New executive director underscores board’s equity focus By Clarrie Feinstein Parents at last month’s Toronto District School Board (TDSB)?ward council meeting leveraged a meet-and-greet with the new director of education into an opportunity to question him about the lack of resources at their children’s schools. Dr. John Malloy was at the Oct. 24 meeting at […]

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Draw attention to what really matters By Terri Chu Sometimes I wonder why, knowing what we know about climate change, there are people who continue to buy things they don’t really need for the sake of it. We have our share of green businesses in the Annex, but that doesn’t make us immune from replacing […]

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By Annemarie Brissenden Although it may seem from his last name that his future was pre-ordained, Brian Green’s career at the City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation department really began as the result of a lark. Thirty-one years ago, he wrote a gardener’s test at the suggestion of his sister. When he passed, his […]

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By Annemarie Brissenden Founders of the popular Bloor-Borden farmers’ market are concerned that they will be unable to run the market for much longer if their provincial grants continue to decline. Now in its ninth year, the market operates every Wednesday until Oct. 19 from 3 to 7 p.m. out of the Green P parking […]

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By Annemarie Brissenden It’s hard to feel sad when playing a ukulele. “Everyone feels good when they play the music,” laughs Sarah Bradley, a branch head librarian with the Toronto Public Library (TPL). She and her colleagues have been running a ukulele program at the Lillian H. Smith branch at College Street and Spadina Avenue […]

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Annual parks survey returns Upkeep, or lack thereof, marks the return of our popular Grading our Greenspace feature. Published in two parts, we visit parks in our coverage area and review them based on cleanliness, amenities, and atmosphere. Our round-up reflects a mixed bag: some parks continued to be great, while others seem to have […]

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Newcomer Kitchen a welcome taste of home By Geremy Bordonaro Imagine that you have been stuck in a hotel room. You were thrown from the comforts of your own home and now find yourself in an unfamiliar land. Nothing looks the same. No one speaks the same language. All you have is you and your […]

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Christie Pits to get new playground equipment By Geremy Bordonaro The second phase of the Christie Pits renewal is set to begin. New playground equipment will be installed, the two basketball courts will be merged, and the park will be made more accessible. The work comes on the heels of the first phase — completed […]

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By Terri Chu Having a kid is expensive, anybody can tell you that. What nobody told me though was how expensive raising a child can be when you try to stay low on environmental impact. Cloth diapers are a huge capital outlay and I’m not convinced they are used long enough to break even against […]

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Relentless OMB stifles creative green projects [pullquote]“I’ve come to the conclusion that the overriding factor in municipalities getting nice things is sheer willpower.”[/pullquote] By Terri Chu Every time someone mentions a great municipal infrastructure project on the other side of the pond (usually in a really progressive nation like Germany or Sweden), I mutter some […]

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Meet the Bathurst bird babicka By Michael Chachura In the parkette in front of Bathurst Station an elderly lady sits feeding the pigeons and the squirrels. Sun, rain, snow, or sleet, she’s here on the bench with a bag full of bread and some seeds. Why she feeds the animals, she doesn’t know. She’s not […]

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