposite Trinity Bellwoods Park. At 6 p.m., everyone joined together for a parade to Old City Hall, meeting up with the Bells on Bloor bikers at......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve. Y&D BY MOONWIRE......

Contributor Tony Makepeace is taking us for some spins around our city with his panoramas. You can look up, down, side to side, in, and out—pretty much every direction but back at yourself, which would be kind of creepy. Say hello to Panoramaist, the Toronto shoe-gazer's worst enemy. Panoramaist is back with a friendlier format: it's now smoother and faster-loading, Flash-based, integrated into Torontoist's layout, and has a hideable toolbar along the bottom that requires......

It's so beautiful it doesn't even look like Toronto. Not that Toronto can't be beautiful, but there's a certain otherworldliness to these images. This is something we see in other cities, not here. Presuming that the pedestrian priority crossing is made permanent and expanded to other intersections in a meaningful way, this is one of the most concrete examples of Toronto turning into something else. What that something else is isn't clear, but it's......

Toronto Police have just announced [PDF] that the Yonge-Dundas scramble lights, which stop vehicular traffic in all four directions at the intersection simultaneously to allow pedestrians to cross in whatever direction they want, are going into effect as of 11 a.m. Thursday morning. The city, which also briefly experimented with a scramble intersection (also know as the Barnes Dance) in the 1950s, has not-so-elegantly re-anointed it "the Pedestrian Priority Phase."......

Something about this picture is about to change. As reported by Spacing's Wire this morning, new signal lights due to start working about a month from now will be the first sign of a new type of intersection in Toronto. It’s known as a “scramble intersection,” because traffic from both directions is periodically stopped at once, allowing pedestrians to cross whichever way they want. Turning cars will no longer have to compete with pedestrians,......

When we first got a tip from Andrew Hunter that "someone has installed a new type of bike post along Yonge north of Lawrence," we were concerned that it might be the vanguard of the Coordinated Street Furniture onslaught of mass-produced uniformity. When we went down (yes, down) to visit the area, however, we were quite relieved to discover not Kramer-designed brontosaurus ribs but elegant, artfully crafted flourishes of metallic whimsy. Inspired by a......

If you happen upon a group of tourists decked out in Chicago Bears regalia (with or without helmets) on your daily commute to work in the next few days, we think we may know the reason why. The Chicago Tribune recently informed its readers that a visit to Toronto would be well worth their while. The author of the article—who claims to have visited Toronto 137 times—recommends "10 Things To Love" about Toronto; let's......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. We at Reel Toronto usually wait until we have the whole darned movie so we can delight you with screencaps galore.......

Panel from Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson's Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate #4, courtesy of Willow Dawson. Ten weeks of fantastic, free writing workshops have just been announced as part of the Parkdale Street Writers program. Coordinated by the multi-talented poet, YA author, and Kiss Machine founder Emily Pohl-Weary, the workshops start April 1 and are led by some kick-ass local writers and artists, including Mariko Tamaki, Willow Dawson, and Kristyn Dunnion. You don’t have......

Image: Cicada Design/Diamond + Schmitt Architects If you seem to be noticing Ryerson everywhere these days, you're not imagining it. Though it's been around since 1948 and been granting degrees since 1971, it's only during the last few years that the university has embarked on a massive expansion plan and branding campaign, drastically raising its physical and academic profile. Devoid of any real charm for decades (save for the 1852 partial façade of the......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. From downtown to Uxbridge, the Undercover Brother knows how to have fun in the GTA. Reel Toronto's crack team of detectives......

In the most important news story of the day, two people have been arrested in the mysterious case of Huckleberry, the dog who vanished from outside a Yonge Street bakery and was returned after his owner offered a $15,000 reward. Police haven't said whether they believe Huckleberry was in on the caper. Oil prices closed yesterday at over US$100 a barrel yesterday, spooking financial markets. And my mom said I was crazy for keeping......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. Before Chapelle became super-famous, he was just another bank tower janitor. Ah, the drug comedy. Do it right and you can......

There was a time in this fair city when home theatres did not run When the grand majestic steeples stood alone against the sun Long before the iPod and long before the radio When the brown dark piano entertained homes in Toronto (with apologies to Gordon Lightfoot) Founded in 1888, Whaley, Royce & Co. quickly billed itself as "Canada's Greatest Music House." Initially manufacturing a wide range of instruments, the company focused on brass......

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the worst trailer we’ve ever seen on TV. It’s absolutely meaningless. It explains nothing about the (surely) threadbare plot of......

Behold what might eventually become of Sniderman's Corner: an attractive first rendering of the Ryerson Student Learning Centre. To be built at Yonge and Gould on the former sites of Sam The Record Man and the freshly-vacated Future Shop, the building represents Ryerson's desperately coveted access to the Yonge Street strip. To be designed by critical darlings KPMB Architects and Daoust Lestage, the institutionally glassy building will incorporate the historically designated Sam's marquee, which......

SEPT. 28, 2006: Torontoist publishes "Two Peas In A Pod," a poorly considered article making fun of Eye and Now for both deeming Nuit Blanche significant enough to feature on their covers the same week. JAN. 17, 2008: Eye Weekly publishes "Where does Toronto Life get all those great ideas?" a poorly considered article making fun of Toronto Life for also deeming the Zeidler family, Dave Meslin, Yonge Street, and Council's right wing significant......

In addition to some upcoming online renovations based on some questions they are asking, the Toronto Reference Library has announced a revitalization project that will physically transform the library throughout the next five years. Being the first renovation of its kind since the library opened its doors in 1977, the project will cost $30 million. Original architects Moriyama and Teshima will be responsible for the library's redesign. The first phase of the project will......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Riders of the TTC may have noticed a new kind of stop announcement on buses and streetcars over the......

What to do if you are alone tomorrow, either because you don't celebrate Christmas, or because there's no one around to celebrate with: Spend your day curled up with the almost-human warmth of your laptop, watching the WPIX Yule Log and listening to "Blue Christmas" (the Bright Eyes version), both on endless loops that resemble depression spirals more and more with each whiskey-and-tears cocktail that passes down your throat, which, come to think of......

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. UntitledBY SQUEAKYRAT Ring Of FireBY DOSHA City Hall at NightBY ARIEHSINGER FrostyBY SWILTON 50%BY REBOOTYOURCOMPUTER hibernateBY jasfitz Harbord St., snowBY ANDYSCAMERA miniBY JORDANBOWER Creepy......

Still missing some gifts on your holiday list? Here's a last-minute suggestion: the 2008 Toronto Fire Fighter Calendar. What better way to suffer a snow storm than with the company of 12 buff do-gooders? In addition, proceeds go to Princess Margaret Hospital to benefit the Fire Fighters' Cancer Research Fund. We caught up with Mr. July himself, Drew Foote, at a autograph signing at the Bay on Yonge Street this afternoon. Drew is a......

Oh man! What a pickle. This week we have the release of one of our favourite films in ages, This is England, and one of our favourite films of all time, Blade Runner, in its super-special, Ridley Scott-approved final cut. So, what do we lead with? It’s an impossible situation! If Torontoist was some kind of a 1960s robot, we’d be wobbling back and forth, smoke spouting out of our metal brain holes, yelling,......

Poor OCAP. They can't even complain about the police watching them without the police watching them. At noon on Wednesday, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a press conference (not a rally or an action or a march but a press conference) at the northeast corner of Dundas and Sherbourne, and there was about one police officer for each person in attendance (around twenty). As eight or so cops casually observed the conference from......

There used to be a sign above a video arcade that proclaimed "Yonge Street is Fun Street." Back in the 1960s and 1970s, much of that fun was to be had at the many bars and clubs that lined the street south of Gerrard––Le Coq D'Or, Steele's Tavern, Friar's Tavern, Zanzibar Tavern and so on. Depending on the venue, you could listen to music, dance the night away or catch a striptease. Today's advertiser......

The Toronto Star. July 18, 2007. Joe Fiorito column: The other day I noticed a Red Rocket, defaced from stem to stern with a depiction of a bottle of vodka and the comely legs of a party girl whose dress was hiked up around her thighs. Let me count the ways this is wrong. But first, my bona fides. I grew up during the sexual revolution. I also learned a variety of useful lessons......

Recalling an exciting time in Canadian indie rock when bands sounded less like accordion-totting balladeers and more like Dischord Records discography-totting caustic rockers, Republic of Safety are easily one of the most exciting bands currently making music in this city. Fronted by the charismatic (and Torontoist interviewed!) Maggie MacDonald, the band boasts the creative, angular guitar work of scene veteran Jonny Dovercourt, along with bassist Marlena Kaesler, saxophonist Martin Eckart, and former Quebexico drummer Steve......

Election day is tomorrow, which provides a good opportunity to look back at how election ads were handled in the past. Today's selections come from the 1955 campaign, which Premier Leslie Frost's Progressive Conservatives won in a landslide on June 9th (83 PC, 11 Liberal, 3 CCF, 1 "PC Independent"). The "Big Blue Machine" was firmly entrenched, remaining in power for the next 30 years. York Centre was a new riding for the 1955......