A wealth of activities for kids of all ages

By Heather Kelly

February is a month of celebrating love and making time with family members.  Read more

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Should infill take precedence over upward building?

By Brian Burchell

With affordable housing at a premium in Toronto, two councillors are proposing to open up the city’s 2,400 laneways to infill development.  Read more

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Residents decry loss of green space and heritage impacts

PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANE NEWS: Uno Prii designed 666 Spadina Ave., which is listed on the city’s inventory of Heritage Properties. The property owner wants to add an 11-storey building and eight stacked townhouses on the site.

By Brian Burchell  Read more

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COURTESY RICHARD LONGLEY: The Harbord Village Residents’ Association and the Harbord Street Business Improvement Area celebrated their tenth annual Harbord Street Pumpkin Festival on Nov. 1. Featuring hot cider, a silent auction, and, of course, many glowing pumpkins, it drew crowds to Harbord Street between Spadina Avenue to Borden Street.  Read more

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PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO: The Kensington Market Refugee Project, a private group of concerned residents working in partnership with St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, held a neighbourhood block party on Sept. 7 to help raise $50,000 to sponsor a Syrian refugee family and help them settle in Canada. The market, which is home to the city’s first road mural, will also come alive with jazz, when the first Kensington Market Jazz Festival launches Sept. 16 to 18.  Read more

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MORE how nice!:

Planning! by Train Waits (July 2016)

Water, water, everywhere! by W.H. Consin (June 2016)

How to meet your quota! by Otto Mobile (May 2016)

A carpet of green! by Don Mower (April 2016)

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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 that is proving surprisingly popular.  Read more

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Fans celebrate another up-and-down season

PHOTO BY R.S. KONJEK/GLEANER NEWS: Brett van Pelt of the Toronto Maple Leafs delivers a pitch on July 31 during the final game of the regular season.

By R.S. Konjek

Baseball won’t be rushed.

It is a pastime to be sipped and savoured.  Read more

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PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS: The June 23 unveiling of Nick Sweetman’s mural on the east wall of 442 Bloor St. W. coincided with the proclamation that Toronto is now the first official Bee City in Canada. Commissioned by Burt’s Bees, Sweetman’s mural — which features the female metallic green sweat bee responsible for a large amount of pollination — is intended to demonstrate the bee’s importance, and how we, on earth, says the artist, “are the single house on the block” with only one earth to keep healthy.  Read more

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Rogers family donates $5 million to Hot Docs

By Annemarie Brissenden

Ninety years after John Grierson — who would go on to become the first commissioner of the National Film Board of Canada — coined the term documentary, Toronto’s burgeoning narrative feature industry has secured a permanent home.  Read more

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Phase two additions include a new stage area

By Geremy Bordonaro

After a long wait, Margaret Fairley Park is set to undergo its second, and final, stage of revitalization this summer. Construction is expected to begin in the middle of July and finish this autumn.  Read more

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PHOTO BY JENNIFER ROBERTS/GLEANER NEWS: In July of 2007, Shadeem Provo and Khalik Provo, both then 14, compete for the ball on Hillcrest Park’s basketball court. Hillcrest Park received an A+ grade in our annual parks survey in 2007.

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An expansive dog run, a spot for runners, and an upgrade underway

In this, part two of our annual survey of parks in the Annex, we step into new territory. The majority of parks reviewed this month are ones we haven’t covered in the past, and as in part one, we discovered great greenspaces mixed among the mediocre, comfortable niches, and one park that needs a lot of work. Also this month? An update on work at the Brunswick-College Parkette, which is showing a lot of promise.  Read more

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